January 2010
1 post
October 2008
1 post
September 2008
1 post
Haiti Benefit Concert
SATURDAY, SEPT 21, 2008
Amazura: Jamaica, NY
http://www.rockmasters.com/haiti-relief/ny-hmi-united-09-21-08.htm
April 2008
25 posts
World Food Crisis: NPR coverage
Broadcasted on NPR April 10, 2008 Pedro Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at The Earth Institute at Columbia University and co-chair of the Hunger Task Force for the Millenium Project, and Gawain Kripke, policy director at Oxfam, and Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor-publisher of the Haitian Times, talk about the global food shortage, what countries are affected—and why.
To be continued...
Carine drives Selena to the airport and drops off Ann and I at a house she was staying at near the airport, when she first came to Haiti last Thursday. These were our goodbyes with Selena, Carine and Dominique. It was sad. We spent a lot of time together. We get to the house, and at this point I am beyond exhausted. Makini, a friend who was staying in the home too, says to me…”your...
And the trip continues...
TUESDAY, MARCH 25 We abruptly leave Souvenance when we learn that Joey and friends are leaving early Tuesday morning (as Carine and Dominque left the day before to return to work). It was a spur of the moment decision while drinking our sweet coffee and eating spaghetti and hotdogs for breakfast. Others were leaving the following day, but Selena and I were ready to go back to Petionville and...
Souvenance, sounds
hear Souvenance hear Souvenance 2 hear Souvenance 3 hear Souvenance 4 hear Souvenance 5 hear Souvenance 6 hear Souvenance 7 hear Souvenance 8
Souvenance, pictures
The grounds were beautiful. We made a many of friends everywhere we went. The children were beautiful and instantly our friends. Everywhere we walked we would feel a hand grab ours and always have a trail of children. Again, verbal communications was limited to Hello, How are you? What is your name? and from there we danced, laughed and played together. Ann gave us a quick tour. She showed us...
Sunday, March 23
Bright and early, Hughes and Dominique meet us at Carine’s so we can all travel together up to Gonaives and then on to Souvenance. The pilgrimage to Souvenance, like other Voudou rituals, often coincide with events and people in the Catholic faith imposed upon African slaves. In that way, the slaves disguised the practice of their religion, concealing it from the slave masters, who feared...
That evening
Carine picked us up at the Oloffson that evening and brought us back to her home in Petionville. She has a very nice, spacious home with about 3 women roomates and her daughter living with her. Dominque comes over and we pick up Emmanuel for a night at the disko. Selena, Emmanuel and Carine We daaaanced, spent some time in the car getting some fresh air, and laughed so hard just because we were...
PART II, Haiti on our own
SATURDAY, MARCH 22 Our plan was to head up to Souvenance with Joey today, but instead we meet Jean Ristil at the last morning breakfast at the Oloffson. He was here to meet with Oneza, Ninaj and family. Jean is a journalist/activist in Cite Soleil, I shared his site earlier, but here it is again. http://www.freewebs.com/kolezepol/ Jean invited Selena and I along to visit Cité Soleil. Change...
Full moon, dogs sing
After a night of some wine, sweets and good company, I lie on my bed to have a peaceful night’s sleep, my last night in the Oloffson. I lay down and hear a dog singing to the moon. Never a quiet moment in Haiti, I love it. sing
Friday, March 21
The last full day with Peniel’s organized trip. As per our daily schedule, breakfast at the Oloffson. Then we were bussed to our first destination, Fort Jacques. We had a few local kids as our tour guides. I like his first words to me, a quick 6 second clip. that’s… The tour begins History Giving thanks (in one of the conference rooms of Fort Jacques, picture a...
Port-au-Prince
Thursday, March 20
Midnight, Peniel’s birthday, we sing him a song of celebration Happy Birthday Peniel Peniel’s birthday, with a full agenda for the day…at least he’ll get to relax at night with some cake, rum and RAM. After breakfast at the hotel we load on to the bus and head for Mortrouis, Haiti for a day at the beach, Moulin Sur Mer. The sound of the sea, the warmth of the sun, full...
Pictures to come...
I picked up the prints for the 1 roll of film and one roll of a disposable camera film that I shot in Haiti. Being that I thought I had 5 more rolls of film to shoot, I took my sweet photographer time composing shots of my first impression of Haiti, the Hotel Oloffson…not knowing what more I would not be able to capture. Check back for posted images.
Wednesday, March 19
On the bus to start our day touring the city and museum visits. bus ride We stopped at a Theological/Voudou museum. Oneza explains the preservation. concept Back to ENARTS where we took an amazing dance class with Florencia, a drum class with Samba Zao and a suprise dance class with yet again, Peniel, he worked us! Oneza translates as Samba animately speaks creole, where you think you understand...
Tuesday, March 18
While staying at the Oloffson I would wake up and step out onto our balcony, stretch in the sun, sit on a rocking chair and take in the many sounds surrounding me. The sun was my only indication that morning was here, as I had no watch, cell phone or any source for telling time. bonjou The day continued with many hours of dancing at ENARTS. I must have been so consumed by the dancing that I...
First sounds of Haiti... Day 1. Monday, March 17th
Here is the first posting of sounds from Haiti. Each link will bring you to a separate page, you are then able to download the MP3s for yourself. There are many artists involved in these recordings, all respect to them. Hope you like. Upon arrival at Port-au-Prince airport, first sounds of Ayiti hear here First dance class at ENARTS with Ramses Filius, the room was filled with drums, singing...
http://www.haitiaction.net/ →
HaitiAction.net is a leading news source for breaking news and analysis on the current situation in Haiti.
Kole Zepol →
Jean Ristil is a journalist and founder of Kole Zepol. We met Jean in our travels and he took us to visit Cite Soleil. This is his site. Kole Zepol is an educational foundation with the full kreyol name “Kole Zepol Pore Sove Ti Moun” or “Shoulder to Shoulder to Save the Children” based out of Cite Soleil in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
Brief summary of my trip
I traveled in Haiti for a total of 13 days.
The first five days I traveled with one of my dance teachers, Peniel Guerrier, and his organized group of about 15 individuals. We stayed at the Hotel Oloffson and danced and took drum classes everyday at ENARTS with many different teachers. We also visited a museum, the beach, an art gallery, Leogane, Fort Jacque, saw RAM perform at the Olaffson, etc....
Ayiti, the first trip of what will be many
Here I will post documentations of my first trip to Haiti. I have been studying Haitian Folkloric dance for about 4 years now and finally I had the chance to visit the country from which these movements, drums, songs and culture have originated. To lighten my load, I decided to only bring one camera, a hand-me-down 35mm Pentax K1000, my mother’s as a young adult. I took a roll and a half of...