Thursday, February 26, 2009

Writing a page

Recently quoted to us: Spend a week in Haiti and you can write a book. Spend a year in Haiti and you can't even write a page.

I'm not sure if it was actually "a week" and "a year", but you get the idea. Basically, the longer people are here, the less they feel they know and understand this complex country. You've probably noticed that we're posting on our blog less. This is partly because six months into our time here, I feel less and less like I have any ability to analyze Haitian life, culture, history and politics. That's not to say that I'm going to stop trying (and of course we can still tell you all about OUR life here), so don't give up on us yet!

In the meantime, a brief update: a few days after an amazing Kanaval weekend in Jacmel (photos coming soon and I PROMISE they will tell you more about the event that I ever could), Ben left for North Carolina to visit his family. Two weeks is the longest that we've ever been apart and it hasn't been fun, but he's getting good family time in. Sadly, he missed out on 3 days of Kanaval (Haitian Mardi Gras) in Port-Au-Prince. Since our friend Rebecca, with whom I danced Sunday night away, has already done a great job of describing what it's about, you can check her blog for details and pictures. We managed to tickets from a friend of a friend to get on the T-Vice float. T-Vice is one of Haiti's most popular bands and we spent six hours in the parade, dancing with the largest crowds of people I have ever seen in my life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your friends' and the professional festival pics are amazing...but as your friends wrote, "...in a country with such glaring poverty the contrast is particularly jarring. You inevitably begin to question why the same sort of investment of financial resources and human capital isn't evident when it comes to meeting people's basic needs for food, shelter, employment and education during the 362 other days of the year. "

Anonymous said...

We wish you could visit too, Lexi, but thank you for letting Ben out of the country. He may have gained a few pounds...love you!

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