The late-y doth protest too much.

This is the clock that came with our apartment. Look, it's...7:30? 8:03?

For someone like me who, shall we say, struggles with punctuality, perhaps this isn't the best timekeeper.

But whatever. I've got plenty of time to change it.

I think.

Remember when everyone was smuggling suitcases full of blue jeans into Russia?

Well, maybe it's time to sneak suitcases full of coolers into Haiti. A local grocery store has priced this model at 29,900 gourdes. For those Yanks out there, that's $747.50 U.S. That's SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN DOLLARS. And FIFTY CENTS.

Seriously. You could make a fortune selling coolers at even half that price.

Two week's notice.

Okay, time for some news.

Bryan and I will be leaving Haiti and MCC two weeks from today. The past few weeks have been a mixed time for us as we're sad to say goodbye to the folks we know and love on this little island, but in the end we feel like it is good to be moving on.

So where to from here?

We are moving back to Philadelphia to live with my brother and our sister-in-law for the summer. After a 10-week internship at Art-Reach through the Samuel Fels Fund, I will start a(nother) master's degree program at Vanderbilt Divinity School. I'll be studying Ethics in Society with the ultimate goal of continuing on to earn a PhD.

Bryan was accepted as this year's arboriculture intern at the Morris Arboretum. This program will allow him to study trees and urban areas, and after a year he'll be certified to risk his life 60 feet up in old trees with a chainsaw for pay. ( If you have a tree problem in 2011 and want to pay scads of cash to save your beloved tree, he'll take care of it for you.) To keep the adventurous spirit alive in the meantime, Bryan will be bike commuting and loving every minute of it.

In fact, we're trying to live sans car to keep our living costs low (graduate student and intern...aren't we too old for this?). We're also planning to keep our thumbs green this summer and plant greens and other yummy things. Depending on the good graces of our familial hosts, we would also like to keep composting worms because they are just crazy to watch. (Bryan doesn't even mind if they actually compost - it's like an ant farm or ant lion desktop Zen thing for him.)

In leaving Haiti, we're most sad about leaving amazing friends. We've had lots of great times here - but we're confident that our friendships and our adventures are not ending. Here's to the future, ya'll!

Bon Fet Drapo!

Happy Flag Day!

Yesterday was one of Haiti's national holidays, and lots of people spent the day off doing this:

(Forgive the last-minute drive-by photo of this much-better-in-real-life parade)

We instead headed with Alexis and our friend Megan to the lake at Tomasek:

After a little negotiation, we rented two (ridiculously rickety) boats with two pole-men each and set out against the wind.

Bryan, about to fearlessly risk life and limb in our little watercraft. (While he and I crushed to the left to keep the boat balanced and one man poled us along, the other bailed water. With his sandal. )

Ben is still laid up with a busted knee and couldn't come, but Alexis and Megan made a handsome duo in the second boat:

They had a third Haitian man in their boat, which caused no small amount of distress for the man poling our boat along. I'm not sure why he was complaining to us.

Despite my constant fear of capsizing, it was wholly pleasant to be out on the water with the breeze blowing and no one around:

Well, horses and...

Yes! Flamingos!

I've always thought that flamingos were a little cheesy, but it turns out they're much more impressive in real life. Despite their gangliness, and the outrageous pinkness of them, they were breathtaking.

By far one of the most beautiful things we've seen in Haiti. Wings down.

Addendum: click through to Alexis's blog post for more photos and details about the bird itself.

The article that wasn't.

I wrote this for MCC about a month ago, but since it's still making its way through the MCC publication process (i.e., it looks like it won't be released after all) I've decided to post it here instead.

Perspective: Global aid threatens Haiti’s economy

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ­­ — Dozens of Haitians, usually young women, crowd together in Port-au-Prince, awaiting food distributions. As they wait for free food, they buy plantain chips, bananas, peanuts and other snacks from vendors selling to those in line.

This tension between free food aid from international aid organizations and Haitian producers and vendors is not new to Haiti, but it has become more blatant since the Jan. 12 earthquake. Many countries and organizations, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) included, have shipped food and supplies into the country.

While emergency food relief sustained affected families in and around Port-au-Prince, where millions were homeless following the earthquake, ongoing free food from outside the country undermines the local economy and makes it harder for Haitian farmers to support themselves and their families.

Local markets shut down in the wake of the earthquake, and food and water were difficult to find and expensive when they were available. In response to this need, MCC immediately sent 33 tons of canned turkey and beef and 1,000 water filters to Port-au-Prince.

“Canned meat is a good way to provide nutrition to people when local markets aren’t functional,” said Margot de Greef, one of MCC Haiti’s Material Resources coordinators. “It’s especially appreciated in Haiti because meat is an important part of preparing rice and bean sauce in the traditional way.”

In addition to providing canned meat, MCC also actively procured food from local producers to give to earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince. While international food aid shipments were delayed at Haiti’s only international airport, MCC was able to purchase rice, beans and corn in the countryside and distribute it to disaster victims in the capital within days of the earthquake.

Haitian farmers took pride in being able to help earthquake victims, and recipients took pride in knowing that other Haitians were contributing to relief efforts. Buying food locally also supported Haiti’s ability to feed itself in the long term.

However, local food aid is only a small percentage of the overall relief effort. Because of the influx of international emergency food aid, the prices of Haitian-produced rice and black beans have already dropped to below pre-earth­quake prices. PAPDA (Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif), the Haitian Platform for Advocating Alternative Development, predicts that prices will continue to plummet to the continued detriment of Haitian farmers.

In an interview with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) at the end of January, Haitian president René Préval said, “We cannot continue to rely on giving food to the population that comes from abroad, because we’re competing against our own national agriculture.”

Although food aid shipments have increased dramatically since Jan. 12, the presence of U.S. agricultural products in Haitian markets is not a new phenomenon. In 2009, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sent 83,020 tons of food for “long-term development and emergency needs.” USAID pledged an additional 14,550 tons of food as emergency response.

The U.S. has acknowledged the practice of “dumping” subsidized rice on the Haitian market. In the 1980s, and again in the 1990s, the U.S. successfully lobbied to reduce Haiti’s import tariffs on rice to a remarkably low 3 percent (compared to the average of 35 percent for other countries in the region). Haiti has since become the third-largest importer of American rice despite having a population of only 9 million people.

The effects of these measures have been far-reaching, undermining domestic agriculture production and diminishing Haitian capacity for sustainable livelihoods. In a remarkable public acknowledgement of the negative impact of U.S. policy in Haiti, former President Bill Clinton apologized last month for promoting the agricultural policies that have devastated Haiti’s agricultural production.

Clinton is quoted by The New York Times: “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.”

These economic measures made it unprofitable for many Haitian farmers to continue working the land, and scores of people chose instead to emigrate to Port-au-Prince and other urban areas. The resulting magnitude of vulnerable people living in urban slums has had drastic repercussions on human life and to the economy, as was made obvious by the earthquake.

Nixon Boumba, an MCC Haiti advocacy worker, says, “Earthquakes are natural phenomena. But the destruction of Jan.12 was not natural.” The high levels of devastation and astronomical death toll reflect structural policies in Haiti that have fostered destructive and dangerous living conditions.

MCC Haiti is working to address underlying issues through advocacy—especially advocacy geared toward influencing North American governmental policies that affect Haiti—and by incorporating livelihood generation measures as part of its overall disaster response. As a result, MCC will stop distributing food aid at the end of April and will move to the next phase of helping Haitians rebuild.

Those in temporary camps currently receiving food aid from MCC will continue to receive nonfood items such as relief buckets, tarps, sheets, tents and first-aid supplies. In response to the needs identified by these communities, MCC will also begin income-generating activities like cash-for-work programs so that people can begin to rebuild their lives.

In the long term, MCC will focus its advocacy efforts on the question of food security, partnering with local organizations to both ensure that international trade agreements protect Haitian farmers and to encourage Haitians to build economic independence by buying locally-produced food. MCC Haiti will also continue providing support to build Haiti’s educational system and its agricultural infrastructure.

What a week.

This time we do not plead laziness for our lack of blogposts - au contraire, we've been super-busy over the past seven days.

Last Friday my brother Danny came to visit for a long weekend. A whirlwind tour of our life in Haiti ensued, complete with a hike up the river to our favorite canyon ever.

In fact, Danny ranked this as a highlight of the trip (that, and a cookout in which we introduced him to most of the rest of the MCC crew). Lowlight: buying groceries in the Dezam market (too hot, too many people).

He left Monday, and we returned to Dezam on Wednesday for the weekly team meeting and Fritzner's wedding (!).

Only in Haiti is a wedding held on a Thursday morning at 8am...in the spruced-up MCC office.


Our entire team was dressed to the nines, Nahomie (left) and Denise especially. Even Jides, MCC's helper-kid, spiffed up for the occasion.


Frantzo (right) was the best man, and Fritzner and Frantzo looked great in their matching new suits.


They tried to keep it a small affair (so small, in fact, that Bryan and I were nearly not invited because we're in Port!), but people came in droves anyway.


After the ceremony the crowd filled four vehicles and drove up the mountain to the home of the bride's family. They were worried about having enough food for everyone, although the spread was impressive:

Felisitasyon, Fritzner ak Melita!

On our way back to the city yesterday afternoon, Ben and Bryan stopped at a national landmark for a little bike-video action.

To our entrance contribution we added an hour of entertainment for the gaggle of boys who came along.

I don't know if riding through an amazing waterfall has been a dream of Bryan's, but if so, check. Dream come true.

Sometimes God appears in papier-mache form.

"But you too, good Jesus, are you not also a mother?
Are you not a mother who like a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings?
And you, my soul dead in yourself, run under the wings of Jesus your mother and lament your griefs under his feathers.
Ask that your wounds may be healed and that, comforted, you may live again. Christ, my mother, you gather your chickens under your wings; this dead chicken of yours puts himself under those wings . . .
Warm your chicken, give life to your dead one, justify your sinner."

—Anselm of Canterbury, Prayers and Meditations