I Dance Like a Baptist

[bcholmes]

Okay, after two nights Bat Guerre, I'm officially announcing that I dance like a Baptist.

About Haiti. First, it's hot. Damn hot. Sticky. But not dramatically worse than the really bad days in Toronto recently. The one thing that's more pronounced is the sun. It's so bright.

I've slathered myself in suntan lotion every day to keep from burning.

The ride from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel was pretty dramatic. The conditions in Port-au-Prince are stunning. Decay. Dust. Refuse. Poverty. Piles of garbage to rival Toronto parks (is the city worker strike over yet?)

The roads are in terrible condition. People ignore lanes to avoid holes in the roads and also to pass slower traffic. I'm now completely accustomed to seeing other vehicles coming straight at me.

The group I've met up with here is really cool. The blans (foreigners or, literally, "whites") have all really gotten close. There are seven of us here at the moment, but two aren't here for the full two weeks. Mambo K is leaving on Tuesday, as is Houngan David.

I think that Mambo K is really cool; talk about someone with her head screwed on right. We've had countless interesting conversations about religion, politics, Things That Matter, queer issues, transformative experiences, etc.

Two of the others, Christie and Christopher are also really nifty. Christie is a dancer, and she's trying to turn me into a passable dancer. She's such a sweetie; she's been so nice to me. Houngan David is cool. Apparently the societé was thinking about calling him Houngan Speaks Without Ceasing.

The societé has really welcomed us, which I think is cool. Mambo K had been here last year and she says that things were very different; the foreigners had formed cliques, and some of them were just plain nuts ("Where can I find zombie powder?"). The peristil members tended to be more stand-offish. Mambo K says that the difference this year is profound.

Very few people in Haiti speak English. I'm able to follow some things in Kreyol, because of the similarity to French, but more often then not I can't understand what's being said. The differences are pretty pronounced. No gender-specific third-person pronouns (nifty). "Mwen", instead of "je". And I was never that great at hearing French in the first place.

Interesting, some of the songs they're teaching me are in French instead of Kreyol. I recall Maman shouting at the Haitians trying to learn with us; they were having difficulty understanding "elle" and "il". A lot of the stuff I'm learning is always orally transmitted. Which sucks because I'm both a very visual person and I have a language barrier. There's one really, really long song that I'm not allowed to write down, ever.

Tonight, we'll be dancing til dawn, I'm told. And tomorrow, there're no classes in the morning so we can recover. Listening to four or more hours of drum music every night has burned a coupl'a rhythms into my head.

Also, last night, they gave us Petro baths -- later when I showered, it took a lot to keep the leaves from blocking the drain.

The thing I'm starting to really miss is hot running water. First thing I do when I get home is take a bath.

Comments

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

So why don't Baptists have sex standing up?

Inquiring minds want to know. ;)