Monday, April 6, 2009

i went to haiti. technically.

soooo if you are my mom, you are probably like whatttt?!?! no way did you go to haiti. not to fear anyone who worries about that side of the island. i only went about 5 feet into haiti. but technically i have been there now i guess. woo woo. first of all, now that that is cleared up, i need to go a little bit further 'back in time'. so a lot of last week i was left without a housemate because brie's parents were here. that was sad but flew by like time always does here. it was so great to meet them and they are reallly nice and her mom even left us some easter candy which was/is delish. they came for dinner on thursday and it was hilar and fun translating with brie and just hanging out with them. heres our new fam pic that we took that night...


so then friday i went on my class field trip to the dominican haitian border which was sooo sweet slash sad at times. i have been taking a dominican haitian relations class this semester and we have learned a lot about the history of this island and what has led up to the racism/segregated situation we have today in the dr. so we went to the border on friday because on fridays and mondays they open the border for haitians to cross over and sell or buy whatever in a town called dajabon where it ends up being a humongous market with clothes, shoes, toiletries, fruit and anything else you could need. it was so crazy. so so so many people just rushing back and forth. and while there was this one level in my mind focusing on getting where i needed to go and maneuvering through the crowds, there was a much deeper level of desperation that i could feel in that place. those people were moving fast and pushing the stuff they were selling in my face at times because they need to eat. like they have no choice but to carry a million coconuts in a wheelbarrow in the blazing sun. and that's something i still think i need to process for a while. here are some pics of the border and a woman carrying like an amazing amount of styrofoam plates...



this is haiti...




so that was really cool.
then on the way back to santiago we went to a beach in monte cristi which was probs my fave yet because it was like rocky and kind of isolated.
this is a pic of it...


okay well there is more to tell but my comp is about to die. so i will finish later.
love you all and miss you.
see you in less than a monthhhh.
wooooooo.

1 comment:

  1. wow so cool saL..eager to hear more. thanks for sharing. i've always wanted to go to haiti. love you

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