Qué pasta everyone,

Well, I haven’t had much of a chance to enjoy the mod new apartment in the past few days. I spent the past week visiting hospitals in the southeast of the country to complete my tour of all AIDSRelief sites in Haiti. And this time, I left behind the fabulous hotels of the Haitian provinces (see previous posts) to actually stay at one of these medical facilities.

What a difference that makes. I just spent a couple of nights at the St. Boniface hospital in Fond des Blancs (literally Bottom of the Whites). It’s about as isolated a place as you can find in Haiti -- for those of you with Google Earth, this is what I’m talking about. To get there from the closest cluster of concrete that can pass as a town, you must endure two hours on steep, mud-and-rocks paths through rugged hills. At night, you can count on the fingers of your hand the number of electric lights for miles around, most of which come from the hospital’s compound.

The place is run by nuns from Boston who keep the fridge stocked with cold Prestige beer. There are three recent U.S. college grads and a French business student living there while they complete various volunteering assignments. Being far away from any center of power or wealth, the village is completely free of crime and other threats. For the first time since moving to this country, I can take a walk alone. In the early evenings we go down the road to play soccer with the locals. At night we watch DVDs under the power of a whirring generator. It’s not a bad place to be.

One night, those of us visiting from Port-au-Prince drive thirty minutes to the beach. We get there too late for a swim but just in time to eat some freshly caught kingfish as the only restaurant for miles blares Haitian pop to honor our presence. One of the song is called MMS. It’s a lament about this guy who used to “have relations” (this is the term that the host used to translate from Creole) with his wife on Mardi, Mercredi and Samedi (Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday) when they were newlyweds, but now only do it once in March, May and September. I make a joke saying that my version would be an instrumental. Nobody gets it.

Oh, and I may have saved the villagers from a terrible affliction. But I will wait until I hear the results on the investigation by the local health officials to publicly gloat about that.

Anyway, I am now back in Port-au-Prince and about to enjoy my first hot shower in a week. And on Sunday, I head out to the north of the country for a three-day meeting, during which I plan on sneaking off to Haiti’s #1 favorite tourist sight: the airport departure lounge. Make that the #2 sight, the 19^th century Citadel at Milot. Pictures will be taken.

(in the voice of John McLaughlin) Bye bye ,

Max

p.s.: all of you with an interest in economics or the lunatic fringe please make sure to check out Will McBride's blog.

Movin' on Up (to the East Side of Port-au-Prince)

Bonjour,

Well the power is back on, so I guess I better start posting. As I alluded to in my last entry, I spent the weekend moving in to my new place. And I do mean new. I was the first person to settle into the not-quite-finished apartment building on Friday. Scenes from "The Shining" were playing in my head as I fell asleep in the dark and vacant former hotel.

But by Sunday I had a neighbor (a Haitian-Canadian working on banking reform), intermittent power and even occasional hot water, and I am being told that everything will be functional next week when the generator will finally come online (we now have to make do with an inverter, a device that basically acts like a giant rechargeable battery).

As you can see from the pictures, the place has been fully renovated, and while my studio is not huge it has all the mod-cons like a fully-equipped kitchen, cable tv and a/c. Plus it has a swimming pool that will, I am told, one day contain water.

And it feels great to finally unpack my bags and resume a somewhat normal life. This move concludes what has been an incredibly full two weeks on both professional and personal fronts and ends the prologue of my story down here. I will then be able to tell you about "normal" in Haiti starting next week. And I'll have pictures of my trip to the north of the island.

'til next time,

Max

Wheels

The streets of Port-au-Prince just got a whole lot more dangerous. A roaming menace has hit the streets and threatens every driver, passenger and passer-by. His car is old and decrepit and his tires are bald. He rolls with the windows down because his a/c is busted. Discordant sounds emanate from the interior’s worn-out stereo. He scans the streets with his beady eyes searching for his way among the mass of humanity and machines and changes directions erratically, a drunken sailor in an ocean of people. In the early morning and at dusk, beware Port-au-Prince ! Max is on your streets.

That’s right, I am now the not-so-proud owner of what was once a 1993 Isuzu Rodeo, or so I am told. To see how this purchase fits into the evolution of my life, please refer to the chart below:

But it is great to have some measure of freedom once again. And the streets of Port-au-Prince are actually a blast to drive, what with no traffic laws in effect whatsoever. You jostle for position with UN troop carriers, try to dodge pedestrians, stray dogs and potholes the size of craters and overtake pick-ups loaded with dozens of passengers. So far I have seen one working stoplight, which seemed to fulfill its purpose by stopping drivers through sheer curiosity more than respect for the traffic code.

Of course buying a car was no simple procedure. While finding a car to purchase is not too hard, that is only the start of a process now on its third week. And I’m still not technically the legal owner. Or acknowledged user. As far as I can tell I’m more of a formal borrower. That is until I obtain a Haitian driver’s license. But first I must be granted a fiscal ID number, which can only be granted after receiving a valid residency card, a document whose delivery must be preceded by notarized attestations from the Embassy, my employer and the Ministry of Immigration. I fully expect to be a legal driver in the spring of 2009.

The other big news is that I will be moving to an apartment this Friday (the move was delayed for five days) so that by this weekend I will be fully settled in. Pictures will definitely follow.

‘til next time,

Max

The Year in Pictures

Happy New Year!

I must say that 2006 will be a hard act to follow.


Some of the highlights:

The Great German Marshall Fund B&E Party

Friday Jazz at the sculpture gardens and their aftermath

IIE's underground World Cup movement and France's incredible run to the Final

Guillaume, Camille and Sonya in America!

Sunday dinners at Jill's

The drive to the first 11on11 soccer game in Bethesda

My first night in Haiti

Backpacking in Bulgaria

Mariano walking

Mariano talking

Seeing my banner hung up at the DC United season opener

The return of Terrence, Yulia, Machut and Friday Big Hunt Happy Hour

Hitting the Vegas bars with Yasmine

Hitting the Stone Town bars in Zanzibar

Seeing Mt. Kilimanjaro

IIE Softball

Hitchiking from Georgetown to U Street on July 4

Stumbling into the London Live 8 concert

Discovering H Street

Finally spending a weekend in New York

30th birthday lunch with the family

30th birthday party at Local 16

Farewell party at Millie and Al's

Godzilla the Play and Frosty the Abominable Snow Man

Thanks to all of you for making these things possible and I wish you all the very best for 2007.

Max

p.s.: It looks like Skype is finally starting to charge for calls to landlines and cell phones, so for those of you who would like to chat once in a while, you can download the program at www.skype.com. My user name is toncousinmax