Cerises, Cerises!!!!

One of the things that I miss about being in Haiti are the early mornings. The sun began to rise at about 5:00AM and the people in Leogane were on the move shortly thereafter. From the rooms in the church that we stayed in and eventually the balcony of our home, where we slept, the sounds of motorcycles, schoolchildren and street vendors soon filled the air. I enjoyed laying on my little (usually deflated) air mattress and just listening to everything. I think that I accurately represent all of the volunteers that I was there with when I say that the most distinct sound of our morning was always the "Cherry Lady".

We could always count on this woman to come down our street yelling, "Cerises, Cerises!!!!" I wish that I had an audio recording of her because she had a very distinct sound. One day as I was laying on my little air mattress I heard a woman coming down the street selling cherries, BUT she was definitely not OUR "Cherry Lady"- you could tell without even looking at her. The Cherry Lady soon became an expected part of our morning ritual. The day before I left, I was finally able to capture a photo of our dear friend.

Is this a random, perhaps unimportant memory of my unforgettable visit to Haiti? Maybe. But, for me, this is one of those memories that I will always carry with me. Who knows, maybe someday I will be walking down the street and hear a faintly familiar voice...... it may be the Cherry Lady, or it may not. But either way, it will be another key that will unlock this great memory as well as the floodgate of incredible memories that I will carry with me and cherish forever.

First Post from Haiti

Well, we made it!!!

The internet connection has not been the most reliable so I don't know that I will be able to blog as often as I would like to. We have had some incredible adventures this past week!! Things are coming together and we are preparing to have our first volunteers arrive in about a week. We are finalizing housing arrangements and in the meantime we are grateful to be able to stay at the church. There are some families there who were displaces by the quake and we have gotten to know them pretty well. I have made lots of new friends- mostly the little kids!! In the evenings I play lots of Uno with the little girls. I think that the reason that I have made friends with so many children is that they are the only ones who can understand me!! My French is not all that great! It has definitely been 6 years since I studied French. Luckily I can understand most of what people are saying, but when I try to speak it all comes out in Russian. Oh well, it is getting better and I am sure that it will get better throughout my stay.

I am going to post a few pictures. I am keeping a journal on my computer so I will be able to do more posts in a few weeks when I am back in the states and have more time and a more reliable internet connection. But, here are a few of our photos from the first week:

Well, they won't load so check out my facebook page.... I'll try again later!!

Things are great and we are keeping busy.

:)

See ya in September

These girls are great!! I'll miss my roommates while I'm gone for the summer. I'm really glad that everyone will be there when I get back in September.

typical :)

Love you girls!!!!!

Roses are Red.....

When I came home from cotillion a few weeks ago, I decided to bring the extra roses with me to beautify my apartment. I drove from the airport over to a friend's house to drop off some supplies for him to take to Haiti the next day and then rushed home in time to go over to some other friends' apartment to watch Life (Which- by the way- if you haven't been watching- you've been missing out. I absolutely love it! Too bad it's over now). I ran into our apartment and dropped my stuff off in my room and after a little friendly harassing from some guys in our ward about having brought home a "pageant bouquet", I rushed off to watch Life. Well, when I got home later on in the evening, I found that my 2 dozen roses had been beautifully arranged and that a poem had been written by these guys. I laughed hysterically when I saw what they had done. They are definitely characters- thanks to Troy and Matt for the poem and flower arrangements- I think that they have new careers as florists waiting for them anytime they want them!

Rose petals leading to...

more rose petals...

into my bedroom.....

and finally.... the finished product- roses and a poem... in a Mason jar!

And- YES this was written on toilet paper- it obviously has many uses!

LOVE IT!!! Who doesn't love coming home to a good poem every now and again. I'm going to miss this ward and all of the people in it when I leave for the summer- but I'm excited to have a new adventure in Denver- I'll be leaving Provo in 2 days to come to AZ and then off to Haiti. When I get back from Haiti, I'm off to Denver for my internship until the middle of August. After that, we're planning on Havasupai and Hawaii before I start school again- does life get any better???

:)

Microcredit Seminar

In preparation for our Haiti project, we have been learning as much as we can about how to set up village banks. This last week we had the chance to meet with John Hatch, founder of FINCA, one of the largest international microfinance institutions. He was in SLC to conduct a seminar on microfinance and how it works. Warner, our project advisor, had know John for a long time and was able to set up a meeting with him on Thursday to discuss our specific project and get some advice from him. We really enjoyed meeting him and hearing more about how he developed the village banking model. On Friday and Saturday, some of us also attended the microfinance seminar at Westminster College. My major take-away from these experiences was that although microfinance is not the end-all solution to the world's poverty problems, it can play a major role in helping the world's poor. John was so helpful and we are grateful that he was so willing to help us out and give us advice. After the seminar and progress that we have made this week with our project I am even more excited about our project and the things that we will be doing to help families become self-reliant. T minus 11 days. Haiti here we come!

Meeting with John Hatch at Globus Relief headquarters in SLC

L to R: Monty Eggett- Director of The Hope Alliance, Dominique Stay- Sustain Haiti, Warner Woodworth- Sustain Haiti-our fearless leader, John Hatch- founder and former CEO of FINCA, Brittany, Rony Charles- Sustain Haiti, Ray Kearney- Sustain Haiti

John Hatch with some members of our Sustain Haiti microfinance team at the microfinance seminar L to R- Jasmine Palmer, Ray Kearney, Brittany, John Hatch, Paul Booren

Cotillion '10

So- I was at cotillion last weekend. We had the ball at the Arizona Biltmore- a change in venue. It has been held at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Grand Ballroom for the last 20 or so years. I really liked having it at the Biltmore- less work! AND it turned out great. Nobody died, we only had 2 people pass out- got everything set up in about 3 hours on Friday and on Saturday my Mom and I put all of the flowers together quickly. I loved being in Arizona for the weekend. The smell of orange blossoms was so wonderful that I almost wanted to cut a branch off of the tree in the backyard and bring it back to Utah with me so that I would have it! Lots to write about but no time. I'll have to keep doing mini posts with brief updates. I leave for Haiti in less than 3 weeks- crazy!

Here is a picture from the ball:

3 of the Riggs girls- my cousin Tami, my aunt Donna, and me

It's about time!

I know, I know. I am a horrible blogger. I guess business school hasn't left much time for blogging lately. I have been swamped with school stuff this semester, but have still found the time to have a little fun. Last week some friends and I went up to the Sweet 16 games in SLC. Talk about feeling out of place. I felt like we were some of the only girls in the building. Oh well, it was fun. For the Xavier-Kansas St. game we ended up sitting in the third row right behind the basket. I really don't think we could have gotten better seats. It was an INCREDIBLE game. Definitely worth the effort to get there. Can you see us in this picture from ESPN?

There are only 2 weeks left of school. I can hardly believe it. Even more unbelievable is that I leave for Haiti in a little over 3 weeks. WOW!! I am pretty scared but mostly just excited to get there and get to work. We have spent so much time putting this relief project together and things are finally starting to fall into place. It has been somewhat frustrating working through all of the bottlenecks and red tape- but we have learned SO MUCH about how to organize an effective project (still a TON to learn, though). The scariest part for me is knowing that I will be leaving before we have everything figured out and we will have to figure out lots of things on site. I"m hoping that the 5 years that I studied French will come in handy!! We'll see how much I can actually use. I have been practicing, but I'm certain that Haitian French is going to be nothing like the French that I "learned" (if you could even call it learning). If anyone is interested in learning more about our project, check out our blog- sustainhaiti.blogspot.com. I am leading the microenterprise team and we are looking at ways to build sustainable micro-businesses for Haitians. We are inthe process of partnering with a local MFI to work with while we are there to identify potential candidates and mentor them through the process. Our project is all about helping to build self-reliance- somethign that Haiti is in great need of. We will be working on clean water, square foot gardening, microenterprise, and sanitation/hygiene. If you're interested in helping out, let me know. There are lots of ways to get involved.

Well, I think that is it for the night. I have another paper and some reading to finish up before tomorrow. I just wanted to take a break and realized that I haven't been on here for forever!! That's my life for now. More to come! :)