2 months

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It’s been a little over 2 month since I arrived in Haiti, and here is a summary of what I’ve seen, done, learned.

When I signed up to volunteer with GRU I figured that having no qualification nor prior experience in this field I’d be pretty useless but I could be used as a “jack of all trades”. Surprisingly, Delphine trusted me and put me in charge of one of her side projects: build an Eiffel Tower in a neighborhood called Paris in Ti Ayiti, and to work with her on different projects.
Slowly getting to know the other GRU volunteers, and meeting Cité Soleil communities, I’ve been able to get these projects going. The trash cans I’ve already talked about, helping cleaning the streets, but also on base, giving a hand where and when possible.
My lack of experience could have led the Eiffel tower project to failure, but luckily Aaron and Karl came to my rescue. They changed the size of the construction to make it safer, and came up with more technical knowledge and professionalism. Aaron has led some workshop to teach the guys how to use the tools, and we’re hoping to start building this coming week.

On the side I had been teaching an English Class, which I had taken over when Evan left. It started really well, and with the help of 4 Haitian volunteers I’d been able to divide the class into group levels. My goal from the very beginning was to get these Haitian volunteers to take over and to get their leader Sam to lead the classes without me. Unfortunately reality is tough in Haiti, and being a volunteer doesn’t put food on the table. Sam had to quit to find a job. From one day to the other, I had to close the program, and let 50 students know that the English class will no longer exist. That was a real heart breaker.
I still see some of my students in the streets of Cité Soleil, still calling me teacher, they tell me their hope that one day maybe, the class will take place again. Haitians are, despite the toughness of their life, incredibly optimistic and hopeful.

When I first arrived I didn’t find it easy to feel comfortable: being called blanc (literally white, in facts foreigner) all day long, and asked for money/food/water/sunglasses/hat/shoes/phone…, reminded me that I was not home.
But once we got to know and trust each others with some locals, it made me feel comfortable. Sure it is not easy everyday, but I can now walk in the street without fear, without even anxiety.

I’ve learned that the Haitian people is, despite its reputation, deeply good and kind.

Riots in Cité Soleil

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Last Wednesday the 21st of September armed bandits from Bois Neuf in Cité Soleil attacked a car. Even though this kind of act happens daily here, things turned out differently this time. The victim was Felix Génélus, a Voodoo dignitary employed for 25 years at the local health center, and member of Soley Levé. After being shot at, he lost control of his car, probably trying to evade the road block. He finished his course in the canal on the side of the road, dead.

The word rapidly spread to the people of Cité Soley, who, outraged, ran to the internally displaced persons camp built at the entrance of the Bois Neuf neighborhood. This tent city of 6,500 inhabitants (the second largest inside of Port au Prince) was known to be a gangster’s hideout. After warning people to evacuate, it was burnt to the ground.
This act of extreme violence can be explained by the growing frustration in Cité Soleil communities. In a place where the legal system is non existant, and where police and MINUSTAH (United Nation Mission for Haiti’s Stabilization) are considered useless, people are taking justice into their own hands.
However, 90% of the resident of this camp went back to their homes, as they were staying in the tent city to benefit from aid.

The bandits not found, people from all Cité Soleil led a two days witch hunt in Bois Neuf. Not really organized, mobs of people went down the streets, armed with guns, rifles, or machetes, getting in every houses to find the assassins.
3 innocent young men have been killed as they ran away, scared.

During the weekend things calmed down, and Monday a peaceful march was organized by the Voodoo church of Cité Soleil in the honor of M. Génélus. This March went through most of the neighborhoods, stopping to pray near the burnt camp, where the car crashed, and finally at the victim’s house.
The march went without incident, besides the tension while praying in front of Bois Neuf, where gang members were watching.

Tonight, no other incident has been reported.

This article has been written thanks to the help of Aimee Gaines and Sabina Carlson of Soley Levé. Proof reading by Jennifer van Wyck.

A Trash Story

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One of my main activity since I’ve arrived In Haiti is to work with some of Sité Soley communities on their garbage cans projects.

For the reader to understand why garbage cans are so important here, it is crucial to realize that there is no public service, and therefore everything is made by the inhabitants of the zones. They pick up the trash themselves with wheelbarrows, and then carry it to the closest landfill or burn it. The final destination of the junk is admittedly problematic, but we’re hoping that, through recycling and composting, we’ll be able to reduce it’s amount and maybe, with the help of other NGOs, we’ll find a solution for the left over.

For the past few weeks I’ve been studying and rebuilding copies of the different systems already elaborated, discussed the pros and cons of each of them, and designed one on my own.

Last Tuesday, the 13th of September, we organised with Kombit Soley Levé (Raised Sun Association) a day of conferences and work in GRU’s workshop. After Karl and I picked up Sabina and the 11 people representing 10 of Sité Soley’s zones, we came back and gave a tour of the base, showed the different alternative housings on display and the sample of garbage cans I built copying Sité Soley’s systems.  I had kept the one I designed for the end, but as I was giving a demonstration of its functionality, it broke. From pride, to failure, to success, the weakness has been found, rapidly fixed, and the system adopted. That was followed by a short conference about the Ubuntu Blox project by Samuel and Frantz of GRU. Unfortunately 2 conferences , one about composting by Give Love, the other about recycling by La Diférans, didn’t happen, but we’re planning to hold them soon.

After a lunch break and a game of basketball, direction the workshop to start building bins. What I saw then was splendid: using individual knowledge of tools, or just looking at how Patrick (the GRU volunteer and friend who was helping me translating and building the cans) and I were doing everybody started working: some building the legs, some cutting the barrels, some drilling the necessary holes in them, some preparing the handles, Patrick doing the welding, and finally some assembling everything together. 12 bins were built within 3 hours!

When I stepped back and realized that I wasn’t needed anymore, seeing these 12 Haitians making it happen, I was filled with the satisfaction of having achieved something important, something that counted. Not only because we built trash cans, but because I didn’t build them, Haitians did. And when 2 of them came to me asking when they could come build some more and show others what to do, I was floating.

Everybody left with a bin for their own neighborhood, one stayed at GRU as sample, the 12th one went to Patrick who, inspired, decided to put one in his street to teach his community not to throw on the ground anymore.

With Delphine, who entrusted me with this project, we want to hold this kind of events every 2 weeks, and hopefully see more and more zones take part.

Cité Soleil / Sité Soley

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To start talking about the work I’m doing in Haiti, I have to talk about the neighborhood I’m working with: Cité Soleil (Sité Soley in Kreyol, Sun City in English).

Sité Soley has been considered for a long time the poorest and the most dangerous slum of the western hemisphere (before those of Rio like the City of God). First named Sité Simone to honor Papa Doc’s wife, the Shanty town grew through the impulse of internally displaced people who saw their neighborhood burn, or were coming to Port-au-Prince hopping to find the work promised by the government. From 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2004, gangs politically affiliated to President Aristide run the area. After the MINUSTAH (MIssion des Nations Unies pour la STAbilisation d’Haiti/ UN mission for Haiti’s stabilization) ran a series of bloody operations in the zone, a relative security level was reached. Unfortunately, one of the result of the January 12th 2010 earthquake was the great escape of a lot of the gang members from the state prison, who went back to the slum. Today the population is estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000.

There is no sewer system nor any kind of public service here, therefor the streets are filled with trash, standing water and, illness.

But today the communities of 6 of the many districts decided to change things by themselves and created “Pwoje Soley Levé” (Raised Sun Project). Their aim is simply to make their life better, and to do so they started by cleaning the streets, the canals that are bringing all the trash from Pétionville located up the hill, putting garbage cans, teaching civic education, and many other projects. With GrassRoots United we created a partnership with them, to help reaching their own goals, and I’m proud to be a part of it!

 

Road trip to Jacmel, or not…

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Yesterday the 5th of September Karl had to go to Jacmel to deliver some stuff to a partner organisation. Since I’ve never been there but heard a lot of good about it I asked if I could be part of the trip. An hour later our school bus was loaded and we were ready to go. First stop: the gas station around the corner in order to fill up the tank with gas and the tires with air. While Karl is taking care of that I’m buying a sandwich and some water for the road.

Once back at the truck, I see Karl crawling under the bus: 2 of the 6 tires are flat. We’re trying to put air in them hoping that they are just deflated, but no, they are punctured. The guys from the gas station are ready to dismantle the bus before we even ask them anything, but can’t get us an idea of the price. We therefore decline their absence of offer and decide to ask help at the little repair shop in the street we live in. We shake hands for 2 men 500 gourdes ($12.50) each. They come to the base where we drove the bus back, take the wheels out, and tell us it’s gonna be 1,700 gourdes, not included labor, still fixed at 1,000. I just learned that when Haitians fix a price they are not talking about the material needed to do it… After hard negotiations and the help of Samuel and Frantz, 2 Haitian volunteers, we finally get the total down to 2,000 gourdes. It took a total of 4 hours to get everything done. We’ll go to Jacmel Thursday, or Friday, or…

September 6th 2011

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Hey there,

Today is my 31st birthday, and I decided that I shall be mature enough to get my own blog. Not that I expect to post much nor to be followed a lot, but sometimes I want to have a space to right things down publicly.

As you may know after 4 years of expatriation from my natal Paris in New York city, I’ve decided to move to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I had come here twice after the earthquake for short stays. The motivation for these stays were to take photographs of the living conditions of the population after the disaster.
When in June I decided to look for a volunteer position, I went through a few options, keeping Haiti in the back of my mind, but willing to discover something else. After asking different friends and contacts, and looking on reliefweb, I had 3 options.
The first one in Uganda, to help building and run a day care center, next to an orphanage. 6 month commitment, one of the lowest living cost possible ($150/month is enough, $300 is luxury), right by lake Victoria, it sounded perfect… until I googled the organisation and in particular the pastor I was going to work with: a missionary. After explaining that I was atheist and that I wanted to make sure that my beliefs would be respected I’ve been told that they would be but that I’d have to sit to the prayer anyway… thanks but no.
The second one was is South Sudan, a newly created state, a lot of challenges and hope. It took me 5 minutes to turn it down: I don’t believe that yoga can change the world.
The 3rd was, indeed, Haiti. But I was still unsure, until my friend Tara, who I’ve met on my second trip, posted on my facebook page: “you know you just want to come back to Haiti”. She was right, but I don’t know if she knew why. First of all I’ve always had a feeling of unfinished business because my stays where too short to know how really life is here. And also because as a first experience in volunteering in a developing country it was more comfortable, I knew a little bit what I was getting into, I knew the place a little, and I knew her.

So I arrived here on August 12th and am working with an NGO still called (for a tiny bit longer) GrassRoots United. My return Flight to Paris is on November 10, but sometimes I feel that it won’t be long enough…