Events of This Past Week

Events of This Past Week

May 15, 2009, 1:32 PM
Filed under: Exploring, Living in Haiti | Tags: Art, Basketball, Croix de Bouquets, Haitian Creole, Indiana Jones, Port-au-Prince, Voodoo

How have I been spending my time in Haiti?  Here’s a list of this past week.

• Visiting a Haitian artist colony in Croix de Bouquets. The artwork is made from scrap-metal cut and shaped into images of everyday life. The art deserves to be shown here and when I go back I’ll bring a camera.
• Visiting a “cultural center”/Voodoo priest’s house and listening to some of the most inspiring drumming I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing.  And getting a half-hour lecture on Voodoo (which is a religion like any other, and not what you see in Indiana Jones).
• Having my boss’ car breakdown on me while climbing a steep hill in rush-hour traffic.  Then, after somehow finding a mechanic on the street to fix the car, trying unsuccessfully to drive home up another steep, muddy hill while a tropical mini-storm slicked up the road.  Failing half way up, I had to back down while cars and motorcycles passed on either side.  But at the bottom I played games with half a dozen kids while watching other cars try and fail to overcome the mud, rain, and slick road.
• Finding Progresso soup in the market.
• Playing basketball in front of a hundred people in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood where, outside of my two friends and I, no other foreigner appears to venture. Then losing because we were out of shape. But making about a dozen new friends in the process who couldn’t believe we spoke Creole.
• Watching an “extreme biker” put on a show in a Croix de Bouquets park, also in front of maybe a hundred people, again many of whom couldn’t believe we were there and spoke Creole.
• “Turning 16 again” and getting to drive while abroad for the first time in almost three years. This may be the biggest development.  It can’t be understated.

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