It seems I've been quite negligent when it comes to the old blog. Personally, things are going very well. I'm enjoying work, staying quite busy, liking the new house and, overall, feeling good about things.
I've had an eventful month or so since I last posted, which has included: some client graduations, a trip to the beach town of Jacmel for Haiti's version of Carnival (Kanaval, in Kreyòl), and a week spent hosting students from American University as well as a photographer who is working for us. I've spent a lot of time running around and have been thankful for the last couple of days I've been able to just spend being boring in the office.
Things may be returning to the exciting side, though, as former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide landed in Port-au-Prince after seven years spent in exile in South Africa. I've already gotten in trouble around here for spouting some opinions about the matter, but here goes anyway. In my opinion, whether or not you agree with Aristide's politics and whatever he has done (or not done) in the past, he is a Haitian citizen and has a right to be in Haiti. I'll leave it at that, mostly because I think that taking any argument further than that starts to delve unproductively deep into the realm of subjectivity, at least for this here blog. He is without question the most polarizing figure in Haiti and one of the most polarizing in the hemisphere. At any rate, it's not my decision to make as to whether or not he comes back to Haiti (nor is it, by the way, President Obama's, despite his apparent effort to keep Aristide from returning to Haiti by calling the President of South Africa and asking him to prevent Aristide's departure).
Anyway, he's here now, so we'll see. Or, as we say in Kreyòl, n'ap gade pou nou wè (literally, we'll look for us to see). Or, simply, n'ap swiv (we'll follow).
Oh yeah -- and the run-off round of presidential elections is scheduled for Sunday. It pits Michel Martelly vs. Mirlande Manigat. Tèt kale vs. Ban'm manman'm. "Bald head" vs. "Give me my mom" (actual campaign slogans). N'ap swiv.
Here are some photos of things I've been doing in the past month.
My team.
Getting down at a client graduation in Lenbe.
Panoramic view from Tit Montayn, a five-hour walk from our closest branch.
Tit Montayn again. Can you see the market nestled down at the base of the mountains?
Kanaval in Jacmel. This particular guy, like many others, is sporting a mean pair of wooden wings that make an alarmingly loud sound when smashed together with a mechanism he has rigged up to his arms.
More wing devils.
Turkeys!
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