Part II  Day 2  Haiti  October 2014

Thursday was a wonderful day.  I am here in this beautiful place—things have improved in Jacmel. The roads aren’t all paved yet, but the city is bustling with  activity.   Max and Yvenord took me walking into the city from FLI to get a phone, buy minutes and get some Haitian dollars.

We planned my two week work here, and then we went shopping.    Yes, shopping, and shopping Jacmel is an one of a kind experience. First, the streets are crowed with two or three people on motorbikes— some of these are what qualifies for a taxi.  Then, there are the people walking along the streets—some paved, but mostly diret roads with ruts, rocks and rough edges before the 2’ ditch along the side.  These are filled with debris from plastic bottles, and the small plastic sacks which carry about 8 ounces of water.  Just thrown everywhere.  Now, the edge of the street or road ends and then within 1’ is the entrance to a building—which may be a phone store, a pharmacy, a beauty shop.  In the US, companies have their logos posted and some building are designed to represent that companies’ brand—I am thinking about MacDonald’s for instance.  Here, there is no real way to tell—except with the digital store.  The store has an outside brand and the sleek green and white IKEA desk and work space interior. Very modern. Very sleek.

Then, outside again into the dusty road. Intersections are dangerous—in a good sense. The motorbikes, the people, the carts carrying good, wheel barrows filled with sugarcane or some other good, people dragging farm animals—cows and goats mostly—and women carrying goods upon their heads, all trying to negotiate the intersection.  Oh, did I tell you that they have no street lights!!! Some horns are blaring, and everyone takes his/her own risk at crossing the intersection and navigating the streets.  Then !!!!

Needed minutes on the phone.  I had a phone, but I needed minutes.  Well, we went to a street vendor for that. A sinlge man, sitting on a chair under an umbrella holding a cell phone.  I paid him 25 GOUDRES — I think— for some minutes on my phone. Then, we turned and got a taxi out to the tent city, where Max’s girlfriend and daughter live.  On another taxi !!

This is the area where the citizens were moved who were affected by the earthquake.   It is what you imagine and then worse.  There are streets, a medical facility, a water tank supported by Save the Children, and a police station.  The living space is defined by fencing and boards grafted together upon a plot of land.  There are rooms within each structure, again framed by the ply wood and fencing.  Catianna had a table for cooking, a place for her daughter, to sleep on bed that defined one wall in length, and another for Catianna to sleep.  Very simple, and a translucent drape to cover the entrance to the home.   No door.

I had to have a long talk with myself about my American sensibilities and judgments.  What I mean here is that I no longer look at what they don’t have in terms of material goods, but what they do have, however humble it is. I make no judgment, but try to appreciate this way of life and the circumstances surrounding in.  The tent city is such a place to leave one’s sympathy and embrace the humility of such an existence.   I am humbled in ways I cannot begin to give words to.

You could say that I have come to love and appreciate this city and its culture. I am only sorry that on my first visit here I was not able to see this, but it was masked by my own health concerns.  Now that I can partake more of the culture, I am excited about being here.

AS I write this, I am sitting on the patio of the hotel with the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean to my south, framed by the coconut, banana and mango trees.  There is a slight breeze causing the palm fronds to wave in the wind.  For the first time in over a year, I can drink beer.  I am having a Prestige beer, the American style lager of Haiti.

Yes, I have worked today in the heat.  Let me tell you a little about the heat.  It’s about 88 degrees Fahrenheit here. It rained a little last night.  Today the sky is blue and filled with puffy white cumulus clouds.

The beauty doesn’t help with the heat when you are not a “heat” person. I am not.  To me, 70 degrees is too hot.  I have on long sleeve shirts to protect me from the mosquitos and the sun.–doctor’s orders.  I take a bandana each day, but within 30 minutes, it is soaked and stays that way.   I teach in a small 10 x 10 room with no lights or air conditioning to balance the heat of the day. So, I sweat some more.  My cloths are usually soaked by the late morning and stay that way.  I also wear long pants—doctor’s orders—to again keep away the mosquitos.  I am not complaining, but November in Haiti is hot.  I want to remember this when January arrives in Delaware and I am once again looking at the cold snowfall—as much as I love the cold and snow.