Journals from Haiti

“Ki jan ou ye?” (How are you?) said Jovite when I came downstairs in the morning. “Byen,” I replied. Pat was impressed. She wanted to know if I could ask him back, and I did. I got some coffee and sat down across from Jovite, and Pat told him to practice his English with me. She told him in Creole to tell me in English that his “mennaj” (girlfriend), Mène might come over later. I was excited for her to see the curtains. Pat continued to speak to him in Creole and he replied with deep “mmhmm”s. He ate and left for seminary.

Then rest of us had breakfast - eggs, toast, and fresh papaya - and David read from a book called “So You Want to Be Like Christ?” that had very good insights about simplicity.

Several of us went back to the clinic. The men had to get their supplies and I wanted to see Valerie and the children again. We stopped on the way for some 2×4’s, I think 18 feet long, and I took a turn carrying them back to the truck. The Haitian men looked impressed that a twiggy female “blan” was helping carry lumber, and I admit I enjoyed that far too much. While we waited, David and I had an interesting conversation about photography, journalism, the Middle East, and infuriating liberal news media.

We picked up Camila and saw some U.N. vehicles (Ron waved to a soldier but I was on the other side of the car). Valerie wasn’t there at the usual spot, but we found him when we got there and he helped us unload wood.

Some little children gradually congregated by a nearby tree and began calling me by name. I soon went over and said “bonjou.” One of them took my sunglasses and they began playfully fighting over them, each wanting to try them on. Fabienne wanted to keep them but I figured I would need them, and I had something else to give her before we left.

Photo by David Clinard.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Cap Haitien. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.