Port-Au-Prince, Haiti — Day 6

I slept peacefully throughout the night, only waking once to scratch myself. The roosters were oddly inactive this morning, so even when the fan cut out around 5:30am I was able to dose until 7am or so. These last few days have been relatively therapeutic for me to get past my morning anxiety of “do so much stuff the minute I open my eyes” mentality I’ve been dealing with back home. I can see a load of emails but I simply can’t respond, so I just have to go chill for a bit. The first few days I was a nervous wreck but now it’s somewhat soothing and helps me get a grip. I got up and went through my morning coffee, pills, bug spray routine. I then helped Lionel clean out our “teaching” area (removing chairs, removing the wireless router, etc.) so 11 women could stand and look in as we were demonstrating how to make things. We went over the lesson plan and he was glad I was going into detail about things like cleaning (with soap), sanitation, etc. These are not things that are normal or routine here, so it’s going to be a challenge to really drill it into them to use soap all the time and weigh out stuff. But I think one the initial hurdle is through they will be accustomed to it — or so I hope.

Lionel sent Kendo to get some fruits for our demo today and the other guys to move the fridge/freezer combo. I know they weren’t looking forward to doing that but it must be done! Did I mention Lionel’s cousin came back yesterday with 10L of milk in a box on her head? When I went over to try to move it into the other room, I could barely get it off the ground! The women here are insane.

“Class” started at 10am, but most of the women were here early! Some were here by 8:30am, which was way too early but made Lionel really happy. I ate a quick breakfast around 9:20am — Estrella made this delicious polenta with peppers, onions, tomatoes and preserved herring (the Haitian version of fish sauce). Soooo good! I could smell the fish when she put it into the pot, reminded me of Thailand! She also made my favorite chutney and sliced up some avocado, because this particular dish is really good with avocado. She also made fresh orange juice, which is still my favorite over key lime juice.

At 10am sharp Lionel gave the girls a lecture, presumably about being professional and whatnot. At 10:15 we started with introductions. I realized quickly Haitians introduce themselves by their last, then their first name. Many of the women had relatively American-friendly names like Felix or Jacqueline. The “Manager in Training” is a lady named Leonette (sp?) who was very serious and took a lot of notes the whole time. First, we did a tour of the 2 different containers to explain what was different between them and what everything was. As requested by Alexis and Lionel, I started with the basics like refrigeration and the service window. Then, we learned how to weigh things. It was great to see all the women figure out how to weigh things and tare the scale very quickly. Weighing = best method, only method that should be taught for cooking ever. We all practiced weighing 100 grams of water. While I’m pretty okay with +/-2 grams, Lionel was strict that we tell them exact numbers to start. After everyone got a turn, we made a batch of popsicles! Passionfruit to start. I explained why it’s important to melt the sugar in the water first and let it cool as well as why things should be weighed separately. Always good to lead with best practices, inevitably people will take some shortcuts (I know I do!) but at least they know this is the “ideal world” situation. The women were all very attentive, took notes, and learned quickly. They even got to brainstorming how to be more efficient (i.e. making simple syrup in big batch). We also covered labeling and FIFO, which I think they understood pretty well. I suppose time will tell, but this crew seems really solid.

After we molded the popsicles and made a batch of Avocado Creamsicles (everyone still thinks this isn’t sweet enough so I’m going to modify the recipe), we went back down to the containers for a deep clean. Lionel translated that every single surface needed to be cleaned with a disinfectant, not just water, because we work with so much sugar we’ll have a huge ant problem if we aren’t careful. We then proceeded to scrub the whole place. I got into the weeds cleaning with everyone, which I think they appreciated. We cleaned out the chest freezer, the fridges, under the tables, in the sinks, mopped the floor, the windows, even some of the outside parts of the container! It was amazing how shiny the place looked afterwards. As Leonette said, “Beautiful!” It was really great, and I think they were all feeling quite accomplished and proud of their new work “home”. The kitchen is going to be their baby, just like how it is my baby. It then started raining pretty crazily, the type of tropical thunderstorm that catches you by surprise and stops within a half hour. We all ducked back inside and wrapped up for the day. Unfortunately popsicles weren’t ready to be molded, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow but I think everyone already learned a lot today! No one spoke more than a few words of English so they all indulged me by listening attentively as I spoke and waiting for Lionel to translate. Afterwards, Lionel told me he was thrilled because their attitudes were really good. I guess I haven’t seen a “bad attitude” here so wasn’t sure what he was expecting — all the women were very eager and excited to learn about popsicles. They all wanted to do everything just perfectly, which is the best you can ask for. As we all relaxed on the porch I gave everyone a Burt’s Bees cleansing cloth because it’s such a huge hit here. Wish I brought more pouches! Lionel then paid them for the day and gave them some lunch money and they were on the way.

After the ladies left, I took a shower and relaxed for a little bit. I’d received a slew of images from my Taylor rep on how to diagnose the ice cream machine, so that’ll be the rest of my afternoon. Fingers crossed this works out!! I would hate to have them start with 1 machine down. The rep really dummied down everything and gave me step by step pictures, which I appreciate. No way for me to accidentally short-circuit something in my troubleshooting attempts. I snuck in a little snack from breakfast leftovers and modified the Avocado Creamsicle slightly to add more sugar, salt and lime juice. Gotta give the public what they are asking for! Now it sort of tastes like a key lime avocado pie. Next, Kendo helped me open up the ice cream machine for inspection and nothing was technically wrong with it, so there goes Troubleshooting #1. I decided to go ahead and try out the machine again, one hopper at a time, so I used the leftover ice cream mix from yesterday and filled it up. I went back to my room and prayed a little bit. Half an hour later, I came back and HUZZAH!!! There was soft serve! Churning so beautifully. I was hyperventilating I was so happy. Kendo and Lionel were laughing and so relieved. Next, I repeated the same process for the left hopper. Miraculously, this worked as well! I could’ve cried I was so happy. That’s 2/2 working machines!! Lionel congratulated me and went about delivering ice cream to everyone nearby. After our community had their fill, I washed out the machine and sanitized it. Ready for a serious day of soft serve tomorrow!

I emailed Alexis about this and I think she wept a little out of joy too. She asked me to make a chocolate flavor if I could since they really like that here, so we’ll be making chocolate and coffee flavors tomorrow! I bet our Taylor rep was pleased the machines started working again as this meant no more being inundated with emails from me! Haha. I took a picture with my prized soft serve and sent it to Matt and Mama Dorsey. It was now dinnertime so I took great care to congratulate myself with a mound of food. Tonight Estrella made coconut fried rice (I saw her straining coconut milk by hand this morning!), fried beef meatballs, a tomato stew, and a tart cabbage salad that tastes a lot like Thai Papaya Salad. Yummm!! I ate so, so much and then rolled around my bed gleefully. After a while I began to feel quite itchy on my scalp so I took another shower. Upon emerging from the shower I found Mimi on the prep table, eating a leftover avocado! No manners!!! She would be in so much trouble if she were my cat. But she is so hungry I can’t be mad. I hear her meowing all day, it makes me so sad.

Tomorrow is our big day of learning soft serve! I’m really excited for the women to all see the machine in action, I think they’re gonna get a really big kick out of it. Leonette and the other Manager-in-Training are staying a little bit longer to see the whole process of disassembling the machine, but everyone else will learn basic sanitation and washing. It’s going to be awesome. We’ll also be unmolding popsicles, so I’m sure everyone will be happy to get a popsicle to eat too. In the evening I’ll be testing out a hot chocolate recipe, per Alexis’s request, so that I can teach the women how to make some hot chocolate for sale too. I think the rest of the trip is going to fly by, and it’s crazy to think I’ll be leaving soon! I really hope on Saturday we’ll have time to go to the beach and go canoeing. Lionel’s stories about the men catching a fresh fish and grilling it for you on the canoe sounds most excellent. I think I deserve a grilled fish after all this teaching! I also hope we have time to check out the “posh” neighborhoods. Lionel says there’s a surprising number of younger white folk here, many who are part of nonprofits, that stay in nice neighborhoods and go to all the nice clubs and whatnot. Plus the government officials and all those types live in insane excess up on the hill. Alexis described their areas like a “cheesy part of Miami”, which I can picture quite clearly, but still want to see it in person. I think it may depress me a little bit, but then seeing an old man drag 100+lbs in car tires is probably worse.

Before bed Lionel and Kendo put 2 mosquito-repellent coils in my room. It’s this contraption they have there as insect repellent. It coiled in a circle and you stick a little metal hook into it so you can stand it up straight on the floor. Then you light one end of the coil and let it burn all night (or day). It smells somewhat like incense, but not as strong. Lionel says Alexis hates the smell, but I don’t mind it. Well, I can’t actually smell it with my fan blasting into my face constantly. I do think it works though. There was one night were we ran out and I was like mosquito feed that night. I’ve discovered the highest concentration of my bites are around my ankles, which leads me to believe I’m suffering from a combination of mosquito terror and ant attacks. There’s 2 main types of bites I have: big, fat ones that swell up to quarter-size which I think are mosquitos (or maybe a spider?) and little ones, like ½ inch in diameter, that appear quickly and are very itchy then disappear relatively quickly too. Unfortunately my scratching is vivid and immediate, so now I just have tiny pockets of ½ inch wide scabs all over my ankles, feet, and back of my elbows and arms. I hope I don’t get stopped at the border because they think I have leprosy. I also hope my baggage doesn’t get inspected because of my pepper chutney. So many concerns on how to smuggle tasty food back to the U.S.! Haha.

Alright, I think that’s a wrap for the day. Ciao Haiti! Till tomorrow and chocolate ice cream!