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#2012: Something Works in Haiti--- Laleau replies to Ulysse
From:NLaleau@aol.com
Dear Gina,
You are absolutely right, and thank you for pointing out how effectively the
MadanSaras carry out their work. Even during the embargo, on my better days
there, I was very conscious of how remarkable it was that so many things in
the country actually DID happen as one might reasonably expect... Things were
bought and sold, people did get up and take their children to school (when
they could find the gourdes to do so), and they were even kind to each other,
which I thought then, and still think was remarkably heroic. On my "worse"
days -- well, I was not so tolerant of some of the "inconveniences."
(It makes me think of a Mexican woman I saw at work today -- she came in for
counseling because she feels she is being unreasonably irascible to her
husband and children... they live in one-room apartment probably about 12X15
with a comparably sized kitchen, that they pay $400 for. He is a laborer in
a nursery. She is home with the babies, has diabetes, and high blood
pressure. She said, "I keep moving all the furniture around, trying to make
this place feel good, but it never works!" Her entire life is circumscribed
by those walls and she thinks she ought not to be so angry... "If only my
mother could come from Mexico to take care of the children, then I could go
to school, get a job, learn English, learn to drive, exercise and lose
weight... I hate it for visitors to come in and have to sit on the bed, so I
don't have visitors..." And of course, Haitians in Haiti would love to be in
her position... )
Sincerely,
Nancy Laleau