I went to Danny's birthday and the beach

Hi friends,

Today I went to the beach. It was fun. Everybody except for Nego and Ellen went. Yesterday we did a party for Danny's birthday. And what I am doing right here in this first picture is painting a pinata.

Here, at the next picture, you will see me pinata-ing the pinata.

Here I am teaching Lovelie Creole. These are the colors in English and Creole. Like blue, red, yellow, white, pink, orange, purple, black, green and brown. You say them: ble for blue, wouj for red, jòn for yellow, blan for white, woz for pink, jòn abriko for orange, mov for purple, nwa for black, vet for green and mawon for brown.

This is me hugging Riann. You can't really see it, but we both have little tubes on. Riann has pink and I have green. Riann's had all sorts of swim stuff on it. And mine has frogs on it.

This is mommy and daddy. Mommy is looking at daddy. And daddy is smiling at us.

I have to get going but I wanted to tell you one more thing. Our roof is leaking. Even though it's tin. (Well, it's only tin in the kitchen.) There's a lot of water on the floor, but now we put a bucket that way we can catch it. That was pretty smart, huh?

I have to get going now. Bye.

Love,
Nia

I love our calendar, do you?

Dear my friends,

Do you know about our calender, which this story is about?

What it is about is telling us how many days until we go to America. This is how you work it. Every day you take off one page and throw it away. And then read what's on the new page. And when we pick off the last page, that means we will be going to America. We are going to America to visit not to live, because we live in Haiti now.

When I am in America, I will play with my friends like Presley. And when I visit Manteo, I will play with my cousins. The oldest cousin's name is Katie. The middlest is Micah. The youngest is Abbie. But there is going to be a new youngest though!

I also hope I get to see Evie and my newest cousin, Cana.

I also hope I get to see my OTHER cousin, Cayna, and my other cousin named Cory.

This is my calendar. Do you like it? It has a lot of days. As you can see, we have 105 more days.

Love,
Nia

The trouble with Tink: A book review

Dear my friends,

Today my mom read me a long book with 10 chapters and 109 pages. My grandma gave it to me. It was called, "The Trouble With Tink" and it was about Tinkerbell and how she lost her hammer when she was playing fairytag. You know what is funny with the name Tinkerbell? It's like two words, "Tinker" and then "Bell." And "bell" (bel) is the word is the word beautiful in Kreyol. Isn't that funny?

Tinkerbell looked everywhere and she couldn't find her hammer. It was important that she found her hammer or people would think she lost her talent, which was fixing pots and pans and cups-- anything made of tin. And people DID think she lost her talent. That made her feel sad. But the queen was good to her. And also her friend Terrence. She decided that she should go talk to Peter Pan because she had left her extra hammer there. But she didn't want to go to Peter Pan because she thought Peter Pan wouldn't remember her. So Tinkerbell told Terrence the truth that she lost her hammer and that she needed to go see Peter Pan. And Terrence decided to go with her.

So they went. And Peter Pan found her hammer and had saved it for her. And it still worked. Then after they came home, they thought about something. How could they show everyone that Tinkerbell had her talent back? They figured out an idea. So she went to the queen's house and knocked on her door. And somebody opened the door. And the person that opened the door was about to tell Tinkerbell to leave, when the queen said, "Come in Tinkerbell." And Tinkerbell said, "I've come to fix your bathtub." (because the queen had a broken metal bathtub.)

This book is my new favorite book. It took us several hours to read it.

If you're a kid and you like Tinkerbell, then you should check out this book.

Love,
Nia

The story of Josiah and the diesel

Dear my friends,

Thanks for reading my blog.  It's fun knowing you.  I liked getting the comments from my funny little cat story.

This morning my mom and my dad went to the doctor.  They are not sick, they just needed a checkup.  They do that almost everyday.  (Mom's editorial note:  we are in the process of trying to get a Haitian "certificate of health" for our residency and it is proving a bit challenging-- not because we are unhealthy, but because the system is pretty silly, so yes, we do go almost every day.)

Well, when my mom and dad were gone, Josiah started playing with the diesel container.  We use that to get gas for the generator.  And Josiah started playing with it and he figured out how to take off the top.  And he started spilling it all over the ground.  (Don't worry, it was outside.)  I quickly told Nahomi.  Don't worry, he didn't spill it all.  Nahomi took the diesel away from him and set it somewhere where he couldn't reach it.  And then my mom and dad came home and I told them what happened.  And they started cleaning up the ground.  And that was actually a funny thing, because we don't clean up the ground, unless there is garbage all over it.  

So that was the story of Josiah and the diesel.

Everyone has started calling him, "Josiah dezòd la."  That means "Josiah, the un-good boy." (Editorial note: it actually, literally means, "Josiah, the disorderly." )

And we are unhappy with him because of this story.

Love,

Nia

I ate a cat.

Dear friends,

Today my dad gave me some food. I didn't know what it was so I asked daddy. And he said, "a cat." And I ate it.

It was yummy.

Want to know what the joke is? Yes? Okay.

This is the joke-- I have vitamins and they are shaped like animals. And there are ones shaped like cats. And today I ate a cat vitamin. (I didn't really eat a cat... just a cat vitamin.)

Did I fool you?

Nahomi has actually eaten cats. Real cats. Really. It's not a joke, I promise.

Love,
Nia

How to make French Bread Pizza

French bread pizza is french pizza, but the crust is bread. I had it on my birthday, which is July 1. I am six years old now. French bread pizza is good. I made it. Here is how you make it. (Mommy took all these pictures since we can't find my camera again.)

First, I am crushing the cheese. (Editorial note from mom: we freeze cheese when we buy it in Haiti, so even shredded cheese sort of needs to be "re-shredded.")

I am holding the cheese I already shredded up. When mommy took this picture, I said "di fromaj" which means, "say cheese," just like my blog is called.

You need to have an adult cut up the bread for you. Then you can put sauce on it.

Next you sprinkle cheese all over it.

Then, you put it in the oven. This is me looking at the pizza in the oven.

Then it's done. This is me eating my pizza. Yum yum! I got to use the birthday plate because it was my birthday!

The Market

Dear my friends,

I had fun at the market, which means it was fun. That the same thing. The market is the place where we go to buy food. Today was the second time I went. It was big. I took pictures on the top of the mountain. We went to it. It was fun.

They sell cornflakes, the sell watermelon, they sell lots of sweets. They sell fruits and vegetables and Haitian grits. At one of the places we went to they even sell cornmeal that tastes just like grits. They even sell turtles. Some people eat turtles in Haiti. We saw live chickens and the first time I went I saw a cat chained up with a rope. They eat cats here too. I petted the cat to say goodbye. But we didn't buy it because my dad's allergic. I think you know that already. I wonder if he would be allergic to eating cats. When I petted the cat, it almost bit me. It was a little teeny kitten. I liked it. I wonder why it almost bit me. Maybe because it doesn't like petting. Or it doesn't want to be tied up or maybe it doesn't want to be eaten. I didn't know cat language to tell it I was just being nice to him.

There was a place there where there was all dead meat. Almost all dead meat. I did not like it there. It made me feel little bit scared and the smell made me cough. Naomi bought a bunch of goat because we're having company for dinner on Thursday. I didn't smell it after she bought it. And when she showed mommy and daddy it, I did not smell it. But I like to eat goat, it tastes good. But I don't think it smells good before it's cooked.

I hope you like my pictures. These pictures are great. They are of the market. This is all about the market.

Love, Nia

The market tops.

Turtles at the market.

A lot of food for sale at the market.The funny clouds. They look beautiful too.

A lady at the market and her peas.

Potatoes at the market.

More lots and lots of food at the market.

Fruits at the market

Live upside down chickens

People holding chickens