The Refrigerator Gallery

I told myself I would stop doing all of these pre-Haiti departure posts but it's just such a convenient way to avoid other more pressing, less creative work... : )

In her mountain retreat house, Laura, a dear friend and former WR colleague, has photos of friends and family covering the entire refrigerator door. I absolutely love it. When I moved to Ithaca two years ago, I followed Laura's example and asked friends and family to send me a photo to display on the fridge in my trailer (not quite the mountain retreat).

With my relocation to Haiti fast approaching, I refuse to leave my gallery behind and so I've found what I think will be an acceptable alternative to the front of a refrigerator.

A few days ago I issued another call for photos. It's been so fun to check my email each day (actually more like each hour) to see whose photo has shown up. I decided that such beautiful faces must be shared so here is a link to my "virtual fridge" - the collection will continue to grow as new photos arrive.

This is an equal opportunity gallery. If I missed you in my call for photos (and assuming I actually know who you are) it's due to a lack of email address in my contact book rather than a lack of desire to have you on display. So please do send me a photo of you and yours.

If you find yourself on display but would prefer not to be online, just let me know and I'll remove the photo.

Say cheese.... not quite sure how to say that in Kreyol yet!

Paying my due respects to Ithaca's Gimme Coffee

There is a question that seems to come up frequently in dinner conversations about life outside of North America - "What food do you miss most when you are away?"

I've often struggled to answer this question since I'm typically very content with the foods served in the places I've lived in Africa, Latin America and most recently the Caribbean. I kind of pride myself in my flexibility when it comes to food. Rice, beans, maize/corn, sweet potatoes and green leafy veggies have become staples in my US diet. I am a bit of a peanut butter snob, preferring the "natural" type, but that's often more available than the processed stuff in the places I go. (Haiti actually has an amazing "spicy" type of peanut butter with red pepper added to it. You will be hearing a lot more about Haitian peanut butter in the days to come as it plays an important role in my research intervention)

With a little creativity in the kitchen and/or the willingess to pay ridiculous prices at the import grocery stores found in all big cities including Nairobi and Port-au-Prince, I can usually satisfy the occasional craving I have for good chocolate or tortilla chips and salsa. Good ice cream is usually a tough one and probably ranked highest on my "most missed" list until....I moved to Ithaca and discovered Gimme Coffee.

I really don't have the words to describe the attachment I've developed over the last year or so to Gimme's "Leftist" roast. It gets me out of bed in the morning. It has changed me from an occassional latte indulger to a pretty strict americano drinker - just so I can have more of that fantastic coffee flavor (thank you Maggie S.). I don't care that the baristas at one of the Gimme branches in Ithaca are frequently snobbish and aloof - something that would keep me from frequenting other establishments. I would have gladly joined in a sit-in to protest the removal of the Gimme coffee trailer on our quad if the newly-opened library cafe hadn't agreed to serve Gimme roasts and to have Gimme train their baristas.

Over my 6 weeks in Haiti this summer I had a foretaste of what it will be like to live without Gimme in the coming year. While I mean no disrespect to Haitian coffee, there was just something "not right" in my mornings. Only when I came back to Ithaca did I realize what it was....no Leftist roast.

You are probably wondering why I am being so meldoramatic. Can't I just carry a couple pounds of my perferred beans to Port-au-Prince with me? I could....but have decided against it. Haiti produces coffee beans - good coffee beans. Haiti should be making good money by growing and exporting coffee. With the complexities of a globalized food system, they are not.

I can buy Haitian coffee in Haiti and so I will. I won't carry my beans from Ithaca - beans that already crossed continents at least once on their way to upstate NY. It's a small step towards supporting a local food system but it's a step I feel morally obliged to take.

In the mean time, I am using a new metric to count down days these last few weeks in Ithaca - Gimmee cups. I have at least 20 cups to go.... better get drinking!

What's in a name?

Some of you may be familiar with the iconic green and white bumper stickers and t-shirts from Ithaca, NY proclaiming that "Ithaca is gorges"....and it's true. The landscape around Cornell is speckled with deep ravines, lovely waterfalls and rolling green hills. Over the last 2 years, I have come to love this landscape - and the people it contains - despite the overwhelming number of days when the sun refused to shine in the sky .... or in the life of this graduate student.

Haiti too is a land of mountains and gorges - a beautiful country that reminds me most of Rwanda...but also in some ways of Ithaca. The peaks and valleys imagery also applies to Haiti's political history and current socio-economic realities - issues that I am only beginning to understand.

My Ithaca season has challenged me in unexpected but ultimately good ways and I trust that process will continue in Haiti. I am hopeful that down the road I will look back and sincerely say "Haiti is Gorges" too.

The best of intentions

What do "the road to hell" and this blog have in common? Good intentions.

As I return to Haiti in mid-October 2007 to continue the research phase of my graduate studies I have very good intentions of keeping friends, familiy, and perhaps some curious onlookers updated on the experiences I have living and working in Port-au-Prince.

I will try to avoid too many stream-of-consciousness-rants common to stressed PhD students and focus instead on sharing the stories of the people, places and ideas I am privileged to encounter along the way.

Thanks for joining me.