What a week.

This time we do not plead laziness for our lack of blogposts - au contraire, we've been super-busy over the past seven days.

Last Friday my brother Danny came to visit for a long weekend. A whirlwind tour of our life in Haiti ensued, complete with a hike up the river to our favorite canyon ever.

In fact, Danny ranked this as a highlight of the trip (that, and a cookout in which we introduced him to most of the rest of the MCC crew). Lowlight: buying groceries in the Dezam market (too hot, too many people).

He left Monday, and we returned to Dezam on Wednesday for the weekly team meeting and Fritzner's wedding (!).

Only in Haiti is a wedding held on a Thursday morning at 8am...in the spruced-up MCC office.


Our entire team was dressed to the nines, Nahomie (left) and Denise especially. Even Jides, MCC's helper-kid, spiffed up for the occasion.


Frantzo (right) was the best man, and Fritzner and Frantzo looked great in their matching new suits.


They tried to keep it a small affair (so small, in fact, that Bryan and I were nearly not invited because we're in Port!), but people came in droves anyway.


After the ceremony the crowd filled four vehicles and drove up the mountain to the home of the bride's family. They were worried about having enough food for everyone, although the spread was impressive:

Felisitasyon, Fritzner ak Melita!

On our way back to the city yesterday afternoon, Ben and Bryan stopped at a national landmark for a little bike-video action.

To our entrance contribution we added an hour of entertainment for the gaggle of boys who came along.

I don't know if riding through an amazing waterfall has been a dream of Bryan's, but if so, check. Dream come true.

Moving on

This past weekend we moved, again. It gets easier and easier every time, as we shed things that we really don't need. It reminds me of the scene from Up in the Air when George Clooney talks about putting your life in a backpack and how all of your stuff weighs you down. Well, our backpack just got a little lighter.

Before leaving the house in Kenscoff, Ben and I went mountain biking around the area, through dirt roads and on some nice singletrack. We're scheming about making a movie about biking in Haiti and we're looking really great places to film, so we took the video camera along to see how these places looked on film...well, errr, digital film? Needless to say, the locals all have something to say and want you to give them "a little gift of your bike" as you pedal by.

The best part of the ride, though, was one particularly sketchy part of the trail. Ben went down it, and then got out the camera to shoot me coming down. I waited for a woman passing by, who stopped and told me "not to fall down into the rocky chasm to my right." I laughed, said I wouldn't, and thanked her for the advice. I threw my leg over the bike, and as my foot landed on the ground on the other side...there was no ground on the other side. All of my weight had been behind that foot landing on solid ground, and the "ground" I was aiming for turned out to be just a hole covered over by long grass. Ah, the aforementioned rocky chasm! I tumbled down the nasty rocky hole, and by some sheer stroke of luck, mostly landed on my feet some 8 feet or so below where I had been standing a half second earlier. I had cut open my hand earlier in the week, and of course the fall ripped off the scab and blood came pouring out, uck.

All who watched were amused by the white guy on a bike falling off a little cliff, which guaranteed they would watch us as much as they could. They started hiking ahead to the next semi-dangerous-looking section to sit down and wait for us to come by and fall again. It was sort of like NASCAR where the audience is there for the wreck, or hockey where everyone is there for the fight...well, in mountain biking in Haiti, everyone is there for the crash.

Anyhow, we disappointed them time and again since there were no more wrecks to speak of for the day - and we found some really amazing places to get on video. We went back on Sunday to search out a trail to another mountain we had spotted earlier, but when we arrived at the valley it was all fogged in and raining and the visibility was just about 0%. We followed a few trails, but since we couldn't see where we were going, we didn't make it to the correct mountain. We may try to scare up a spare GPS to use or scope it out more with Google Earth.

In other news, the caretaker of Bella made an appearance and left some food for her. The owner is away in Miami and had indeed arranged for someone to take care of the dog. So, no kidnapped dog for us, since she seems to be sufficiently looked after. That, and the fact that when she comes into the house she pees. There are like 12 million rural acres in Kenscoff, and she prefers peeing on the floor inside the house. Go figure. (Yes, I know, I could train it out of her, but along with the fact that she has not been abandoned, I'm not going to spend the time to train her, - also, as you may remember from way back in line 1, we have moved.)

So we're living in Petionville now, in Josh and Marylynn's/Pancha's/Kurt's old place. More on the "new" place later - it has a pretty cool flat roof that we can hang out on and an open sun room out front for plants. Maybe some pics to come - all this reading is probably driving everyone crazy...where are the photos?

Here's one to get you started...

Ironwomen.

Yesterday afternoon six of us intrepid MCC women set out for a 28-mile bike ride through the Artibonite Valley, from Mirabelais to Desarmes:

I'm not really that short. It's just the wide-angle camera
lens and the tall Rachel standing next to me.

Sometimes we stuck together, sometimes we spread out, but either
way we were the biggest spectacle to hit the Artibonite since Fet Dezam.

Pancha won the award for Toughest Cyclist, considering the size and
weight of the brand-spankin'-new cargo bike she pedaled the whole way. (And good job on successfully completing Bike #2, Ben!)

Margot was the second toughest with her long-tail
cargo bike...this cow was pretty interested in the whole affair.

- or was the cow more interested in Esther's balancing act?

The trip was challenging and definitely stretched us
(couldn't resist!), but was a great time.

These photos are courtesy of Ben Depp, and I'll add links to the photos other folks took as they become available online.

These photos are also proof that we returned safe and sound to Haiti. It was really helpful to have people around for the sixty-to-zero, Philadelphia-to-Dezam transition that was challenging last time. We're hopeful this bodes well for the next few months!

You never forget how.

May 1 is a national holiday (Agriculture Day), and we decided to spend the long weekend in Port-au-Prince for some always-needed out-of-Dezam time.Our friend Ben just bought a bike a few weekends ago in St. Marc, which brings the total number of bikes at the Depps' to 2. On Friday morning Ben and I decided to go for a ride. Port is built on a hill, so everywhere is up or down and we decided to go up first to get the hard pedaling out of the way.

I hopped on the Ardis Silver Bike, which bears a sticker proudly announcing that it was handbuilt in the Ukraine. Ben was riding his new, circa-1980 Trek road bike. We pedaled out to the main road and start cranking up the hill. Immediately my heart started thumping and my lungs turned to fire. As I was cranking up the hill I put my head down and just thought about breathing and spinning the pedals. Maybe I was taking in too many deep breaths of exhaust, but fatigue hit me hard and I asked for a breather. Okay, not so bad, I haven't been on a bike in 9 months so what can I expect? We stand, I breathe, we continue on.

Another mile up the hill - wham-o, I start feeling nauseated. I pedal over to the side of the road where I, um, expeditiously empty the contents of my stomach onto the pavement. What a milestone: first time I've ever experience exercise-induced sickness. I got it out of my system and drank some water. I didn't feel 100% sick, just the very urgent need to throw up. (I guess I didn't look too bad, as Ben told me he wished he had his camera. Thanks.) We continue to the top of the hill in Petionville where I chicken out, deciding that it's best we turn back as I don't want to throw up again.

We tear back down the road, passing cars and buses. The feeling of speed, wind and weightlessness from the top of a bike was amazing and I remembered why I missed biking so much. So it sucked to throw up from biking (and it's only the 4th time in my life I remember throwing up at all), but well worth it. In a few weeks some friends are coming to Haiti to visit us and they agreed to bring my mountain bike with them. Now I have this crazy nervous anticipation eating away at me, first because I can't wait to ride more and second because I'm not quite sure I can handle it. Ah, let's blame it on midday heat and lungfuls of exhaust.

Bring on the hills and the heat. It's worth it.

Where oh where is my bike?

Well, to be truthful I do own several bikes back in the U.S., but right now I don't have one. As we drive around, all I look for are bikes. Not just any bike, but the "needle in the haystack" bike. After seeing a few hundred Huffies, Magnas, and Pacifics I've been able to spot a few non-Wal- mart bikes. These are truly rare--and if the brake cables and derailleurs are still attached, that is an amazing bonus. Most bikes here are missing brakes, have the chain locked into one gear, and have a pretty rad BMX handlebar addition...true cruisers. In Port-au-Prince, there aren't many bikes as the hills are killer--think San Francisco with potholes and/or no pavement. Other, flatter, towns have more bikes, and that is where my search will go when I can actually buy a bike.

This is not anything earth shattering, but bikes were a big part of my previous life and I hope to bike again....I'm thinking of a nice simple fixed-gear to blend in (bike with no gears/brakes). I just need some big tough tires and an expensive (eek!) fixed gear hub, but maybe not...it would be fun, though. Until next time.

Bryan