Hi Eily, hey man HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY...I tried to call you but reception was poor. Helas! Can't wait to meet and run around some Canadian forests with you.
LOVE
Gabriela, making calls since 5 months
Monday, September 24, 2007
Happy Birthday EILY !!
Hi Eily, hey man HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY...I tried to call you but reception was poor. Helas! Can't wait to meet and run around some Canadian forests with you.
LOVE
Gabriela, making calls since 5 months
Gabri's Bubble Bath
There are hundreds of things we love about Dezam, one of them is water. Fresh, clean, cool, tree-filtered water flowing in rivers, streams, waterfalls, springs, rain, and taps. We are water babes! We are happy healthy frogs. I thinking about Port au Prince (where citizens often pay for a bucket of city : ( water) and where we are moving next week), when I was inspired to put Gabri in a bucket this Sunday morning and dump water on her head, thinking it might be more efficient for bathing when we get to the city. She didn't mind a bit... : )
Friday, September 21, 2007
Resident Evil in Haiti
Ok, so I guess "Resident Evil" is a film-video game mega-series, seemingly tending towards the scary, evil side. Anyway, when I read this I was reminded about how much we deal with sterotypes about Haiti. I remember when we were planning on coming here 3+ years ago and virtually everything we read started out like this: "Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere . . ." We need to shake these simplifying one-liners and narrow stereotypes.
Resident Evil 5 Set in Haiti?
02:09 pm EDT @ September 20th, 2007
So it appears that some of us press dudes may have jumped the gun about Resident Evil 5, saying that the game takes place in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Kotaku, who claim they got this tip from their "well-placed insider," the game doesn't take place in Africa at all. Instead, Haiti, a troubled nation in the Caribbean, is the location for the latest zombie-mowing extravaganza from CapCom.
Would make a lot more sense, seeing how keen folks are over there on chicken blood, dolls and needles. Then again, the voodoo tradition was actually carried over by slaves from Africa, so go figure.
As far as atrocities and genocide go, Haiti is not lagging too far behind, say, Ivory Coast, or Rwanda, so in that sense, any such nation would be an excellent (creepy) choice for a survival horror game.
Resident Evil 5 Set in Haiti?
02:09 pm EDT @ September 20th, 2007
So it appears that some of us press dudes may have jumped the gun about Resident Evil 5, saying that the game takes place in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Kotaku, who claim they got this tip from their "well-placed insider," the game doesn't take place in Africa at all. Instead, Haiti, a troubled nation in the Caribbean, is the location for the latest zombie-mowing extravaganza from CapCom.
Would make a lot more sense, seeing how keen folks are over there on chicken blood, dolls and needles. Then again, the voodoo tradition was actually carried over by slaves from Africa, so go figure.
As far as atrocities and genocide go, Haiti is not lagging too far behind, say, Ivory Coast, or Rwanda, so in that sense, any such nation would be an excellent (creepy) choice for a survival horror game.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Motorcycle Diaries, Part 2
A while back, beginning of August I think, we did our (2nd) annual motorbike trip here in Haiti. Me and Brian who both did the trip last year with James and Edwin, took on Josh, the new guy, of Crokinole movie fame, and Kurt (yes, Kreyol Kurt), another MCC motorbike trip newbie.
The trip was a bit short this year because we had to get back for Gabriela's baptism, but we had a blast anyway. This year we did a little more relaxing, exploring, swimming kind of stuff, whereas last year it was some hardcore riding. We stayed 2 nights out at MPP. Mark Hare, a guy a few of us knew already showed us around some of their innovative agriculture work.
On the way back to Desarmes, I had the bright idea, since we were going to get back too early and we hadn't really done too much heavy riding, to drive up one of the Digicel tower roads. It looked so nice, and smooth, and high. Would be a great view once we got to the top. But, we never got to the top. The road was bad. Haiti bad. Worse than Haiti bad. Started out ok, but got progresively worse as we climbed. Big rocks, steep inclines, sharp turns. Maybe 3/4 of the way we decided to take a break, but the break turned into a decision to turn around.
We hopped back on the bikes, only to find that Brian had a flat on his bike. So, we jumped right in to change the tire. Our collective knowledge and experience got us . . . well, didn't get us very far. Every little step took us reeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy long and it ended up taking 2 hours to fix. This was at noon. At the top of a hill. With no trees. In Haiti. And we had only a little bit of water left. It was HOT. But, we managed to get the tire changed with a new tube. But, only minutes later we realized that the tube was not holding air. So, Brian hurried down (as much as we could hurry) to find a Bos Kawochou (a real tire repair man) to get it solved. The hurrying didn't work too well for me. I feel twice. Not badly, but my pride was hurt - and I busted one of my mirrors. But we made it and lived to tell the tale.
After getting the tire fixed, it was a straight shot back to Dezam. One quick stop for Pringles in Cange, then the pavement in Mirebalais and we were cruising. We let it fly on the road between Mirebalais and Dezam - at least until dusk started to settle. It was FUN going fast, not something we get to do so often in Haiti with all the bad roads.
Back in Desarmes, we met up with Esther, Gabriela and Marylynn who had their own two-wheeled adventure. They tap-tapped up to Mirebalais with their bikes, and then biked back. They had a blast too.
I'm starting to work on the guys to get a trip going up to the North West (Gonaives, Anse Rouge, Jean Rabel, Port de Paix). We'll see!
PS. You can see a few pictures of the swimming hole we went to a bunch of times over at Kurt's blog. You'll find it way at the bottom a really long, but interesting, post about his family's visit to Haiti.
The trip was a bit short this year because we had to get back for Gabriela's baptism, but we had a blast anyway. This year we did a little more relaxing, exploring, swimming kind of stuff, whereas last year it was some hardcore riding. We stayed 2 nights out at MPP. Mark Hare, a guy a few of us knew already showed us around some of their innovative agriculture work.
On the way back to Desarmes, I had the bright idea, since we were going to get back too early and we hadn't really done too much heavy riding, to drive up one of the Digicel tower roads. It looked so nice, and smooth, and high. Would be a great view once we got to the top. But, we never got to the top. The road was bad. Haiti bad. Worse than Haiti bad. Started out ok, but got progresively worse as we climbed. Big rocks, steep inclines, sharp turns. Maybe 3/4 of the way we decided to take a break, but the break turned into a decision to turn around.
We hopped back on the bikes, only to find that Brian had a flat on his bike. So, we jumped right in to change the tire. Our collective knowledge and experience got us . . . well, didn't get us very far. Every little step took us reeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy long and it ended up taking 2 hours to fix. This was at noon. At the top of a hill. With no trees. In Haiti. And we had only a little bit of water left. It was HOT. But, we managed to get the tire changed with a new tube. But, only minutes later we realized that the tube was not holding air. So, Brian hurried down (as much as we could hurry) to find a Bos Kawochou (a real tire repair man) to get it solved. The hurrying didn't work too well for me. I feel twice. Not badly, but my pride was hurt - and I busted one of my mirrors. But we made it and lived to tell the tale.
After getting the tire fixed, it was a straight shot back to Dezam. One quick stop for Pringles in Cange, then the pavement in Mirebalais and we were cruising. We let it fly on the road between Mirebalais and Dezam - at least until dusk started to settle. It was FUN going fast, not something we get to do so often in Haiti with all the bad roads.
Back in Desarmes, we met up with Esther, Gabriela and Marylynn who had their own two-wheeled adventure. They tap-tapped up to Mirebalais with their bikes, and then biked back. They had a blast too.
I'm starting to work on the guys to get a trip going up to the North West (Gonaives, Anse Rouge, Jean Rabel, Port de Paix). We'll see!
PS. You can see a few pictures of the swimming hole we went to a bunch of times over at Kurt's blog. You'll find it way at the bottom a really long, but interesting, post about his family's visit to Haiti.
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