Black skin and deep brown eyes. The 7.2 earthquake in Haiti forced her into a tent. The tent is constructed of tarps, sheets and whatever she can find. Each tent pressed up against the next. A rug on the floor and two sin- gle beds side by side, a walking space between. Jeanette lives with her cousin, Mariana. Two women, thin, but not unhealthy, smiling. As I talk with Jeanette, Marianna prepares to bathe her- self. She takes her clothes off, but I see nothing but a shin, a thigh, and the strength of her fore- arms. She shields herself with a clean yellow towel. How soft and bright the yellow is against her black skin. She holds a bucket with clean water and a bar of soap. She steps just outside the tent. She washes, still wrapped in yellow — water splashing, calming, cleansing.
Three men sit just We employ 85 women to hand outside of the tent. They turn their backs to Marianna out of respect? This is her moment of solitude, but not quite, because I am watching. As she’s washing, her beauty is luminous next to the earth, the mud on the ground just outside her tent. A woman tries to maintain her dignity and command respect.
to learn the meaning of dignity?