Day 9 Waterfalls and ASL

We were invited to come to a place called Basin Bleu today with a team of people who had spent their time in Gran Goave doing soccer camps. It was a long bumpy ride up the mountain (we have several bruises all over our backs and butts) and a 30 minute hike but it was soooo worth it. There was also this rock that you had to climb down and Amy was really scared. But she was fine. The waterfall was beautiful and I jumped off the top!! It was 120 feet but seemed higher. I was soooooo scared. The cold water was refreshing. The hike back from the waterfall was really long and Amy and I were going pretty slow. All those sporty people we came with were running past us and it made us feel awful because we couldn’t breathe or move quickly. We were the last ones back of course and the only ones breathing heavy and sweating so much. On the way I saw an avocado tree and stole one because it was huge and looked delicious. We haven’t eaten it yet because it’s not ripe at all. Back near the beginning of the hike there were all these workers there who kept making kissing noises at us like the Haitian men usually do. Being the wonderful and hilarious people that we are, Amy and I taught them that instead of making kissing noises at American women they should say “I work out” in English which sounds AWESOME coming from a person with an accent.

When we got back to the Pye house we walked down the street to a restaurant named Jacbel. It has French fries! We were very tired and hungry so it tasted extra delicious. Amy and I were sitting there eating our food when a big truck drove by on the street and shook the building a little and EVERYONE in the place jumped up and ran to the door because they thought it was an earthquake. It was awful to see the intense fear that they had and see how something as little as a truck going by affects people daily. Also while we were eating Amy noticed a deaf couple signing to each other. I told her about how I knew a little sign language and she made me talk to them. I’m so happy I did because they knew American Sign Language. Apparently there is a huge deaf population in Jacmel because they have a school for the deaf here. Cool! I was so surprised at how much I remembered from my classes so long ago. I told them about how Amy loves Charly and wants to adopt him and he said God bless us for the work we’re doing here and made Amy and I cried a little because he was so sweet. When we came back and told Danny about it he told us that a ton of deaf people go to his church and they always have translators during the services. Sweet!

-Becca