"I'm having a love affair with this ice cream sandwich"- George Bluth

Foreword:
This title will likely seem very random and confusing if you do not watch the TV show Arrested Development.
In the scene of reference, George Bluth, an imprisoned executive who had embezzled millions from his family's business, is sitting in his orange jumpsuit talking to his son who is visiting him in prison. While his son is trying to desperately tell him about his impending trial, George happily eats an ice cream sandwich, declares he is "having a love affair" with it and then declares that he is "having the time of his life" doing time.

George and Michael Bluth from Arrested Development

Where am I going with all of this?

Yesterday was hot. Li fe tre tre cho! And while I did not have much to do besides relax and recover from an exhausting week, I couldn't escape the heat. And after an errand of refiling a bunch of propane tanks, Dominique, Moise, Ricardo, and I purchased some ice cream sandwiches from a man with a cooler on the side of the road.
My sandwich, entitled "Cake Flavored" was the best ice cream I have ever had, perhaps because I was so hot or perhaps because I hadn't eaten ice cream in months.

Yesterday marked the first of thirty straight days in which no teams will come down to Haiti and work with Pere Val and Carmel. I will spend all of my time working at the nutrition clinic. And in these 30 days, it seems as if I will rarely see any other Americans, let alone white people. Thus begins my most intense and serious "entrenchment".

And yet, on this first day of true Haitian living, it was about as American as it could be. After the ice cream sandwich, I had a delicious lunch of hot dogs and fried plantains while I sat with the three other guys and talked about "crazy girls", favorite types of beer, why cigarettes suck, and other crazy stories from our younger days.
Moise and Dominique begged Pere Val and Carmel to let me go with them to a party in Petionville, the only truly rich area of Port-au-Prince. They finally agreed and we went.
The disparity of this country amazes me. We arrived in Petionville in a rain storm and the streets running downhill were rivers of mud and trash. The poor Haitians were crowded under USAid awnings. And then we drove into the gated community where the party was, known as Belleville. It is where many of the NGO workers and UN workers live. Coming in through the gates, there were paved streets (an extreme rarity down here), palm-tree medians, and massive homes. It looked a great deal like Beverly Hills. Or at least some fancy suburb in Anywhere, USA.
And the party, well, it was about as American as it could be although there were only 3 Americans in attendance. We drank Prestige, cranberry vodka, danced to rap and Konpa music, and ate some delicious food. The house looked like any house you might rent for a week at the beach and for a few moments I actually forgot I was in Haiti (even though I was trying my drunken best to speak in a strange blend of Creole, Spanish, and English with this beautiful girl from the Dominican border). And then you drive back out the gates (or see the armed guard with a shotgun protecting the party), and you quickly realize exactly where you are.

So, back to the ice cream sandwich.  In Arrested Development, George Bluth is seemingly oblivious to not only the hardship that he is putting his family through but also to the fact that he is even locked away in prison. And driving by the compounds of members of the US Foreign Service,  the UN, wealthy Haitians, and innumerable NGO workers, I can't help but thinking about the realities that these people have sheltered themselves from, oblivious to the lack of opulence all around them. When you have wifi, Sargento pepperjack cheese, Mueshli cereal, and a plethora of other luxury items, it seems that you lose touch with why and what you are even working for. And I, like George Bluth am having "the time of my life". But at what expense does us (me included) having a great time come. We might be having a love affair with our seemingly plush conditions, but it seems like we are failing to recognize the situation we are perpetrating, that of wealthy foreigners controlling the lives of the poor.
Lou Dobbs and the Occupy Movement would hate this place. There is no middle class. Not surprising when 70% are unemployed. Without a middle class, this place will never change. It's time that the wealthy Haitians quit eating their ice cream sandwiches, relinquish some of the wealth they have and allow the 99% to at least get a job.