Let them drink shiraz?

Check out this NYT.com article that makes an explicit link between 6 years of drought in Australia and the rice price protests in Haiti and elsewhere around the world. With the drought, Australian rice producers have shifted to producing wine grapes. Might make you stop and think a little as you sip your second glass of shiraz.

US-style food politics

Enjoyed this NY Times story about candidates staff using info about voters' dietary preferences to microtarget campaigning.... confirming once again what we've seen in Haiti the last few days- food is political.

Personal report from CNN's man on the street

It's always good to get a story from multiple perspectives - especially a story that has multiple layers - which is pretty much any story worth hearing. By default, living where I live in an upscale compound and hearing primarily from upper middle to upper class Haitians, fellow blan NGO volunteers or UN types, I will get a different story than those who listen to different people. So, just to try to add a little to what I have been writing about recent days' events, I recommend checking out the post about the protests on the personal blog of my friend, the CNN quoted "Felix Kurt Hildebrand". K's a good thinker, an excellent writer, and a more or less decent person who talks to different subset of Haitians than I typically do. One point that K makes that I know I haven't communicated clearly enough is really how few people were actually engaged in destruction. If you see the photos released by the UN you would think it was total anarchy....it was not. He also gives a little more context regarding recent political history. With the language barrier, I am pretty limited to sharing perspectives of fellow blans - but I'll keep them to ones worth reading!

Transitory musings

City is back to "normal" today - but we still aren't allowed back to clinic until tomorrow. The prime minister was voted out on Saturday and the president has instituted some short term price controls on rice. (I'm still not quite sure I understand the balance of power in countries with both a prime minister and a president...). People are saying that this might work "for now"and then add a "but." The overriding sentiment seems to be that things could start up again at any time....but that life must go forward.

Am stealing a neighbors wireless signal in order to post this posting that in the boredom of recent days, I had a chance to finish. It's a little long but it has been really boring around here! Hope to be back on regular email soon.

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Things have definitely felt a little strange coming back to Haiti this time. I’ve been back for almost two weeks but due to the protests and the clinic leadership wanting to be very cautious with foreigners, have only spent half a day at work (and even then none of my team was there). We haven’t had any internet at home since before I left Haiti in late February. My neighbor forgot to tell us where he put our shared car key before he and his girlfriend left a week ago for a month in Japan. So we’ve had no way to come and go independently. But even with all that, I’d say the different tone to my return started when I boarded a plane in NYC bound directly for Haiti rather than transiting through Miami (or Fort Lauderdale) like I have always done before.

Over the last six months – between flight connections and extended layovers - I’ve spent more time in South Florida than almost any other place in the world except Port-au-Prince, New York or Chicago. I’ve never been much of a Florida fan – lovely beaches and long time Floridian uncle and cousins aside – it’s as flat and uninteresting as my home state of Illinois but stirs no feelings of being home.

That said, I’ve gotten to know the MIA (Miami) and to a lesser extent FLL (Fort Lauderdale) airports better than most. I’ve even developed a little routine when coming back to the US via MIA – 1) change SIM cards in my cell phone while the plane taxis, 2) walk directly to the far right line in American Airlines’ immigration area (it always moves faster because people can’t see that it splits and feeds into multiple stations), 3) scrounge together enough US change to buy a café con leche at one of the cash-only Cuban snack bars (being as ready I can be to explain in Spanish that I want to use my reusable mug for the sake of the environment therefore it really defeats the purpose if they prepare it in a disposable cup and then pour it in), and then, 4) settle into one of the not-so-comfy chairs outside terminal C security to call a friend or two or just watch the passers-by while waiting for my connecting flight.

Despite the dated-to-the-point-of-tacky-while-being-endlessly-under-renovation setting of the American Airlines ticketing area, the people watching at MIA is some of the best in the world. As a global gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, I’d definitely say that it has surpassed my hometown airport in Chicago in the cosmopolitan clientele rankings. You see attractive 30-something Latin American women with the requisite long flat-ironed hair, surgically-perfected noses and breasts, and manicured fingers / pedicured toes more often than not on the arm of a slightly shorter (due to the 3-inch + heels on her) investment banker-looking type guy wearing a pastel colored Lacoste polo shirt under navy sports jacket with boat shoes (think younger, sexier, tanner Mr and Mrs Howell from Gilligans Island). There are European backpackers who can easily be distinguished from their North American counterparts by their cooler footwear and smaller more streamlined backpacks (due partly to the absence of a dangling American-made nalgene bottle hooked to a non-load bearing carabineer) - not to mention their fluency in multiple languages. If you come through on a Friday you see all sorts of musicians carrying drum sets and guitar cases as they cross international boundaries for weekend gigs in NYC, Miami or the capitol city in their country of origin. Styles within this musical subset range from Mexican mariachi group members in matching silky embroidered jackets to Caribbean jazz musicians with polished shoes and heavy gold jewelry to Spanish-language rockers whose black t-shirt over skinny black jeans ensembles would blend into most European café and arts scenes. The more recent immigrant families are distinguishable by the large group of aunties, uncles and cousins gathered around the security line entrance to send off the next familial ambassador dressed in their Sunday morning or if young, Friday night best. Then, there are the dark-haired, dark-eyed airport staff – roles very often delineated as Spanish speakers taking tickets or managing crowd flow and Kreyol speakers pushing overflowing luggage carts or sweeping waiting area floors.

The boarding/unloading area for a Port-au-Prince flight is usually one of the easier places in the airport to pick out. Arriving flights are the most obvious – most people are deplaning with a bright yellow case filled with five bottles of high quality Barbancourt rum. (The sight of which will make you instant friends with Haitian-American airport staff). When they see I have come from Haiti, the US customs and immigration staff usually begin to grumble about how much they dislike processing these flights. It think it’s due to the frustration created by the language barrier between Spanish/English speaking agents and the relatively small percentage of Kreyol-only speaking passengers – many of whom are traveling for the first time ever and are understandably confused by the US immigration bureaucracy.

It’s also possible to pick out the Haiti flights from the outbound side. Start by snaking through the MIA airport to find the most inconvenient, out of the way gates. (Can’t remember which letter they are but they are located right next to a mirrored snack bar serving Cuban sandwiches). Check to see if it is filled mostly with people of African descent looking like they have been stuck waiting for hours (which they likely have because the American Airlines always seems to assign the equipment with mechanical failures to the Port-au-Prince route). Another big hint is the clusters of teen and/or middle-aged white folks in matching t-shirts who prior to boarding the plane for their week-long missionary exploit, regroup into a prayer circle at the request of an overly confident-looking Midwestern guy wearing cargo pants and a baseball hat. (Note: While I have never experienced this matching t-shirt based travel personally, I am sure the missionary label is the one most likely applied to me by other people watchers at the boarding gate. I am usually outfitted in not quite cool enough jeans or a knee length skirt and Birkenstocks or (in winter) too-white tennis shoes and balancing my overloaded roll-on luggage, bursting daypack, i-pod, and zip-loc baggie filled with home-prepared trail-mix - which when taken together don’t exactly scream Brazilian super model, United Nations section chief, or even, Euro-cool backpacker).

From time to time (probably more likely than not) my stereotyping falls way short – but that is half the harmless fun. On my last trip out of Port-au-Prince, there was an attractive, tall, lean, mid 30-something year old Caucasian bald guy standing in front of me in the security line. He was wearing a nicely fitted tan army-style jacket, dark jeans, trendy casual shoes and carried a messenger-style yet professional-looking bag with a non-American brand name. While most of the white guys with shaved bald heads coming in and out of Haiti are UN solidiers or Blackwater-style private security, this guy didn’t have the characteristic bulky arms, swagger, or dark glasses that tend to characterize those folks. I immediately pinned him for a Quebecois journalist/media type or a representative of one of the more edgy European relief agencies (e.g. Medicins sans Frontieres). As he put his bags on the belt, I caught a glimpse of the business card he used as a luggage tag - and it turns out he worked for a faith-based group out of Kansas City, Missouri. He was quite possibly a fellow Bible-belt Midwesterner. Who would have guessed? Next time I find such a person I’ll confirm his identify by starting a conversation with my fail-proof identify the Midwesterner question - At any point in your childhood did you consume a “salad” that included fruit flavored gelatin as a primary ingredient?

All quiet....for now?

My mennonite friends continue to be among CNN's primary sources here in Haiti - this story quotes the director of RNDDH - a Haitian human rights group that two of my American friends volunteer with. I just met him yesterday when I went over to their office to use the internet.

Today was really quiet around Port-au-Prince. The grocery stores reopened. Traffic ran as usual. The clinic was back up and running but the foreign staff was asked to stay home again today as a precaution. (Sometimes we are more trouble than we are worth). We still don't have internet at home (I'm writing from a friend's place Friday evening) but the generator was fixed so for the first time in 3 days we had electricity.

Things are still hanging in the balance politically in Haiti. There has been a call for the prime minister to resign but no response yet from his party. The prediction is that if he doesn't take action and resign this weekend, Monday could be bad again.

For now though we - Haitians and blan alike - seem to be taking a deep breath and recollecting a bit.

Lavi che

You know you are in a small town when your friend, the "American mennonite volunteer Felix Kurt Hildebrand," is the one being interviewded and quoted by CNN on the political situation in Haiti.

K actually picked me up this afternoon and brought me to use the internet connection at the office where he and my friend L work The clinic where I work has been on minimum staffing since Wednesday because it is located downtown near many of the government offices and slum communities. I would say this is a "hot zone" but it seems like the entire city has been a "hot then cold then hot then cold" zone the last couple of days. It's a totally confusing situation where things are fine in one neighborhood while there are rocks from protesters and tear gas from the UN in another. One of my Canadian friends decided to leave Haiti all together today because on Tuesday she watched mobs of protesters march outside her window while the neighboring gas station was completely looted.

In contrast, the neighborhood where I live - a lovely town home community situated around a pool and tennis courts where many wealthier Haitians and international workers live - has been totally quiet through it all. The only inconvenience was a loss of power when the generator broke and the workman couldn't get through a road block farther down the road to find the part to fix it. It's amazing how unaffected by these situations one can be when you have no real connections to a place but are being taken care of by people with connections. I have no worries about personal property, about my children being involved in the rioting or even about the direction of the country as a whole. That's not true for most any Haitian I meet.

Today has been pretty quiet throughout Port-au-Prince. People continue watching and waiting for the government to respond. Yesterday, the president made a speech saying that the answer is to support local agricultural production in order to reverse dependence on imported food. While this is a very necessary, long overdue, mid-to long term response, people were very disappointed that he didn't offer any suggestions for how to deal with the present price problems such as lowering import taxes.

There is word of a big political meeting happening this afternoon and rumors of the prime minister being asked to resign. The public statement coming out of the meeting will be key is determining whether the days to come are quiet or not. In the midst of this all, the bigger question remains of whether this unrest was caused by "lavi che" (the expensive life) or by those wanting an unstable Haiti. Both are real problems.

PS: Mpral di sa anko (I'll say it again) - I am 100% fine and safe and being well cared for!

Living the breaking story...

Over the last week there has been a rising tide of protests against the high food prices. It started in a city in the south, Le Cayes. As of yesterday morning it reached Port-au-Prince.

We drove in a little later than usual this morning and had to back track a couple of times in the car to avoid burning tires and large crowds (not at all as exciting/dangerous as it sounds). While there were some patients around earlier, many of the staff did not make it in to work and so they have decided to keep minimal staffing for the next day or so until the government finally responds to the protesters' demands. We are caravaning home from the clinic today. (FYI - That means we will be stuck at the house- which is a very safe place- but where the internet hasn't been working so I won't be able to update this for a little while)

There is always a bigger story in these situations. From what I've heard the one behind the current situation is related to the fact that there are always people who profit from instability. Things have been improving security wise around Haiti - thanks in part to the UN's not always wonderful efforts. At the same time though food prices really have doubled or tripled (as I have written about before) due to forces beyond Haiti itself.

So the story I have heard is that powerful people in the south paid off a small number of people last week to start protests targeted at the UN but in the name of rising food prices. The UN base and warehouses in the South were the first places to be targeted. Other people, who are not being paid off, have joined in thinking that they are protesting food prices and so now the instability has spread - restaurants around town have been looted, we heard that the Canadian Embassy had windows broken - things are generally tense.

Once again - I'm safe and sound and surrounded by good people so don't worry about me. Do pray and stay informed about the situation here though because as always, it's those with the least who are suffering most.

In search of a few dull moments

Silence in my blogosphere can be interpreted in more then one way - it means life is so busy that there is no time to write or so boring that there is nothing to say....or as is often the case here in Haiti, so logistically complicated that there is just no way to say anything at all. My recent silence has been a product of the first and the last - too busy and no regular access to internet since I arrived back in Haiti last week Wednesday.

To update you on my own recent days (but be sure to read about what is happening in Haiti above):

The A-exam: After 4 crazy weeks of reading, thinking and writing (as well as a little extra excitement in the week just before the exam when I lost 13 hours of work at 5:30 am on the day my proposal was due) my "A exam" was held on March 28th. It went really well – I passed without any provisions. I learned a lot in the exam itself - which is kind of inevitable when you have 4 well-established nutrition experts / academics focusing all their attention on you and your work for 2 hours straight. The success of my exam was definitely a team effort - including yet again my incredibly patient parents who listened to me cry more than one night about my lack of preparedness, my friend S’s company in the library, her culinary skills for many a free dinner and her willingness to take my bad moods like a sister, the Gabriels’ (including Baby G on the way) for opening their home to me for the month and not minding my anti-social ways, and the thoughts and prayers of many many others. Mesi anpil.

The day of rest: Most people take a week or two off after their A exam but I only had a day to recover before I had to think about my return to Haiti. (Not a mistake I am likely to repeat any time soon) I decided to take the day to do something I couldn’t do on this island and visited the Corning Museum of Glass. Only 30 minutes from Ithaca, Corning, NY is the hometown of Corningware, Pyrex and Corelle. It’s a company town – unusually cosmopolitan for upstate NY due to its large population of researchers and executives. The museum’s collection of glass fine art was truly amazing. Displays traced the history of glass making across the ages and continents. I didn'teven make it to the hands-on technology and glass blowing section during my 3-hour visit. I would definitely say that the CMOG has joined the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and the Seward House in Auburn, NY as one of my favorite museums the United States.

Back to the island: Between taxes, paying a ticket for an out of date car inspection, house matters, and packing, my return to Haiti was the typical frenzy where I only finished half of what I intended to in 48 hours. The highlight was that I got to spend one more night with the Scharf family in Manhattan before taking a 27-minute / $55 taxi ride to JFK airport for my direct flight to Port-au-Prince.

Public speaking: The reason I rushed back to Haiti so quickly was to present a 15 minute talk at a meeting on infant feeding and HIV. It was more of a duty than an honor - it wasn't on my personal work and I actually had to present a perspective that I didn't 100% agree with. I was pretty exhausted/laptop adverse after my previous four weeks and drank several diet cokes on the plane ride down in order to stay awake enough to finish the power point slides. I made it through - and a learned a few lessons about separating personal and professional life in the process. I'm sure some good things will still come out of it all but for now, am just glad to be done with exams and presentations for a little while.