koute
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.
Postings begin April 1st, 1st page of the blog.
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 of plans! Now to quick figure out how we were getting to Souvenance…easy! Peniel helps translate that Carine and Dominique are leaving tomorrow and Carine has invited us to stay with her that evening, PERFECT! Very sweet of Carine to open her home to us.
Selena and I say goodbye to Peniel and the gals.
And off we are, beyond the gates of the Oloffson to experience a whole different Haiti.
I don’t quite know how to verbalize my experience of Cité Soleil, I think I’m still processing what my eyes have seen. I do know that they seemed to be a wonderful people living in a very difficult situation with the quesitonable UN presence. Please educate yourselves and be aware as to what is going on.
In an article dated August 2006, Jean Risitil was interviewed and asked,
Tell us about your home, Cité Soleil.
Ristil: These people living in Cité Soleil had jobs before the coup; some had 5 or 6 kids who they could pay for school. Each person with a job helped benefit 20 or 30 people around him. But after the coup these people were cut off, they had no more money. No money for his home, no money for his family. So when he could not pay for his family to live, he had another idea. Before these people would get 5,000 gourdes a month they could take care of their family, mother, father, kids. This is the reason of the Chimeres. The society is corrupt because the state and church are failures they do nothing for the people. A MINUSTAH tank can cost several million dollars. If you did social work with this money you could change the situation of Cité Soleil. When Aristide was President it was better because people were working and all those who were not working still had help. They had potable water. People had access to food. Many handicapped people got food and a fund each month. Now things are horrible. For 100 gourdes people get sexual relations. People have no money making it difficult to live. They destroyed our lives. Many children have no fathers now.Full article here:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/409/1/
