Running... one good turn deserves another.

by Jimmy

It has been an adventure the last 24 hours. Yesterday I completed my long run for the week, on Sunday instead of the normal Saturday. Yes, we went to the beach on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably most impressive was running after getting home in the dark. But last night, Sunday night, I ran for an hour (just about 6 miles) with only a half lap walk in the middle. Not easy, but I finished.

On my cool down lap, my wonderful wife asks me when I finish, to turn the generator which had been running our laundry for the day, off. I agreed. As we have not had consistent power, and realizing that we are now out of gasoline, I figured it better to get gasoline rather than take the very real possibility that power will not come on during the night, and have no fans in the middle of the night. So, I walk to get gas. I consider it more cooling down from running.

With the generator moved into fan backup position on the porch, I enter the house hoping to sit, and shower. I am then informed that a stench is emanating from our couch. My wife has a considerably more accurate sniffer than do I, but even I can smell it as I get closer. So we have to literally tear the couch apart to get what we expected, a squashed mouse. The arms to the fouton fold down, and when we did that a few days ago, we smashed our unwanted guest. Great.

So out on the porch the fouton goes, to discharge its now maggot infested former inhabitant, and to air out. Finally I get to sit and drink, and rest, and think about eating. It begins to rain. On our porch.

Quickly, we bring the fouton back inside.

Eventually a shower, and ice cream make things better. I have made up my mind that candy and cokes are no longer off limits, since I am burning more calories running. Probably not the best decision, but… I like sweets.

Being an urban farmer, I cannot yet grow my own chicken feed. So this morning I was hoping to take a quick trip to the feed store to replenish my chicken’s feed. I am sure they were cursing me out this morning as I moved them and fed them water and some old rolls.

A quick trip between classes, turned into a 2 ½ hour ordeal. Apparently everyone in the city of Port-Au-Prince had errands to run after a 4-day Haitian holiday weekend. I ended up parking the truck, and taking a motorcycle, and I probably should have just left it parked until later. I was stuck coming back, just across the intersection from my house for the majority of that time. Frustrating, knowing that you can walk the distance 20 times over, but you cannot drive. Frustrating, being passed on all sides as vehicles cram into a space two cars can barely get by, just further congesting the intersection.

Such is life in the city, while trying to farm… and teach. School let out early, due to traffic. Kids need to get home at a decent hour. School in Haiti gets interrupted for the strangest reasons!