I was watching the movie, "The Quiet American" a couple of weeks ago. In the opening, the main character Fowler says, "They say you can learn a lot about Vietnam in a few minutes, but the rest has got to be lived."
Now I have never been to Vietnam, but that phrase captures somehow, in some way, something, and quite clearly, I might add. I struggle to come up with ways to describe how I feel as I travel to various countries, and it's great when you discover that someone has actually found a way to put it in words. To the best of my knowledge, those words do not appear in the novel by Graham Greene on which the movie is based, so I can't pay tribute to the original source. Graham Greene, however, did write another novel, "The Comedians", set in Haiti during the Duvalier era, which I think captures the difficult to describe feeling you get when you set foot in that country. Mr. Greene gets some of his geography confused outside the capital city, but that I suspect may be a result of doing much of his writing while sipping rum punch on the patio of the Hotel Olaffson, which figures prominently in the book.
I am going to Haiti soon, by the way. I will be arriving in the Dominican Republic mid Feb. and dividing my time between the two countries over the course of two months, as the political situation allows. I will keep you posted as I am able to get access to the internet.
Oh, Happy New Year.
Bob
Photo: skiing in Quebec in December, thanks to the generous invite of friends who have a chalet near Mt. Tremblant.
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