music to our ears

Had to smile today when a group of moms with 14-month-old kids who already "graduated" from the supplementation program came by for their monthly check-in visit. One of our staff team started singing a song we wrote about how to feed the fortified peanut butter. The moms joined in and then proceeded to sing through all 6 of the songs we developed with messages about infant feeding. They knew almost every word by heart! Of course the bigger question is whether they actually do the thing they are singing about....I'll leave that for the research to try to answer.

Another kind of HOPE for Haiti

Two weeks ago UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon made a joint visit to Haiti with Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean and Bill Clinton - whose Clinton foundation is potentially shaping up to be a major donor here. In follow-up this op-ed by Ban-Ki Moon was published yesterday in the NYT along with another article about economist Paul Collier's influence on the UN policy in Haiti. Moon's hope for Haiti is rooted in a piece of US trade legislation passed in 2008 - the HOPE II bill. Ashamedly (for someone who says she is into these things) this op-ed is the first I had heard of it. The bill provides duty-free and quota-free access to the US market for goods coming from Haiti for the next 10 years.

Theoretically, in our globalized world, bills like this one should not be needed at all. According to WTO conventions, we are supposed to be moving towards a global free market economy where quotas and limits do not exist in the first place. Many developing countries have been forced to adopt such open trade laws as a condition to receiving money from the World Bank under structural adjustment policies. However the United States and Europe continue to put protectionist trade policies into effect and create bilateral and regional trade agreements that benefit/ protect their own economies while often harming/limiting producers/exports in less preferred markets (e.g. much of Africa).

To effectively take hold of this trade-related HOPE, Haiti's government will have to take some concrete actions to lower port fees and reduce other internal obstacles (e.g. terrible roads) to getting products out of the country. While the European Union has been giving lots of money for roads in recently years with some visible results, it's hard to believe that the necessary government action will happen any time soon. We are still waiting for the senatorial elections scheduled for April 2008 to take place.

That said, in Haiti you should never take any hope (or in this case HOPE II) for granted.

trying to act my age

I had two conversations at the end of last week that I haven't been able to get out of my head. On Thursday one of the moms with a 13-month-old baby boy who already graduated from our program came by our office. She told me that she needed to talk to me but then sat down and chatted with the other mothers who were hanging around. After an hour or so, she pulled a chair up extra close to mine, looked me in the eyes, and then turned her head and started to cry. She, her 3-year-old daughter and the baby boy have been living on the street for the last 2 months. Between sobs she repeated "I am giving you my baby Rebecca".

Over the last several years, I have had a number of mothers ask me to help care for their kids. This was the first that it was someone I know fairly well - someone I will certainly see again. I said what came to mind - that she is a good mom, that I do not love her children as much as she does, that I want to find a way to help her care for her children, that I would do my best to find out what we might be able to do. I kind of regret saying the last two things. The mom is coming back on March 30th expecting me to provide some hope for her children's futures. The truth is, I have no idea of what we can do. There are no social services here. Unemployment is at 80-90%. For the hundreds or likely thousands of missionary projects and other non-profits working in Haiti, there are tens of thousands of people trying to get something from them.

The next day I had another mother approach me. M pa byen avek ou Rebecca - I'm not happy with you Rebecca. Why? I asked. Two weeks earlier, as I was walking out of the office, she had stopped me and asked me to be her 11-month-old son's godmother. I laughed it off - telling her that I was leaving in 6 months and I wouldn't be able to be there for all the important events that a godmother should be there for. She didn't push then but on Friday, she wasn't going to take no for an answer. For every excuse I gave, she had a logical comeback. It wasn't a problem if I wasn't there physically. I could wire money for his clothes and other things through my coworkers. I told her there were 82 kids in the program and I could not be godmother to just one of them. "Of course you can" she said - they already have godmothers but my son is 11 months old and he still doesn't have one!

I know that I won't give either of these moms what they want. If they were not clients at the clinic, I might be ready to offer something more - a little money or even agree be the godmother. But I can't make it even appear like I have favorites at the clinic. Word travels too fast. Precedents get set. I leave town and the staff here is left to deal with the expectations I created. At least this is what I keep telling myself. I am doing the right thing by not helping more, right?

The reality is that I've come to a stage in life where it's getting harder to feel justified with not doing more. I can't say I'm not old enough. Several of my close girlfriends have 2 or 3 kids already. I can't say I don't have the money. I may be on a graduate student stipend but I have more than enough for my present needs and the promise of a good earning potential in the near future. I have friends with really big financial responsibilities - who are paying a mortgage or medical bills for kids and/or their parents - on not too much more than what I make now. I can't say I'm not ready or willing to be responsible for kids. I really want kids. I totally expected to be responsible for more than just myself by this age.

Several years ago, when I was representing WR at a conference for university students, I met a wide-eyed 22-year-old Midwestern girl who asked me whether or not my organization was willing to hire a single mom for a job based in Africa. Then she started to cry. It turns out that she was the single mom. She had spent a year in Tanzania during college where she befriended an HIV-positive woman. Her friend became quite sick and asked whether the American college student would care for her 2-year-old if she were to die. She agreed. Her friend died. She brought the baby back to the USA with her. When I met her, she and her beautiful 3-year-old now son were living her parents in Michigan. She was trying to find a way to move back to Africa with him. The representatives from the evangelical missionary organizations she was meeting at the conference frankly didn't know what to do with her.

I've found myself thinking about that 22-year-old a lot these last few days. I deeply admire her compassion and that she is being faithful to her promise. I also think that she was naive and immature when she agreed to care for the baby. I know it's complicated. These situations are always complicated. I don't feel like I am making a wrong decision in the way I am choosing to respond to the two mothers at the clinic.... That said, I want some assurance that I will be open to / able to recognize / ready and willing to do something equally as costly as the 22-year-old girl did if/when the time comes. I want to act my age.

same story half a world away

The NYT recently ran this article on malnutrition in India that features my incredibly talented friend and fellow Cornell alumni PM. Despite rapid economic growth, a stable government and a national program to combat malnutrition, childhood malnutrition rates remain incredibly high across India. They are comparable to some of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As the article says, the reasons behind this are complex - but generally challenge the thinking that national economic growth will be sufficient for promoting food security and child survival through predominantly market-driven means.

hydrophobic

A little after 9pm last night there was a sudden downpour on my side of Port-au-Prince. It only lasted about 15 minutes but the sound of the rain pounding against the metal roof was deafening. I started praying that it would stop as quickly as it started. Over the last year or so, I've come to fear these sudden heavy rains. Heavy rains wash rocks down the mountainside. Heavy rains cause houses to slide down deforested slopes. Heavy rains make garbage-filled drainage canals overflow. Heavy rains force mothers in the slums to stick their children in plastic garbage bags up to their necks and huddle with them under a table. Last night's 15 minute downpour won't make international news the way the hurricanes do. But last night's 15 minute downpour was more than enough to flood a home and force the occupants to live on the street. Several mothers have come to their study visits saying that flood waters carried away their bottles of manba - along with the rest of their family's possessions. I am bracing myself for more stories in the days to come.

(Update: On March 23 the NYT published this story featuring residents of Gonaives - the site of the terrible flooding during last fall's hurriance season. Their fear of the rains far surpasses any emotions I have about them)

beneficiaries of justice

For Lent this year I'm reading Wendy' Wright's book The Rising: Living the mysteries of Lent, Easter and Pentecost- a book of meditations given to me by my dear friend SLS when I first left for Haiti. The reading for the second week of Lent focuses on Jesus's teaching that "the last shall be first." Wright writes:The outcast, the prisoner, the poor, the homeless, victims of abuse and injustice, those discriminated against because of race or gender - these are among those whom we are called to put first. They are not to be the objects of our charity BUT THE BENEFICIARIES OF JUSTICE p. 40(emphasis mine) Service with and for the underserved is to be seen as an act of justice - an upholding of what is already properly due or merited to them as God-created beings.

how did she do that?

We all did a double take when Mama E showed up at noon yesterday holding a tiny blanket-wrapped baby. Just the afternoon before she had been sitting in the pediatric waiting room - with a still very pregnant belly - calmly waiting for her one-year-old daughter to see the pediatrician. Apparently in the course of the subsequent 18 hours she started active labor, gave birth, cleaned herself up and made her way to our clinic with the newborn alone on public transport. Wow. I have friends back home with impressive birth stories but some of these Haitian moms bring it to an entirely different level.

deep breathing

My friend A and I spent part of Saturday afternoon exploring a beautiful farm turned private nature reserve located about 45 minutes up the mountain from Port-au-Prince. My less than stellar photo taking skills couldn't do justice to the beauty of the fog enveloping the green mountainous landscape (The green is courtesy of the evening-time downpours we've had in recent days). Nor could my expensive camera capture the sense of peace/joy I felt while being up there.