Las Terrenas

It is a complicated place for me this Las Terrenas - I have so many conflicting feelings about it. I love the beach, and the peacefulness of the place that I am staying. I enjoy going into town to buy groceries and see real Dominicans (and Haitians), but I detest the motorcycles, all terrain vehicles, jeeps and mini vans that zoom past as I am walking in the only place possible to walk - the street. I wish more people walked, but it seems like the only ones who do are the Haitian construction workers. Everyone else either hops on the back of a motor concho (motorcycle taxi), or drives something themselves. It is especially infuriating for me to see tourists, most of them French, zooming around with no regard to people who are walking on the streets, many of them with their dogs perched in a little basket on their vehicle.

I first noticed the dogs when I came in from Sanchez. After reading about the horrendous situation in Haiti, which exists partially thanks to the French, and then seeing these people treating their dogs like royalty, I was disgusted. Of course, I am not without fault here. I am benefitting by my country's part in the global inequality game, and am here exploiting it by spending my dollars which go much further here than at home thanks to the fact that there is inequality.

Like I said, it is complex.

I'm reading a book about Paul Farmer, a doctor who set up a hospital in a very poor part of Haiti. It is an incredible story. Inspiring and thought-provoking. The question for me now is how I can use what little money I have, the skills I have (whatever they are), the power and influence I have (little though it may be) to help bring attention to people who desperately need help - especially Haiti.

I am so disgusted by the situation there, which started with the slave trade and got worse through years of US interventions, the last when under Bush, the democratically elected president was deposed and kidnapped and taken out of the country, an embargo was imposed (before his kidnapping) which predominately affected poor peasants. We were ironically "defending" democracy in Iraq, criticising Cuba and overthrowing a democratic government in the one place that really needs democracy - Haiti. Reading about the results of the embargo (I knew about the other stuff) just made me hate Bush even more.

But anyway, back to Las Terrenas.

I went to the supermarket this morning and walked back into town after 5 when the sun was not so strong to drop off laundry, change money and buy some mangos. I bought 5 mangos from the cutest little boys. I had one for desert and it was yummy. I think if I can I am going to try to support the small, local, independent business, like the little stand set up on the corner selling mangos, rather than this French-run supermarket.

I'm about to begin ragging on the French, so I guess I should stop, because again, I am not sure I am totally innocent here, but it does seem to me that they really kind of miss their old colonial days. I see them lounging around, drinking wine, running chic cafes here, all of them driving (rather than walking) many with dogs, and even wearing nicely pressed shirts and blouses (this is the tropics for god's sake). How is it that they are so far from France and yet treat this place as if they owned it? How can they come to a place like this and run businesses for other French people and completely ignore those who call this place home? I think the thing that I like least about being here is that I have no contact with the locals. I say hello when I pass them, but that is about it. I wonder how they feel about us all being here.