When I heard that the ambassador of Haiti and a voodoo priest would be visiting my house, I rushed around in a flurry to get things ready. After all, how often do you have an ambassador and a voodoo priest in your house at the same time?

I had visions of being the perfect hostess. Reality hit when I checked the closet for a red carpet and there was none. I checked with my neighbor Ueda-san. "Are you sure you don't have one?" I asked. "It doesn't have to be exactly red; tomato or mauve would be OK." She just looked at me with a blank smile. It was the same smile she gave when I told her about my esteemed guests from Haiti. Her eyes got cloudy and I could tell she was struggling to remember back 60 years to junior high-school geography class, trying to recall if Haiti was in the South Pacific or the Baltic Sea.

"You know, Haiti. It's an island," I said. "One of those dot countries in the Caribbean. On the world map, it's between the Cuban dot and the Jamaican dot." Except that Haiti shares an island with The Dominican Republic so it's really a half-a-dot country. Ueda-san's face brightened as if things were suddenly now in perspective. I could tell she had been boning up on her dots.