"Politics of the Plate: The Price of a Tomato"
Gourmet Magazine, March 2009
"If you have eaten a tomato this winter, chances are very good that it was picked by a person who lives in virtual slavery."
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2009/03/politics-of-the-plate-the-price-of-tomatoes
2.24.2009
Madi Gra
Sr. Ellen had a wonderful idea. She suggested we celebrate Madi Gra with the residents of Lakay Granmoun today. Lakay Granmoun is our little elderly home that I've written about before. I became the manager of the home in January, and I will write more about that sometime.
We packed a bag of manicure supplies, a case of Tampico (fruit drink) some crackers and went up for a visit. We had some special treats too. The last time Sr. Ellen was there one of the women asked if they could have some perfume. She didn't have a small bottle for each of them, so she emptied some travel-size creams and shampoos and put a little perfume in each bottle, and even did a few for the men. They loved it.
One of the women, G., has been asking Sr. Ellen and I both for a radio for some time now. "Just a little one I can keep in my pocket" she said. The trouble with that was if we got one for her, we'd have to get one for all of them. 10 radios in one house could be a noise problem, not to mention that the requests for batteries would probably get out of hand.
We received a radio as a gift and decided that we would take that to Lakay Granmoun for everyone to share, hoping that G. would be appeased by being the "met radyo" or the keeper of the radio. She was ecstatic.
We found a station playing Carnival music and set about doing manicures. G. entertained us by dancing and was entertained back when the blans joined her. Mr. J is in a wheelchair, so Sr. Ellen and I each took a hand and danced with him for a bit. He doesn't get out of his room a lot, so it was nice to see him enjoying himself.
All of the women got their nails cut or filed, and painted. The men got their nails cut, and lotion rubbed on their arms. Sr. Ellen does this visit fairly regularly and they really enjoy it, but today was a little extra special.
We packed a bag of manicure supplies, a case of Tampico (fruit drink) some crackers and went up for a visit. We had some special treats too. The last time Sr. Ellen was there one of the women asked if they could have some perfume. She didn't have a small bottle for each of them, so she emptied some travel-size creams and shampoos and put a little perfume in each bottle, and even did a few for the men. They loved it.
One of the women, G., has been asking Sr. Ellen and I both for a radio for some time now. "Just a little one I can keep in my pocket" she said. The trouble with that was if we got one for her, we'd have to get one for all of them. 10 radios in one house could be a noise problem, not to mention that the requests for batteries would probably get out of hand.
We received a radio as a gift and decided that we would take that to Lakay Granmoun for everyone to share, hoping that G. would be appeased by being the "met radyo" or the keeper of the radio. She was ecstatic.
We found a station playing Carnival music and set about doing manicures. G. entertained us by dancing and was entertained back when the blans joined her. Mr. J is in a wheelchair, so Sr. Ellen and I each took a hand and danced with him for a bit. He doesn't get out of his room a lot, so it was nice to see him enjoying himself.
All of the women got their nails cut or filed, and painted. The men got their nails cut, and lotion rubbed on their arms. Sr. Ellen does this visit fairly regularly and they really enjoy it, but today was a little extra special.
2.23.2009
Beach Break
I occasionally get the opportunity to go to the beach. It's about a 40 minute drive from here, but distance-wise is only about 10 miles. The road is now better than it has ever been.
I've been getting a little stir-crazy lately. Sometimes just a little break away like this is all it takes to rejuvenate me, at least for a little while.
We accessed the beach through the property of a friend of Sarah's. We spent a couple of hours there, they brought us some food and their son cut down a couple of coconuts for us to drink. The beach was deserted except for us and a couple of people who happened to be walking from house to house. It was heaven.
Loving Life
Photo Gwen LeblancMy brother-in-law's car this morning in my hometown. Really loving Haiti right now. Ha!
See the next post. Double Ha!!
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More Kanaval
We are having Kanaval celebrations here in Santon in Fond des Blancs. Last night they started in the market place, and will continue tonight and tomorrow night.
Out of curiosity, Nicole and I went down to see what was going on last night. We could hear the music at the hospital, and walked toward it in the dark. As we got closer to the market, we saw more food stands set up and a couple of gaming tables, all lit by candlelight.
In the center of our market place is a huge concrete structure that was started and never completed. It was meant to be an outdoor covered market, but it was never used and the sellers still have their little stalls in the dust beside the two intersecting streets of the carrefour. The structure now gets used for soccer competitions, revivals, and gatherings of different kinds.
They had speakers and lights set up and the dancing was just starting when we arrived. We went in and watched for a while, bought a drink and looked for people we know.
When I first came to Haiti, JP told me that I was now living in a country with a people that is 95% extroverts. I believe during Kanaval the rate increases to 99%. We had high school boys hitting on Nicole and a few other older guys asking us to buy them beer. Everyone wants to practice their English....and the music is so loud that you can't hear anything and have to ask people to repeat themselves.
We escaped a couple of guys by moving out into the center of the activity to watch people dance. There was a rara band circling through the crowd the whole time we were there. We saw it coming, and realized that they were heading right for us. They circled us, played the horns right at our feet, and a woman carrying a Haitian flag rubbed it all over my head. The whole time they are playing they are moving to a shuffling beat. They stuck with us for a couple of minutes, and then moved on. I had always wanted to see a rara band, and I ended up with one in my face :)
We will probably go again tonight, but only because there are people I know who are going to be there.
Out of curiosity, Nicole and I went down to see what was going on last night. We could hear the music at the hospital, and walked toward it in the dark. As we got closer to the market, we saw more food stands set up and a couple of gaming tables, all lit by candlelight.
In the center of our market place is a huge concrete structure that was started and never completed. It was meant to be an outdoor covered market, but it was never used and the sellers still have their little stalls in the dust beside the two intersecting streets of the carrefour. The structure now gets used for soccer competitions, revivals, and gatherings of different kinds.
They had speakers and lights set up and the dancing was just starting when we arrived. We went in and watched for a while, bought a drink and looked for people we know.
When I first came to Haiti, JP told me that I was now living in a country with a people that is 95% extroverts. I believe during Kanaval the rate increases to 99%. We had high school boys hitting on Nicole and a few other older guys asking us to buy them beer. Everyone wants to practice their English....and the music is so loud that you can't hear anything and have to ask people to repeat themselves.
We escaped a couple of guys by moving out into the center of the activity to watch people dance. There was a rara band circling through the crowd the whole time we were there. We saw it coming, and realized that they were heading right for us. They circled us, played the horns right at our feet, and a woman carrying a Haitian flag rubbed it all over my head. The whole time they are playing they are moving to a shuffling beat. They stuck with us for a couple of minutes, and then moved on. I had always wanted to see a rara band, and I ended up with one in my face :)
We will probably go again tonight, but only because there are people I know who are going to be there.
2.22.2009
Larry Mellon's inspiring midlife crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-odasso/larry-mellons-inspiring-m_b_153771.html
Larry Mellon's inspiring midlife crisis
Diana Odasso
One year ago, I visited Haiti for the first time. A small group of us had been invited by the Hopital Albert Schweitzer(HAS) in Deschapelles, Central Haiti. From Port-au-Prince, a van drove us five hours west along a scarred and treeless landscape, through a continuous spread of brightly painted shacks. Despite our maniacal driver storming down the pitted road (Haiti has a high rate of vehicular mortality), we arrived safely at HAS. The hospital is located in the Artibonite valley where a scattering of trees and greenery frame a dusty shantytown: it was "lush" in comparison to what I had just seen. So we toured the hospital facilities, clinics and neighboring towns and witnessed the challenges.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world where over half the population lives on less than $1 a day. The hospital administers to an area of 300,000 with no other access to health care. The surrounding mountains are particularly poor and barren - people frequently walk ten hours or more to get to the hospital. Many die along the way. AIDS, tuberculosis, starvation and infant malnutrition - these are the daily affairs of the hospital.
As I reflect on my holiday experience last year and in light of this year's economic and moral climate, I marvel on the ability of a few to change the lives of many. The example of Madoff alone gives credence to the claim. But it is the positive story behind the hospital's creation that is at the crux of my reflections this season.
Flashback to the 1940s. William Larimer Mellon, of the Mellon banking family, was a rancher in Arizona, living an industrious and comfortable life with his wife Gwen and three stepchildren. One fair day in 1947, he happened upon a Life Magazine article entitled "The Greatest Man in the World", about Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his hospital in Lambrene, Gabon. Schweitzer advocated the ethical concept "Reverence for Life", taking on the responsibility of bringing health to an impoverished area in Africa.
For these ideas and for his field work, Schweitzer would win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The Life Magazine article changed Larry Mellon's life. Immediately, he began a lifelong correspondence with Dr. Schweitzer. Two months later, at 38 years old, with no college degree, and against all odds, Larry decided to become a doctor and open a hospital in an area with the most need (per Schweitzer's suggestion). His wife followed suit, enrolling as a lab technician student. During summer 'school' vacations, children in tow, they searched for a destitute corner of the Americas where they could open their hospital. They traveled to Haiti, came across an abandoned Standard Fruit Company complex in the desperate Artibonite valley and their fate was settled. The hospital opened June 26, 1956, on Mellon's forty-sixth birthday, named Hopital Albert Schweitzer after his good friend.
Funding HAS through a foundation established with Mellon family inheritance, Gwen and Larry spent the rest of their lives in Deschapelles. In addition to his involvement with the hospital itself, Larry built roads and pipelines in the valley. He established outlying clinics in hard to reach areas. He was a pioneer of the marketplace vaccination. He employed Haitian nurses and doctors and promoted community development. Until she was 89 years old, Gwen sat outside the hospital each morning, her desk under the shade of a wide tree, attending to a long line of patients. Larry died in 1989 and Gwen in 2000. The couple are buried in the hospital cemetery in cardboard boxes the way the poorest Haitians are interred. Even in death, they reached out to the community -- wood is expensive and Haitians should not waste what little they have. When I walked the hospital grounds, the valley and the mountains, everywhere I saw the ghosts of Larry and Gwen. The locals recall them fondly, sadly. Children in the valley run about with the names Larry and Gwen.
Larry Mellon pursued a seemingly hair-brained dream: to restore human dignity to a small sliver of the underdeveloped world. True, he was a Mellon and had the financial where-with-all most do not. But imagine also the obstacles: Haiti's turbulent political history, its lack of infrastructure such as an electric grid and proper roads, the dire poverty, the corruption, the violence. How many of us would uproot and move to an area not with the best view but with the most need? When confronted by such grand acts of sacrifice, maybe we assume we are cut from a different cloth, that we are incapable of such heroics. But Larry once said "People tell me what I am doing is noble but I really know it is selfish. I have found happiness in helping people no one else is helping. It was worth everything I had to get to this. I have sacrificed nothing."
These actions of great men and women, they are not just events of the past to marvel at in biographies, these actions are alive like parched trees on barren hillsides. Haiti is in worse need than ever before with soaring food and energy costs and a trail of destruction left by four summer hurricanes. The hospital struggles too with the current recession, the ups-and-down of politics, the whims of donors, the volatility of the weather and all unforeseeable and uncontrollable forces in our world. Perhaps we will not all have the same enlightened mid-life crisis as Larry Mellon. Perhaps we will not replant the mahogany forest of Haiti. But if we cannot be creators then at least we can be gardeners. We can help water the great works of others so that they do not wither in thirst and pass away. Surely then a few of us can continue to change the lives of many. (www.hashaiti.org)
Larry Mellon's inspiring midlife crisis
Diana Odasso
One year ago, I visited Haiti for the first time. A small group of us had been invited by the Hopital Albert Schweitzer(HAS) in Deschapelles, Central Haiti. From Port-au-Prince, a van drove us five hours west along a scarred and treeless landscape, through a continuous spread of brightly painted shacks. Despite our maniacal driver storming down the pitted road (Haiti has a high rate of vehicular mortality), we arrived safely at HAS. The hospital is located in the Artibonite valley where a scattering of trees and greenery frame a dusty shantytown: it was "lush" in comparison to what I had just seen. So we toured the hospital facilities, clinics and neighboring towns and witnessed the challenges.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world where over half the population lives on less than $1 a day. The hospital administers to an area of 300,000 with no other access to health care. The surrounding mountains are particularly poor and barren - people frequently walk ten hours or more to get to the hospital. Many die along the way. AIDS, tuberculosis, starvation and infant malnutrition - these are the daily affairs of the hospital.
As I reflect on my holiday experience last year and in light of this year's economic and moral climate, I marvel on the ability of a few to change the lives of many. The example of Madoff alone gives credence to the claim. But it is the positive story behind the hospital's creation that is at the crux of my reflections this season.
Flashback to the 1940s. William Larimer Mellon, of the Mellon banking family, was a rancher in Arizona, living an industrious and comfortable life with his wife Gwen and three stepchildren. One fair day in 1947, he happened upon a Life Magazine article entitled "The Greatest Man in the World", about Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his hospital in Lambrene, Gabon. Schweitzer advocated the ethical concept "Reverence for Life", taking on the responsibility of bringing health to an impoverished area in Africa.
For these ideas and for his field work, Schweitzer would win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The Life Magazine article changed Larry Mellon's life. Immediately, he began a lifelong correspondence with Dr. Schweitzer. Two months later, at 38 years old, with no college degree, and against all odds, Larry decided to become a doctor and open a hospital in an area with the most need (per Schweitzer's suggestion). His wife followed suit, enrolling as a lab technician student. During summer 'school' vacations, children in tow, they searched for a destitute corner of the Americas where they could open their hospital. They traveled to Haiti, came across an abandoned Standard Fruit Company complex in the desperate Artibonite valley and their fate was settled. The hospital opened June 26, 1956, on Mellon's forty-sixth birthday, named Hopital Albert Schweitzer after his good friend.
Funding HAS through a foundation established with Mellon family inheritance, Gwen and Larry spent the rest of their lives in Deschapelles. In addition to his involvement with the hospital itself, Larry built roads and pipelines in the valley. He established outlying clinics in hard to reach areas. He was a pioneer of the marketplace vaccination. He employed Haitian nurses and doctors and promoted community development. Until she was 89 years old, Gwen sat outside the hospital each morning, her desk under the shade of a wide tree, attending to a long line of patients. Larry died in 1989 and Gwen in 2000. The couple are buried in the hospital cemetery in cardboard boxes the way the poorest Haitians are interred. Even in death, they reached out to the community -- wood is expensive and Haitians should not waste what little they have. When I walked the hospital grounds, the valley and the mountains, everywhere I saw the ghosts of Larry and Gwen. The locals recall them fondly, sadly. Children in the valley run about with the names Larry and Gwen.
Larry Mellon pursued a seemingly hair-brained dream: to restore human dignity to a small sliver of the underdeveloped world. True, he was a Mellon and had the financial where-with-all most do not. But imagine also the obstacles: Haiti's turbulent political history, its lack of infrastructure such as an electric grid and proper roads, the dire poverty, the corruption, the violence. How many of us would uproot and move to an area not with the best view but with the most need? When confronted by such grand acts of sacrifice, maybe we assume we are cut from a different cloth, that we are incapable of such heroics. But Larry once said "People tell me what I am doing is noble but I really know it is selfish. I have found happiness in helping people no one else is helping. It was worth everything I had to get to this. I have sacrificed nothing."
These actions of great men and women, they are not just events of the past to marvel at in biographies, these actions are alive like parched trees on barren hillsides. Haiti is in worse need than ever before with soaring food and energy costs and a trail of destruction left by four summer hurricanes. The hospital struggles too with the current recession, the ups-and-down of politics, the whims of donors, the volatility of the weather and all unforeseeable and uncontrollable forces in our world. Perhaps we will not all have the same enlightened mid-life crisis as Larry Mellon. Perhaps we will not replant the mahogany forest of Haiti. But if we cannot be creators then at least we can be gardeners. We can help water the great works of others so that they do not wither in thirst and pass away. Surely then a few of us can continue to change the lives of many. (www.hashaiti.org)
2.21.2009
Kanaval at Ekol Sen Franswa
It's Carnival time in Haiti. There are huge celebrations in Port-au-Prince and the other cities. Lots of music, costumes and dancing in the streets.
Leading the kids in dancing around the school yard
This little girl wasn't sure if she liked her mask - so I took her picture to show her what she looked like.
Leading the kids in dancing around the school yard
This little girl wasn't sure if she liked her mask - so I took her picture to show her what she looked like.
The Friday before Mardi Gras the schools have a celebration for the children during the day, and they have the next week off. At Ecole St. Francois it started in the morning and went until the end of the afternoon. Met Patrick, the school director, saw us in the market in the morning and invited us to come and see what was going on.
The youngest children had their own separate group. They are great little dancers.
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Obama invites Michaelle Jean to Washington
Obama invites Michaëlle Jean to Washington
CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP PHOTO
President Barack Obama is met by Governor General Michaelle Jean as he arrives in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009.
Feb 21, 2009 04:30 AM
Tonda MacCharles Ottawa Bureau
Feb 21, 2009 04:30 AM
Tonda MacCharles Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Governor General Michaëlle Jean discussed the plight of her native Haiti with U.S. President Barack Obama, who invited her to come to Washington – an invitation that was not extended to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
American aides to the president who briefed the travelling White House reporters en route back to Washington Thursday said Obama and the Governor General exchanged "views about how we could be helpful to the government there in dealing with economic and social issues."
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2.20.2009
Nan mache a
Kathy, a visitor, Nicole and I went to the market (mache) this morning. I love going to the market, especially to take the visitors there, but I don't go every week.
It's hot, dirty and crowded....and sometimes dangerous. Besides having to watch to keep from being run over by motorcycles, the last time I went, a bull from the livestock section got free and went charging straight through the crowd. You should have see the people jump out of the way. No one got hurt, but I was told afterward that if anyone had gotten injured the owner would probably have received retribution.
Because I've been here for a while I run into people I know and some who just know my name. There's a young woman who sells shoes and every time she asks me to buy kids shoes, and every time I tell her I don't have any children.
"Maybe your friends would like to buy some sandals?" she suggests.
Nope.
"You should buy some shoes."
"I don't need shoes. Do you buy things you don't need?" I asked her.
"No I don't. You could buy them and give them to me," she said, smiling.
It's all a game and it's not always polite. Today a woman asked me to buy some laundry soap from her. I said "non, mesi" and so she told me I was dirty. She didn't know that I could understand what she said.
Today I bought some snacks from a girl who always asks me, and I found a fruit that I hadn't seen before.
This is kayimit, also known as star apple or caimito. I cut it in the wrong direction. There should be a star shape in the middle. It tastes very much like a plum but you don't eat the skin. It will stain your mouth purple.
These speak for themselves. They'll be eaten with the movie tonight. We're screening "Sicko" on the galeri.
It's hot, dirty and crowded....and sometimes dangerous. Besides having to watch to keep from being run over by motorcycles, the last time I went, a bull from the livestock section got free and went charging straight through the crowd. You should have see the people jump out of the way. No one got hurt, but I was told afterward that if anyone had gotten injured the owner would probably have received retribution.
Because I've been here for a while I run into people I know and some who just know my name. There's a young woman who sells shoes and every time she asks me to buy kids shoes, and every time I tell her I don't have any children.
"Maybe your friends would like to buy some sandals?" she suggests.
Nope.
"You should buy some shoes."
"I don't need shoes. Do you buy things you don't need?" I asked her.
"No I don't. You could buy them and give them to me," she said, smiling.
It's all a game and it's not always polite. Today a woman asked me to buy some laundry soap from her. I said "non, mesi" and so she told me I was dirty. She didn't know that I could understand what she said.
Today I bought some snacks from a girl who always asks me, and I found a fruit that I hadn't seen before.
This is kayimit, also known as star apple or caimito. I cut it in the wrong direction. There should be a star shape in the middle. It tastes very much like a plum but you don't eat the skin. It will stain your mouth purple.
These speak for themselves. They'll be eaten with the movie tonight. We're screening "Sicko" on the galeri.
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2.13.2009
The Economist - Weighed down by disasters
A synopsis of the current state of affairs...
Weighed down by disasters
Feb 12th 2009 GONAÏVESFrom The Economist print edition
A modest success for the United Nations is threatened by nature and lassitude
AFP
THERE is a new lake outside Gonaïves, a town of 300,000 people and the fourth-largest in Haiti. It blocks the road south to the capital, Port-au-Prince. It formed last autumn when four storms, three of them hurricanes, swept over the poorest country in the Americas in the space of a month. The rain—a metre’s worth on one night alone—fell on saturated mountains, long since denuded of their forest cover, and swept down on to the coastal plain. It seemed a modest victory that only 793 people died, compared with 3,000 killed by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. Continue here
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Weighed down by disasters
Feb 12th 2009 GONAÏVESFrom The Economist print edition
A modest success for the United Nations is threatened by nature and lassitude
AFP
THERE is a new lake outside Gonaïves, a town of 300,000 people and the fourth-largest in Haiti. It blocks the road south to the capital, Port-au-Prince. It formed last autumn when four storms, three of them hurricanes, swept over the poorest country in the Americas in the space of a month. The rain—a metre’s worth on one night alone—fell on saturated mountains, long since denuded of their forest cover, and swept down on to the coastal plain. It seemed a modest victory that only 793 people died, compared with 3,000 killed by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. Continue here
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2.09.2009
Random Photos
These goats are on the top of a tomb in the cemetery, eating the plastic flowers off of a funeral wreath. They are everywhere and eat everything.2.08.2009
Food Donations
I'm going through my photos from the last few weeks to see if there's anything I want to upload while the internet connection is good. Here's one.
We receive food donations from a few different organizations, and a lot of the time it is grains, beans etc. for our nutrition programs.
Food for the Poor has been very generous with us. A random stop in provided a selection of commerical canned food items. While many of them are standard items that are recognizable to our cooks and programs, some of them will require a little instruction and innovation to use them.
Besides canned beans, tomatoes, and fruit, we also received corned beef hash, gravy, marinara and pizza sauces, cranberry sauce, peach pie filling, sliced olives and soups. None of these items will be wasted even if they are not familiar to people here.
Conor suggested we should hold a jalapeno pepper eating contest with the the kids.
We receive food donations from a few different organizations, and a lot of the time it is grains, beans etc. for our nutrition programs.
Food for the Poor has been very generous with us. A random stop in provided a selection of commerical canned food items. While many of them are standard items that are recognizable to our cooks and programs, some of them will require a little instruction and innovation to use them.
Besides canned beans, tomatoes, and fruit, we also received corned beef hash, gravy, marinara and pizza sauces, cranberry sauce, peach pie filling, sliced olives and soups. None of these items will be wasted even if they are not familiar to people here.
Conor suggested we should hold a jalapeno pepper eating contest with the the kids.
Donuts
Nicole and I traveled back to Fond des Blancs last week after picking up the Jacksonville surgical team. Some of the team members I had met before as they are dedicated people who come to FdB at least once a year to perform surgery. A few of the team members were new.
Their flight was several hours late arriving so we drove back to FdB in the dark, packed quite tightly into the back of the ambulance. The drive went quickly because the company was so good, but there were many sore rear ends. It’s not a comfortable drive. I’ve gotten kind of used to it, but I still don’t like it.
Here are a few of the team members preparing for the trip back yesterday. They came prepared.
Their flight was several hours late arriving so we drove back to FdB in the dark, packed quite tightly into the back of the ambulance. The drive went quickly because the company was so good, but there were many sore rear ends. It’s not a comfortable drive. I’ve gotten kind of used to it, but I still don’t like it.
Here are a few of the team members preparing for the trip back yesterday. They came prepared.
(I didn't ask their permission to post their photos and I don't think they would mind, but I masked them anyway)
2.05.2009
Jodi a
It’s been a good busy morning. It is very windy here today so the dust is blowing everywhere. At times it has felt as though some bad weather is blowing in but it keeps clearing up.
Sr. Ellen drove me to Fonkoze in her new little 4-wheeler so I could change some money. It feels kind of weird to drive through the streets of Santon in a glorified golf-cart, but I was later going to Lakay Granmoun (the old people’s home) with a bag of towels that I couldn’t carry.
After I had finished my banking, I sat on the bench outside while Sr. Ellen finished hers. I was trying to read one of the posters on the wall. I had to ask the guy sitting next to me what a couple of the words meant. It’s always fun to try to understand the explanation of a Kreyol word in Kreyol, but I’m getting better at it.
As I was sitting there, a couple of other people came in that I know. I’m getting better at small talk so it was very pleasant. The magistrate of our local tribunal came in and sat beside me too. I’ve met him a couple of times before.
Sr. Ellen and I drove up the road and across the stream to Lakay Granmoun. I said goodbye and thanked her for the drive. I was going to walk back. I said hello to the folks on the front porch and went around back to visit with the employees. I was happy to see that Ma. was doing the laundry and Me. was doing the cooking. Me. hurt her wrist a couple of weeks ago and needs a rest from the hard work of washing clothes and sheets by hand. Ma. usually does the cooking. I like that they fill in and help each other out.
I needed to talk to Marthe, the supervisor but she wasn’t there, so I sat down to talk to the women while they were working. We have one male employee who does the yard work and fetches water. He speaks very fast and is difficult to understand. He joined in the conversation and we were all teasing him because no matter how often I ask him to speak more slowly he can’t do it. He just speaks louder.
The son of one of the women who lives in the home was there. She has problems with digestion and can’t tolerate some of the foods we serve, so I talked with him for a while and got a list of the foods that she can eat. I don’t think it will take a lot of effort to meet her needs better, but I suspect she will still have difficulty as her problems aren’t all because of the food.
Marthe returned while I was there so I went to sit in her house with her to go over the shopping list for market day tomorrow. She has a beautiful little girl of about 10 months who is also named Ellen, or Ti Helene. I played with Ti Helene while we talked, sitting in a tichez (little chair) watching the baby turkeys scratch around the door. Every once in a while, one would walk in the house and look around for a few minutes, and then head back out.
We finished with the market list and then moved on to a few other items that are needed. She also asked me if I could come in on Saturday when Mi. was working so that I could talk to her about her work. (We have four women working there with names that begin with M!)
I started to walk back to the hospital in the wind and dust. I crossed the stream without getting my feet wet and walked up the steep hill. Near the top I noticed some kind of commotion going on in someone’s yard. I asked a woman who was standing in the road watching what was up. She said “Y’ap goumen”, and there certainly was a fight going on. It was at a home that I already knew that an elderly woman, who is living in severe poverty, has a few adult sons whom all have drinking problems, and they don’t help their mother at all. There was some shouting and pushing going on between the men, but the elderly woman was wisely keeping out of the way.
It was one of those strange days where you happen to meet a lot of people you know. On the way, I met G. who is helping me with my mill project. Then I met P. who asked me to come into the food depot to take a few photos of the recent food delivery for our food for work project. Close to the hospital I met S. who wants to practice his English with me.
After a lunch break and time on the computer working on the budget for the elderly home and this blog post, it’s time to head back out into the wind and dust. I promised Me. that I would come by her house with a wrap bandage for her wrist.
Sr. Ellen drove me to Fonkoze in her new little 4-wheeler so I could change some money. It feels kind of weird to drive through the streets of Santon in a glorified golf-cart, but I was later going to Lakay Granmoun (the old people’s home) with a bag of towels that I couldn’t carry.
After I had finished my banking, I sat on the bench outside while Sr. Ellen finished hers. I was trying to read one of the posters on the wall. I had to ask the guy sitting next to me what a couple of the words meant. It’s always fun to try to understand the explanation of a Kreyol word in Kreyol, but I’m getting better at it.
As I was sitting there, a couple of other people came in that I know. I’m getting better at small talk so it was very pleasant. The magistrate of our local tribunal came in and sat beside me too. I’ve met him a couple of times before.
Sr. Ellen and I drove up the road and across the stream to Lakay Granmoun. I said goodbye and thanked her for the drive. I was going to walk back. I said hello to the folks on the front porch and went around back to visit with the employees. I was happy to see that Ma. was doing the laundry and Me. was doing the cooking. Me. hurt her wrist a couple of weeks ago and needs a rest from the hard work of washing clothes and sheets by hand. Ma. usually does the cooking. I like that they fill in and help each other out.
I needed to talk to Marthe, the supervisor but she wasn’t there, so I sat down to talk to the women while they were working. We have one male employee who does the yard work and fetches water. He speaks very fast and is difficult to understand. He joined in the conversation and we were all teasing him because no matter how often I ask him to speak more slowly he can’t do it. He just speaks louder.
The son of one of the women who lives in the home was there. She has problems with digestion and can’t tolerate some of the foods we serve, so I talked with him for a while and got a list of the foods that she can eat. I don’t think it will take a lot of effort to meet her needs better, but I suspect she will still have difficulty as her problems aren’t all because of the food.
Marthe returned while I was there so I went to sit in her house with her to go over the shopping list for market day tomorrow. She has a beautiful little girl of about 10 months who is also named Ellen, or Ti Helene. I played with Ti Helene while we talked, sitting in a tichez (little chair) watching the baby turkeys scratch around the door. Every once in a while, one would walk in the house and look around for a few minutes, and then head back out.
We finished with the market list and then moved on to a few other items that are needed. She also asked me if I could come in on Saturday when Mi. was working so that I could talk to her about her work. (We have four women working there with names that begin with M!)
I started to walk back to the hospital in the wind and dust. I crossed the stream without getting my feet wet and walked up the steep hill. Near the top I noticed some kind of commotion going on in someone’s yard. I asked a woman who was standing in the road watching what was up. She said “Y’ap goumen”, and there certainly was a fight going on. It was at a home that I already knew that an elderly woman, who is living in severe poverty, has a few adult sons whom all have drinking problems, and they don’t help their mother at all. There was some shouting and pushing going on between the men, but the elderly woman was wisely keeping out of the way.
It was one of those strange days where you happen to meet a lot of people you know. On the way, I met G. who is helping me with my mill project. Then I met P. who asked me to come into the food depot to take a few photos of the recent food delivery for our food for work project. Close to the hospital I met S. who wants to practice his English with me.
After a lunch break and time on the computer working on the budget for the elderly home and this blog post, it’s time to head back out into the wind and dust. I promised Me. that I would come by her house with a wrap bandage for her wrist.
2.03.2009
I don't sleep well in Port au Prince
I don't sleep well in Port au Prince.
A group of us came in on Sunday to watch the Superbowl at a friend's house in Carrefour. I was in bed after half-time and didn't get to see the end of the game, which I heard was pretty good. And I missed the commercials which was my main reason for watching :)
The heat isn't bad here this time of year, but the noises of the neighbourhood are what keeps me awake. The VERY loud music ends at 1 or 2 am, but then you have to listen to the dogs. It's quiet for a few hours and then everything starts up for the day around 5 am. The roosters start at around 4 am, and depending on how close they are to your window you may not get much sleep after that.
We ended up doing errands most of Monday and dropping off two members of our "Superbowl" team at the airport. We split up, and I just went along for the ride because I didn't have anywhere else to go. That means sitting and waiting in the truck outside of different businesses.
I like to people watch and see the city so it's not so bad, but it can be hot and dusty - and exhausting. I always get a headache because I get dehydrated. I don't drink a lot because I never know how long it will be before I will see the next restroom.
We went to Digicel to do some business and to pick up ceramic tile at another place. After that was EpiDor, a special treat. It's a fast food place/bakery that has American-style food, a bathroom (of sorts) and air-conditioning! They also have pretty fast service.
Later, I got dropped off at Hospice St. Joseph and met Nicole there. She had spent much of the day with Dr. C looking for supplies. Nicole is a new volunteer with St. Boniface and already a fun part of the "team".
Hospice St. Joseph is an oasis in the Christ Roi neighbourhood of PaP. It's a clean, friendly place with great food. They have a beautiful covered galeri on the third floor that gives a view of the city below. You can sit there at night, feel the cool breeze, listen to the city and look out to the bay.
But there are dogs there too. At about 3 am Nicole and I were awakend to dogs barking. The one in the yard was communicating with two or three others farther away. It would have been kind of interesting to hear them talk to each other if it hadn't been so annoying.
This morning we sat on the seats outside our room and watched the street below. There are lots of people walking past on their way to school or work. A truck broke down in front of the gate, so we watched them try to fix it and get it going again.
The driver was pretty upset and yelling at the others helping him. Finally he decided to back down the hill.
HSJ is located on a very steep hill, and this probably wasn't a good idea. I'm not sure if he lost his brakes or not, but from where we were it looked like he wasn't applying them. We could hear him hit some of the bumps in the road after he went out of our sight. He may have crashed at the intersection because we could see people staring down the street. I just hope if he did everyone had time to get out of the way.
So after a good breakfast, we are waiting for our drive to come and get us. We have a few errands to do before we go back to Fond des Blans. I can't wait to get a good night's sleep.
A group of us came in on Sunday to watch the Superbowl at a friend's house in Carrefour. I was in bed after half-time and didn't get to see the end of the game, which I heard was pretty good. And I missed the commercials which was my main reason for watching :)
The heat isn't bad here this time of year, but the noises of the neighbourhood are what keeps me awake. The VERY loud music ends at 1 or 2 am, but then you have to listen to the dogs. It's quiet for a few hours and then everything starts up for the day around 5 am. The roosters start at around 4 am, and depending on how close they are to your window you may not get much sleep after that.
We ended up doing errands most of Monday and dropping off two members of our "Superbowl" team at the airport. We split up, and I just went along for the ride because I didn't have anywhere else to go. That means sitting and waiting in the truck outside of different businesses.
I like to people watch and see the city so it's not so bad, but it can be hot and dusty - and exhausting. I always get a headache because I get dehydrated. I don't drink a lot because I never know how long it will be before I will see the next restroom.
We went to Digicel to do some business and to pick up ceramic tile at another place. After that was EpiDor, a special treat. It's a fast food place/bakery that has American-style food, a bathroom (of sorts) and air-conditioning! They also have pretty fast service.
Later, I got dropped off at Hospice St. Joseph and met Nicole there. She had spent much of the day with Dr. C looking for supplies. Nicole is a new volunteer with St. Boniface and already a fun part of the "team".
Hospice St. Joseph is an oasis in the Christ Roi neighbourhood of PaP. It's a clean, friendly place with great food. They have a beautiful covered galeri on the third floor that gives a view of the city below. You can sit there at night, feel the cool breeze, listen to the city and look out to the bay.
But there are dogs there too. At about 3 am Nicole and I were awakend to dogs barking. The one in the yard was communicating with two or three others farther away. It would have been kind of interesting to hear them talk to each other if it hadn't been so annoying.
This morning we sat on the seats outside our room and watched the street below. There are lots of people walking past on their way to school or work. A truck broke down in front of the gate, so we watched them try to fix it and get it going again.
The driver was pretty upset and yelling at the others helping him. Finally he decided to back down the hill.
HSJ is located on a very steep hill, and this probably wasn't a good idea. I'm not sure if he lost his brakes or not, but from where we were it looked like he wasn't applying them. We could hear him hit some of the bumps in the road after he went out of our sight. He may have crashed at the intersection because we could see people staring down the street. I just hope if he did everyone had time to get out of the way.
So after a good breakfast, we are waiting for our drive to come and get us. We have a few errands to do before we go back to Fond des Blans. I can't wait to get a good night's sleep.
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