night. All of the public transport here (and many stores) bears
slogans like "Dieu seul maitre" or other religious statements in
French. They are also painted brilliant colors. I have pictures of
these which are probably redundant with others already on flickr.
We are staying with a friend of Johanna's friend who is active in the
following music and cultural association, and heads up a chapter here.
http://www.malakimakongo.net/
Haiti is tough on the senses. There's a lot of dust, exhaust, burning
trash, and generators here. Explained in terms of previous
experiences, it's like Sicily meets West Philly. That
characterization is lucky to be much closer to the truth than it
deserves to be, though of course from many points of view it's still
hogwash.
According to my companions here it's very very much like a lot of
places in Africa in a bunch of surprising ways. In some ways the
people are much more chill than in the Dominican Republic, though the
climate and the infrastructure differences make the totality of the
experience a lot harsher.
But right now I'm in a beautiful place, with wonderful people. I'm
learning some creole too, which is fun because it's not at all
inflected (no endings to worry about). The language learning
equivalent of a cool breeze for English speakers with highschool
French.
I have a camera but don't have a computer, so photos when I return.
