Help for Haiti

How can you help in Haiti?

During January, My husband and I will contribute $1 to ELCA Disaster Response in Haiti for the first 200:

• new followers on The Gypsy’s Guide 
• new subscribers on The Gypsy’s Guide (via email or in a feed)
  
• unique comments made on the Gypsy's Guide
  

Spread the word!  Anyone want to match it? Contact me!  Additionally, I make a very small commission off of each purchase at the Gypsy’s Store, and for the month of January, I will donate all of those moneys as well. So go shopping!

100% of contributions made to ELCA Disaster Response will be used for relief efforts in Haiti.

If you want to make contributions of your own, I’ve included links to both ELCA Disaster Response as well as the American Red Cross in the left-hand column.

Reading about Haiti

Much of what I know about Haiti, I’ve learned from reading the works of Haitian-American, Edwidge Danticat. An extraordinary storyteller, Danticat uses darkness and light like the warp and weft, creating a fabric of island life that is both substantial and real.

It struck Princesse that this is why she wanted to make pictures, to have something to leave behind even after she was gone, something that showed what she had observed in a way that no one else had and no one else would after her. The sky in all its glory had been there for eons even before she came into the world, and there it would stay with its crashing stars and moody clouds. The sand and its caresses, the conch and its melody would be there forever as well. All that would change would be the faces of the people who would see and touch those things, faces like hers, which was already not as it had been a few years before and which would mature and change in the years to come.

-- from Krik? Krak!

Danticat now lives in the United States, but her family lives in Haiti. Despite the fact that she is waiting for word from her family, she took time this week to recommend a few books about Haiti for people interested in learning more about the country.

• Wall Street Journal: Earthquake in Haiti: A Reading (and Listening) List by Edwidge Danticat
  

I’ve included all of her suggested reading in The Gypsy’s Store, and I encourage you to check them out. I also included her own books -- Krik? Krak! and Breath, Eyes, Memory -- both of which are gorgeously written and powerful works.

Update: Jan 15 @ 6 pm

Welcome to all of you who come by way of the LA Times Travel blog: Help Haiti through your Travel Connections.  Thanks to @JenLeo for the mention!

And, I'm happy to say other bloggers have been inspired as well.  Make your way to Got Passport where if you make a comment they will make a donation to Partners in Health's Haiti efforts. 

Have you been to Haiti?  Tell us about your experiences there and your reflections on the situation there today.  Remember, we'll be donating $1 in your honor!