Celebrating under a plastic blue tarp:
The tin roof structure that the community of La Vibora build with Father Antonio's help is still out of service since the strong winds blew it over as the hurricane passed by. The Haitian immigrants have no land and thus have no place to go and get tree trunks to replace those that broke with the high winds. So there we were, Alejandro and I, celebrating the baptisms with the people, under a makeshift roof.
Writing names:
Alejandro spent over two hours just writing the names of the children, parents and godparents. This will be the very first time that the children are recorded is an offocial document. Most of them came into the world with the help of "comadrones" or women in the campos who act as midwives. Their names will be in our books and with the baptism certificate, the parents hope it will be easier to declare the childen so that they can have a government issued birth certificate.
One camera for all:
Notice the blue sheet to the far right in the picture. That is a a backdrop for taking pictures of the baptized children and family. The fotographer came up on his motorcycle from Los Blancos and will have the film developed in Barahona. The diocese legal department gave him the camera as a help to document people.
A funny moment:
One of the men having his picture taken whipped out a cell phone and pretended to be receiving a call during the picture moment. Perhaps he consideres the cell phone to be a status symbol and in effect very few Haitian immigrants have one. Whether or not it works is another thing.
A multitude:
Perhaps the picture can give you a sense of the large numbers of immigrants living in La Vibora. If you look at Google Earth and place Paraiso to the left of the ocean, La Vibora is located in the mountains above Paraiso. It takes an hour and a half to reach the community. Compared to other areas in the parish, La Vibora has less land dedicated to coffee production and more land given to farming crops like squash.
A sad fact:
The "alhibe" or cement water cistern is completely empty in La Vibora. This means that the dry season will require the women and children to travel much farther to get water for the household. When a person has to travel on level ground to get water, it is a chore. But when the children have to go down a mountain and then carry the water up the steep inclines... this goes beyond the definition of a chore and comes closer to the idea of a crushing burden.
