deux gwo neg

The names of two gwo neg - big (as-in-influential) men -with connections to Haiti have been hitting the news in recent days. About 2 weeks ago, Bill Clinton was named as the special envoy of the United Nations to Haiti. It's not really a defined position (the salary is $1 per year) but pretty much ensures that the Clinton Foundation will be increasingly involved in Haiti and also suggests that Haiti will have some form of priority on the UN agenda. Also in the last week Paul Farmer has emerged as the leading candidate to fill the head of USAID and/or an even higher level Global Health position in the Obama administration. My friends with personal connections to him say there is a good chance of him accepting - but nothing has been decided yet.

Both of these people come with interesting/complicated socio-political histories and connections in Haiti and distinct reputations in the wider international community. I can think of reasons why both are great and terrible choices for their respective jobs. So I guess the best stance is cautious optimism that something good here in Haiti, there in the US / the UN and maybe a little bit of everywhere else might emerge...but with very little expectation for what, when, where, or how. How's that for diplomatic?

wide-eyed

nice tan

Back in 2007, on my first trip to Chicago after spending several months Haiti, my grandfather saw my pasty-white complexion and questioned whether I had actually been living on a Caribbean island. Those days I pretty much worked non-stop – made only one trip to the beach in a 12 month period. Over the last month or two, I’ve managed to maintain a much better work/play balance that has included fairly regular trips to water or mountains. If he could see me now I think my grandfather would finally be satisfied that my tan is worthy of my Caribbean residency.

Yesterday I went on a snorkeling trip organized by some of my MCC friends. I love exploring Haiti with them as they are generally a locally-oriented, open-to-adventure, penny-pinching crew of faith-based social-justice types (as most days I aspire to be). While many other foreigners tend to stick to the small circle of more established hotels, beaches and restaurants, my MCC friends are more likely seek out and find the holes-in-the-wall. Yesterday’s outing was organized through “Rasta” - a late 40 early 50-something Haitian Rastafarian dude that our friend K met a couple months ago when he stopped at a random little side-of-the-road seafood shack on route to the beaches north of the city.

Our group of 15 blans drove an hour up the coast from Port-au-Prince and then took a 30 minute boat ride out to a small island surrounded by coral reefs. It was a characteristically Haitian experience - incredible beauty and amazing potential side-by-side with poverty and maddening neglect. The water was absolutely beautiful but the beachfront was cluttered with unbelievable amounts of trash that had washed ashore. There was gorgeous purple coral and sea plants but only a few not-super-impressive little fish – likely related to the over-fishing and environmental damage all along the coast. (One friend, a former-resident of Hawaii, ranked the snorkeling as a 6 out of 10). Our local seafood was excellent but it had been pre-cooked and carried to the island in disposable styrofoam containers. That said, the company, the swimming, and the sunshine were fantastic. Check out some photos of our trip here. You can see some underwater photos taken by K on a previous visit to the area here.

Saturday wasn’t so bad either. I had planned to get a haircut but ended up having a pedicure after I arrived at the salon only to discover that the Haitian beautician with a lot of experience cutting non-African hair was actually on vacation. (I guess I should have been more specific when I made my appointment given that it's a bit of a logistical drama trying to find a ride up to the place). Followed up the pedicure with brunch at a lovely hotel with co-worker/friends and a quick artisan shopping trip to buy a wedding gift. Between embassies, NGOs, missionaries and the United Nations (as well as visiting Haitian-American/Canadians) there is a sizeable population of foreigners with cash to spend in Port-au-Prince. Certain types of businesses– restaurants, artisans, beauticians – can do quite well by catering to them. Take the market for salon services catering to non-African hair. There are three women I know of who cut "blan" hair– one who caters to the North Americans (she speaks perfect English), another seemingly preferred by Europeans and a third who is Dominican. All they need is the word of mouth advertising through the expatriot networks and they can fill all their weekend slots. Personally, I’ve decided that my back-up career plan is to open a coffee shop with an American-style brunch menu someplace like Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso or Juba, Sudan.

I finally seem to be finding my way around these parts just as I am preparing to leave – better late then never. No beach trips for me the next three weekends – I leave on Friday for 2 weeks in the Southern African winter!

life together - temporarily

The other day I counted how many other foreign volunteers have come and gone through the clinc during my extended tenure here . Ended up with a list of more than 20 people that I shared roommate, housemate or next door neighbor status with over the last 2+ years. Some came for only a week but a few have stayed as long as 9 months. There are a few more short termers scheduled for this summer... but come August it will finally be my turn to say ovwa...or at least TTFN

ti dokte

sweet cheeks

long weekend disclaimer

Now that the long weekend has actually come and gone, I need to add an addendum to my whiny Saturday morning post. I'm thankful to report that it turned out to be a quite lovely and very social weekend - in fact I didn't enter a single piece of data! Our scheduled Saturday shopping trip was followed by lunch with one of my favorite gal pals here, and then a game of tennis and late night pizza making with some other fun folks. I spent a very rainy Sunday at a log-cabinesque lodge up the mountain from Port-au-Prince drinking hot chocolate, eating perfectly-cooked BBQ ribs, chatting with new friends and taking a brief hike in the woods during which I mostly played with my camera. (Photos here) Monday was semi-productive work wise and ended with going out for tasty Chinese food with my neighbors. We were sending off another clinic volunteer who just finished his tenure here. (That guy's father drove us to and from the restaurant - making us all feel like we were back in the pre-drivers license early teen years....which I guess we effectively are!)

curiosity

taking flight

delight

greener grass

I refused to look at the clock this morning when I woke up to sunlight, tweeting birds and screaming pigs. Instead I shoved my face back in the pillow pretending that I could trick myself into falling back asleep. No luck - my mind was already up and running. After 15 minutes or so, I pulled my cell phone over and looked – 7:05am. Ugh. Our scheduled grocery shopping trip with the clinic’s driver is still 2.5 hours away. In theory I could sleep that time away. But I went to bed around 10:30pm and my body doesn’t really do more than 7-8 hours of sleep at once. Instead, I am going to have to find a way to fill it. Hence the blogging.

This far into reading, I’m sure that my many lovely mommy and daddy friends (at least those with enough time to check this blog from time to time -of which I doubt you are many) think I’m being ridiculous. Sleeping 8 hours? Not knowing what to do with your time? Sounds like heaven. There are days when I feel that way too…but for some reason not this weekend. Not this LONG weekend.

Monday May 18th is Jou Drapo Flag Day in Haiti – commemorating the day in 1803 when Haitian General Dessalines ordered Catherine Flon to rip the white center out of the French flag and sew the red and blue portions back together to represent the new republic. (You can read a longer version of the history here) For many Haitians it’s a big day. Schools probably have parades. I’m sure that people sing the national anthem. Maybe there is even a revolutionary-inspired food that everybody eats. But for me, looking from this Saturday morning to the days ahead, it’s just another reason why the clinic is closed. Yet another long weekend. (We had a long weekend 2 weeks ago...and I am pretty sure another one two weeks before that)

As I’ve said before, my time in Haiti has been an emotional roller coaster and apparently, even with only 10 or so weeks to go, I’m still riding it. This last week was painful. Not because of anything particular happening or not happening (except that I was working on designing MS Access databases which is not exactly fun)…but just because time moved really slowly and well, I felt particularly alone while it passed by.

I’m anticipating there is still a high point or two to come on this ride – and maybe a couple stomach-lurching drops to keep things interesting. Even this long weekend could hold some promise. While I made multiple phone calls to friends/acquaintances here yesterday that all went unreturned (which prompted thoughts/visions reminiscent of my all-time favorite Steven Kellogg children’s book..even though i know they were all likely just busy or out of phone credit) - I do have one friend who mentioned wanting to take a day trip somewhere. My neighbors are around and likely willing to play tennis. Plus, I have A TON of work to try to make a dent in – seemingly endless amounts of data entry, some bills to pay and planning for my Africa trip which starts at the end of the month. This is a good chance to do that.

Just looked at the clock. It’s 8:19am. Sounds like a good time to start trying to find some greener space here...even if it means I will plant and water it myself.

sassy

no remorse

perhaps

up the mountain

This weekend I visited Parc National La Visite - a national park that is a 30 minute motorcycle ride + 4-hour hike above the greater Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. The 300 or so hectares of pine and deciduous trees around the village of Sequin compose one of the last standing forests in Haiti. It protects one of the country's three main watersheds - no small task in a country that has been completely ravaged by environmental destruction.

The region has technically been protected since 1983 when the second generation dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier declared it an protected area. His motivation was most likely to access large-scale international donor money available at the time for conservation efforts rather than any personal conviction about environmental protection. Before establishing the park, he had set up a lumber mill in the area and was exporting the valuable hard woods.

While the national park status has likely helped to slow degradation process to some degree, the total lack of capacity to enforce regulations (e.g. park guards have not been paid in a very long time)and the relative proximity to Port-au-Prince means that trees and other high value forest products continue to disappear at an alarming rate. We saw multiple donkeys and groups of children loaded down with fire food walking along the park roads.

The Foundation Seguin was founded by a group of wealthy Haitians committed to preserving this region. They run a small guest house just outside the park that is a popular weekend hiking destination for foreigners living in Haiti. FS has put significant effort into promoting the planting of fast-growing bamboo on deforested land. They sponsor ecole vert - or "green schools" providing environmental education for urban school children. A dozen or so other initiatives are at various stages of development and implementation.

My own trip up to Seguin was too short but lovely. I met up with three fellow Cornellians - my friend J#1 who works for the fortified peanut-butter producing NGO, J #2 an ornithologist I originally met back in Ithaca who has been making short research trips to Haiti for several years and J#3 who is a specialist in natural resource management who came to help J#2 conduct interviews with local residents about how they interact with the protected space.

Two remnants of deciduous forest zones in Haiti (Seguin and Pic Macacya) and one in the Dominican Republic are the migration destination of choice for the endangered Black-capped Petrels. J#2's research is focused on characterizing the current populations of these birds on Hispanola.

It probably goes without saying that I learned a lot this weekend. Beyond the fresh air and beautiful landscapes, my favorite thing about the trip was listening to the J's and the guest house's owner talk about conservation and development. Here are some photos of the hike up and back.

my next big thing

look here. a girlz gotta have a dream

outs and abouts

March and April flew by thanks to lots of great visitors and travel. Only problem is that it didn't leave much time for getting work things done (and I am definitely paying for that now).

I spent a long weekend in the Dominican Republic in March visiting the capital city Santo Domingo - a 7 hour bus ride away from Port-au-Prince. My agenda was pretty simple - walk a lot, visit a museum or two, go to church and buy a pair of bling, bling sandals. Was successful on all fronts - with the added bonus of eating peach-raspberry-strawberry yogen fruz - twice. You can see a few photos mostly from from the lovely Zona Colonial here. Even after seeing the other side of Hispanola for myself, I have a hard time believing that the extreme differences in infrastructure, environmental degradation and overall economies I saw between the DR and Haiti are for real.

In early April, my dear friend and former Charm City housemate G came for a week-long visit. We spent a lovely few days up in Northern Haiti visiting Haiti's UNESCO world heritage sites** - the Citadelle and the Palace Sans Souci - and relaxing at a great little B&B on Labadi beach. We spent one day in the clinic where I work and then roamed around Port-au-Prince for the first two days of the long Easter weekend. Some photos here. It was fantastic on so many fronts including that it gave me a reason to visit a beautiful corner of Haiti and even more so, a chance to spend quality time with someone I dearly love. Thanks again G!

G and I left Haiti for the USA on the same Saturday afternoon. She returned home to Nashville and I started a two-week journey that took me through 5 cities in 4 states via 4 different modes of transportation. (My itinerary was PAP-JFK-ITH-PHL-MSY -HOU-CLT-MIA-PAP. I traveled by plane, bus, taxi and my trusty Nissan Sentra) The primary motivation for the trip was to present a poster about our research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in NOLA ...but I also managed to fit in a lot of quality time with some of my lovely friends and their families in Manhattan, Ithaca, Philadelphia and Houston.

While most of the time in NOLA was spent in windowless rooms at the conference center, I did get out to see enough of the city (Mid-City, French Quarter, Business District, Garden District), eat enough amazing food and hear enough fabulous music to convince me that I must get back there soon. A special thank you to A and the unique community at First Grace United Methodist Church /Hagar's House for giving me a fabulous free place to stay for the week. I loved it. Here are a few random snapshots from a walking tour of the Garden District and a little funk/soul on Frenchmen's Street.

I've been back in Haiti for a week now but am already counting down the days until I leave again. Will be spending the first two weeks of June in Southern Africa - visiting two sites doing similar work in Malawi and presenting another poster at a conference in Nambia. An even bigger countdown is well underway - the countdown to the end of this 2-year season living in Haiti. The plan is too return to Ithaca in early August to start writing up my dissertation - with hopes of graduating between May-August 2010. While I'm sure I'll be back to visit Haiti at least once during that time, home will definitely be NY.

On that note...better go get to work!

**Start here to learn more about the massive fortress The Citadelle and the Versailles-like Palace San Souci built by Haiti's only king Henri Christophe in the early 1800s - just after Haiti won independence from the French through an impressive slave rebellion. At that time, the country was divided into a northern Kingdom and a southern Republic.

lights, camera, action

Back in early March a video team from St. Louis making a new promotional video for Meds and Food for Kids came by to shoot some footage related to our program. They interviewed MM and I and had us repeatedly do all sorts of mundane things for their "b-roll" - like walk back and forth pretending to talk. A small glimpse of film making that confirmed I am not meant to go to Hollywood any time soon... but it was still a fun change of pace.