It was past 9pm, past curfew, shops closed and streets dark as I returned from distributing snacks to the rickshaw drivers. The only people outside were others sneaking home from "essential" tasks and small groups of men hanging out near their doors to take advantage of the cooling air. I don't remember what I first …
Dèyè mòn gen mòn. Beyond mountains there are mountains. HAITIAN PROVERB ...And right action is freedom From past and future also. For most of us, this is the aim Never here to be realized; Who are only undefeated Because we have gone on trying… T.S. ELIOT, “THE DRY SALVAGES” Mountains Beyond Mountains is …
When did it hit? It wasn't when we landed in the airport. It wasn't when we got through immigration. It wasn't when we fought through the crowds to get out of the metro station. It wasn't when a line of 100+ motorcycles trying to bypass a traffic jam stalled behind me on the overpass sidewalk …
Four years ago, Peregrine was present when our teenage neighbor went into labor. The young woman's previous hospital childbirth had been so abusive that this time she insisted on giving birth at home attended by untrained local women. Peregrine was with her at the birth and helped as she was instructed. The baby died. The …
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.1 When Peregrine and I were volunteering in the red light districts,2 I found my feelings towards the foreign men on the streets to be the most difficult …
Let's enter this topic by way of a story. I'm sitting at my friend's shop eating a snack when we hear a fight break out. I turn to see a young teenager being held back by a crowd. He is trying to get into trouble with an adult man who I can't quite see. The …
Peregrine and I are escorted into the slum by the employees of a world-renowned nonprofit. As we pull up in their SUV, the staff emphasizes that this is a “sensitive” area. They affect the word “sensitive” with an oddly ominous tone. The team had been working there for two years, and the project had a …
Most of the stories I have written here happened years ago. This one was yesterday. I was walking through one neighborhood where I teach when I heard the thump of blows. I paused, discerned sobbing. Peered around the window of the home it was coming from, but could see nothing. The blows continued. Someone was …
We were still in our first year in our new city and were moving to a different room in the slum for the second time. The dirt-floored room we were moving into had an inadequate roof, so I carried over the bamboo-and-tarp roof that had been made for our previous place and stuck it right up …
I'm sitting on my mattress writing an essay about child laborers. Three feet in front of me, a child laborer colors on a piece of paper. The coloring is probably little Alisha's1 best intellectual stimulation in days. To my left, Sanjiv is hammering away at Peregrine's purse, fixing a strap that's been broken for months. He …
Stranger in a Slum 