Before Colomb arrived, there were Arawak Indians living here and plenty of gold mines. Colomb and his men made the Arawaks work the gold mines and exposed them to diseases from Europe, to which the Arawaks had no resistance.

Soon, all the Arawaks died.

After Colomb and his men left, the French came and imported slaves from Africa. Most Haitians, Madame Auguste says, are the descendants of those slaves.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6

Manman has visitors all the time, friends who come by to see how she is doing. They bring food and all kinds of teas and home remedies for her.

Tonight after the last person left, we listened to the cassette that Papa sent us while we were in the city. He said that his friend Franck had written another letter and had made some calls to the consulate in Haiti to ask if we could be allowed to come to New York sooner.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11

I have been spending so much time catching up with my studies I haven’t been able to write. Manman is doing much better. She has been walking with much less difficulty. All the country medicine mixed in with Tante Rose’s city medicine must be helping.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13

Christmas is quickly approaching. My classmates will be performing a Nativity play on Christmas Eve. I am not going to be in the play because they began rehearsals while I was gone. Thérèse will be Mary and Pouchon will play Joseph.

To make me feel included, Thérèse keeps asking my opinions on everything, how she should say her lines, how she should wear her hair, etc….

Thérèse has sewn a rag doll to stand in as the baby Jesus. Some men from our village will build the manger and the star. The other pupils will play the innkeepers, shepherds, angels, and the three wise men.

I cannot wait for Christmas Eve. Manman will make her delicious coconut drink, kremas, along with codfish fritters. Granpè Nozial and Granmè Melina will come over and will stay up all night talking, while Granpè Nozial throws rock salt into the cooking fire to set off sparks. Moy will finally finish his fanal, a cardboard lantern built in the shape of a tap tap, which he will hang in front of the house.

If there is a bright moon, some of the boys from the surrounding villages might come to our yard to show off their own fanal. As they leave to go down the mountain to another house, carrying fanal of various shapes and sizes, they will look like a giant necklace of fireflies.