Home (?)

OK. So it doesn’t really feel like ‘home’ yet. And actually the fact that it might some time feel like home is both a bit scary and hard to comprehend.


We arrived to a beautiful sunset to find about 15 folks trying to get a generator working for us prior to our arrival (one of them a mechanic, the rest curious spectators).

the village

The house is a very very pleasant surprise. The folks here really went out of their way to make us welcome. Fully equipped, including coffee percolator, oven, beds, night-stand, iron(!), and some kitchen utensils that I don’t even have at home. Everything brand new and set up. Linen on beds. Soap in the toilets. Fan in every room and the unexpected highlight – an air conditioner!

We are currently the only residents of a neighborhood that was built a couple of years ago as a present from Cuba to make the Americans feel bad about not helping Haiti as much as Cuba. (more about why are there empty neighborhoods in a place with 1.3M people living in temporary tents when I understand it myself). It’s a couple of minutes walk from the main part of the village (which is present from the president of Venezuela).

our neighbourhood

Got introduced to a bunch of folks, unpacking. Shower. Sleep.

End of day one.

And it can’t all be perfect: Not sure if there’s a technical reason, or if this is just Haiti, but the generator is located right under my bedroom window. I keep the window closed to get the fumes out (but there’s another window, so ‘pa pwoblem’) and generally feel like I’m sitting inside a tractor engine. There are electricity poles in our abandoned neighborhood and we’re supposed to get hooked to the electricity system in a couple of weeks. This should make the generator a much needed backup instead of a necessity.