Been awhile since I have put meanderings down.

It isn't, however, for lack of meandering.

Rather, it is because I am not sure how to do justice to the folk about whom I meander.

People like the ones we met at the dump this week.

Yep, the dump.

There are people who have lived at the dump. They are mostly Haitians who have no where else to go. Although some still live there, most have moved out because the government does not want them at the dump. They walk an hour to get there to receive soup, water and peanut butter between 2 slices of white bread.  Twice a week.

It's been raining ALOT here so the dump was muddy (we wore plastic bags over our shoes to walk) but, when we got there, it was not raining so the flies were in full display. You could see them.  You could HEAR them.

I hate flies.

I hate them in my house. I hate them at the cottage.

I REALLY hated them at the dump.

I wanted them to just GO AWAY.  I wanted to not have to swat them away. I wanted the people who were there getting their food to not have to EAT with them EVERY DAY!

And, when I got up this morning and saw that it had rained ALL NIGHT and was continuing through the day, I thought about those folk.  I thought about how the rain would keep the truck from getting through the roads and the people from slogging through the mud.

They would not get their food.

But, the damn flies would be there.

This, however, is not a blog about flies.

This blog is meant to do justice to the people.

There is one man who keeps coming to mind.

A gentle man close to my age with whom I spoke. Asked if he knew English and he said only Spanish and Creole. So we did Spanish together (in my halting way).

He came to Dominican from Haiti. He lives here with his wife and his children.  They were in the village and he had walked there for lunch.  I told him that I had been to Haiti;  Joe walked over and mentioned we had been in Mizak and Jacmel.

Believe it or not, HE THEN SAID HE WAS FROM JACMEL!

His extended family were all there. He missed his family and the beauty of the town (it IS lovely).  He wonders if he will ever return.

I doubt it but then, who knows?

I am not sure how he got to where he is now and I am not sure how he might ever get out of where he is now.

I just know he was there yesterday and for a moment, we shared something...a place close to his heart...and ours, especially now.

We shared a moment in time....in the mud....in a dump...

....surrounded by those damn flies.

I will NEVER forget those flies or that mud or that dump...

...or the gentle man who deserves so much more than this meager moment of meandering.