Thanksgiving Revival

I realize it has been a long time since I last posted an update to this blog. There are many reasons and excuses I could list, but why bother? I find it distracting to try and document my life here while living it fully. However, I also know there are friends and family that appreciate it and that I too will be glad I have something to look back on one day. That’s why I’m back.

Today there was a strike/protest planned to demand the expulsion of all Haitians from this area. Fortunately, at an emergency meeting last night hosted by the local nuns, the misguided and ignorant were persuaded to abandon their plan. However, Haitians have been harassed, beaten and expelled (many left of their own accord) over the last couple weeks. They are being blamed for a supposed spike in crime, among other things. Haitians have long been the favorite scapegoat of politicos here, a tradition passed down from dictators past. Everyone who doesn’t provide a solution must at least provide a distraction.

The event that triggered this latest wave of hatred was the murder of my former host dad’s brother. He was involved in one of the ubiquitous love triangles that end in tragedy one reads about constantly in the newspapers here. The mistress lured him to Haiti and once there he was killed by some Haitians she had hired (from outside the municipality). A local poet wrote and read an amazing poem based on the tragedy for the funeral that I will try to share here soon.

Aside from that, we had a Thanksgiving party with about 200 people at the Arroyo Hondo (rich sector of the capital) country club. There were soccer, dominoes and poker tournaments, along with a 10k race. We ate food you’d actually expect on Thanksgiving thanks to the smuggling efforts of several colleagues. I couldn’t believe how much I missed pecan pie.

My apartment is slowly coming together. I finally bought a refrigerator and stove this past month, so I have been able to cook a little. It’s not been a major issue because my landlord’s family and the neighbors love to have me over for meals. I still need to buy a special device to boost the voltage as the electricity is sometimes not strong enough to get the appliances going. Even my laptop doesn’t want to charge sometimes.

The view from my balcony

Despite the electrical issues, I’m pretty comfortable there. Most of my visitors have been blown away at how nice my apartment is compared to most homes of the people in our organization. Our national director even visited my site with some people from headquarters (DC) a couple weeks ago and they were quite impressed by my living conditions. The truth is that I’m paying the average, if not less, for someone in a community this size. I just got lucky, but some people get to live on the beach. It takes me almost an hour to get to the beach. Keep in mind the country is about the size of Vermont.

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