The story from Dezam

- is nothing compared to what's happening in Port-au-Prince. People here are starting to find out about family members missing/killed and a few funerals are already being planned. Unfortunately the earthquake happened right after the semester started (unfortunately it happened at all) so a lot of students had just returned to school from Christmas break - it's especially heartbreaking to hear of families who have lost children. We've seen more people than usual arrive in Dezam on taptaps and buses that are still running, so it seems that everyone who can is leaving the city to stay with family in the countryside.

A quick update on our teammates: three of our Haitian coworkers are still unaccounted for and several others have lost their houses. Joel and Rachel were supposed to be evacuated this morning. People are sleeping in the yard at the MCC guesthouse in Port, which is cracked but still standing - we're still experiencing faint aftershocks here in Dezam and are hoping they're not any stronger there.

So far being in Dezam is sort of like being in Philadelphia during 9-11: you're only two hours away and feel like you should do something, but you also don't want to go and be in the way. Right now the decision is for us to sit tight here, but we're hoping to find a way to help a bit more actively.

The earth moved

Just a quick post about the earthquake. We're okay here in Desarmes. In this area there were a few minor collapses (a mud wall here, a few cinder blocks there), but other than reports of a fatal heart attack during the quake we've heard nothing of local casualties. All cell phone services have been down since the quake hit and haven't yet returned, so a lot of people are worried about family that lives in Port-au-Prince or other towns (our coordinator, Jean-Remy, actually drove to Port this morning to check on his daughter and other folks). It looks like Port-au-Prince got hit harder than us because of the number of buildings and people and the number of poorly-constructed buildings with multiple stories. For now we don't know how the rest of the MCC team is in Port-au-Prince but we're hoping they are okay. We welcome your thoughts and prayers for Haiti, and we'll post more as we know more.

UPDATE: We just heard through MCC Canada that all program staff, including all international staff, in Port-au-Prince are safe and accounted for (although it sounds like Joel and Rachel had a narrow escape!). We're still waiting to find out about support staff members and are praying and hoping they are safe as well.

May Retrospective

Wow, how the weeks fly by! Here's a little of how we've been filling our time this month:

The Great Cherry Meltdown.
Our resources in Dezam are limited even compared to those of our coworkers in Port-au-Prince, so when I learned that there were cherries in Port's local markets I felt discouraged and more than a little jealous. But lo and behold, I found this in front of our house:

And this behind our house:

And this at the MCC office:

The lesson, it turns out, is to keep my eyes open to what's happening all around me. It might just be the thing I think I'm missing.

Visitors from the North.
Hooray for:
Beth & Jason! We had a fantastic time showing them our favorite haunts, checking out the local arts scene, and cooking up a tasty cherry crumble. After receiving B&J and Bryan's parents, and hanging out in Dezam with the Steckleys last week, we can say again that we LOVE having visitors (hint hint, for those of you weighing the pros and cons of trekking to the Caribbean this year...). It's really what makes it possible for us to keep living in the Artibonite Valley. Well, that and the internet.

Taking to the seas.

Last Sunday a group of MCCers, visitors, and friends headed to a small island off the coast of our small island home for a day of snorkeling and splashing in the waves.

For photos and details, click through to Rebekah H.’s blog.

Induction into MCC's Ajan Anviwonman Program.
Well, we didn't actually become Agents, but the Environmental Education Program welcomed 30 new students (2 from each partner school) as AAs. These kids were selected by their teachers based on their enthusiasm for protecting the environment, and MCC's program plans special activities throughout the year to encourage them to pick up trash (or reduce their trash creation in general), plant trees, and spread the green word to other kids.

Changing of the Season.
Goodbye dust, hello mud:
After months of hauling water from the river for our garden, the rains have come and brought everything back to life!

We hadn't realized how much we missed the sound of rain until we started hearing it again. This means that our water worries are over (no more driving to the river to find water for our garden) but our electricity worries have begun (less sunshine means less time for our solar panel to convert rays into power).

The arrival of Bryan’s first true love.

I’ve become a bike widow again, but I don’t resent for a minute the pleasure he gets from tooling around on two wheels. We cannot thank the many hands that made its arrival possible. Danny and Courtney pulled it out of their basement and got it boxed up, Beth and Jason lugged the thing around a few airports and Frazer Mennonite paid the oversize luggage fee. We can't thank you all enough for making this happy reunion possible – THANK YOU!

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.

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.

Gustav

Hurricane #2, and we are okay.

Imagine a snow--when it starts to snow and everyone calls out of work and school gets cancelled and everyone watches the weather all day to find out that...yes indeed, it is snowing. Well, here in Haiti there is no snow. When it rains everyone stays home, calls out of work, the stores don't open and everyone listens to the radio to find out that...yes indeed, it is raining. To call it a "hurricane" is probably correct, but we experienced only rain--three days of steady rain. Not heavy hurricane rain, just steady rain for about 3 days. When the rain finally stopped and people emerged again, we asked what they had done for the past three days, and the common response was "We stayed in bed all day." We learned from our Haitian friends to take it easy, so we got out of bed late and busied ourselves with Scrabble (in English and Creole), a movie, and some reading.

In other news, this morning we arrived in Port-au-Prince for the last leg of our orientation. We'll be here for a little more than a week, taking Creole lessons, setting up a bank account, and learning things like How to Drive a Motorcycle in Swiftly Moving Traffic. Then we're on to Desarmes on September 6!

Until the next hurricane.....

Hurricane ...what hurricane?

Well, news doesn't travel fast here in Haiti. Upon returning from our trip to Cape Haitian, we read our e-mails of storm warnings and hurricanes and we knew nothing was even threatening the island. I believe we were hiking / 4x4 trucking to a fort called the Citadel during this tropical storm, and I do remember saying to Sharon, "this could be a hurricane for all we know; we haven't seen the news for 3 weeks"--and it seems like I was more right than I thought.

Our trip to O'kap (as they call it) went well. We visited some historical areas which are a source of great pride for Haitians. If you know it or not, they were the first independent country in the Americas and fought very very hard for that independence. The Citadel was built to defend their freedom; after 14 years of construction the king died and the Citadel was never finished and never used as a means of defense.

We also had the chance to dip our toes in the Caribbean waters and swim a little bit, and we found starfish, crabs, and all sort of sea life right by the shore. Something that made me chuckle was the name of our hotel: the "Gros Bebe," which in French is the Big/Fat Baby, and in Haiti means that you are cute as a baby. On the downside, most of us got sick; they say it's Haiti getting into us and that everyone gets sick when they come....great. We're better now after a day of rest.

To give you a little idea of our trip, there was 7 of us in a 4 door pick-up, 3 up front and 4 in the back. Imagine the worst roads you've been on and multiply by 10 or so. The four of us in the back jostled around for about 7 hours each way, sometimes whacking our heads against the window because the car shook so much. I emerged with a bruise on my hip from all the bumps....these are seriously potholed roads.

My new dilemma is what to do when you are asked for money. In the U.S., I got used to ignoring people asking for money, but now these people really need money--its still awkward. White folks are called "blan" here, and every once in awhile a young boy will see you and say, "Blan, give me some money!" It's hard to blame them, as most Americans come so they can give things away (money, food, clothes, medicine) with the best intentions, but it has created an impression that all blans are wealthy and have things to give away. This opens up a whole can of worms. I shouldn't go too far now in my personal impressions of Haiti; maybe after a year of two I can more accurately describe it, but for now I am merely an observer in my third week of living in Haiti.