JOIE DE VIVRE

THE  HAITIAN JOIE DE VIVRE

B

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.

Michele Woel & Friends