The Delfoarts grew up unschooled and illiterate and wanted better for their children. It hasn't worked out that way. Their children do go to school and have learned to read, but other than that their lives are the same as their parents', with little hope of improvement. Nonetheless, they seem to me to have come to terms with their lives.
They were wonderfully kind to me, though they got scared when my interpreter told them threateningly that our visit had drawn the attention of the military and the Tontons Macoutes (the brutal private militia of the Duvaliers). Fortunately, the threat turned out to be empty, although it caused a commotion at the time.
The interpreter got his own back, I guess. On the night-time return trip to Port au Prince, a jeepload of soldiers drove by us and suddenly stopped. Then they got out and searched us and the car at riflepoint. There was no contraband of any kind, so they let us go. We all got an adrenaline surge, but the most frightened of all was the interpreter. It sounds unkind, but after what he said to the Delfoarts I was glad to see him get the shakes.
