Bocealo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Like almost anyone from Hispaniola, the island uncomfortably shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Paloma Rivera is acutely aware that the two nations distrust each other, complain about each other and cite grievances about each other going back well over a century.

Yet here she was, a Dominican, clearing garbage and digging latrines in a slum in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, to help survivors of the earthquake find a place to pitch their tents.

“Maybe this earthquake, even with its tragedies, can do some good by making us a little less distant from each other,” said Ms. Rivera, 24, a social worker who joined thousands of other Dominicans in loading emergency food and medicine into their vehicles and driving here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/world/americas/29relief.html