Animals

Okay, I like animals, so being here is one big search for wildlife for me. I've seen Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Black Vultures, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Antillean mango and Hispaniolan Emerald hummingbirds, Hispaniolan woodpeckers, and a little bird called a Kolobri (pictured above) which is thought to be the prettiest of birds in Haiti.

Birding is somewhat difficult. When you ask someone the name of a bird they say "zwazo" which means "bird." On top of that, our bird guide for Haiti--unlike every other field guide in the world--is alphabetical. If I see a hawk, I need to already know the name of the bird or I have to page through the whole book looking for the correct picture. It's somewhat frustrating, but at least there is a guide.

Little-known fact: John James Audubon was born in Haiti.

Other animals I've seen but don't know species names for yet are:
lizards, snakes, spiders (including tarantulas), starfish, sea urchins, and lots of insects, including fireflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes, and--Sharon's favorite--ants. I have yet to be bitten and she, on the other hand, knows their bite all too well.

On the lookout--




Posted by Bryan, from Joy's account

The Vote is In

Yesterday we attended the annual meeting for ODD (Organization for the Development of Desarmes). They're one of MCC's partners here; they also plant trees, work with irrigation, and are trying to get a trade school off the ground.

At this meeting, they needed to vote in some new board members and new members for the oversight committee. After a long period of people nominating others (or themselves), we eventually had 7 candidates, 5 men and 2 women, for 3 open positions. Each candidate had three minutes to promote themselves before the election. Following the speeches, there is a brief silence and all heads look to us. I must have missed the announcement that they needed voting monitors. They thought we would do just fine.

A stack of notecards was produced, and I thought, "oh, those are the ballots and you write in the name of the person you like and that's that" -- nope, not quite that simple. The notecards were indeed for the candidates, but there was no writing in. Four candidates were represented by colored cards, one by bottlecaps, one by pebbles, and one by cardboard.

So into a dark hallway we went, with a basket at our feet. Each person came in to cast up to three votes, once for each open position. Theoretically, a person could toss in 1 pink notecard, 1 bottlecap, and 1 piece of cardboard. We were there to make sure they put in no more than three votes. We asked if someone could use all three of their votes for the same person, and one of the ODD officials said, surprisingly, "yes, that's not a problem." Well, it turns out that someone did cast three votes for one candidate -- it actually was Mr. Bottlecap, the candidate himself!

We emerged from the dark hallway with the basket of votes and hoped no rocks fell through the cracks as we carried it over. After we sat down, we asked Jean-Remy if it really was OK for one person to vote for the same candidate three times. His eyes widened, he clarified our butchered Kreyol and said "no, that is not allowed" -- paused and said, "We'll wait and see how the vote turns out. If there's a problem will address it later."

So the votes come in: 49 votes for Pink Notecard, 47 votes for Blue Notecard, and 29 votes for Bottlecap (ah! He's in 3rd place!), 4 votes for Cardboard, 17 for Pebble, 19 for White Notecard and...22, 23, 24, 25....votes for Green Notecard. So close! Mr. Bottlecap only wins by a hair if you take away his two illegal votes. Thrilling.

We thought it was a pretty ingenious way to allow people who may be illiterate to participate local politics, and we were impressed that they took it so seriously.

Notable quotes

In church, last Sunday, the priest, introducing us:
"See these blan [white people]--do you know them already? No? See, they don't all look alike."

In a meeting, last Thursday, our coworker Frantzo, about me:
"She's a foreigner, so she expects meetings to start on time."
(Apparently my reputation has not preceded me!)

This morning, our day off, 6:10 a.m., Frantzo again, at the door:
"I called before I got here. Oh, are you sleeping?"

In a meeting, in front of 75 people, our coworker Jean-Remy, whispering:
"Can you say a little something now? Just tell them how much we like working with them."

This afternoon, the only other foreigner we've seen all week, shouting from his truck:
"Look! Two blan walking in the rain!"

Love. it.

Robot spaghetti vs. river

When you were younger, did you love going through the car wash? I did. I loved the spraying of water, the huge "spaghetti" slapping the windows, more spraying of water and the huge blower, and a huge robot eye that looks at you and apparently drives your car for you. Pretty cool.

Well, Haiti tops that by a mile. Today after hiking, working, and attending a funeral I was asked to drive down a little road next to the nearby river. We pulled alongside it, and I was then directed to drive into the river. We parked in about two feet of flowing water. We all hopped out of the truck, my co-workers and I stripped down to our skivvies, and we washed the truck in the river. We washed all the mud off, and when finished someone produced a bar of soap--we lathered ourselves up, scrubbed up a bit, and jumped in to rinse off. We put our clothes back on, drove out of the river and back to the office clean as a whistle.

I think any kid would enjoy this car wash a bit more than the dancing spaghetti robot. I did.

True confessions

There is a home church currently in session next door, which means:
1. A microphone
2. Huge speakers of typically low quality
3. A keyboard
4. Full volume.
So imagine church karaoke and that's what I am currently listening to.

But that's not what I need to confess. There's something else.

We used to listen to NPR programs most days--after work, or after church, or before work, or on weekends. Since arriving in Haiti we haven't listened to any of them. So today we sat ourselves down, cozied up to the fast internet connection, and listened to This American Life, Marketplace (you folks have got to work out those problems with the dollar), Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and we tried to listen to Cartalk but that didn't work out. We continued our audio fest with Skyping family (yes, Mom and Dad...you were not home. Next time, though).

The true confession is that it was great. No one was looming behind us waiting to use the computer, and because we were all alone we could yell at full force into the tiny pinhole next to the monitor that Mac calls a microphone....yea!

And true confession #2:
We have installed a wonder-gadget on this blog to tell us who visits and from where and for how long they hang out on our blog. It's sort of scary what's available out there to track people on the internet, but it has proven to be interesting. Now I can say hello to those of you in Washington state, Texas, and the Netherlands, hola to the Colombians, and 你好 to those in China. It doesn't tell us exactly who you are, just the name of your town. Right now Norfolk, VA, and Philadelphia, PA, are neck-and-neck for 1st place at 26 and 25 visits.

Well, I actually have real work to do before it gets dark. Tomorrow I leave at 5am for a visit to a tree nursery, so I better get to bed soon.

One more small note of interest: the bridge between us and Port-au-Prince is still out, but when I asked Jean-Remy (my boss) how it was today he told me that he followed a few other trucks around the bridge and down to the river--where they then drove through the river. He said there was at least 3 feet of water moving pretty quickly. Haiti: where the impossible is possible, I guess. Who needs bridges to cross rivers?

Since Ben and Alexis were catching a ride with Jean Remy today, they may post some pics of this event. If we're in luck.

Our first day of work (!)

After about two months of getting oriented to Haiti (and wildly disoriented), learning Creole, and meeting new people, we were finally able to put in an honest day's work.

We rose around 6:00 to meet with the administrative committee for one of the local tree nurseries. Alexis, Pancha (MCC's Connecting People Coordinator), Bryan, and I split up to visit three nurseries. Bryan and I actually went together with Michelet, a Haitian MCCer, on motorcycles and moto-taxis. He dropped us off in front of a school and took off, leaving us standing there with a few men from the committee. I tried to inquire about where he was headed, but instead of asking "Where is Michelet going?" I accidentally asked "Where is Michelet from?" --and got the appropriate response.

He eventually returned and the meeting commenced. I feel like our Creole is definitely improving: we were able to follow most of what was being said, although certainly not all. Little by little...

Because we waited around in the morning, I thought it would be wise to take my book along on the afternoon trip to see a ti foret, a little forest or tree garden. We again hopped on motorcycles and headed up a nearby mountain. However, the motorized portion of our trip ended in a hike down a ravine to a river and up the hillside before we reached the forest.

Franklin, one of the staunch members of the reforestation team, helped us cross the river, which was higher than normal and moving pretty fast. Pancha had a great time crossing:


You wouldn't know it to look at them, but these kids were having the time of their lives splashing around in the river. "Photo mwen! Photo me!" It seems that Haitians do not smile for photos if they can help it. Happens every time.


The hike was absolutely gorgeous, despite the bruise developing on my shoulder from carrying a 600-page book along...


Michelet showed us the little nursery he has:


And last but not least, here's the cheesy photo taken of the new Dezam MCCers for the environmental education newsletter, going out next week. Hopefully we don't scare away any potential friends.

Off we go....

After much anticipation, we are finally scheduled to go to Desarmes (Dezam) tomorrow. Even though a bridge is still out at about the halfway point, we'll be met on the other side of the bridge by our Desarmes MCC team. The bridge is still passable by foot, motorbike and bicycle - just not vehicle. So today we tried to finish up loose ends here in Port-au-Prince (getting drivers' licenses, buying essentials, finishing laundry, etc.) so we can leave without too much unfinished business lingering around. Tomorrow we have to wake up early to try to finish up the last few tasks and be on the road by 11am. I'm a little skeptical that we will actually leave by 11:00, as we have a meeting with the bank early to see if our account is set up, have to meet with a partner organization, and then head back to the Drivers' License office for round #2 of getting the licenses.

Some people have asked us how hard things have been here since the flooding and hurricanes -and honestly, we ourselves have not been affected at all. We haven't even heard much of the news, as everything we hear is in Creole or French; even though we have been studying for a while, the most I can get is "flood, money, hungry, Gonaives, bad roads." (This is actually not too bad, as the DJs rapid-fire their Creole.)

Port-au-Prince hasn't skipped a beat, and it's hard to know what is really happening. It seems most people in the U.S. are getting more news than we are - today I got two e-mails about Matt Damon, and some internet searching revealed that he and Wyclef Jean were here on Sunday. It seems we are about one day behind the U.S. in news from Haiti.

Check out Ben and Alexis's blog for photos of the flooding in Gonaives. Ben drove up there on a fact-finding mission on Friday and was able to document some of what's happening. MCC is helping out with relief through some of its partner organizations here in Haiti, but I'm not quite sure exactly when they are doing what.

It's strange to feel that we are close to so much tragedy, but it still feels so far away. At the moment it feels like we can't really do anything directly, but we're open to suggestions.

Any Port-au-Prince in a storm

We've been trying to head out to Desarmes for the last week or so, but the recent hurricanes damaged roads and delayed our move until this coming Tuesday (si dye vle, if God wants). It's been nice to have a little more time to explore this complex city.

Some highlights:

-Wall murals of uplifting sayings by a somewhat mysterious organization.
-Paintings, and copies of paintings, for sale everywhere.
-Goats grazing on a little strip of grass at the gas station.
-Two amazing things that I haven't yet photographed: the ultracolorful tap-taps, the truck-taxis that are public transportation, and the painted portraits advertising hair salons throughout the city. Stay tuned.
-Frequent electricity. Frequent internet access.
-The fact that I think about Celine Dion every day, because the water trucks (think ice cream trucks) play the theme from Titanic loudly and often, on ice-cream-truck-quality speakers.
-Creole lessons with a professional tutor. Seriously. He wrote our textbook.
-Swimming pools at fancy hotels.

The following:



So, moving to Desarmes. The current plan is for us to drive to the river on Tuesday, cross a bridge on foot with all our stuff, and meet the reforestation team and their truck on the other side. Because we've heard that the market in Desarmes is still closed because of flooding, we're planning to take food for several weeks with us. It's unclear whether Ben and Alexis will come with us for a week or whether they'll postpone their visit even further.

The Artibonite Valley was definitely affected by the hurricanes, but definitely not as severely as Gonaives and other cities in Haiti. MCC is currently raising support for material aid: you can read their official press release here.

Jesus and Jay-Z

Once again I am here to write about things that are not earth-shattering but occupy some of my time here. With all of our newfound study time here in Port-au-Prince, our Creole teacher has been giving us fun and interesting homework assignments. Most recently he has asked us to pick Bible stories and re-tell the stories in our own words (our own Creole words). Imagine a six-year-old trying to retell the story of Jesus walking on water.

Well, the best part is that "Jesus" in Creole is spelled "Jezi" and is pronounced "Jay-Z." Jay-Z happens to be the name of a fairly well-know rap artist that I secretly listen to. The funny part is that I can't seem to shake the imagery; every time I hear someone say Jezi I only hear Jay-Z and picture Jay-Z the rapper in Bible times walking on water, feeding the 5,000, and speaking in parables.

This has not been all bad. Haiti is about 99% black, but most people here imagine Jesus as a white man with a beard. I think that in the 6 weeks we've been here I've been told at least a dozen times that I look like Jesus (I've had men shout it from passing cars, kids, teenagers.... almost everyone thinks I look like Jesus). I've been asked why all the images of Jesus are of a white man, and I have no answer.

So in my mind Jesus is a fairly large black man that raps in parables and had a hard-knock life. It works for me and I'm not trying to shake the image yet.

On another, more serious, note, some members of our team are going to some hurricane- damaged areas tomorrow and next week. They'll be distributing food, water, medicine and other essentials. Please pray for them as they will see a lot of devastation and only have supplies to help a handful of people. (MCC is currently raising funds to help more flood victims.) Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts during these past several hurricanes, and please continue to remember the flood victims here in Haiti.

Still in Port-au-Prince

Well, we wrote a few weeks ago that after a week in Port-au-Prince we would head to Desarmes to visit our new home. Well, as you have read or seen on the news, Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna hit Haiti. In PAP we didn't get much more than rain and some strong winds, not much to write about, but everywhere else got hit really hard, especially the low-lying areas north of us (Gonaives and St. Mark). Enough rain fell that both cities were totally flooded, and on top of this a dam in the mountains close to the Dominican Republic had to open up because it could no longer hold the rainwater. Needless to say, all of this water destroyed a lot of the Artibonite River Valley crops, which include: rice, bananas, plantains, corn and thousands of families' subsistence gardens. To make matters even worse, bridges have been destroyed so vehicles cannot get into these areas.

What does this mean for us? We cannot get to Desarmes yet, and for now we need to wait in PAP until the bridges are rebuilt and roads are passable again.

I've was expecting Desarmes to be different from PAP. Now with most gardens destroyed, it will certainly add to the severity of any problem that previously existed. But, as our Creole teacher just pointed out to me, Haiti is a place where the possible can be impossible--but the impossible is always possible.

Sainte Trinite

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to visit the Cathedral Sainte Trinite, a remarkable church vibrant with murals interpreting Biblical stories in a uniquely Haitian way. Commissioned in the 1950s, this project "helped spark a renaissance of all the arts in Haiti" (Bessinger 1995).

The lighting was pretty low in the church, but these photos should give you some sense of the color and detail of the paintings.

(It reminded me of the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, which those of you in the U.S. should visit if you're looking for a similar experience that's closer to home.)

Hanna

Rainy days are pleasant enough--until your house gets flooded.

Unfortunately, we've had hurricanes a-plenty this season. Port-au-Prince has been relatively undamaged by Hanna, but the storm is destroying homes and the countryside not too far north of here. Our MCC coworkers in the Artibonite Valley are okay, but that hasn't lessened our concern for the people of Gonaives, St. Marc, and elsewhere that the storm has been severe.

On Tuesday we ran a sort of fool's errand--one of our coworkers needed to pick up a package at the Baptist Mission, which is located halfway up a local mountain. Six of us piled into the truck and headed upward. It quickly became apparent that while the city was relatively becalmed, a full-on hurricane was happening just above our heads. Power lines were down, trees were sliding down the mountainside roots first, and the wind was definitely howling.

Several men took advantage of a downed power pole to create a little road block, asking for money in exchange for moving the pole (they did this as kindly as is possible while wielding machetes). We noticed that not every vehicle was receiving this treatment, so we decided to put our heads down, pretend we're not blan, and follow closely behind a big truck that had a free pass. That was a little unnerving, but more so was the downed power line that wasn't quite down--we squeezed the truck under wires dangling not far above our roof.

We made it safely down and back, and the experience was both exhiliarating and sobering. We're concerned about the people experiencing storms without safe retreats, and realize that things will probably get worse if Hurricanes Ike and Josephine both head through.

Our move to Desarmes has been postponed by at least two days because of the storms, so we're planning to head out on Monday instead.

Kore Pwodiksyon Lokal

Support local production!

KPL, one of MCC's partners, encourages Haitians to support the national economy by buying locally-made goods and locally-grown food.

KPL originally purchased airtime for this commercial on national television this past spring, and the TV station now supports the project by airing it for free several times a day. Filmed and directed by an MCCer, the actors are all people we met in Gwo Jean. Enjoy!