I finally got caught up time zone wise this morning and was up with everyone at 6:30 am. I visited the elementary school after breakfast (50 yards away) and spent time in each classroom with the students. They were all fascinated with my video camera and many of them wanted to hold my hand.
I then videotaped a number of interviews (with interpreters) of staff, local residents, and visitors. I heard a number of stories and am
Impressed by how much hope does exist here.
School is closed next week Monday through Wednesday for Mardi Gras, the same voodoo-filled vacation celebrated in Louisiana. On Saturday we will spend the afternoon at the beach which is just a few hundred yards away.
I’ve found that I really enjoy Mango juice and there are hundreds of Banana and Mango trees as well as Papaya trees all over the campus.
The weather continues to be quite pleasant although it was hot over the lunch hour. Mosquitoes are not as bad as expected which is good because there are no doors to our building. The bedrooms have doors and mosquito netting should you wish to use it.
A lizard ran into the dining room this morning and mother cat quickly cornered it and called her kitten to come and eat it; which he gladly did.
When the cooks prepare lunch for the school (about 150 kids) they do so in the outside kitchen and they don’t have to worry over food spills as they cook as the chickens are quick to eat every drop.
Woah, I would seriously qtsiueon this statement What are the chances that Haiti is ever going to grow or develop? I understand the rush for migration-based cures for development, but it seems that plenty of economists have just completely forgotten that the nation-state remains a major source of identity and a profoundly important social and political construct.We might not be nationalists (particularly in the developed, peaceful world, since nationalism increases in times of well-defined crisis), but we shouldn’t forget that most poor people have homes that they love. Their first best scenario is making their home, where they have cultural, social and geographical roots a better place to live. If we write off the possibility of this happening altogether we’d better have pretty bloody good evidence.I appreciate the motives behind this discussion are pure, but I’d be pissed off as a Haitian (or a Sri Lankan, or a Tanzanian) if someone told me nope give up. you’ll never develop. Best leave home’. Most migrants want to return to the place they were born and have roots one day.And in response to Tyler Cowen given what Haiti did to the last people who tried to govern them and own their souls, I’m pretty sure neither the US nor the UN would last very long if they tried to tell the descendents of the *ONLY SUCCESSFUL SLAVE REVOLT IN WORLD HISTORY* that they were getting governed by someone else again.