Ouanaminthe

In Ouanaminthe we are now staying in a huge house already occupied by other UNPOLs from El Savador, Benin and Columbia. Everyone is pretty nice with us. We've been told upon our arrival "welcome to the family" which is nice and gave us a very pleasant feeling. Canadians are usually highly regarded by their fellow UNPOLs but also by the local population. Canada has invested so much money here and the previous Canadian UNPOLs here have been really generous and respectuous to the population. It is our goal to perpetuate that image. I'm well aware that we will not change the country in a year but I'm confident that we can do good to many people around us and make their life easier. The good point being deployed here is that we live in a large house with several small kitchens. We have no hot water or electricity 24/7, but that's what I call a mission, getting out of our comfort zone and live with a minimum (based on our North American standards). And yet compare to the population we are very fortunate to live the way we do. We Work 7 days a week, no time off so we employ some local people for cooking and doing laundry. We make our life easier and we are creating jobs for the local economy which I think is great. As for work here, it seems fairly similar to the previous experience I had before in Fort Liberte but in addition we are conducting patrols at the Dominican Republic's border which is about a 1/4 mile away. Having the Dominican right beside is great, we are able to find almost everything we need which is not always the case in Haiti.