#2012: Something Works in Haiti--- Laleau replies to Ulysse

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

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