I lucked into a rather mild spell here at home, with temperatures of more like minus 1ºC, rather than the anticipated -10º. I'll take it! Apparently it is supposed to go up to 9ºC on Saturday, but then -10 on Sunday. In any care, re-entry wasn't as painful as anticipated.
There was a rehearsal scheduled with my band last night, and they came out to my place, which was awesome- it meant I didn't have to drive anywhere, but rather, could just relax here at my house once again. I have had such amazing hugs from all of my friends upon my return- I think maybe they thought I might not come back in one piece or something. In any case, it was great fun to play music by the woodstove. I'm really looking forward to our gig today.
Rehearsing tunes by the woodstove chez moi
As I was sitting here in my rocker by the woodstove, grinding coffee beans the old fashioned way, I thought I saw a mouse scurry out from under the other rocking chair...??!!! I really hate mice, but got to thinking about them- I haven't had mice here in a couple of years, as I think I've done a pretty decent job of sealing up the foundation and any other cracks...and mice here are nocturnal, so what was it doing at 8:30am running around...the mice in Haiti were active all day long, so of course, my next thought was that I have brough a mouse back from Haiti in my backpack. I purposefully left my big packs out in the back of the truck in case there are cockroaches or mice in them (paranoid?). I set a trap immediately, because if it IS an imported mouse, I sure don't want to be responsible for any mutant strains that result from it mating with other mice. And even if it's not imported, I really don't want to share my kitchen with it!
A few people have asked me if I'm suffering from 'culture shock' upon my return home. While it might be too early to tell, I really don't think I was immersed in Haitian culture long enough to experience culture shock. Of course, I am well aware of how much easier (almost guiltily) it is to get almost anything here- stores with shelves fully stocked with products from all over the world, gas stations that never run dry, hot water at the turn of the tap (at least I have a solar hot water heater to make me feel a bit better about using hot water!).
Emma cubed, Sam, Blake & Ton hanging out around the back porch.
While I was in Haiti, there was gas shortage in the week leading up to Christmas. The stories varied as to why, such as there was a ship that was coming into port with gas, but it turned away at the last minute. Who knows the real reason, but in any case, it resulted in gas stations having neither gas nor oil, but what it did mean was the black market fuel sales were doing well. On the day we went on an outing with Alex, at several spots along the road and in villages, there were street vendors with containers of gasoline for sale. Alex had bought enough to do our journey, and while I can't remember the exact price, his friend called him about an hour or two later, and the price had already doubled! Yikes! If you're unemployed, or making $1/day, I'm not sure how you do it!
Discrepancies between the rich and poor are accentuated in countries such as Haiti, Colombia, and many other parts of the 'developing' world. Lack of clean safe drinking water and containers, the absence of adequate free education for children, unemployment, and political disorganisation are prevalent. There are a lot of NGOs who are doing really terrific work out there, despite what the media would have you believe. If you are interested in helping people in Haiti, and you have some financial contributions you can make, I would highly recommend donating funds to a grounded organisation such as Grassroots United, who are truly sending funds and supplies directly to the people who need them. http://www.grassrootsunited.org/contribute.html. (Thanks to Karen & Elizabeth for donating money to go towards Christmas presents for Haitian kids via Grassroots- that was really touching for me to learn!).
A peek inside the 'brain', or the dome, at GRU, where much of the behind the scenes meetings, telephone calls, e-mails an networking occur.
I will post more about other sound funding possibilities for real projects occuring in Haiti over the next couple of days; one in particular, in the Deslandes region involves the training of community members in
sustainable agricultural farming (based on knowledge from elders in the community), construction of schools and education, and training of community members in sustainable construction. I'll post more about this quite interesting model very soon, which seems to have a lot of promise and drive, compared with other models I heard about while in Haiti.
I won't flog the fundraising thing too much, but I know that a lot of people are wondering how they can help. As we approach the one year anniversary of the earthquake (January 12), there is still so much to be done. Many Haitians didn't feel like celebrating Christmas this year, given that there were probably few people who didn't lose loved ones almost a year ago. Yet, the people I met are strong, resilient, beautiful, and are making the most of their situation in moving forward. I saw this posting on someone else's blog; a youtube news clip of Haiti at Christmas this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8rH4nc9crI&feature=player_embedded
So much rubble still, and so many temporary abodes.
The Grinch in me is never sure how to feel about Santa, but on this Christmas day, seeing how these kids were excitedly running into the tent for the arrival of Santa, I think I might have been swayed back to believing in Pere Noel.
There is a real possibility that I will return to Haiti, in some capacity or other. Three weeks was but a taste of the country, and most of that time was spent behind the compound walls for me, although I did have an awesome outing to the countryside to Father Benite's, and then got to go out to a tent community with Emma. I would like to be more immersed next time, learn more creole, and make more long term connections with Haitians.
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