Day 26

Network updates for the day: verizon closed. We went to Casa Marina, where I received a full signal, but was unable to access the internet via my computer.

I think we hit a wall today – it was very hot, and after we finally dragged ourselves over to Casa Marina and back (seeing my new favorite fishermen come in, with their beat up wooden boat and blue tarp sail and a LOT of fish for their day’s catch) Benjamin and I both passed out, me on the bed and he on the couch downstairs.

I think I’m entering a Haitian obsession – I’m on my third book involving Haiti, and I want more. I was completely scared of Haiti when Amy mentioned possibly traveling there on this trip, but the reading and conversations I’ve had have me fascinated. So far the consistent reports seem to be:

-Haiti is incredibly poor
-Port-au-Prince might be dangerous, because of the incredible poverty
-the people are friendly

That last bit might be a part of stereotyping – “Gee, they might be poor and destitute, but they sure are friendly.” The fact is I won’t know anything until I go, and even that will be based on a small scale of personal interactions I’ll have.

Our neighbor, Maya, stopped by, she is a Swiss masseuse who, based on her tales, is very unhappy. She told us she’s 55, leaving a marriage in Switzerland (to a Haitian guy she met in the DR) and is trying to start a new career here. She had many negative stories, among them:

-she had Cindy’s job at the Los Serena hotel, which makes me think there’s something about the position that brings out the worst in all who hold the job.

-her separated husband who still lives in Switzerland is Haitian, and she’s visited Haiti a couple times. It is, I quote, “A horror.”

-she told us a story about her husband, when they got to Switzerland, not understanding why he couldn’t kill and eat any animal he saw. She couldn’t understand this. I guess she didn’t pay attention in Haiti.

-she complained longly and loudly about the immigrant problem in Switzerland, saying the country was filling with “Africans who just wanted to wear fancy sneakers and didn’t want to work.

I didn’t ask her if she voted for Bush.

Tomorrow we go by bus to Santo Domingo, the capital. We haven’t been there yet. I’m looking forward to it, and maybe I’ll even find a wireless network that works for me.

Book currently being read: “The Farming of Bones” by Edwidge Danticat, a fictional account of people living on the Dominican / Haitian border during the massacres of Haitians by Trujillo in 1937.