My new favorite thing.

I know we're supposed to be living a rural life here in Haiti without the luxuries most people have, but every once and awhile we find ourselves in the 21st century. We do have the internet in our office, and we use it just about every day. We did, however, feel like news was getting lost in the shuffle. When Obama took office (he is our new president, right?) we didn't have a TV and the internet was down so we missed all the news surrounding his inauguration.

In our quest to be just a bit more connected to the rest of the world we turned to radio. Make that satellite radio. We now have news, music and lots of stations I will never listen to, but my oh my I didn't realize how much I missed NPR until we sat down last Sunday and listened to This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and Car Talk all in a row. It was amazing. I don't want to sound like a commercial or anything, and in the U.S. I had no need for such a device, but our new little radio is the greatest thing since rice and beans.

On another note, it appears that Dezam's rainy season has finally come. We've had rain several times in the last few days and the air is cool and fresh like is hasn't been in months. Hopefully this won't kill our solar-powered battery system and leave us without the aforementioned internet and radio...here's hoping for rain at night and sun during the day.

True confessions

There is a home church currently in session next door, which means:
1. A microphone
2. Huge speakers of typically low quality
3. A keyboard
4. Full volume.
So imagine church karaoke and that's what I am currently listening to.

But that's not what I need to confess. There's something else.

We used to listen to NPR programs most days--after work, or after church, or before work, or on weekends. Since arriving in Haiti we haven't listened to any of them. So today we sat ourselves down, cozied up to the fast internet connection, and listened to This American Life, Marketplace (you folks have got to work out those problems with the dollar), Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and we tried to listen to Cartalk but that didn't work out. We continued our audio fest with Skyping family (yes, Mom and Dad...you were not home. Next time, though).

The true confession is that it was great. No one was looming behind us waiting to use the computer, and because we were all alone we could yell at full force into the tiny pinhole next to the monitor that Mac calls a microphone....yea!

And true confession #2:
We have installed a wonder-gadget on this blog to tell us who visits and from where and for how long they hang out on our blog. It's sort of scary what's available out there to track people on the internet, but it has proven to be interesting. Now I can say hello to those of you in Washington state, Texas, and the Netherlands, hola to the Colombians, and 你好 to those in China. It doesn't tell us exactly who you are, just the name of your town. Right now Norfolk, VA, and Philadelphia, PA, are neck-and-neck for 1st place at 26 and 25 visits.

Well, I actually have real work to do before it gets dark. Tomorrow I leave at 5am for a visit to a tree nursery, so I better get to bed soon.

One more small note of interest: the bridge between us and Port-au-Prince is still out, but when I asked Jean-Remy (my boss) how it was today he told me that he followed a few other trucks around the bridge and down to the river--where they then drove through the river. He said there was at least 3 feet of water moving pretty quickly. Haiti: where the impossible is possible, I guess. Who needs bridges to cross rivers?

Since Ben and Alexis were catching a ride with Jean Remy today, they may post some pics of this event. If we're in luck.

Live from Okap...

We were invited to speak on the radio in Cape Haitian yesterday! This is how it happened: Ari, one of our "orienters" this month, is in a commercial promoting a Buy Local campaign that airs on national television in Haiti. We were in a little sandwich shop having lunch when Ari was recognized by several local radio personalities who happened to be there, and they invited him to appear on their show and talk about the campaign. As an added bonus, the Depps (fellow MCCers), Bryan and I were asked to give our impressions of Haiti as foreigners.

We were uncomfortable with the idea at first. Several times we've been asked to describe our preconceptions about Haiti (and most of the news we had heard was negative) and then talk about how those preconceptions changed after arriving here. We wondered if it was really constructive and beneficial for Haitians to hear that Americans sometimes think of Haiti as a dirty and dangerous place. And we wondered about the truthfulness of saying something like "We heard that Haiti was very dirty, but we arrived and the people are so nice!" The people have been very nice to us (incredibly, unbelievably, so, if you consider the history of U.S. involvement in this country), but that doesn't actually cancel out the fact that there is sometimes trash in the streets. How could we answer the question in an uplifting way but also speak truthfully about the situation?

We took these concerns to Ari, who assured us that it's helpful for Haitians to hear what Americans think of them because they don't often get the chance to see themselves in a mirror; our reflections could prompt them to change. We pressed him on whether many Haitians feel that way or if that is just his personal opinion, and he again assured us that it's a common attitude. This convinced us enough to go on the radio.

It was a lot more low-key than we were expecting. (One of the hosts got up to take a cell phone call in the middle of our conversation!) Five of us joined Ari in the studio: me, Bryan, Alexis (fellow MCCer), Jinia (one of our kreyol tutors), and Tikam (Ari's niece). We didn't have much of a dialog with the radio hosts, but basically we tried to say:

Yes, there are many negative things that we hear about Haiti in the U.S., but there are many positive things as well. I said that I'd heard a lot about Haiti's culture--music, art, storytelling--and in coming here I've found that Haitians are indeed creative and resourceful in many ways. Bryan also pointed out that most of the news we hear, about Haiti or otherwise, is often negative. (That's what makes it news, right?)

I also think that it's a really interesting time to be in Haiti. There's a groundswell of interest in local production, which could potentially move the economy forward in ways that are beneficial to many people. I'm also amazed at how hopeful many Haitians are, and at how much they love Haiti. I know it sounds cheesy, but the people here are really one of the country's greatest resources. They've got a lot going for them.