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Posted on July 28, 2016 6 Comments
“My tale begins just before the rising of the sun…Dayclean, we call this, when the day is new and the world is made fresh again.” —from God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man by Cornelia Walker Bailey Katie Underwood is ten years old. Named for the intrepid midwife who delivered countless babies in the Gullah […]
Posted on July 10, 2016 2 Comments
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has one of the most powerful endings in literature. In this novel which chronicles the dramatic rise and ultimate downfall of Okonkwo, a black Ibo clansman, the story is literally and figuratively taken over in its final chapter by the District Commissioner, an unnamed, incredibly minor white character, who […]
Posted on July 7, 2016 Leave a Comment
Deye mon gen mon (Beyond the mountains, there are more mountains.) — Hatian proverb I now know that I needed to come back because my childhood memories of Haiti never included mountains. As a literature teacher, I make it a point to emphasize the importance of context in a piece of writing–historical, cultural, and political, […]
Posted on July 2, 2016 2 Comments
This will likely not be my last post about art and artistry in Haiti. Art, of both the high and low varieties abounds, and surrounds you even along the dusty, ruined streets that must have once had sidewalks. Artists display their originals, or original copies, on everything from clothes lines to fences. The ubiquitous “Loto” […]
Posted on June 30, 2016 Leave a Comment
Back in February, I found myself uttering the words “We should go to Haiti” on a phone call to my sister, with whom my parents were staying for the week. To understand the magnitude of this proposition, and the ultimate decision to embark on this family pilgrimage, you need a little background. We are Haitian […]
Posted on January 1, 2015 Leave a Comment
Remember the heady last days of 2008? We had just elected Barack Obama president, which made America and Americans suddenly much more popular in Europe and just about everywhere else. This was especially true if you were Black…Anyway, we had quite an adventure in Rome which was the first and last stop on our week-long stay […]
Posted on August 31, 2014 1 Comment
Travel Dates: July 15-16, 2011 We are back on dry land after our three nights aboard the Victoria Selina. That little excursion was very pleasant in retrospect. In spite of aforementioned feeding-frenzies and BS shore excursions, it reminded me a little of old Hollywood movies about the Orient Express. Our cabin, which wasn’t large, was […]
Posted on August 31, 2014 Leave a Comment
Travel Dates: July 13-14, 2011 Well, it turns out you CAN get Wi-Fi on the boat for 150 yuan (about 30 bucks US), so here we are. Thursday was the first full day on our ship, the Victoria Selina, which we boarded in Chongqing. Chongqing is a municipality of about 32 million people, all of […]
Posted on August 31, 2014 Leave a Comment
Travel Date: July 11, 2011 Our guide for the Xi’an leg of the journey is named JC. His English is good, but not as good as Gary’s. As a former teacher of Ancient Chinese History, he’s quite the scholar and insists on regaling us with everything he knows during the hour long bus ride to the […]
Posted on August 23, 2014 Leave a Comment
July 10, 2011 This morning begins with a long ride to the Olympic sites, preceded by what feels like a government “recommended” tourist stop at one of Beijing’s latest development projects which rests on the former site of what used to be an actual (and fairly ancient) traditional neighborhood. The place is practically deserted […]
Learner Sojourner 