khaki

After spending the morning at a NPH’s Pediatric Hospital, we were very excited by the prospect of a serendipitous visit to NPH’s bakery. Now let me tell you, during our stay, we ate some fantastic Haitian food. Everything was tasty and the meat was succulent. Honestly, I can’t complain, except on the pretext of being a spoiled Southern brat. Our cooks knew how to salt anything put in front of them (we were told that the average Haitian consumes 8 pounds of salt per year, while the average American consumes only 4). What they didn’t do so much was lather things in sugar and lard. By the end of the week I was ready to brave the questionable unpasteurized ice cream, if it meant gorging myself on a snack composing half the weeks sugar content (of which I had hithero been deprived). When I heard the word “bakery,” I immediately began salivating at the thought of scones, danishes, tarts, cookies, crumbles, you-name-it!

Thus, when we arrived to survey only the empty pavilion in the above picture, I was sincerely hoping that there had been some misdirection. Unfortunately, it was the translation which had been misdirected, and we were visiting a Brick bakery.

Not exactly the mixer I expected.

While it was not as expected, I still managed to grab a few pictures of my outfit!

Cardigan: H&M
Top: GAP
Khakis: Zara
Loafers: Antiquing (Estate Sale)
Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters
Locket: Native American store in Athens, GA
Scarf: Antiquing in Southbend

Most of the time we were in Haiti was spent racing from one NGO to the next. Given our program, most of the NGOs we spoke with were partners or close to Notre Dame. These ranged from bigger outfits like NPH and CRS (more to come!) to smaller much more localized efforts. One of the most intriguing people that we talked to, in my opinion, was Dustin from E2E (Engineering to Empower). With the goal of providing affordable long-term housing opportunities for Haitians, E2E has designed a structurally sound, cost-effective home which can whether both hurricanes and earthquakes.

As you can see, right now they are hard at work building the first model, testing their prints. We got to go on-site and see some of the differences and additions to infrastructure. Unfortunately, none of us had the remotest background in engineering, so a lot went over our heads. To check out the sight (and walk through the Leogane city center) I wore this (in attempts to keep cool). The linen didn’t breath quite as well as I’d hoped, so I might save it for somewhere a bit cooler. The top of the head bun, however, converted me. It’s the perfect way to look fashion conscious, while realistically sweating up a storm.