What would you do?
If you loved music but did not have the means to purchase a good instrument? Would you settle for no music at all, or would you take this path? The above musician lives in La Vibora, which is a community over 2,400 feet above the valley floor. Ludet is not alone in his passion for music. I saw another person, a Haitian youth, strumming a "guitar" made from a big can of cooking oil, plus a wooden frame as pictured above.
Invention:
This guitar works. It sounds like a weak banjo. La Vibora has cool nights, with temperatures dipping into the 40's during the winter. Ludet works both picking coffee and raising vegetable crops on rocky soil. We are waiting to see if his community repairs the meeting place that was blown down by the last hurricane. The structure serves a double purpose: shelter for the meetings, as well as a catchment source for rain water.
Water:
Moist rain clouds come off the ocean and climb up to La Vibora. They often pass over as mist or sporadic rainfall. Because the community is at a relatively high elevation, there are no springs or streams where the people can easily find water. They must do all they can to conserve rain water.
Reliance:
Just as a musician can decide to build his own instrument, or wait until some benefactor comes along to donate one, the community in La Vibora has the means to fix its water catchment system or else leave it in disrepair...hoping that the Church or (even less likely - the Government) will come to the rescue. Our natural inclination is to rush up the mountain with whatever resource available and contribute to a rapid fix.
History:
Father Antonio (from Spain) worked with the Haitian community in La Vibora to build a large "alhibe". This is a partially submerged cement holding tank that can hold thousands of gallons of water. It was linked to a pvc gutter which ran below the roof of the community meeting structure (made of a wooden frame and a zinc roof).
Challenge:
Even though it pains us to see the large holding tank empty because the people have not yet taken the initiative to re-build the community meeting structure, we decide to wait them out. The alternative is to contribute to a dependency which in the long run is against their own better interests and the functioning of this parish.
Elegance:
What is more elegant? To see a man playing his own guitar or to see a man asking for a hand-out to purchase a factory model?
