Trail Dames - We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth

The Last Day- Haiti Day 11

Anna in Haiti-the last day   Today is my last day in Haiti. I am half sad, half ecstatic. Sad because I have come to feel like I now know part of Haiti and that I am blending in and finding myself a temporary home here. Ecstatic because I have not really been home for three weeks and I miss it terribly!!! For now, though, I have one more full day of bow teaching, bass teaching and a party for my boys. J   Robert is feeling much better today. The doctor came and gave him some antibiotics, so he is on the mend. He takes some of the guys into the workshop, so I am back down to 3-4 of the boys. I call them ‘my boys’ because age is very different here. A person is considered a child and still lives in the home of their parents until they are 30. They rarely get married before they are in their 30’s, and are definitely still expected to obey their parents. Even at the age of 28 or 29. As a result, a man can be in their upper 20’s, but they will still act like a teen-ager. Simply put, my boys may be in their 20’s but they still act like a bunch of Labrador retriever puppies. J J They are delightful!!   During lunch, Cynthia and I head down to the art gallery for some last minute purchases, and then I go to the market for party food. Armed with cookies, chips and lemonade, I made my way back up to the church. Sweat is pouring off of me…..the sun is out and it has to be 100 degrees!! The roads are packed and I realize that this is my last venture out into Petionville. It makes me sad and I try and take special notice of all of the sights and sounds around me. And yes, even the smells. J   After several more hours of class, it is finally time for the party. The boys bring in a boom box and an amplifier to plug it into. I have no idea where they got that!! However, it makes for a festive addition to the party and we all dance around a little as I set out the plates of cookies and chips that I brought. I perch up on the desk and nibble on a cookie as I watch the guys scarf down the food.  I am so proud of them that I could pop! Several of them aren’t even string players, and most of them had no wood working experience at all. But here they are, 10 days later, rehairing bows functionally. That was my goal….to leave and have them truly be able to work. Mission accomplished. Several of them can even do faceplates and thumb leathers. And of course, there is Allande and his silk wraps. J   At some point, the boys all ask Robert and I to come forward and they make us sit in two chairs as they line up in front of us, grinning. Reginald proceeds to make a heartwarming speech to us both, talking about how much they appreciate us coming and teaching them and giving them this new skill. And that they love us very much and hope that we will come back as soon as we can and as often as we can. Ruby translates it all into English for us and I get all choked up again. Seriously, how great is this? J     Then they present us with gifts that they had all gone in together to buy. We have carved wooden Haiti signs with little flags sticking out and colorful plastic Haiti bracelets. I immediately put my bracelet on, saying that I will not take it off until I get home. They also give us each a thank you note that they have all signed. I am touched beyond reason. J   Finally, the afternoon wears on and the guys start to leave one by one. I grab Cannis and dance with him to the music, him belly laughing the whole time. With this, we all say good-bye. Full of melancholy, I go up onto the roof one more time and am joined by Robert. We can hear the orchestra rehearsing Beethoven 9 below us and I am struck by how surreal this all is. I am sitting on a roof-top, in Haiti, looking out on tents and squalor, street vendors and families, in the midst of a beautiful sunset, while “Joyful, Joyful we Adore Thee” circles around me. I had yet another one of those moments…..”How in the world did I end up here?”. Not bad for a nun from Georgia. J J I am leaving at 6 am to go home tomorrow, so I will sign off from here. As far as adventures go, this has been one heck of a summer. I have learned and grown more than I thought possible. It has actually been quite painful at times, but mostly wonderful, and once again I am full of gratitude for this life that I have. All I can say for now is, ‘thank you, thank you , thank you…….” Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Beethoven 9?! Haiti- Day 10

Anna in Haiti- Day 10     Well, Bernard left bright and early today, leaving Cynthia, Robert and I. Cynthia is a conductor and is just as nice as she can be. We are the only women left in our room and we laugh and joke as we stretch out and enjoy the space. Today, she is starting to teach a Suzuki camp here and I go to breakfast to the sound of little kids laughing and playing. It turns out that Robert is really sick today, though. He has a fever and is staying in bed. I feel so bad for him. He has to go join the others in Jacmel in a few days, so he really needs to get better!!   Since he is sick, I have all 8 lutherie students to myself, and I immediately commandeer the big dining table that we have all been eating on, spreading out all of my tools down the middle. This might have been really difficult had it happened a week ago, but the guys are all really putt-ing along with the rehairs, so I am able to watch them working and step in and correct them from time to time. We spend the morning laughing and I tell them all that tomorrow we are going to have a party. I want to do something nice for them for all of the hard work they have put in and Robert agrees, so we are treating them. The regular time for lunch comes and goes and, knowing that I start teaching at 2:00, and that I have two bass students this afternoon, I finally concede that they are not serving lunch anymore. After all, there are only three of us here. So I head down to the market and pick up a loaf of bread and some cheese. I return and set it on the table telling all of the boys to make themselves a sandwich. They descend on it, literally devouring the entire thing in minutes. J I eat my cheese sandwich looking on with fondness. How did I get 8 Haitian sons between the ages of 17-30? J J Of course, at 2:30, Maline walks in with giant plates of food!! Turns out, we do get lunch, just at a later time. I snag a couple of extra forks and give it all to the guys. This, they devour also. As the day wears on, I check on Robert from time to time, but mostly he sleeps. The doctor is coming to see him tomorrow and I am hoping he can help him. From time to time, a swarm of little children come in the room where we are working and Cynthia and the other violin teachers give group Suzuki lessons. There is a small cellist and from time to time, I jump up to fix his positions or adjust his rock stop. It really does take a village. J My favorite part of the day was when I looked down to see a little tiny violinist wearing a Findley Oaks tee shirt!! Findley Oaks is an elementary school near our violin shop in Atlanta and it is extremely random that here was one of their shirts!! I asked her where she got it, but she just looked at me with these giant, chocolate eyes. Oh well, I guess I will never know….. J After all the excitement and energy of the day, I climb up on the roof for sunset. I miss Robert. We don’t have many more of these evenings left. However, Cynthia joins me and we chat softly about the upcoming concert that has just been sprung on her. The last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. And no, I am not kidding. The real one, not some arrangement. In fact, I had just spent the better part of an hour teaching the principal bassist the Recitative, all the while praying that she wouldn’t ask me to play the Scherzo…..it has been 15 years since I performed it!! The cool thing is, these kids can play this. I just wish I were going to be here to hear it!!    Cynthia and I went next door for dinner, having told Maline not to cook just for the two of us. We talked about conductors and music education and why she comes to Haiti. She, like several of the other volunteers, is at the height of a pretty impressive career, and I am so grateful that the students here are getting that caliber of education. We finally make our way home and climb the dark stair way.      Man, this place is empty and it is feeling like it is time to go home. Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

There She Was- Haiti Day 9

Haiti Day 9 “There she was”     This morning was full of the hustle and bustle of everyone getting ready to leave. Robert and I are teaching until 2:00, but at that point, we have been invited by Bernard to go to the mountains. We intersperse rehairs and thumb leathers with good-byes until the place empties out. From here on, we will dwindle from 5 to 2 people over the next three days. It will seem strange after having all of these folks laughing, talking and playing all around. I will miss them all, but mostly I will miss Kristen, a soprano who is here directing to Petite Chanteurs. She is flat out the coolest woman and we struck up a friendship near the beginning. She makes me laugh a lot and is someone I can talk to so I hate it that she is leaving!! But at least Bernard is still here!!!!   For lunch, Maline, the woman that works in the kitchen, brings us all HUGE plates of food. Up until now, all food was served family style and if you were late for a meal, chances were there would be nothing left! But here she came with a mountain of food for each of us. The night before, we had presented her with a large cash tip and a card thanking her for everything and today, I am thinking that this kindness is her way of saying thank you back. However, I cannot begin to eat it all, and of course, I am not doing the meat at all, so I pile a plate with tons of food and take it to my boys. They all smile and tuck in, calling me “Mom”. It is so funny to hear them all go, “Thanks Mom!!”. Of course, I answer with, “Who is your favorite teacher?!” and they all cry out, “Anna!”. J J Hey, I have to do something to make sure they don’t forget me!!         After lunch, Marie-Noel, one of the violinists in the camp, shows up with her SUV and Robert, Bernard, Cynthia and I pile in for a trip to the mountains. I am so ready for this! I need to get out of Port Au Prince, and since everyone keeps telling me that much of Haiti is not like what I have seen, I am anxious to see it for myself. Poor Robert is really sick, but he comes along, being a good sport. As we twist and turn up the curvy, narrow mountain road, I am constantly throwing my hands over my eyes. Marie Noel laughs and says that she is an excellent driver. I explain to her that it is not her that I don’t trust….it is the other drivers!! Every time we go around a curve, there is a truck or tap-tap in our lane headed straight for us!! They always swerve over just in the nick of time, but it is highly nerve-wracking!   We stop at one point, hoping to see a small museum, only to find it closed. Instead, a guard gives us a tour of a tiny zoo with one crocodile, one monkey and a bunch of chickens. He gives Cynthia and I giant flowers to wear in our hair and we pose for pictures with them before giving them to members of the staff that have shown up in another van. Somehow, these beautiful young Haitian women look completely natural with giant flowers in their hair, while us ‘blanc’ look a little silly. J    As we are leaving the zoo, we get swarmed by a bunch of men that have souvenir stands across the road. One man approaches me with two big machetes and I laugh, trying to explain to him that it is not the best way to approach a woman!! I also explain that I cannot carry a machete on the plane home and finally I accompany him to his booth to see what else he has. After some bartering, we all leave with a few small things, enjoying the process immensely.     Our next stop was a giant fort up on top of the mountain and after much negotiation with a local young man, they forced open an old wooden door so that we could go inside. I think he worked there. I hope he worked there!!! Walking around was really neat, and there are 11 giant cannons at the top, all pointed out around the fort. There had been 12, but the earthquake had done a lot of damage up here and one had fallen to the valley floor below. We had picked up several small children at this point, and I had a great time taking their pictures and showing them to them.    Finally it came time to make our way down the mountains. Bernard had noticed a wood worker on the way up and was hoping that he was still there, on the side of the road so that we could stop and see his work. As luck would have it, not only was he still there, but the building he was working next to was his workshop, so we stopped in to see what he had. As we walked down six steps into the dark interior of his shop, you could smell dampness and wood, lots and lots of wood. As my eyes became accustomed to the dimness, I saw that there were life size carving of men and women all around me. They were stunning. Here we were, in the middle of nowhere, and here was this little tiny old man, and this was all his work?! As we wandered through his workshop, each thing lovelier than the next, I knew that I would love to have something to take home. I looked and looked. Everything was gorgeous.     And then I saw her……      About a foot and a half high, a woman playing what was unmistakably a bass. Ok, well, it kind of looks guitar-like, but it is as tall as her, and she is standing to play it, so in my book, it is a bass!!!! My hands were actually shaking as I took it to him to ask him the price. I didn’t have much money with me, and I was sure that I couldn’t afford it. As Marie-Noel bartered with him in Kreyol, the others were whispering that they would loan me the money if I wanted it. I had approximately $40 on me. When Marie-Noel turned to me and said “1,350 gourds”, it took me a moment to realize that that translated to about $30! I couldn’t believe it!! The next thing I knew, he was counting out my change, chiseling his signature onto the sculpture and posing for a picture with me!! I am so happy!!! The day ended with us all going to a nice restaurant, Middle Eastern, as a matter of fact. Who knew that you could get hummus in Haiti! J Pere David joined us and we all sat around laughing and enjoying bottles of wine. Bernard leaves tomorrow morning and my time here is quickly coming to an end. I know I should be sad, but for now, I am too happy. J Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

A Nun?!?!? Haiti Day 8, part 2

Anna in Haiti Day 8- Continued A Nun?!?!?   After the concert, we all make our way back to the church for a party of sorts celebrating the end of camp. Robert, Bernard, Cynthia and I are staying on for several more days, but most of the volunteers are leaving tomorrow for another camp in Jacmel, another Haitian town on the coast. So, tonight we all celebrate the success of this camp…the one that for six months they were not sure would happen. The kitchen staff has been working like crazy preparing a big meal, and someone has provided the customary bottle of rum that you often find at Haitian banquets. There are tons of people here tonight… not only us, but all of the Haitian teachers and staff members. As the dinner wears down, Pere David, the pastor of the church and co-director of St Trinity School of Music, stands up to speak. He begins by thanking us all from the bottom of his heart and saying that he has a gift for us all. “First”, he says, “We recognize a woman that is here for the first time.”. He goes on to talk about how all of the staff liken this woman to a nun and that nuns are very revered here and that nuns built Holy Trinite in the beginning so that they are very respected. I am looking around trying to figure out who in the world he is talking about when he says, “Anna!!!”     What?!?!? Me, a nun?!?!? The volunteers are all laughing, probably at the look on my face!!! As I join in with the laughter, I go up where I am presented with a beautiful little painting and ‘pinned’ with the Holy Trinite pin. I sit down, shaking my head, wondering what in the world I did to give them this impression! I mean, I am a nice person and all that, but I have done some decidedly un-nun-like things in my life!! J J Oh well………….    As Pere David went through the group, he introduced everyone, talking about the particularly wonderful traits they all brought to the program this summer. It was so great to be able to cheer and clap for all of my new friends. I don’t think they will ever know how much respect I have for each of them. After all of the awards, speeches and accolades, the party broke up and the volunteers all headed next door for a final beer together at the hotel. As we sat at the long table, I asked why the local people thought I was a nun. The general consensus was that because I wore long skirts and a bandana everyday, I looked nun-like. Among lots of jokes, I remarked that my shirts were entirely too low-cut for a nun. At this point, Bernard dubbed me Saint Anna, of Our Lady of Perpetual Cleavage. Scott chimed in from down the table, “Now that is a church I would go to!!” and the conversation descended to lower and lower places. After offering to hear everyone’s confessions and insuring them of my completely discretion and confidentiality, I finally accepted my nun-ship. Hey, there are worse things you could be than Saint Anna of Our Lady of Perpetual Cleavage! J Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

We Really are the World- Haiti Day 8, part 1

 

Anna in Haiti-Day 8 We Really Are The World....     Today is the day that I have been waiting for. Today is the big concert, and I am so excited! It is my only chance to meet most of the students and to see my colleagues at work. The Saint Trinite Music School was part of a compound in Port Au Prince that included the school of music, a trade school, and a giant, beautiful Cathedral. The earthquake devastated almost all of it.   The trade school was completely destroyed and there are still over 200 people interred in the rubble.    The Cathedral was completely destroyed, leaving only parts of the exterior walls, showing splashes of the murals that it was famous for.    Only the school was left partially standing. But camp has been taking place on the grounds all week long, among the rubble. This is where my friends have been coming everyday to teach and conduct the students. The day before I arrived, all of the volunteers and staff spent hours moving stones, bricks and debris from the floor of the Cathedral in plans for the concert to actually take place on the ruins, themselves.   Can you imagine how incredible and how important this concert is to everyone?     As we drove to the site, the surrounding areas showed more and more devastation. Bernard asks the driver to show me the Presidential Palace and by the time we arrive, I am close to falling apart. Seeing all of this on the news and seeing it in person are two completely different things for me. When we arrive at the Cathedral, the first thing I see are the giant bells that were originally in the tower. They are lying in a heap. And then Bernard shows me a room with a giant pile of crumpled metal and wood. It is unrecognizable and I have to ask what it was. The giant, beautiful pipe organ.    Everyone else here has been here all week, but for Robert and I, it is our first time and I am having a hard time keeping it together. Janet approaches me and asks how I am holding up. I am all choked up, but I tell her that all is ok. Today is a day for celebration, not despair. As we all take our seats, the concert begins with a reading of the names of the people that died in the Quake. There is such sadness on every face. Added to that, today’s concert is dedicated to a young deaf man that had worked for the School of Music. He was killed in a boating accident the day before I arrived.    However, as the Petite Chanteurs, (the children’s choir) start to chant and process in, the mood lifts perceptively. During the third song, a woman in her 80’s in front of us succumbs to the heat. But when they lay here down on the ground and start pouring water on her, she admonishes them to leave her alone…she just wants to lie there and listen to the music. J    I alternate between pride, sorrow, wonder and joy as the choir is followed by the young orchestra, the band and then the older full orchestra, the OPST. These students have worked so hard for this. They are playing on terrible instruments, many damaged by the earthquake, and some are living in tent cities. But they are here making music on this day. The conductors, all of my volunteer friends, have worked so hard for this. They have taught in substandard circumstances, using cobbled together equipment after spending their nights sleeping on the floor. Do you remember me telling you that these are extraordinary people? They, too, are here making music on this day.   All of those clichés we hear about music making everything better and bringing people together and giving them hope……. Those have never been more profoundly true for me than they are today.   The concert ends with a big finale, “We are the World“. I finally let the tears fall as the words hit me over and over, “ We are saving our own lives…together we will make a better day, just you and me”. Half way through, the audience jumped to their feet and joined in singing, waving their arms in the air. It was so joyous that I could barely breathe. When it finally ended to tumultuous cheers and applause, I felt completely drained. And completely blessed. I cannot believe that I was lucky enough to be here and see this. How could anyone not believe wholeheartedly in the power of music and the human spirit? And the resilience of these amazing Haitians. Extraordinary…………. (to be continued) We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Haiti Day 7

Anna in Haiti Day 7 "Why did the Chicken Cross The Road?   I woke up this morning feeling much, much better. Three cheers for Bernard and his Cipro! Today is Saturday and Robert and I have both agreed that we will not teach today. We both have a mountain of work that we need to do and are having trouble getting it done while teaching students. As for myself, I have a stack of bows that individual students have brought me and I do not trust them to my new re-hairing recruits. So, by 8:15, I am sitting at the bow table, MP3 player blasting the Black Eyed Peas, re-hairing my little heart out.       Allande shows up at 10.….he refused to take the day off. Seriously! So I told him that he could watch me, but that was it. I had to work! He agreed and sat quietly watching me until I finally took pity on him. I had done about 15 bows and was feeling a little more in control of the situation, so I showed him how to do a silk wrap. He practiced for a while and I told him that there was a very good chance that he would be the only person in all of Haiti that would know how to do this. That brought out a huge, genuine smile from him and I was glad that I had shown him.     After lunch, we decided to take the rest of the day off and I headed down through the neighborhood with Bernard, Tom, Robert and Bob. Tom is a graduate cellist with a gentle, fun nature and a great sense of humor. Bob is a percussionist and band director that has literally been everywhere. He is the most well-traveled person I have ever met and he regales us constantly with great stories of his escapades. I am in awesome company with these men and we laugh together as we dodge the traffic, jumping over big craters in the sidewalk, avoiding stray dogs, and ducking around all of the vendors, street kids, and women carrying huge loads on their heads.   There are a lot of white people out today! That is something that you really notice here. I can go several days without seeing anyone non-Haitian besides our group. When I remark on it, the guys say that it is because it is Saturday….the NGO folks and people here doing business in Haiti are out in force. They also say that it is a bad day to buy souvenirs, cause all of the prices will be higher due to the abundance of ‘blanc’, which is what the Haitians call us. J   As we near the art gallery we are heading for, I get caught in a swirl of people crossing a street. Bernard says “Watch out” and I glance down just in time to see an old woman carrying two chickens by their feet try and squeeze between me and another pedestrian. The chickens hit me and I am ashamed to say that I actually squawked! Well, it was like half-squawk and half scream and I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth! How uncool of me! But in my defense, the chickens weren’t quite dead and it was a bit disconcerting to be that close to them!! The guys all laughed uproariously and we kept making our way down the increasingly crowded street.     Down here, it is less tourists, more locals, and we are in a true market area. You could buy all sorts of stuff…..telephone wire, soccer balls, and used shoes….used shoes by the truck load. We continued to duck under dead wires that were hanging down and to jump over big holes in the road, all while dodging the motor bike until we came to the art gallery. It happens to be right next to Café des Arts and we enjoy the afternoon checking out all of the truly beautiful Haitian art.     There is so much that I would love to buy and take home as gifts for everyone, but it turns out that prices in Haiti are decidedly American. I would have thought that everything would be cheaper, but no…..groceries, drinks in a bar, and art are all expensive. Oh well…..    We end the afternoon in an ice cream place where we watch a tremendous thunderstorm from under the safety of an overhang. We have had these storms almost everyday and they are quite fascinating. They move very slowly and the thunder and lightening are truly biblical. When the storm passes, we make our way back home for dinner before returning to Café des Arts for more live music. This time, almost all of the volunteers come along with all of the staff. We have a huge group and have a great time listening to the music and watching the dancers. After midnight, some of the staff invite five of us to go to another club, a Haitian club, for some dancing. I am in!!! I know that we will be safe with all of them and how else would I get a chance to do this?     However, several cell phones started to ring and the staff mysteriously decided that never mind….they were too tired. And that they would give us a ride home. Seeing as how we walk everywhere, this was strange. But we trust our hosts, so we climbed into their cars and are home in a jiffy. Turns out that some ‘not-so-great’ stuff had happened nearby, causing everyone, staff included, awake to the possibility that things were not as safe in Petionville as they had thought.     That turned out to be our last late night out, but it really was great while it lasted. J From here on out, we are confined to either the church itself, or the hotel next door for our evening frivolities. With this crowd, though, it doesn’t matter where we are….we have a great time, regardless. J J Bonswa…. Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Uggg.....Haiti Day 6

Anna in Haiti- Day 6 Ugggggg……….    Well, I got up this morning, feeling really great!! I ran to the market after breakfast to get my boys a treat, and was back before 8:30. I settled down to teaching Allande and started to feel….well….not so great. I didn’t eat breakfast, ( I can’t do food that early here) so it couldn’t have been the breakfast! After twenty minutes, I was in a cold sweat and knew that I was in trouble. I told the boys to keep working, and found one of my room-mates, asking her to tell Janet that I needed to lie down for a minute.     Janet Anthony is the woman in charge here and she is fabulous with a capitol F! She teaches cello at Appleton University and has been coming to Haiti for 17 years. She is also the woman that organized us all to come here. I don’t know if she means to be a surrogate mother to us all, but that is how we all see her, and even though I feel awful telling her that I can’t work at the moment, I am glad that she is there. She comes in to check on me and I tell her that I need to lie down for 15 minutes and that I refuse to be sick for any longer than that. She smiles, says no problem and goes to tell my boys that they are on their own for a while.    I spend the rest of the day waking from time to time as kind room mates give me medicine and our cook brings me lemonade. Sometime in the afternoon, I notice that another one of the beds in the room is occupied and I finally look up to see poor Bernard. He, too, is sick, sick. L Late in the afternoon, we move to the couches that are outside in hopes of catching some sort of breeze. Bernard has a fever, and we are both really miserable. He gives me something called Cipro, which I later find out is a massive antibiotic. It seems to get my stomach under control, but I am wiped. We sleep all day long ….so much for only needing 15 minutes! I wake at some point to find that two more folks are sick….something must be going around.    I feel terrible about missing an instruction day with my boys, but Robert takes them all into the workshop and keeps them going. It goes down as a lost day and it turns out that Bernard and I were the first two in a long line of folks coming down with the crud throughout the next few days. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Red Goop, Anyone? Haiti Day 5

Anna in Haiti- Day 5 Red Goop, Anyone? Today I woke up and I feel a thousand percent better. In fact, I feel like my old self…full of hope and light. I am really glad to be here and glad that my funk-age has passed!! J J I spent the day teaching and once again, the men were really receptive. Everyone here is on ‘Haitian time’- except for my guys. In Haiti, time is kind a concept rather than an absolute. If something is supposed to start at 10, it is not unusual for it to start at 10:30.…11:00.….11:15.…..   Well, bow class is supposed to go vaguely from 9-12 and 2-5ish. I assume that, since we are in Haiti, I can actually start working at 8 and get a bunch of work done before my guys drift in later in the morning. However, it seems that our lutherie students are seriously motivated and most of them show up early every day and refuse to take a lunch break! Oh well, who am I to complain!! J J We spent the day putting hair in the giant pile of sticks that seems to grow each day and I am so happy to see them getting better and better. After class, I climb up on the roof where I am joined by Robert Cain, the luthier from England. Robert is really delightful and each day I like him more and more. He is quiet and thoughtful, but when you listen closely, the funniest, most witty things come out of him!! We have started a sort of habit of watching the sunset off of the roof as we wait for the others to return from camp, and it has become my favorite part of the day. Every now and then, locals walking or driving by will glance up and see us up there. We wave and smile and are met by the most genuine grins. It is pretty great.    As the sun sets, Bernard returned and clambered up with a gift he had purchased. An unfamiliar red liquor with a label that said that it was guaranteed to induce carnal love-making in you if you were 80 years old. I swear I am not making this up!!! We laughed and sat together, passing the bottle back and forth. I couldn’t tell you the name of the stuff, just that we called it the “Red Goop”. We were slowly joined by Janet Anthony, Tom, Scott and a few others. Lined up on the roof, taking sips of Red Goop, I was hit by how lucky I am to be a part of this group. The people here are really extraordinary. They have been coming here for years, and they keep returning for one reason, and one reason only. The students. They are an amazingly dedicated group and listening to them makes me want to be better at my job as well. I am going to do everything I can to earn my place among them.   After most of the Red Goop was gone, and darkness had descended, we all went inside for dinner. Someone suggested going to Café des Arts, a bar about six blocks away, to hear live music and I jumped at the chance to go. Shortly thereafter, I am heading through the Haitian night with Tom, Bob and Bernard. I feel about as well protected as a girl can be. J When we finally enter Café des Arts, I feel completely transported! This place looks like a cross between a theme restaurant and the set of a spy movie! It is completely open in the middle and there are all these trees and palms growing up everywhere. There are couches scattered around and a stage in the middle of it all. The bar is owned by two women from Eastern Europe and the one that we met looked like something out of an art film!! She was very tall and quite intimidating, wearing big spike heels and looking very much like someone I would not want to mess with!   As the crowd trickled in, it became curious-er and curious-er. There are lots of NGO people here…..mostly Europeans and Americans, all looking like something out of a J. Peterman catalog. You know the type, scuffed leather bags, artfully rumpled clothing, waaaay to cool…….. It was the neatest crowd I have ever seen and I enjoyed myself immensely as we sat on a couch sipping rum punch and listening to the music. The band played Roots music and was made up of 4 Haitian drums and one singer. Shortly after they started, they were joined by local dancers and the evening was full of these pulsing, tribal rhythms and stomping, gyrating men and women. It was flat out, the coolest thing I have seen so far. J Midnight came and went and we finally decided that for safety sake, we should head back. We left the Café and was immediately approached by a young boy offering to be our ‘guide’ back to the church. This is quite normal….he just wanted a tip. But Bernard put his arm around me and said, “Do not talk to him!”, and then escorted me all the way up the hill to our church. See!! I told you I was well protected! J   I let myself in our room as quietly as possible, trying not to wake the others and settled down on my sleeping pad. Somehow, the noise, heat and smells seem less tonight and I think that I might just be getting used to Haiti. I sure am starting to love it…… Bonswa….. Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Cookies and Pachabels Canon- Haiti Day 4

Anna in Haiti-Day 4 Cookies, and Pachabel's Canon     Today I woke up really early, considering that a bunch of us were out late last night. :) Even on 6 hours of sleep, I felt awake and really wanted to get some work done quietly before my students get here.  I went in to take a shower, which here, consists of a trickle of cold water in a dank and mildewed shower stall.  It is fairly disgusting compared to American standards, but here I am just totally grateful for it!  Running water is a luxury and I have no complaints. :) The only bad thing is that you get out of the shower, get dressed and immediately start sweating profusely.  Luckily, though....everyone has the same problem and none of us smell all that great. :)  Somehow, not worrying about things like personal hygiene just seem to make us see the real person inside anyway....just like backpacking.         After breakfast, I sat and worked with my headphones, listening to Jimmy Buffett as I cut bow plugs.  Of course, my students show up early and away we go.  They are all in great moods today and we all feel like old friends.  They tease me as I drop a bow, saying "      ", which means 'Careful'.  I have been saying it to them for two days and they are happy to have the opportunity to say it back.  :)  We all laugh and work hard and their work has come along fantastically!!    I slip away twice to teach a couple of bass lessons and enjoy the challenge of teaching through the language barrier.  It is so much easier to do this with music than with re-hairing!!  The atmosphere is insane.....we are literally ten feet away from giant trucks barreling up a mountain road and the constant cacophany of car horns and yelling make it almost impossible to hear each other.  However, there is no other way so they keep playing and I keep teaching.  :)       As the afternoon wore on, I broke out cookies that I had brought for the men and smiles abounded.  Then all of the sudden one of them jumped up, grabbed a beat up old cello and started to play.  Within five minutes we all had instruments and had a wonderful jam session!  We played jazz, Amazing Grace and something Disney that I didn't recognize.  I started to cry as we settled into  Pachabels Canon.  It was one of those, "Oh my god....how did I get here?" moments.  The unhappiness of the last few days is completely gone and I, once again, and totally filled with gratitude. I just want to say 'thank you, thank you, thank you..............." Bon swa, Anna       We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Homesickness, Michael Jackson and Sunsets- Haiti Day 3

Haiti- Day 3 “Homesickness, Michael Jackson and Sunsets”   So, today was a day of great ups and downs....the first part, down's. I spent the morning feeling so sad and down, and my great concern was, should I even mention it here? I mean, really, no one wants to hear anyone go on and on about feeling down...especially when they are off traveling the world. Really, who would feel sorry for a person like that? In any case, I knew I had to take a proactive step towards getting myself out of my funk-age. ( I swear, it is a word....look it up! ) So I text-ed a couple of friends and called my mom. I knew that would do the trick. And sure enough, after a rough afternoon of trying to corral grown men into my way of bow repair, things started looking up. :)   First of all, I remembered something....every time I take a 3-4 week trip, I always get really homesick and sad about the middle of week two. Well, I figured that since I came home for 22 hours between Ecuador and Haiti, I was immune to that. Guess the joke was on me.... :) Once I realized that, I felt a bit better. And then lots of little tiny things happened to make me smile. Several people said nice things to me or to each other and it just helped lift my spirits.    After lunch, all of the other staff leave to go to another location for afternoon camp, leaving Robert and I with the lutherie students. The best thing that happened this afternoon is that I had a breakthrough with my guys!! I am now teaching 4 Haitian men, between the ages of 17 and 30, with four more to join me later in the week. There is very little English and while a couple of them have been polite, a couple more are serving me up platters of attitude. The director finally stepped in and spoke to them. I think they just want this to be easier than it is! I tell them that I understand that completely, but I don't think I am getting my point across. Then.....in the middle of the afternoon, I ask Roosevelt if he watches American movies or listens to American music. His face lit up and he started talking about Action Adventures and Jackie Chan. When we got around to music, he mentioned Michael Jackson and I started singing "Thriller". Now I am a hero! :) Oh, and I broke out the candy that I had brought from America. An hour later, we are all working around this little tiny desk, with piles of tools in front of us, humming "Billy Jean". I think we are going to be just fine from here on out. :) :) :)   After all of the students left, Robert Cain, the other luthier here, and I climbed up on the roof and watched the sun set while we waiting for everyone else to come home. The noise and smog seem a little less from thirty feet up, and the setting sun blurs the rough edges. As we watch people congregating in front of their tents, Rob and I talk quietly about LSF and the Haiti programs. I am glad that I get a chance to thank him sincerely for putting so much work into it. I think LSF is amazing and I am so honored to be a part of it. When darkness finally falls, we make our way off of the roof and head in to wait for the others to return. This has turned out to be a great day...... Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com

Extreme Luthierism- Haiti Day 2

Haiti- Day 2 “Language Barrier? What language barrier!?” I wake up early this morning feeling pretty bad. I am not sick or anything, I am just feeling so out of place. Two big trips, back to back, I think, was a mistake. Ecuador took so much out of me.....all in a wonderful, great way, but it left me feeling emotionally and physically depleted. Of course, I blame Njål and all my new Tango friends for the physical part!! :) Anyway, I should know better than to come to a place like this so drained. When I woke up this morning, I just lay on that hard floor, with unbelievably loud noise coming in the open windows and thought, "Seriously, Anna....what the hell have you done". I just feel so low.   BUT......I am not so down that I have forgotten two things.....one, this is a life-time opportunity.   And two, I can be of real service here.   Oh, and a third thing....I asked for this.     So.....I will work on my attitude and I will come around. I suspect by early afternoon, I will be my old cheery self again. :)   For now, we are walking to the market down the street to change our US dollars into Gourds. We leave our house and immediately walk by a tent city. It is a bit overwhelming. There are people selling all kinds of things on the streets, and the atmosphere is somewhat chaotic! Traffic consists of tap-taps, cars, motorcycles and the occasional UN truck with machine guns on the back, all vying for the 2 free feet of space on the road. Steve, one of the violin teachers here is wonderful....he gently pulls me back each time I step out into the road. It will be a miracle if I don't get run over!!     The market was small, but interesting and had just about anything you could want...from rum to frozen Friday's Potato Skins. My favorite part, however, was standing in front of the cleaning products with Rob and the others, studying the Ajax, furniture polish and muriatic acid. We are trying to figure out what we can use to clean instruments and bows, and I have to laugh when Robert turns to me and says, 'This really is extreme luthier-ism!"    I, for one, can see why this wouldn't be for some luthiers!! But for me, this is great! I do love the whole, 'fly by the seat of your pants' thing. However, I do suspect that by the end of the week, I will be putting face plates on bows, using plastic milk cartons. My bow teachers may just die..... :) :)   Oh well, off to fix some bows!!     So, it turns out that I was right........It is now almost six and I feel somewhat better. I spent the day teaching two men, Tchoupy and Reginald, how to rehair bows. Without any interpreter after lunch, it got really difficult!! When I originally sent off the email to volunteer for this, I said that I do not speak the language, but that that wouldn’t be a problem. My dad said to me, “don’t you mean that you HOPE that won’t be a problem?“. To which I replied confidently, “No, that will not be a problem”. Well, he might have had a point!! You try explaining the angles of a bow tip mortise using nothing but sign language and my questionable drawing skills!!     And to top it all off, every time I try to say 'Oui' I say 'Si'. I have a lot of gifts and talents, but languages is not one of them. And actually, a lot of people here don't really understand my French so well. Could be because I haven't spoken it in 20 years! But they all speak Kreyol which is now officially the hardest language I have ever attempted. It sounds like a cross between French and Swahili, which should make it fairly do-able for me, but the accent is really giving me a hard time. I will keep working on it!! After dinner.....which for the record, they set out at 3:30, even though we do not eat til 7:30........in 98 degree heat....... Needless to say, I am not touching the meat here!! :)   Anyway...after dinner, almost the whole group went for a drink several blocks away at a kind of upscale place. It is strange, you walk by tent cities and it appears that there is abject poverty everywhere. Then, out of no where, there will be a really nice place. Everyone tells me that Petionville, which is where we are working, was the nicest suburb in Port au Prince. As a result, there are these anomalies tucked away....a wonderful hotel with a swimming pool, a beautiful restaurant, a little market. All I know is that if my mother and father could see me walking through the dark streets of Haiti at 9:00 at night, dodging motorbikes and rubble, they would NOT be happy. But I am one of 14 people so I feel pretty ok about it. :)     Once again, for the umpteenth time in the last few weeks, I find myself sitting at a table with a big group of people laughing and talking over each other in different languages. I am sitting next to Bernard, a violinist my age from Paris and we are exchanging stories about traveling. He is wonderful, wonderful and offers to go with me to the market to buy some souvenirs. Between him and Steve, my traffic guardian, I feel like I am starting to have some friends here.    My first full day in Haiti is finished and I am interested to see what the rest of it holds. For now, as I brush the millionth mosquito away, I just really hope I get home without malaria!! :) :) Bonswa, Anna

We are not in Kansas anymore Haiti- Day 1

Haiti- Day 1   Well, I got up at 0’dark thirty and headed back to the airport. Wasn’t I just here?! In any case, it is time to go to Haiti!!! I am half excited, half scared and 100% unsure of myself. I have a sneaky suspicion that this time, I may just have bitten off more than I can chew!! Oh well, it is too late to turn back now! My flights were fairly uneventful and late afternoon found me on a plane packed to the gills with church missionary groups all in matching Tee-shirts. You want to know who, six months later, is still coming to Haiti? Missionary groups!! I have to say, I was pretty impressed, although if the looks I got when I ordered a gin and tonic are any indication, they weren’t so impressed with me. J    When we finally landed, my anxiety went up a few notches. The original airport is condemned…something about big cracks in it from the earthquake. So we had to depart the plane, get on a bus and travel to a temporary terminal. We got off of the bus and walked into a huge warehouse-like room full of a million people, all talking loudly over one another and sweating in the 98 degree heat. I quickly got through the first wave of immigration, (now I have a cool ‘Haiti’ stamp in my passport!) and immediately was swarmed by men. Some guy grabbed my ticket and carry- on, admonishing me to ‘wait right her’ and took off through the crowds. I stood there in shock and realized that some guy had my luggage info and I had no idea who he was!!! He had a badge of sorts, so I felt like there was a good chance that he was supposed to be there, but I couldn’t have picked him out of a line-up if my life depended on it!!! So I dove into the crowds that were circling the big pile of luggage that was being unloaded. He saw me and came back, saying, “wait here, wait here”. I tried to explain that both my huge bags were black and that he didn’t have a snowballs chance of finding them in all of the other black luggage, but before I had a chance, he was back with my bags. I finally get the idea that this is a tip-driven system and dig through my bags for some money. By the time I get through everything I have gone through three porters and am $10 lighter. J   As the second porter deposited me in front of the customs woman, she looked at me stonily and pointed at my big giant black bag. “What is that?” she said. “Umm…tools for rehairing bows?” This was the part I had been dreading. All of the news in the US had been talking about the fact that Haiti was charging a tax on all relief supplies being brought into the country and that they were seizing stuff left and right. I had an itemized list with values on it, but who is to say if they will believe me? This was fairly obscure stuff I had here!! I immediately pulled out a letter that Robert Cain, the fellow luthier, had prepared for us. It explained who we were, what we were doing and where, all in Kreyol, the local language. She read the letter, studied me for a moment and said, “Thank you, enjoy your stay in Haiti”. !!!!!!! I can’t believe it!!!! I am so happy to not have to pay the tax. I had the money set aside, but anything that I do not have to pay to the government, I can donate to the St. Trinite Music program, so I am ecstatic. J My relief and joy quickly disappeared when I exited the building and found myself in front of a chain link fence holding back hundreds of men shouting at me. “Taxi?! Taxi?!” they said. Or, ‘Sister, do you need a hotel?!?! “ The sun is beating down on me and I do not see anyone with a little white sign saying ‘Anna Huthmaker-Bow Queen’ on it. One of the men looked at me and said that if someone was there to meet me, I had to walk a block down the side walk to meet them. Hmmm…..I don’t know about this. That looks as if you are leaving the relative safety of the airport. He saw the reluctance on my face and shrugged, saying that it was the truth and that I didn’t have to believe him if I didn’t want to. Oh well….in for a dime, in for a dollar. Off I went, down the sidewalk.    Luckily, I soon heard my name being called and looked up to see three volunteers from Appleton University in Wisconsin. Sarah, Sarah and Jordan were huddled in the shade waiting for me and Keith, a band director from Connecticut, and before long we were being bundled into two vehicles and heading out of the airport. Everyone else is in a van and I am in a pickup truck with a strange man that doesn’t speak any English. As he lurches out of the airport into the Haitian traffic, the full effect of where I am hits me. We immediately pull onto a road that is teeming with drivers that are accelerating and braking with all of the energy of Salmon swimming upstream. There are cars everywhere honking and vying for space, most of which seem like it is there personal mission to drive everyone else off the road. I am not kidding when I say that pedestrians are jumping out of the way for their lives and the wild dogs that are everywhere seem to have a canny sense for how to dodge the insane traffic. The heat is stifling and the smells….well, they are terrible. We drive next to a giant tent city and all I can see are people everywhere, cars everywhere, trash and poverty everywhere. As we drove past devastated buildings I feel my chest constrict. I truly feel like I have entered hell.     I took a few deep breaths and told myself that I had that length of this drive to be overwhelmed. But that when we got to the church, I had to pull it together. As it was said to Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, “You can’t get anywhere by being shocked and sad”. And I wasn’t going to be that girl…the one that dissolved into tears every time she saw something terrible. That is not what the people of Haiti need, and if I am going to make it here, that is certainly not what I need.   We drove for about a half hour through tiny, winding streets full of so much smog, noise and trash that I thought I would go crazy. However, we finally pulled up in front of a church behind the van full of my new friends and started to haul our stuff in. As we shoulder our way through the men standing in front of the door, I wonder if it is as dangerous as it feels. I am so unsure about everything at this point that I am pretty sure that my head will explode!!   But we all make it inside and into our respective rooms with no incident. Everyone is super nice to me, coming up to introduce themselves. I frantically try and remember names and wonder how soon I can actually just go to bed, without being rude. However, a quick invitation to go next door to the hotel for a beer turns into a nice evening getting to know the other volunteers and when I finally do unroll my sleeping pad on the floor of the office that I am sharing with four other women, I breath easier. This won’t be so bad……. Bonswa, Anna We're Gonna Dance Upon This Earth! www.traildames.com