{"id":3509,"date":"2018-05-15T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T14:51:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T18:51:28","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From Haiti … Featuring Dawlyn @ Little Blind Book Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"


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<\/span> It’s time for this week’s So Your Character is … Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last week’s  So Your Character is from Grenada … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!<\/span>
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<\/span> Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span>
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My name is Dawlyn Dieudonne and I will be 24 this month. My parents immigrated to the US from Haiti, but I was born and raised in the US. I\u2019ve been to Haiti but I was too young to remember it. Now that my sisters and I are on our own, our parents moved back to Haiti for good and are doing independent mission work there. I hope to be able to visit them this summer! Though I was raised in the US, I was raised with in many aspects of the Haitian culture. I grew up in a Haitian church where mostly Haitian Creole was spoken, so I retained the dialect and learned to read it as well. <\/span>
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<\/span> As I am a book blogger, my most obvious hobby is reading. I\u2019ve always loved to read since I was little and only slowed down when I got busy in college. I also like to watch movies and TV shows. This year I started my book blog, which I co-write with my friend Krista and we\u2019ve really been enjoying it! I am currently a teacher working part-time at the Center for the Visually Impaired. I am a full-time graduate student seeking my Master\u2019s Degree in Early Childhood Special Education.<\/span>
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\nBecause I don\u2019t live in Haiti, my parents agreed to help me out with answering some of the questions that relate to living there!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlog<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/Instagram (@littleblindbookfinds)<\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span> What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/b><\/span>
\nLandmarks (as told by my parents): La Citadelle in Cap-Haitian, sandy beaches, the hydro-electric plant in P\u00e9ligre. <\/span>
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<\/span> Celebrations: November 18th, (1803), marks the final battle and victory for independence. January 1st, (1804) is Haitian Independence Day. Haitian Kanaval is a big celebration that begins in January and continues on into the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. It coincides with many other Mardi Gras celebrations around the world. <\/span>
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<\/span> Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/span><\/b><\/span>
\nHaiti is located in the Carribean and shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Haiti has a tropical climate and is the most mountainous nation in the Caribbean. It has many beautiful sandy beaches which are my parents\u2019 favorite places.<\/span>
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<\/span> Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/span><\/b><\/span>
\nHaitian dishes contain a lot of rice, meats, and vegetables. Some of my favorite dishes are white rice and sos pwa (a dark sauce made of black beans), gryo (fried pork), bunun fri (fried plantains), legume (a kind of vegetable stew usually eaten with rice), and soup joumou (pumpkin soup). Soup Joumou is a significant dish because it is known as a dish that was made for and eaten by slave owners but was forbidden to be eaten by Haitian slaves. Because of his, it is tradition that the soup is made and eaten on January 1st; Haitian Independence Day.<\/span>
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Bunun Fri<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Gryo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Legume<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Soup Joumou<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as \u201cbiscuits\u201d instead of \u201ccookies\u201d?<\/span><\/b><\/span>
\nFrench and Haitian Creole are both spoken in Haiti, however, Haitian Creole is spoken most commonly in everyday conversation and it is actually a dialect of broken French, not a language. Like many languages and dialects, words and phrases in Haitian Creole do not translate well into English. For example, the phrase \u201cpo djab\u201d is something that is said that has the intention of meaning something like \u201cpoor thing\u201d in English, but literally translates to \u201cdevil skin\u201d. The phrase \u201cban m tet mwen\u201d, is a phrase said when someone is annoying you but literally translates to \u201cgive me my head.”<\/span>
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