From Friday, June 29

I haven't made as much progress on the research these last few days. At this point I mostly need to be in the field rather than Port-au-Prince. I've been doing GIS work on my computer for the most part. I went and bought two pairs of pants at an outdoor thrift market since I'll be riding a motorcycle next week and only brought a white pair of pants along from home. I spent many hours scanning two books that are classic works on the Haitian environment. Both books are out-of-print (and thus my editor husband gave his approval of my copyright enfringement) but Zalinx had loaned me his copies. I decided to go the digital route instead of photocopying even though getting the MCC scanner to work was a pain and it took such a long time, and now I am glad because I passed on copies of the scanned books to Zalinx and Andrenor and they were extremely pleased to have digital copies since hardcopies are so hard (no pun intended) to come by. I also spent more time than I like to remember attempting to get through to various people by telephone to arrange field visit logistics, and finding a working printer to make a copy of a report for Andrenor.

I forgot to mention! The girls and Chrismene left for Florida on Friday. Actually Pierre surprised everyone and announced at the last minute that he was going too, though he returned on Sunday. The house is very different and quiet without the girls around. It is a nice change for a bit and then it gets boring. I miss having Da run to greet me when I get home, and D and N to catch me up on the news of the day.

Not only did the girls and Chrismene go, but a 1-year-old cousin, their grandmother, and a great-aunt. There must have been at least 16 large black suitcases and it took two SUVs to transport everyone to the airport. I asked N and D who would get to have the window seats and they both quickly yelled, ME!

D, like the rest of her family, is an Argentina fan for the World Cup. Most Haitians root for Brazil, the most popular team here, or Argentina, since Haiti has never made it to the Cup. Unfortunately and surprisingly, neither South American team made it to the final four of the World Cup this year. (It's what most people here are currently talking about.) Last weekend after Argentina won a game, I went to the "fancy" grocery store with the girls and Pierre and Stephanie. They were all dressed in their blue-and-white Argentina jerseys, as were most other people in the store!

From Sunday, July 2

I spent the morning and early afternoon with JS and Josette. They have a 16-month-old son, J, and another son due in September. Josette made rice, a black bean sauce, a tomato sauce, meatballs (with MCC canned turkey, a very hot item!) and key lime juice. It was very tasty! Pictures are attached of J and cousin L, age 10.

JS mentioned that the MCC country reps who just left Haiti knew someone who was kidnapped last December--an 18-yr-old Canadian who'd lived most of his life in Haiti. He was kidnapped during the day while he was driving with a Haitian friend along a road that's not known to be dangerous. The kidnappers had guns and stopped the truck, let the Haitian man go (or he got away), and took the Canadian to Cite Soliel, the most notorious slum in Port-au-Prince. When they got their ransom (not sure how much) they let the boy go unharmed. The boy said the kidnappers wanted the money to buy guns in order to keep fighting for Aristide to return (he's in exile in South Africa). The kidnappers treated the Canadian well--they gave him three meals each day and even fixed his truck, which had been damaged when they kidnapped him, and gave him money to fill the tank with gas when they let him go. Guess they must have felt generous with the ransom money coming in.

I asked JS if he thought most kidnappings were Aristide-related and he said that some were, but not all. He said that "people you wouldn't think are involved"--that is, wealthy, educated people, perhaps from the elite class--were behind some/many of the kidnappings simply as a way to make money. Some of the kidnappings are politically motivated, as was the case with journalist Jacques Roche who was killed last July despite the ransom being paid. A UN peacekeeping force has been here for--is it 2 years now? They're supposed to be disarming the gangs and thugs, but have just about nothing to show for their time here. They patrol the streets in expensive armored vehicles and SUVS, but besides driving around we're not sure what they do. They are not at all liked by most Haitians, who refer to the UN mission as "Tourista" instead of its official name, "MINUSTA."