Where was I?

Sorry it's been a while but here are some more of my journal entries from Haiti. It has been a crazy summer yet my mind constantly turns to the people in this little country. 

May 5, 2012

Today we took the adventurous bus ride of a lifetime! We headed up into the hills outside of Port-au-Prince to visit a community in Gojan and as we traveled, we found that several of the roads had been washed out or severely damaged by the crazy rain the last two nights. Honestly, I don’t know how our bus driver Olin does it but he managed to get us up the hills and only got stuck, temporarily, once. It was a wild bumpy ride and more than once I thought we would be stuck forever.

Rain in Haiti = washed out roads...

...but people still have to get around.

Olin

A farm which has been partially washed away due to the rain. There is no such thing as crop insurance in Haiti so they will just have to get by on less... or starve.

We did finally make it though and met a woman named Carla, who has been living in Haiti for 28 years with her husband, and has created a foundation, N a Sonje, to draw focus to the need for healing and remembering in Haiti. We visited Carla’s home and the home of her closest neighbor whose home in Port-au-Prince was destroyed in the earthquake. Following the tour, we sat in a gathering shelter and shared a little about ourselves and why we came to Haiti. Several young men from the community joined us and expressed their gratitude that we would travel to Haiti, visit their homes, and share a bit of them and their lives with our families back home.

One of the young men, nicknamed YaYa, then took us to his home where he and some of the other men taught us Creole. They also talked about how greetings are very important in Haiti, much of which was similar to the message Djaloki shared with us the first day. We had planned to stay long enough to enjoy roasted coffee and lunch but unfortunately it began raining and our driver was very worried that we would not be able to get back down the mountain. Of course, YaYa chased us down with packed lunch for us to enjoy! The people here are so kind and loving and generous. I am beginning to question everything I have ever heard about Haiti and how dangerous it is always made out to be.

YaYa teaching us Creole.

YaYa, another young man, and Carla

YaYa's grandmother roasting coffee.

Some of our group.

May 6, 2012

Today was a pretty low-key day, church, lunch, and a little shopping. We went to a local non-denominational church which was all in english. It was led and run by white men but attended by many Haitians. I don’t know if the Haitians attend to work on their English or what but it did seem a bit odd that it was run by all white people. Anyway, everyone was really nice and seemed happy to meet us.

I like going to church in other countries and worshipping with people who have a common belief in Christ but do not practice the same religion as me. Some of the group went to the LDS meeting and then met us at our meeting and I would have loved to do both but could not get up early enough as it is hard to sleep in a room full of girls, especially when the fan gets turned off. Anyway, it was a nice experience to visit this church. I am always fascinated by the similarities in religions and would love to study worldwide religion in greater depth.

After church we went to a restaurant/shop for lunch and a little souvenir shopping. I found a beautiful metal wall art which I purchased and will now have to figure out how to get home as it is way to big to fit in a suitcase. It was a rather delightful and relaxing day.

May 7, 2012

Today we met Corinne who is with a group called SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods). They make toilets which turn human waste into organic compost. Corinne talked to us about their small program which is helping to manage waste in a sustainable way. They build toilets with drums which collect feces during use while the urine is diverted to cut down on liquid and smells. Sawdust or sugarcane is added to help with smells, keep flies away and help with composting of the feces. It takes a long time, about a year, but when everything goes right, the drum is opened and beautiful, clean compost comes out. They have struggled a bit with trial and error to get their system to work right but are making progress.

We also visited a site in Cité Soleil where they are using the compost to grow gardens so people living in the slums have access to food. Corinne seemed really excited about the work they are doing and the progress SOIL has made over the last few years. I think it’s a really good idea to have human feces become something useful and safe. I can see how it would be hard to get locals excited though because the end product takes so long to make. Haitians seem to live minute to minute, especially in the slums and tent cities, so it feels like it might be hard to convince people to care about the toilet. But by improving the area and teaching people I can see how at least it is getting everyone to go to the bathroom in the same place which can cut down on contamination.

Cité Soleil

Planters!

Food growing in former poop!

In the afternoon we went to the US Embassy which was quite the ordeal in itself. It is very fancy and air-conditioned and is just like checking into the airport, no liquids allowed and they take your passport until you are ready to go. They also would not let Herold come with us which bugged me. Probably because they cleared all of us before-hand and wouldn’t have had time to check out if he is ok.

We met with a man named John Pachouski who is basically a kind of PR guy and he is very good at his job. He talked about how the US is helping Haiti but how difficult it can be to make progress because of difficulties such as the many steps it takes to get a business license, the instability of electricity, and problems with shipping to name a few. 

Some of the interesting facts he shared include:

• 60% of mangoes are damaged during transport for various reasons such as overloading, rough handling, and inadequate shipping vehicles.
• When the earthquake hit 1/3 of Haitians were living in Port-au-Prince and 1/2 of the countries jobs are located here so the impact has been devastating.
• There are 10 million square meters of rubble in Port-au-Prince which still need to be removed.

Several times Mr. Pachouski made sure to say that congress makes all of the decisions about Haiti. He also talked a lot about how the Haitian government doesn’t work enough with outside businesses to help Haiti fulfill the capitalist dream and even stated at one point that it is “un-American” to dislike what the US is doing in Haiti. I could tell that no one really wanted to fight but some in our group asked really great questions about what is being done. Overall though, I got the sense that we are supposed to appreciate the US machine and all it is doing for Haiti. It was kind of creepy. Plus I was really annoyed by how crappy the roads were out front and yet here is this fancy building with perfect landscaping, air-conditioning, and huge security measures.