I am often asked - no, I am always asked - why Haiti? Well, there was a confluence, a conspiracy it seems, of events, that led me to Haiti. But then, it became very natural, as A. McCall Smith's heroine of his series, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana, puts it:
“She had often been out of pocket on a case simply because she could not refuse to help a person in need. This is what I am called to do, she said to herself. I must help whomsoever asks for my help. That is my duty: to help other people with the problems in their lives. Not that you could do everything. Africa was full of people in need of help and there had to be a limit. You simply could not help everybody but you could at least help those who came into your life. That principle allowed you to deal with the suffering you saw. That was your suffering. Other people would have to deal with the suffering that they, in their turn, came across.”
p. 116
Alexander McCall Smith
Morality for Beautiful Girls
New York: Anchor Books
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