Break

Friday, April 2, 2010

I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog.

Last Friday I left with Andy, his wife, two kids, and friend Milier (I’m guessing on the spelling). I was tired from staying out the night before, but the drive made it difficult to sleep. When I was awake or fighting of uncomfortable sleep I was noticing the great difference, as has been highlighted by many environmentalists, between the Haitian landscape and the Dominican one. I started thinking about Columbus, the Taino, and the different histories. Haiti really had to pay for its independence…

In Santo Domingo we hung out. I had a number of interesting discussions. One with a Haitian man who wants to run an irrigation project. We discussed the underground tunnels, which I saw back in 2008 in Milot near the airport. He knew of them too, and we discussed how vast the system may be and its potential uses in the 21st century. If that system made Saint Domingue the colony worth fighting for in 1791, it could help revitalize agriculture in the north.

I also spoke with a lighter-skinned woman from the upper class. She had a bit of an inferiority complex, common among Haitians. We were discussing Dominicans when she said, “Sure, they’ve got the good hair, the good skin, and the money, but they don’t have to act like they’re better than us.” She seemed like the type who will never return to Haiti, but I could be wrong.

Andy’s kids were entertaining and ridiculous. We entertained each other on the drive back in between naps. Sometimes I would hear a really loud banging sound and wake up. One time I realized it was my head hitting the plastic inside the car…didn’t really hurt for some reason.

I crashed in Delmas on Sunday night, waking up to a bunch of people running around on Monday. Sasha had a number of visitors as well as a call from Patricia Arquette about some toilets. They headed out to “the burning pits of hell” or Titanyen again, while a driver came to pick me up.

I’ve spent the last few days in Thomassin/Laboule. I’m staying with Viviane at her family’s old summer home. She has a lot of great artwork and even some old Rara dresses hanging around. Some of this should be in a museum, but instead it often gets discarded (she saved the dresses from such a fate). She also has a Duffaut she bought for US$8. Except for the frogs (I think they’re from Puerto Rico) and the ten dogs, it’s been really quiet up here and more relaxing than anything else.

I’ve decided to move my internship with Fonkoze up so one day was spent looking at a couple studio apartments in Pacot near Chan Mas. Other days have been spent hanging around, reading, working on little errands (email), etc. We also visited Levoy Exil at his home where he showed us a lot of paintings. Unfortunately, I can’t afford anything this time around, but it was great to see some of those. The painting from the CNN article is $25,000! A little more than I expected.

I’m heading back to Leogane today to finish up some work and then returning to PAP on Monday. I still need to arrange housing, but I start at Fonkoze on Tuesday. That’s all for now…pictures when I get a chance.

Dominican Republic:


Haiti:

Labels: Mirebalais, Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo, Thomassin