gods chosen people

The interviews have started. Let it be said, there is definitely room
for improvement on my end, technically, linguistically, and
methodologically. But hey, gotta start somewhere. As soon as I put in the earbud and start to hear my own voice (far more nasal than I had ever imagined) I self-consciousness and my French falters, which provoked a kind of downward spiral in one of the interviews today. I'm sure that's something I grow accustomed too, but I just have too keep doing it, regardless. It was silly of me to write my question prompts in english, because then I have to translate them spontaneously, which can be graceless and occasionally incomprehensible, particularly with the more subtle questions. So far, the interviews have started with the earthquake itself, what the person was doing before, how the experienced it, what they saw, what they did immediately after, that night, the next day. Then in the weeks that followed leading up to their presence in the camp. Then I pose questions about the camp itself, the conditions of living, level of health, nature of the community, etc. My goal at this point is two-fold: to collect testimony about the quake itself, its immediate aftermath, and how it is interpreted; and to document the living conditions in Haiti since. I've started in one particular refugee camp because I had an intermediary, and now I've made a few friends there and I think people are habituated with my presence. But I know I have to reach out
eventually to other camps, and to the people who aren't living in camps at all, whose homes weren't destroyed, but who nevertheless have perspectives on how what it means to live in Haiti now as opposed to before. Yesterday I did an interview with a 19 year old girl who didn't live in the camp, for her life had more or less returned to normal. She realized it was an earthquake as it was happening, she said, because she had recently watched the movie 2012. She was sad, sometimes, but nothing in her immediate life had changed. She said she wasn't particularly a believer but she invoked God over and over again, giving thanks for her life on this earth. I don't think 'believer' means the same things here as in the US. Either the basically level of non-believer is much more spiritual in the US (in the circles I frequent) or the frequent fervent praise of the Christian God its just a manner of speaking here. Don't know yet.

Dugeunson, for example, is a believer. I met with him to arrange an interview for later so that a translator could be present, and as we said our goodbyes he just started talking. Unfortunately for me I didn't turn on my recorder, because this man has some very carefully thought out ideas about religion, history, and the earthquake. His story starts with the Hitler's Holocaust. Hitler, unsurprisingly, was doing the work of the devil. After the war, America opened its doors to the Jews, and God was happy, since the Jews are God's chosen people. God bestowed blessing upon America for this, and helped it rise to superpower status. Haiti, too, did good things for the Jews after WWII. Haiti was the last to cast a vote for the state of Israel, and so Haiti was responsible for the Jews having their own state. God was very pleased about this too, and wants to bless Haiti like he blessed America. But there are too many other gods in Haiti, and the Christian God is jealous. Haiti is a mystical place, practically a portal to the spiritual world, and that means many many gods come and go through Haiti. Before God will give Haiti the blessings it deserves, the Haitians need to kill the other gods. Hence the earthquake. Now the way he explained it, the earthquake worked in two senses: the earthquake was violence against the other gods, and it was a brutal call to repentance. Haitians need to repent Vodou and their other sinful ways, and then Haiti will be like America and the Jews. God's chosen people.

And those other gods? Are they dead, buried like so many human bodies under the rubble of their shrines?