All over Hispaniola is the answer this month. I landed in Port au Prince the first week of January, travelled south to our project site which was established 10 years ago this coming May (the local Floresta staff will be holding a big celebration), then this past week I was visiting our new site straddling the Haiti-DR border. In contrast, the border project (or more correctly, the Trans-Border project) officially started in Sept. 2006. It's inspiring to me to see our Haitian and Dominican staff reaching out to each other, trying to learn each other's language, understand each other's customs, share their experiences and problems together, struggling against the currents of 500 years of mutual history (Columbus landed in Haiti on his first trip) most of which has varied between being hostile and being violent.
Speaking of violence, after an exceptionally dangerous December, this January in Port au Prince turned out to be one of the calmest anyone can remember in a while. Which means there was little risk to me personally (phew!). This is in part being attributed to a new campaign by the government to put police in the street to control things, and I did in fact see officers at most major intersections, something I haven't seen in the past.
I've left the border region now, crossed over land to the Dominican capital Santo Domingo, although not before I and our other staff were subjected to the somewhat chaotic Haitian and Dominican immigration offices, where I was cussed out by a tout for refusing to pay him a 'gratuity' for 'helping' me get my visa stamp.
But perhaps I've already said too much.
Photo is me standing in the market in Fond Verettes.
Speaking of violence, after an exceptionally dangerous December, this January in Port au Prince turned out to be one of the calmest anyone can remember in a while. Which means there was little risk to me personally (phew!). This is in part being attributed to a new campaign by the government to put police in the street to control things, and I did in fact see officers at most major intersections, something I haven't seen in the past.
I've left the border region now, crossed over land to the Dominican capital Santo Domingo, although not before I and our other staff were subjected to the somewhat chaotic Haitian and Dominican immigration offices, where I was cussed out by a tout for refusing to pay him a 'gratuity' for 'helping' me get my visa stamp.
But perhaps I've already said too much.
Photo is me standing in the market in Fond Verettes.
