This may seem like an odd post title, but special circumstances call for out-of-the-ordinary reflections. Two weeks ago, for our anniversary, Ted and I actually saw Hamlet performed in Port-au-Prince by none other than the London Globe. Through the Globe-to-Globe program, actors are traveling to every country in the world over the next two years with their production of Hamlet, and we were lucky enough to attend their thirty-ninth performance.

As we watched the tragedy unfold, I couldn't help resonate with some of the main character’s musings and woes – lines that are so familiar to me now after pouring over them in high school and seeking out various theatrical and film adaptations since. (I think that part of me has come to believe, like my English teacher taught us, that Hamlet is the greatest play ever written.)

This time, the stage and setting were different. The reflections of our epic protagonist, Hamlet, stirred in me new thoughts and parallels to our own context as foreigners newly arrived in Haiti, and generally as Americans in today's world so full of injustices. What are these thoughts and towards what actions might they lead?

Act III. Scene I.

To be, or not to be, that is the Question:

Throughout the play, Hamlet is caught by fear; the fear of action. After receiving his deceased fathers’ call to avenge his unjust death, Hamlet cannot bring himself to execute the action; a cycle of fear and reflection holds him back. In Hamlet’s case, acting would bring unpredictable and perhaps fatal consequences - one cannot murder the king without expecting some reprisals – yet he cannot shake the fear of his own death that would likely follow (and one can hardly blame him.)

Act II. Scene II.

Oh what a Rogue and Peasant slave am I?...What would he do, Had he the Motive and the Cue for passion that I have?

A travelling actor employed by Hamlet evokes strong feeling while recounting a fictitious drama –that of Hecuba and her murdered husband. Hamlet, who has a reality to mourn (the murder of his father) is distraught at his own lack of passion in response to his father’s death. How can someone feel so deeply over a fiction while he still sits, unmoving, on the news of his father’s unjust death? He is shamed, confounded, by his own slowness to act.

Act IV. Scene IV

...to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds.

The young Fortinbras, a prince of action, pushes into Poland with his army of 20,000 to defend a seemingly small area of land from capture. Hamlet again is aghast. These soldiers fight and die valiantly for a cause so less personal than Hamlet’s own. The only motive these men require is honor.

Act III. Scene I.

…Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hew of Resolution Is sicklied over, with the pale cast of Thought,

Hamlet knows from the beginning what he must do. Yet as he delays, it seems that his own ambition to address the injustice in front of him is dulled, as well as the clarity required for decisive action. As we all know, the play does not end well.

I wonder if we, too, can get bound by fear in a cycle like that of Hamlet. Getting caught up in thinking about the gravity of injustices in our world, we can grow afraid to act. There are always consequences to action. The consequences of inaction are real as well, but they feel more tangible and pleasing to us at times; the consequences of inaction are the continuance of the status quo. If we sit and muse for too long, our thoughts run the risk of shriveling and not bearing the fruit of action.

Check out the Globe-to-Globe Hamlet
tour website to see their list of stops:

Baseball in the Time of Cholera

We really hope you will take the opportunity to watch this short film, released in 2012,
about the outset of the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti. It is about much more than that, as you will see.

This film will also give you a window into one advocacy area that MCC works on with its partners - which is MINUSTAH and its culpability in the cholera outbreak in Haiti.

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After watching the film, some helpful updates for you:

To date, 8,500 people have died from cholera and 700,000 have contracted it.

Despite overwhelming evidence, the UN still disclaims responsibility for meeting victims' demands for compensation.

There are currently three cholera related cases pending against the UN in New York.

Celebrating 5 years!

Our 5th wedding anniversary was commemorated in some unexpected and unforgettable ways :) It was August 15th, and we were still living with a Haitian family in the countryside. We were not expecting fireworks for our special day!

It happened to come up during the lunch the day prior. Our host sister, Lovely, and her cousin Rose-Angele asked what we were up to the following day and we mentioned it was our anniversary. Rose-Angele jumped on the news, "Oh, and what are you planning? What are WE going to do?" She instantly started planning something, in cahoots with Lovely, that we weren't to know anything about. All that was decided, was that we would all walk to a local river basin to swim, something that Ted and I loved to do under the hot, hot Dezam sun.

Friday came, and we were instructed to stay outside of the house for about 45 minutes. They were all like schoolgirls, coming in and out of the house with unrecognizable bundles in their hands. We had some idea of what they were up to. . .we could make out some flowers and fruits passing hands from the garden to the kitchen area.

At long last, they "let us in." Amazing! Our bedrooms was adorned with flower petals. They nearly stripped their hibiscus tree to spell out "Happy Birthday Ted & Katharine" on our bed (the covers for which they changed that morning to a silky, white sheet - perhaps their family's favorite). The petals continued to the floor, where a large red heart laid at our doorstep. So cute!

In the kitchen, a beautiful bouquet and an array of delicious fruits awaited us. Grapes, mangoes, avocados, bananas, kashima, and veggies too. They cut the fruit for us, as a hearty snack on our way to the basin. 

Our friends who were behind it all - Rose Angele in center, Lovely to her right;
Tadjini to he left and Lens in front (who was really just there for the picture :)

A lovely chalkboard design by our friend Rosie.

It would be hard to top that, but we definitely had some romantic dinner plans once we got back to Port-au-Prince! :)

Quartier Latin is one of the most unique spots we've seen here in Port-au-Prince. If you come visit us, we will probably take you! While there, you feel like you're on the bayou - mystical candle lighting, and chandeliers made from wrought iron and dangling silverware. We love their Saturday night jazz band and their amazing patio atmosphere, with kerosene lamps on each table and ornaments hanging from the trees. The singer dedicated a few songs to us, and the saxophone player kept making eyes at our table (I think he wanted to see some salsa action on our part buuut that didn't quite happen; not this time!). The chocolate desserts were amazing :)

Ready for our night out to Quartier Latin.

That same week, we even got to see a London Globe Theater performance of HAMLET, as a part of their Globe-to-Globe two year tour. I happen to be obsessed with this play. (More on this later.) You never know what you will come across here in Port-au-Prince!

Finally. . .drum roll please. . .Ted comes into our bedroom on Saturday night and presents me with this. Ted has never given a "regular" card in his life, and this one took the cake. As a final treat in commemoration of our anniversary, we got to play The Game of Oswald, 5th edition.

Opening the card, you are presented with a storyboard with special highlights from our 5-year journey marked along the way (I have showcased our three "homes" together below, along with the "game pieces"). :)

Behold:

As our pieces moved along the game board, different scenarios caused us to take steps forwards and backwards. It can feel that way in life or a relationship, but the point is that we are always hand-in-hand, and that God has us in His loving care.

Happy Anniversary!

Country to city, city to country

Haiti's countryside and its capitol city feel like two worlds apart. In Dezam, the countryside lokalite (somewhat like a village) where we just completed our three week home-stay, the surroundings are lush and green. Homes sit perched atop a steep hillside leading down to a clear flowing stream. Accommodations are sparse. We lived in a simple grey cinder-block home surrounded by a garden of fruit trees and hibiscus. A latrine and bathing area sat nestled in a corner where chickens can walk by as you do your morning or evening "business." There was no running water or electricity. Our host family fetched water from the neighbors spigot for cooking and for bathing.

Now, back in Port-au-Prince, the differences in this city and country life come into sharp relief. In the MCC guest house, where we are currently staying, there is electricity all the time. I can bathe using an overhead shower nozzle. I can look in a mirror that reflects my whole face at once. This morning, we went to a Supermarket where we saw a gallon of Kirkland extra virgin olive oil (which had a price tag of $60!), soy sauce, and the Thai Bistro brand of coconut milk that I'm used to seeing at stores in the U.S. I can wear earrings here and not feel ostentatious.

But this is part of the dynamic and structure that is Haiti. Resources are centralized in the bustling, overcrowded capitol. People still live precarious existences here. Slum-like communities abound. There is a greater level of suspicion (like in any city.) In Dezam, neighbors wander into your yard at nighttime after you've gone to bed. They call out your name, wanting to chat, and will carry on a conversation with you as you lay in bed, laughing and talking until they feel like walking back home. There are always people around, but all the people are family (literally, they were all related to our host dad somehow.)

You would think that these two places exist worlds apart. Instead, they are two and a half hours apart by car. The two exist in the same country, and both are fully Haiti. This seeming contrast and divide will come up again and again as we do our work. It is a huge country, and yet a small country all at the same time.

Dezam. A flower in our lakou, or garden

Me digging into my favorite (though kind of gross looking) fruit - kashima
(or 'apple custard' in English.)

Our wonderful host parents - Sengadyen and Madame Filomen.

A busy market corner in Port-au-Prince

The "Single Story"

At MCC staff orientation we reviewed the power of Story to paint and depict people's lives, and even entire groups of people. Specifically, our speakers Ewuare Osayande and Harley Eagle invited us to think about the danger of the Single Story which can be used to dehumanize and convince those with power that they are set-apart and more than "the other," whoever that "other" might be. (See Chimamanda Adichie's video below.) These ideas feel a bit abstract, but I hope to ground them with some examples here.

In Haiti, we can see how popular media and personal accounts from more affluent nations -- those with more "power" -- have perpetuated a Single Story of Haiti as a poor, deprived nation. As a result, Haiti's story is somehow simplified and Haitians may be seen by the majority of non-Haitians as people who are weak, needy. The fullness of Haitian's individual stories are left out in the retelling.

“Show a people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Reading communication pieces from NGOs and many charitable groups intending to do good work in Haiti, a reader may come away with the perception that the subjects in these stories are defined by the awful circumstances they encounter.

Therefore, after reading an account about a struggling single mother who has contracted HIV and is searching for employment to feed her family, we may be tempted to see her primarily as a poor, struggling widow, instead of a human being whose story did not start with her current struggles, nor is it defined by them.

“The closer you get to the lives of people, the more you recognize the most obvious things. Firstly, they are not defined by the circumstances of their suffering.” - Voices of Haiti: A Post-Quake Odyssey (Lisa Armstrong & Kwame Dawes)

We all are affected by the power of Story. Stories shape our understandings and perceptions of the world.

I am aware that those with more power in the world can also be viewed via a Single Story. The NGO worker or missionary in Haiti could be seen positively or negatively - as either arrogant, wealthy, or saints.

So what is the antidote to the dangers of the Single Story? One would be to tell many stories, and to tell fuller stories. I hope that we can do that as part of our Advocacy work with Mennonite Central Committee.

The danger of a single story - Chimamanda Adichie, as viewed at our MCC Orientation

Short Film - Haiti & The Dominican Republic

We recommend this 50 minute documentary on the racial history of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, narrated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It explained a lot to us, in generalized terms, about the tense relationship between the two countries that share the same island.



Enjoy!

Book review: The Invention of Wings

In The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd weaves a powerful narrative about the lives of two women in Charleston, SC in the early-mid 1800s. One, Hetty, is born into slavery under the wealthy planter family, the Grimkés, and the other is their nervous but brash daughter, Sarah. The two girls grow up together in the oppression and opulence of the antebellum South. At some point in the novel, which alternates between Hetty and Sarah’s first person perspectives, you get swept up in wanting to know how the story of these two women unfolds, how Sarah Grimké, in particular, comes to take her infamous place in 19th century history. Hetty, though a character of fiction, tells a completely different story, but a sobering one of hope and survival in a cruel world that is set upon denying her very humanity. Both women carve their own pathways to freedom – they “invent their own wings” - in a way that is inspiring and feels all too relevant for women today. Especially if you have traveled to Charleston or Philadelphia, the Invention of Wings is an added treat as it brings aspects of early American history in these two towns to life. Katharine recommends Invention of Wings if you are looking for a light, but inspiring and perspective-changing novel for your summer reading.