http://rohan.com/blog Stories and random thoughts by Rohan Mahy Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:06:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Someone from the Petionville Mairie (roughly, the office of the mayor) shot and killed a merchant on Rue Geffrard about 3 blocks from my apartment this morning. This section of street is usually completely blocked with small merchants (mostly women) who come every morning and sell their stuff in the ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/791 Alex, Mom and I went whale watching in the San Juan Islands. I think the pictures speak for themselves. While we saw members of all three resident pods (J, K, and L), I got the best pictures of K-pod. This is K21 “Cappucino”. He was born in 1986. Below ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/784 Today is the first anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. A lot of organizations are going to use this opportunity to talk about their projects and what progress they made over the last year. I think this is at best insensitive and inappropriate. Today is a national day of memorial. Today ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/755 Yesterday (January 11, 2011), I was very fortunate to be invited to the opening of the Iron Market in downtown Port-au-Prince. Over half the structure was destroyed during the quake and a fire in 2008. It was meticulously restored to its original glory and design. The owner of Digicel (the ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/754 Photos from election results protests outside my house: Housemates watching protesters burn a Jude Célestin sign about 100m from the house between Pelerin 4 and Pelerin 5 Burning the sign: Further down the road almost to Pelerin 2, two cars are in the road. Police are slowly moving them off the ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/721 In Europe, the US, Canada and probably several other places, there is plenty of infrastructure, and we often disrupt some of our commerce and leisure travel for both "fun" purposes (fairs, parades, festivals, and sporting events) as well as to allow for peaceful protests. Peaceful protests and demonstrations there "work" ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/706 Yesterday I got up early to go on a scouting trip to Hinche, in the Central Plateau. It is seriously beautiful up there. We drove by this really nice lake. Arrived in Hinche. This is the old cathedral. The new cathedral. Sorry about the windshield glare. “Destinée” Morgue Privé Infini (“Destiny” Private Morgue ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/705 Today I helped Inveneo bring decent Internet access to NGOs in Leogane by climbing up a 60m tower to adjust an antenna. Mark and I setup the matching antenna in Leogane at the Hands-On Disaster Response base there. About to head up the tower. Nice view! I am happy that it ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/670 More than half the words in Creole are borrowed from French. However it is useful and kinda fun to understand how certain sounds shifted during the transition. It makes it easy to guess words if you know the word in French already. First of all you change the spelling to be ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/661 Monday it was already six months since the earthquake. Still in Port-au-Prince, fewer than 5% of the condemned buildings have been demolished and cleared. Unfortunately there are some perverse incentives that help keep it that way. Most people in P-au-P rent their home. The convention for rentals here is that ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/660