| A Human Moment |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|08:58 pm] |
I went on Omegle again tonight, expecting to have another hilarious conversation with somebody random.
That's how it worked out at first. One guy who pretended to be my long lost father, a 56 year old from Arkansas, a nice guy from Paris, and a guy from Brazil.
Then I entered the chat again. First thing I saw was "greets from haiti". Holy shit, I thought. Haiti's home to what the UN described as the most dangerous place on earth, Cite Soleil. I asked, "Isn't Cite Soleil in Haiti?" That's where this guy lived.
If you want to know what Cite Soleil is like, watch "Ghosts of Cite Soleil", it's an amazing movie, shows you how indescribably brutal life is there. Armed gangs, rebels, Fanmi Lavalas (a political party by name, but functionally they are ex-President Aristide's militia), and United Nations soldiers roam the streets in constant conflict. There is little electricity. It's one of the largest slums in the world.
I threw a barrage of questions at this guy. He lived in Soleil 17, one of the many districts in the city. Each gang controls a few districts. Gangs vary in allegiance depending on who supplies them with food, guns, ammunition, and other supplies.
His name is Armand, he's studying at the university. He's taking anthropology.
The first question he asked is if I was able to send food, because Aristide was holding the United Nations provisions.
He asked me what it's called when somebody stands on a snowy mountain and goes down, like in the Olympics. He'd never heard the word "skiing" before.
He's lived in Haiti his whole life. I asked him, is it really as bad there as the documentaries show it? He said "its all i know, but even i know this isn't natural".
We chatted for a while, firing questions back and forth. I got an e-mail address from him, it's his classmate's. He said if I write her, she can pass a letter on to him, as well as provide me with a physical address, so I can send mail directly to him.
He had to go study, and when he disconnected, I actually cried. I never thought I'd make a true human connection when I'd signed on. It was just overwhelming.
The transcript of the chat is below the cut. You can see at the beginning I almost thought he was lying, but quickly changed my tune.
( A Human Moment ) |
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