From July 12, 2018
I keep finding myself thinking about the violent protests of last weekend. I keep picturing the large parking lot at the shopping center with row after row of cars destroyed by fire. It was a haunting sight. The protest began around 3:00pm. Just an hour beforehand, Billy and I took Bency and Naïve to that shopping center to get them ice cream. We never do anything like that. The girls were so excited they put on dresses. I can’t image what I would have felt had the protests began just a little earlier or we arrived a little later…and our Nissan Xterra had been engulfed in flames. That car is indispensable to us. Many of the cars and pickup trucks in the parking lot were probably very old; they represented a huge investment by their owners, whose lives have now been dramatically altered. I think of the workers in the supermarket and the pharmacy who are now are jobless. Even the stores that were not destroyed will be closed for a long time, as it will take time to remove all the destroyed cars. We relied on that pharmacy for needed medications for the children. It will now mean more frequent drives to Pétionville to the only other big pharmacy, which will increase the money we spend on gas.