out with the old, in with the new: 2 articles

"Voices of Change" by Pooja Bhatia, published in The National on December 30th, 2010. 

"Haiti Without Walls" by Kettley Mars, published as a NYT Op Ed on January 1st, 2011.

Road Trip! Day 2

Montrouis - Saint Marc - Gonaives - Limbe - Cap-Haitian

 

 

Road Trip! Day 1

Petion-ville - Port-au-Prince - Cabaret - Montrouis

Ushering in 2011

Tonight we will be remembering 2010, mourning its losses and celebrating its end,
and imagining a new year that is spirit-filled and life-giving.

Happy Old Year's End. Happy New Year.

Riding out 2010

 

Merry Christmas from Ben, Lexi and Luna!

(Bryan Thompsonowak and I built this bike early this past spring)

Why I'm not quite feelin' the Christmas vibes

• The US is resuming criminal deportations to Haiti this month. (!) 
• We have had approximately 12 hours of electricity in the past 3 weeks. 
• Missing family and our friends that aren't here. 
• Despite evidence of election fraud (see here and here for examples), there are no official plans to annul and redo the elections. 
• Uncertainty as we wait for the OAS to recount ballots and assist in legal contesting of the results (with no official date set yet to announce those results). 
• There is still a cholera epidemic spreading throughout Haiti, which has now affected more than 120,000 people. 
• 1 million Haitians are living under tents almost a year after the earthquake. 
• It's been almost a year since the earthquake. As in, 3 weeks from now will begin the anniversary of a collectively traumatic experience for this nation (still ongoing in so many ways) as well as a number of the most traumatic days/weeks of my own life. 
• Martha's got clots. 

Sorry to be such a grinch but despite baking, decorating and celebrating advent, I don't think I've ever felt less Christmas-y so close to Christmas (which is usually my favorite time of year).

While I can't wait for 2010 to be over, I realize that I'm terrified of 2011. It feels like this year has been a series of one reaction after another to sometimes life-shattering (earthquake), other times heartbreaking (flooding) or infuriating (election fraud) and often just inconvenient (no electricity) events. It's been difficult to live intentionally in the midst of so much upheaval.

On a far more positive note, the lunar eclipse on Monday night was red. And spectacular. Did you see it?

Christmas at our House

Disclaimer: even though I am the one posting these pictures, all the Christmas cheer (except for the kahlua) at our house comes from my lovely creative wife...

Home-eopathic Recipe

Makes:
1 cure for a cold, rainy, pre-Christmas-in-Haiti-without-my-family Sunday

Needed:
1 Ben
1 Luna
Homemade biscuits
1 jar of Ben's mom's blackberry jam
Christmas lights
Nirvana playlist
Wool socks
Picasa album of old, old photos from Laura

Instructions:
1. Mix the Ben with the Luna

2. Make the biscuits while wearing the socks

3. Top biscuits with the blackberry jam

4. Add the music, lights and old photos:


Top: Ben, Mom Depp, Tim, Caleb; Bottom: Caleb, Martha, Ben
5. Cheer up.

Is No News Good News?

For now, yes. Several people have noted that my blog rants have been less frequent in recent days, and even Ben has felt the need to pick up the slack. An analogy for you:

Number of blogposts is to days stuck at home as number of cookies consumed is to Christmastime.

Since the political protests have paused while tally sheets are (supposedly) recounted this week, I've been busy catching up on lots of work, restocking our supply of nonperishable food, drinking water and propane, getting in face time with friends, etc. I've also been consuming vast quantities of cookies as we deck our halls, bake and try to channel some Christmas spirit. All this is in wool socks because it's actually been cold this week!

Our third Christmas in Haiti (already? only?) will be five days after the final election results for the first round are announced. I'm not sure that legitimate results are possible for an electoral process this flawed, but I do hope that whatever results the CEP announces on December 20th will be reasonable enough not to induce a flurry of blog posts.

New President?

A common joke here is that Bill Clinton is actually Haiti's new president since he co-chairs the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission that is mandated to approve all reconstruction projects and funds. Bill is championing the garment assembly and tourism as the industries that will boost Haiti's economy.

I understand the market for cheap labor but who's in line to vacation in Haiti? These are actually both complex issues and for a good article by Alexis on the garment industry click here.

Yesterday Clinton held a press conference with the Minister of Health to discuss his foundations response to the cholera epidemic. He also mentioned approving funding for an industrial park...

Breathing

Alexis embroidered this Arundhati Roy quote recently (I like the lungs) and it inspired me to watch this film last night. It was a good reminder of why the UN and Organization of American States are able to say Haiti just had a decent election. Its worth watching.

Calm-ish for now

Yesterday was more or less calm. I ventured to the market with Jillian in the morning, which was pretty empty but I bought eggs, tomatoes and a cabbage. The street was black from soot and there were still piles of smoldering garbage and a few tires. Not many people out. Later, Ben and I went out together on the motorcycle and we noticed a few new but unmanned roadblocks up and some downed billboards. I didn't see any Celestin posters that hadn't been torn down or defaced. 

Last night we heard the sounds of more protesting, but it was hard to tell where or by how many people.

This morning I went up to Place St. Pierre. Ironically, cash for work employees wearing the blue t-shirts from Wyclef Jean's Yele Foundation were cleaning the streets, sweeping up piles of charred paintings and campaign posters. The street in front of the CEP was blocked off by a UN tank, but the soldiers looked pretty relaxed. Most shops are open again and per our Saturday tradition, we bought breakfast at the bakery and have been working in our garden.

Although it feels like things are sort of back to normal, Haiti remains at a political impasse. Supposedly, the UN, international community, President Preval and the 3 leading presidential candidates met yesterday (as AFP put it, for "backroom deals") and a recount of the ballots is also supposedly taking place. Final election results for the first round will be announced December 20th, but it will be the beginning of February before final results of the 2nd round are announced. My sense is that we're in for a tense couple of months.

p.s. Sarah Palin arrives today.