1,000 more words

It’s video time. On my Vimeo page you’ll find two dozen of my favorite Haiti videos, most under 1 minute long. They show normal days of visiting neighbors and cooking; fun afternoons with Nouvel Etwal and dance rehearsals; and other HAPI and community activities like football (soccer) games and home construction.  Snipets of days in the lives of myself and many wonderful friends.  Enjoy.

1,000 words

Clearly I did not blog during my second trip to Haiti, and that’s because I was occupied with working, exploring, and enjoying. So, in a coconutshell, the journey was yet again a wonderful success—from dancing to film-making to marketing planning to faith-building.

Click to view professional photos by Paul Jeffrey...

I was amazed at the vivid imagery and extreme situations from which my mind “dis-adapted” in my time back in the states. Realizing how much one can forget can be more sobering and moving than learning something the first time around.

Click to view my personal photo album...

I was thankful for the deeper, richer, better experience that comes from having experience. I was humbled by the beautiful (and with more time, more tangible) efforts and dancing by the teenage teachers and young dancers. And I was grateful to learn from and work with talented professional volunteers: Linda Burson, Tim Frakes, Paul Jeffrey, Valerie Mossman-Celestin, Michelle Ozier, Ash Norton, Stephanie Norton, Lee Rainboth, and Angelica Laudermith to name a few.

Enough words. I’ll let pictures do the rest of the talking. Just click the images.

You gotta have Faith

I’m watching Anthony Bourdain in Haiti on the Travel Channel, and I’m still wrapping my head around going back. It seems like such a foreign land. I can’t believe in one week I’ll be having rice and beans there rather than a delicious dinner out with my momma.

As I reflect and prepare, I’ve decided to share one of the most intimate videos I have. It’s of a little boy, he’s collecting sticks for his momma to make a fire. They lived in a tent with his eight brothers and sisters, though HAPI has since built them them a house. I’m not really sure what, if anything, they were planning to cook on the fire. But you can see that neither his situation nor us pesky passers-by stop him from embodying what most children do—peace.

Forward Motion and Excited Energy

Some  news: I’m going back to the ‘zak (Mizak) in three weeks. HAPI is making a documentary-style video about what it’s like to grow up as a girl and live as a woman in Haiti. The dancers will be the frame of the story and we’ll be talking to them, their families, and other neighbors and community members.

These two short videos are from one of my favorite afternoons during my last visit to Haiti. They display why I’m excited to spend more time there; the girl with the yellow shirt, Kerlin, is in Nouvel Etwal.

After a month with HAPI, I will volunteer with Living Media International—a neighboring organization who fosters community development by creating artistic opportunities for young adults. I’ll be working with the nonprofit’s young Haitian staff on promoting artwork sales in Haiti. And, we hope to integrate dancing into painting classes, English classes, and adult literacy classes. Here is a sample for a mini-workshop we did in March. We’re “dancing” the alphabet. It’s another one of my favorite memories because I was so impressed by the intelligence and determination of the students.

I’m delighted to be part of these projects; to continue the momentum we started last winter; and to keep learning as I work alongside Haitians. Stay tuned for more reports and stories.

Kompa-a-Go-Go

These videos show exactly what Nouvel Etwal, Guerdy, Joana, Angelica, and myself worked so hard on. For much of the routine we combined movements that each of the individual dancers contributed. This not only required brave, creative thinking, but really allowed each of them to feel ownership in the dance as a whole. Yeah team work!

For some great images of the group, visit the album on HAPI’s Facebook page.