THE HAITIAN JOIE DE VIVRE
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eing in Haiti during the 50s was a blessing. That was the era of a
sort of happy scarcity, according to the former president M. Leslie F.
Manigat.
But to Michele Martineau Woel, a woman in her mid-sixties
with blue ocean tinted eyes, the Haitian joie de vivre seems to
last for ever even in gloomy times. How could it be ?
Fito altidor nicknamed
Fito Bouze might answer this question. With a cigar like you watch in the
magazine Aficionado, Fito is acquainted with high life and young entrepreneurs
eager to catch opportunities everywhere they can. "Petion ville is vibrant
now, as tough the 2010 earthquake had set up a new attitude mixed with a need
of renewal, sort of passion of life”, Fito Bouze adds, taking a deep breath and
inflating the torso.
In his beautiful condo at Davy, Miami, F.Bouze has once gathered
some friends, among them RV Malebranche, one of the boss of Amerijet in Haiti.
Good food, drink and soft music flowing
from tiny speakers and somewhere else. People enjoyed eating and chatting on
hot topics such as the earthquake aftermath. Obviously politics were considered
and the new Haitian lifestyle between the US and Haiti as well . Never mind how
expansive life had become. But, whatever might be, it was a delight to watch
young people and older ones sharing a kind of new passion for the renaissance
of Haiti. Michele W. Martineau, a native of the Southern part of Haiti, who
went to school at College Bird with
Simone O. Duvalier, remembered the early sixties when Haiti begun to mix itself with the so-called “ vent du large”
Michele likes to feed unfortunate children in the heights of
Laboule where she lives. “ It’s amazing how much they feel at home once you
welcome them. Then , they come with others . it
looks like as if it were an extended family” Michele continues.
From the other hand, RV Malebranche is upset when considering how
life is still hard to his employees
after so many years at the airport where he continues to run the local branch of Amerijet, an
international cargo business. “ It seems to be a matter of cost and expenses,
shortly inflation ,but cannot something be done? a silence fall in the room
light up that night as a Christmas Tree.
Lesly Staco, an entrepreneur and businessman from New York, whovery often asks
himself the same question, was also there.
This kind of friendly gathering
is a way to live in Miami, Fl. Haiti is not too far, a few miles away from the Wind Passage. The Haitians are still a
nation of singers and dancers, even though in the countryside fatalism and guilt
had been permeating for long the rural
state of mind as well as lakous and
familial gardens born from the broken colonial habitations. Hence this era of depression, violence and
despair. But, happily enough, haitianite
wants to survive this inhuman legacy of
the 90s. Michele had stayed home; her incandescent blue eyes still watching the unfolding of
seasons and days. She delights at taking
care at partying with loved ones while having fun whether at Petion ville or at Jacmel with Therese Kawly, F.Bouze said.
Bouze would never know how a few hours at night at Davy had made his
friends happy.
What next? No way. Fito Bouze is heading for Texas.
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| Michele Woel & Friends |
