The learning curve

I've had some situations lately that have made me uncomfortable and have stretched me. I'm learning.

I was recently approached by a woman, I'll call her J, here at the hospital. Her sister had died from food poisoning a few days earlier, and two boys in the household were still in the hospital. J needed money to pay for the funeral. I did not have anyone to translate and clarify for me, so I got the story a little wrong - or perhaps I was not told everything.

I believed that the family of the woman who had died was in a sponsorship relationship with a family in the US and that J wanted to let them know of the death. J had what appeared to be two phone numbers, so I agreed to let her make a long-distance call on my phone. If she had the phone numbers, I thought that it must be okay with the US family that she contact them.

They turned out to be wire transfer numbers, not phone numbers. This is where I should have made a different decision. Instead, I offered to contact the local pastor whose organization she said was involved.

The pastor returned my email and clarified the situation. It was not a sponsorship of the dead woman's family, but actually the family in the US had adopted three of J's children through a sister organization in Port au Prince, so he was not involved at all. The US family had been providing J with news of her children, so he had forwarded the US family my email.

J showed up after my receiving that news with a phone number for the family that she had gotten from someone else. I told her she needed to hear back from the family before she went ahead and contacted them.

All of that is to say, I have inadvertantly gotten involved between a mother and an adoptive family. Not smart. Everyone has been very nice, but I regret that I have placed the US family in a position where they are being approached for money by the birth mother. The appropriate course to take would have been to encourage J to contact the orphanage and go from there for contact with the family.

The end result is still pending. I am hoping to hear from Sr. Ellen if she has funds to help with the funeral costs, which would be the best thing for this situation.

Number Of World’s Hungry Tops A Billion

There are more hungry people in the world than ever before.

More than one billion people, almost a sixth of humanity,

are now undernourished, according to the latest estimates

from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Read more here

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Safety

Haiti can be kind of scary, particularly if its your first time here and you have a mob scene at the airport.

Its a conversation that I have frequently when I'm at home in Canada - explaining that I'm living in Haiti and that it has gotten a bum rap in the media as far as being dangerous.

I'm not saying it's the safest place to live, but it's not total anarchy as the news would have you believe. Violent crime rates are actually lower than some American cities

Canada tells its tourists that Haiti is safer


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A very short rant

Tout moun se moun is a Haitian proverb that means literally all people are people. I hear it a lot.

Saying something and actually behaving that way are two separate things. People's attitudes sometimes really stink.

That's all I have to say

Fet chanpet

This past week was the Feast of Mary Magdalene. In Haiti, every village has a patron saint for the chapel there. This time it was Frangipane's turn to celebrate.

The fet at Frangipane is well-known in the region and draws a large crowd. There are festivities through the week, but the Saturday night gets the most attention. This fet had at least three different bals, or dances, going on.

I was asked to go by my co-worker Nicole, who was going with three guys we know, and with a current short-termer, Nancy. I really don't enjoy these events that much, I don't even like to go out at home, but sometimes you have to take what entertainment you can find.

We piled into one of the guys' little truck and headed out. Crossing the stream near the kay granmoun, we almost got stuck in the mud. As we were trying to get unstuck something struck the muffler with a loud thud and the truck started to make an awful noise. It was hilarious because I think Nicole and I were the only ones that noticed. The driver didn't even react to damaging his muffler. Maybe they're used to the sound, I don't know.

When we arrived in Frangipane there was already a huge crowd there. Lots of vendors selling food, and very loud music. We entered one of the bals and found a table and waited for some chairs to arrive. It was outside the school. A large tarp had been put up as a shelter and the dance floor was underneath.

Haitian parties or fets are different from North American ones, at least at the beginning. There was just a lot of awkward standing around and looking at each other going on. The music was playing but not many people were dancing. We waited a while and someone came to bring us a beer.

There's a protocol that needs to be followed when you go to a bal. I, unfortunately, did not know all of the rules and ended up probably offending the guys we were with and one of my closest friends here. Not to mention giving the impression that blan women are loose (it doesn't take much to give that impression apparently).

These are rules that most of us northern women, having more autonomy than Haitian women, would find repugnant. But I am living in another culture and I respect the customs - when I know them :)

First of all, when you go with someone who has asked you to go, you are supposed to dance only with that person. You may dance with someone else if he says you may dance with his friend(s). Anyone else who wants to dance with you needs to ask your date first. You won't dance with anyone you and he don't already know. Your date may dance with anyone he pleases.

So we went as a group. That means we could dance with any of our three male companions. I danced with a couple of other people that I know from here at the hospital and so did Nicole. Apparently that was not cool but we didn't find out until later.

Dancing konpa is kind of fun. It's a lot of fun to watch. People here have such great rhythm and graceful movement. I can't move like the Haitian women do but for the most part like it. I do get uncomfortable when my partner gets too close, and I still have yet to find a graceful way to tell them to back off and not seem like a prude.

The crowd got rowdier as the night wore on, and there was a bit of drunkeness. We had to leave when they started firing guns into the air.

Back in Haiti

I arrived back in Haiti on Sunday, spent a couple of days in Port au Prince, and returned to Fond des Blancs on Tuesday.

It's been difficult, coming back. More difficult than I remember it being the last couple of times, and I can't quite put my finger on why. It's not that I don't look forward to seeing the people I know, or doing the work. It just feels different this time. There's always the culture shock of going home, but after you visit a while you get acclimated and then you have to adjust back to Haiti when you return. I'm sure I'll get over it.

There's lots to do. I have to get caught up on the purchasing, expenses and needs of my projects and update the spreadsheets. I have a couple of new things to work on that are kind of challenging. I also need to make a list of things that I need to blog and post about for both this personal blog and the organization blog.

I bought a new lens for my camera while I was home. Happy birthday to me for the next four years :) I hope to be taking more photos and working on learning how to do it better.

Will write more soon.

On being judgemental as a Christian

Great post here today http://www.asliceoflifetogo.com It's called Fruit Inspectors and discusses the issue of Christians being judgemental of others. I loved it.

Good news

There has been good news about Haiti's future recently and I've been meaning to post about it but I'm on vacation :) Bryan Schaff at Haiti Innovation has written an excellent blog post.

Haiti Food Security Update
By Bryan Schaaf on Sunday, July 12, 2009

The past month has been important for Haiti. The World Bank, IMF, and the IDB forgave $1.2 billion of Haiti’s debt. Deals were reached with members of the Paris Club to cancel an additional $152 million in debt. Bill Clinton made his first trip to Haiti as UN Special Envoy. Plus, discussions at the G8 Summit indicated we may be on the verge of a historic shift in how food assistance is delivered, to the benefit of Haiti and other food insecure countries.

Continue reading here


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Random thoughts and questions

I have no desire to blog, but think that I shouldn't leave it too long or I may never come back to it - not really likely but a worry nonetheless.

Traveling, being home, seeing Canada through more distant eyes has brought a lot of thoughts, realizations and questions to mind. Here are some, thoroughly random and probably unrelated:

- I am struck at how well-manicured and clean everything is. No garbage on the streets and lawns, neat flower beds, no donkey dung to watch out for.

- TV is a waste of time and I know why I don't miss it

- Why is it that I couldn't wait to get a break away from Haiti, and now I'm just biding my time until I return?

- Going from the shopping economics of the US to the economics of Haiti, and then coming to Canada to stock up on supplies is causing major sticker shock. How can anyone afford to live here?

- The quiet is deafening.

- I want to write some serious posts about the insider's view and observations of our culture of charitable giving and working for non-profits in Haiti, but am afraid that I will offend someone.

- There wasn't any food in particular that I was looking forward to eating when I got back, but that hasn't kept me from eating EVERYTHING that crosses my path. I've never been an icecream freak, but I've eaten it every day. I know I'll start missing the rice and beans any moment now...

Taking a break

When I left Port au Prince two days ago it was in the low 30's (90's F) with high humidity. Can you imagine how much I'm enjoying the 18 degree weather and the rain here at home? I slept under a comforter and am sitting here now at the computer in a long sleeve shirt with cold feet. Lovin' it.