The Dream House My Father Built

THE HAITIAN INTERNET NEWSLETTER
"We Become What We Think About Most Of The Time"
http://www.HaitianInternet.com
by: Woodring Saint Preux
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December 9th, 2005
Yap Pale, Nap Travay!

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About Vision

Vision, it reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own.

Robert Collier
American Writer, Publisher

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*** The Dream House My Father Built ***

In 1979 my father decided to build a home for his family.

It was a really big move for me,

I was moving from a "Caille Palissade, with a galita, kouvri an tache" to a "Caille block, kouvri ak beton, with an indoor kitchen, a front porch, and back porch".

I remember the first time I slept in my father's house in Cite Jean Claude, Hinche Haiti.

Me and my cousin Michel, we were the first ones to sleep in it, I was 8 years old.

Even though the house was built about 20 minutes, walking distance, from our old Caille Palissade, it felt like I moved to a whole new town and my imagination moved to an whole other dimension.

I was 8 years old. It was the first time I ever saw a Bridge, Pont Vincent.

It was the first time I saw a bus station,

It was the first time I heard the sounds of a "Forgeron"

It was the first time I witnessed "Bonbon Siro" being manufactured from a home made oven.

That day, Madame Pierre, the bonbon making lady had no idea that she was the fourth wonder of my world!

I am talking about it now and it almost sounds like poetry.

Hinche is a very small town,
At least that's what I thought.

Now that I think about it, Hinche pretty big...

I was born "anro nan lat"
I grew up "anba semitiè, Bò lekol delamin-an"
I went to school "Bò kazèn nan"
My grandma's church was "Bò plas la"
My mother's church was "anro nan Kwet"
My mother's Pastor lived "Dèyè Seprinn nan"
Then we moved to "Cite Jean Claude" in 1980
Me and my friend Bellot Dieufait, we used to go "lòtbò pon" to study "Nan Savan-n nan"

I know a street name in Hinche, Rue Alexandre Petion, but I can't tell you which one it is.

If you are from the town of Hinche, then you know I just gave you a detailed map of the entire town. It's a visual map that can only be understood by those who've seen it.

I left Hinche when I was 14. My father wanted me to see another bridge.

This time it was the George Washington Bridge in New York.

Daddy, you didn't give me much, you only gave me the world.

The G.W. Bridge in NY is the exact replica of Pont Vincent in Hinche except for one thing...

It is wayyyyyyyyyy bigger!

I cannot begin to tell you what I saw!

You could smokee all the weed in the world and you will never reach the high my imagination reached the day I compared these two bridges!

On December 25th 2005 I will be 33 years old.

If you divide my 33 years into Haiti's 200 years of Independence, you will realize that six generations have gone by and none of them have even seen a bridge.

I moved from a "caille tache" to a "caille beton" in 8 years but my hometown never really left the caille tache stage as a whole.

Not for six generations!

It took me 8 years and a 20 minute walk to realize there is a bridge in my town.

It took me another 6 years and a 2,300 kilometers trip to realize that Pont Vincent is not the first wonder of the world.

I want to go home for one reason only.

If I don't go home to tell my generation what I know and what the world looks like, six more generations will go by, that's another 200 years, and no one will even take the 20 minute trip to the other side of town to discover on their own what is already within their reach to discover.

If I don't go home to motivate these kids to take the 20 minute trip to see what a bridge is and immediately tell them "somewhere far far away, there is another one way bigger than this one and I've seen it" then I will have accomplished nothing.

If you don't go home to dump your knowledge and your experiences on somebody else and make him dizzy, if you only make money with it and die with it, than your PHD means nothing.

Six Generations, No highways, no electricity, no running water, no telephones, not a thing!

I don't care who is President of Haiti; Haitian society can't even vote for a better life!

I wonder where I would be if my great great grandfather saw the George Washington Bridge!

I challenge you to step out of the Caille tache mentality, move just 20 minutes away from you limited vision of yourself and your country.

You will have the biggest natural high in your lifetime!

M'ale!

Woodring

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