Haiti: some pictures

Because the internet connection in Haiti wasn't ideal (there was about a 4x4' area in the entrance of the hotel where you could get a signal) I wasn't able to post any pictures during my trip. Now that I'm home I can share a little piece of my trip to Cap-Haïtien. You will notice there are not many pictures of the kids at the camp, and none of individual faces, and I assure you it was deliberate. There are many reasons for this, and Charlie and I will elaborate our ideas on the subject at a later time, but one reason is that, in the wake of the January 12 earthquake, one of the most disturbing and pressing issues that has arisen is the drastic increase in child trafficking in Haiti. The most heard of case was when an American team tried to traffic over 30 children out of the country to be adopted into American families, even though many of the children still had known parents or relatives in Haiti. (See this New York Times article about that story.) But many traffickers do not have such "good intentions" for the children they traffic. All that to say that the less information about vulnerable children (e.g. names, locations, camp info, photos) I post on the internet, the less I may be contributing to a very well-connected, very resourceful network. You never know who may be looking, even at this relatively insignificant blog. So without further ado, enjoy some of the sights I did while in Haiti!

The view of the Cap-Haitien bay

The mountain overlooking Cap-Haïtien is more and more inhabited as the population grows faster than construction can keep up.

Girls jumping rope and boys playing soccer; so some things transcend culture and country!

Haiti: the unexpected {and then some}

Kids all speak a universal language. "Give me the ball!", "Let me hold your camera, just once, pleeeeease", "Me first, me first!" And thus was spent the first day of the Camp des Beaux Arts here in Cap-Haitien, among 100 kids aged 3 to 13. I was with the 3-6 year olds, and one thing is certain - 3- and 4-year olds are too young to come to camp for a whole day! By 11:00 a.m. we were all ready for a well-deserved nap, and so that will defintely go in the schedule for tomorrow.

The camp cousellors were much less prepared than we thought they would be, though in my group they were great wth the kids (at least two of them are the regular Sunday school teachers for that age group at the church). However, I felt that since they knew we would be there, the counsellors hadn't put much effort into preparing activities and they kept asking me what the next program was, when we were under the impression that they had a camp set up and we would just help the counsellors and present a few art workshops. My two colleagues were even left by themselves with groups while counsellors walked around, texted and talked on their cell phones.

As a development practitioner, some of what happened today is exactly what I don't like about short trips like this. On one hand, what we are doing fits into the long-term work that our organisation in Québec has been doing with our partner is Haïti, it's part of a "bigger picture." Also, providing a safe, fun space for children is an important part of their development, and contributes to the work our partner is doing for post-traumatic counselling in the aftermath of the earthquake (mane survivors came to Cap-Haitien after January 12). On the other hand, and I guess this is a risk whether you are going short- or long-term to another country, I don't like dropping in as the white person who may be perceived as having more power, more resources, more whatever, instead of being seen as a partner. I know the leaders in this organisation do see us as partners, but being seen as somehow superior by our fellow camp counsellors was hard, and I still don't know how to help change that mentality.

My hope is that through this week, we will be able to act as partners, be seen more and more as partners and equals, and share what we know so that next year they won't need our help at all to put on a great camp. I also need to say, despite my mixed feelings about us being here for this camp, I did have a great day with the kids. They played hard, sang hard, and were so full of love and excitement, that I did come away with a smile on my face.

Haiti: {second} first impressions

I have lived here before. So I keep having little flashback moments. We landed in Cap-Haïtien (CH) this afternoon after a longer-than-usual commute from Montreal and I’m pretty tired. Seeing Pasteur Voltaire again after so many years was a very welcome first sight. But what really hit me was, when driving through the city to get to the hotel, we passed by the bicycle repair corner - the bicycle repair corner – and I almost gasped because at that very moment, that very sight was exactly as I remembered it from 11 years ago. And it gave me a comforting feeling, like I wasn’t in a brand new place, and I began to find my bearings.

There’s something about how Haiti smells that will always be familiar as well. I’m not enough of a wordsmith (I’m a Brakesmith, remember?) to describe the smell but immediately after deplaning in Port-au-Prince (PaP), my nose knew exactly where I was. And being here is making me remember a lot of things about 1999 that I’d forgotten or hadn’t thought about in years.

My day can be described by one word with many meanings: chaos. Beautiful chaos. Unsettling chaos. I need to stay out of the way chaos. Keeping the many taxi drivers away from our luggage. Finding the right person to get us to our connecting flight from PaP to CH. Declining to tip the many “helpers” who had a hand on a suitcase while it was put in the car, even though they are very good at guilting you into tipping. (Being idealistic is so much easier from the comfort of my cush Montreal life.)

If there is one thing I learned today it’s that even though between being in Haiti 11 years ago and now I have travelled and studied a lot, I still have a lot to learn. I hope I keep remembering that.