| Anna in Haiti Day 8- Continued
A Nun?!?!?
After the concert, we all make our way back to the church for a party of sorts celebrating the end of camp. Robert, Bernard, Cynthia and I are staying on for several more days, but most of the volunteers are leaving tomorrow for another camp in Jacmel, another Haitian town on the coast. So, tonight we all celebrate the success of this camp…the one that for six months they were not sure would happen.
The kitchen staff has been working like crazy preparing a big meal, and someone has provided the customary bottle of rum that you often find at Haitian banquets. There are tons of people here tonight… not only us, but all of the Haitian teachers and staff members. As the dinner wears down, Pere David, the pastor of the church and co-director of St Trinity School of Music, stands up to speak. He begins by thanking us all from the bottom of his heart and saying that he has a gift for us all. “First”, he says, “We recognize a woman that is here for the first time.”. He goes on to talk about how all of the staff liken this woman to a nun and that nuns are very revered here and that nuns built Holy Trinite in the beginning so that they are very respected. I am looking around trying to figure out who in the world he is talking about when he says, “Anna!!!”
What?!?!? Me, a nun?!?!? The volunteers are all laughing, probably at the look on my face!!! As I join in with the laughter, I go up where I am presented with a beautiful little painting and ‘pinned’ with the Holy Trinite pin. I sit down, shaking my head, wondering what in the world I did to give them this impression! I mean, I am a nice person and all that, but I have done some decidedly un-nun-like things in my life!! J J Oh well………….
As Pere David went through the group, he introduced everyone, talking about the particularly wonderful traits they all brought to the program this summer. It was so great to be able to cheer and clap for all of my new friends. I don’t think they will ever know how much respect I have for each of them.
After all of the awards, speeches and accolades, the party broke up and the volunteers all headed next door for a final beer together at the hotel. As we sat at the long table, I asked why the local people thought I was a nun. The general consensus was that because I wore long skirts and a bandana everyday, I looked nun-like. Among lots of jokes, I remarked that my shirts were entirely too low-cut for a nun. At this point, Bernard dubbed me Saint Anna, of Our Lady of Perpetual Cleavage. Scott chimed in from down the table, “Now that is a church I would go to!!” and the conversation descended to lower and lower places. After offering to hear everyone’s confessions and insuring them of my completely discretion and confidentiality, I finally accepted my nun-ship. Hey, there are worse things you could be than Saint Anna of Our Lady of Perpetual Cleavage! J
Bonswa,
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! |
Music
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Haiti Day 7
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Anna in Haiti Day 7
“Why did the Chicken Cross The Road?
I woke up this morning feeling much, much better. Three cheers for Bernard and his Cipro! Today is Saturday and Robert and I have both agreed that we will not teach today. We both have a mountain of work that we need to do and are having trouble getting it done while teaching students. As for myself, I have a stack of bows that individual students have brought me and I do not trust them to my new re-hairing recruits. So, by 8:15, I am sitting at the bow table, MP3 player blasting the Black Eyed Peas, re-hairing my little heart out.
Allande shows up at 10.….he refused to take the day off. Seriously! So I told him that he could watch me, but that was it. I had to work! He agreed and sat quietly watching me until I finally took pity on him. I had done about 15 bows and was feeling a little more in control of the situation, so I showed him how to do a silk wrap. He practiced for a while and I told him that there was a very good chance that he would be the only person in all of Haiti that would know how to do this. That brought out a huge, genuine smile from him and I was glad that I had shown him.
After lunch, we decided to take the rest of the day off and I headed down through the neighborhood with Bernard, Tom, Robert and Bob. Tom is a graduate cellist with a gentle, fun nature and a great sense of humor. Bob is a percussionist and band director that has literally been everywhere. He is the most well-traveled person I have ever met and he regales us constantly with great stories of his escapades. I am in awesome company with these men and we laugh together as we dodge the traffic, jumping over big craters in the sidewalk, avoiding stray dogs, and ducking around all of the vendors, street kids, and women carrying huge loads on their heads.
There are a lot of white people out today! That is something that you really notice here. I can go several days without seeing anyone non-Haitian besides our group. When I remark on it, the guys say that it is because it is Saturday….the NGO folks and people here doing business in Haiti are out in force. They also say that it is a bad day to buy souvenirs, cause all of the prices will be higher due to the abundance of ‘blanc’, which is what the Haitians call us. J
As we near the art gallery we are heading for, I get caught in a swirl of people crossing a street. Bernard says “Watch out” and I glance down just in time to see an old woman carrying two chickens by their feet try and squeeze between me and another pedestrian. The chickens hit me and I am ashamed to say that I actually squawked! Well, it was like half-squawk and half scream and I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth! How uncool of me! But in my defense, the chickens weren’t quite dead and it was a bit disconcerting to be that close to them!! The guys all laughed uproariously and we kept making our way down the increasingly crowded street.
Down here, it is less tourists, more locals, and we are in a true market area. You could buy all sorts of stuff…..telephone wire, soccer balls, and used shoes….used shoes by the truck load. We continued to duck under dead wires that were hanging down and to jump over big holes in the road, all while dodging the motor bike until we came to the art gallery. It happens to be right next to Café des Arts and we enjoy the afternoon checking out all of the truly beautiful Haitian art.
There is so much that I would love to buy and take home as gifts for everyone, but it turns out that prices in Haiti are decidedly American. I would have thought that everything would be cheaper, but no…..groceries, drinks in a bar, and art are all expensive. Oh well…..
We end the afternoon in an ice cream place where we watch a tremendous thunderstorm from under the safety of an overhang. We have had these storms almost everyday and they are quite fascinating. They move very slowly and the thunder and lightening are truly biblical. When the storm passes, we make our way back home for dinner before returning to Café des Arts for more live music.
This time, almost all of the volunteers come along with all of the staff. We have a huge group and have a great time listening to the music and watching the dancers. After midnight, some of the staff invite five of us to go to another club, a Haitian club, for some dancing. I am in!!! I know that we will be safe with all of them and how else would I get a chance to do this?
However, several cell phones started to ring and the staff mysteriously decided that never mind….they were too tired. And that they would give us a ride home. Seeing as how we walk everywhere, this was strange. But we trust our hosts, so we climbed into their cars and are home in a jiffy. Turns out that some ‘not-so-great’ stuff had happened nearby, causing everyone, staff included, awake to the possibility that things were not as safe in Petionville as they had thought.
That turned out to be our last late night out, but it really was great while it lasted. J From here on out, we are confined to either the church itself, or the hotel next door for our evening frivolities. With this crowd, though, it doesn’t matter where we are….we have a great time, regardless. J J
Bonswa….
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! |
Uggg…..Haiti Day 6
| Anna in Haiti- Day 6
Ugggggg……….
Well, I got up this morning, feeling really great!! I ran to the market after breakfast to get my boys a treat, and was back before 8:30. I settled down to teaching Allande and started to feel….well….not so great. I didn’t eat breakfast, ( I can’t do food that early here) so it couldn’t have been the breakfast! After twenty minutes, I was in a cold sweat and knew that I was in trouble. I told the boys to keep working, and found one of my room-mates, asking her to tell Janet that I needed to lie down for a minute.
Janet Anthony is the woman in charge here and she is fabulous with a capitol F! She teaches cello at Appleton University and has been coming to Haiti for 17 years. She is also the woman that organized us all to come here. I don’t know if she means to be a surrogate mother to us all, but that is how we all see her, and even though I feel awful telling her that I can’t work at the moment, I am glad that she is there. She comes in to check on me and I tell her that I need to lie down for 15 minutes and that I refuse to be sick for any longer than that. She smiles, says no problem and goes to tell my boys that they are on their own for a while.
I spend the rest of the day waking from time to time as kind room mates give me medicine and our cook brings me lemonade. Sometime in the afternoon, I notice that another one of the beds in the room is occupied and I finally look up to see poor Bernard. He, too, is sick, sick. L Late in the afternoon, we move to the couches that are outside in hopes of catching some sort of breeze. Bernard has a fever, and we are both really miserable. He gives me something called Cipro, which I later find out is a massive antibiotic. It seems to get my stomach under control, but I am wiped. We sleep all day long ….so much for only needing 15 minutes! I wake at some point to find that two more folks are sick….something must be going around.
I feel terrible about missing an instruction day with my boys, but Robert takes them all into the workshop and keeps them going. It goes down as a lost day and it turns out that Bernard and I were the first two in a long line of folks coming down with the crud throughout the next few days. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! |
Red Goop, Anyone? Haiti Day 5
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Anna in Haiti- Day 5
Red Goop, Anyone?
Today I woke up and I feel a thousand percent better. In fact, I feel like my old self…full of hope and light. I am really glad to be here and glad that my funk-age has passed!! J J I spent the day teaching and once again, the men were really receptive. Everyone here is on ‘Haitian time’- except for my guys. In Haiti, time is kind a concept rather than an absolute. If something is supposed to start at 10,
Well, bow class is supposed to go vaguely from 9-12 and 2-5ish. I assume that, since we are in Haiti, I can actually start working at 8 and get a bunch of work done before my guys drift in later in the morning. However, it seems that our lutherie students are seriously motivated and most of them show up early every day and refuse to take a lunch break! Oh well, who am I to complain!! J J We spent the day putting hair in the giant pile of sticks that seems to grow each day and I am so happy to see them getting better and better.
After class, I climb up on the roof where I am joined by Robert Cain, the luthier from England. Robert is really delightful and each day I like him more and more. He is quiet and thoughtful, but when you listen closely, the funniest, most witty things come out of him!! We have started a sort of habit of watching the sunset off of the roof as we wait for the others to return from camp, and it has become my favorite part of the day. Every now and then, locals walking or driving by will glance up and see us up there. We wave and smile and are met by the most genuine grins. It is pretty great.
As the sun sets, Bernard returned and clambered up with a gift he had purchased. An unfamiliar red liquor with a label that said that it was guaranteed to induce carnal love-making in you if you were 80 years old. I swear I am not making this up!!! We laughed and sat together, passing the bottle back and forth. I couldn’t tell you the name of the stuff, just that we called it the “Red Goop”. We were slowly joined by Janet Anthony, Tom, Scott and a few others. Lined up on the roof, taking sips of Red Goop, I was hit by how lucky I am to be a part of this group. The people here are really extraordinary. They have been coming here for years, and they keep returning for one reason, and one reason only. The students. They are an amazingly dedicated group and listening to them makes me want to be better at my job as well. I am going to do everything I can to earn my place among them.
After most of the Red Goop was gone, and darkness had descended, we all went inside for dinner. Someone suggested going to Café des Arts, a bar about six blocks away, to hear live music and I jumped at the chance to go. Shortly thereafter, I am heading through the Haitian night with Tom, Bob and Bernard. I feel about as well protected as a girl can be. J When we finally enter Café des Arts, I feel completely transported! This place looks like a cross between a theme restaurant and the set of a spy movie! It is completely open in the middle and there are all these trees and palms growing up everywhere. There are couches scattered around and a stage in the middle of it all. The bar is owned by two women from Eastern Europe and the one that we met looked like something out of an art film!! She was very tall and quite intimidating, wearing big spike heels and looking very much like someone I would not want to mess with!
As the crowd trickled in, it became curious-er and curious-er. There are lots of NGO people here…..mostly Europeans and Americans, all looking like something out of a J. Peterman catalog. You know the type, scuffed leather bags, artfully rumpled clothing, waaaay to cool…….. It was the neatest crowd I have ever seen and I enjoyed myself immensely as we sat on a couch sipping rum punch and listening to the music. The band played Roots music and was made up of 4 Haitian drums and one singer. Shortly after they started, they were joined by local dancers and the evening was full of these pulsing, tribal rhythms and stomping, gyrating men and women. It was flat out, the coolest thing I have seen so far. J
Midnight came and went and we finally decided that for safety sake, we should head back. We left the Café and was immediately approached by a young boy offering to be our ‘guide’ back to the church. This is quite normal….he just wanted a tip. But Bernard put his arm around me and said, “Do not talk to him!”, and then escorted me all the way up the hill to our church. See!! I told you I was well protected! J
I let myself in our room as quietly as possible, trying not to wake the others and settled down on my sleeping pad. Somehow, the noise, heat and smells seem less tonight and I think that I might just be getting used to Haiti. I sure am starting to love it……
Bonswa…..
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! |
Cookies and Pachabels Canon- Haiti Day 4
Anna in Haiti-Day 4
Cookies, and Pachabel’s Canon
Today I woke up really early, considering that a bunch of us were out late last night. 🙂 Even on 6 hours of sleep, I felt awake and really wanted to get some work done quietly before my students get here. I went in to take a shower, which here, consists of a trickle of cold water in a dank and mildewed shower stall. It is fairly disgusting compared to American standards, but here I am just totally grateful for it! Running water is a luxury and I have no complaints. 🙂 The only bad thing is that you get out of the shower, get dressed and immediately start sweating profusely. Luckily, though….everyone has the same problem and none of us smell all that great. 🙂 Somehow, not worrying about things like personal hygiene just seem to make us see the real person inside anyway….just like backpacking.
After breakfast, I sat and worked with my headphones, listening to Jimmy Buffett as I cut bow plugs. Of course, my students show up early and away we go. They are all in great moods today and we all feel like old friends. They tease me as I drop a bow, saying ” “, which means ‘Careful’. I have been saying it to them for two days and they are happy to have the opportunity to say it back. 🙂 We all laugh and work hard and their work has come along fantastically!!
I slip away twice to teach a couple of bass lessons and enjoy the challenge of teaching through the language barrier. It is so much easier to do this with music than with re-hairing!! The atmosphere is insane…..we are literally ten feet away from giant trucks barreling up a mountain road and the constant cacophany of car horns and yelling make it almost impossible to hear each other. However, there is no other way so they keep playing and I keep teaching. 🙂
As the afternoon wore on, I broke out cookies that I had brought for the men and smiles abounded. Then all of the sudden one of them jumped up, grabbed a beat up old cello and started to play. Within five minutes we all had instruments and had a wonderful jam session! We played jazz, Amazing Grace and something Disney that I didn’t recognize. I started to cry as we settled into Pachabels Canon. It was one of those, “Oh my god….how did I get here?” moments. The unhappiness of the last few days is completely gone and I, once again, and totally filled with gratitude. I just want to say ‘thank you, thank you, thank you……………”
Bon swa,
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth!
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