Jwaye Nwèl!

Jwaye Nwèl tout moun! Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to give you all an update about what I have been doing since I last posted. It's almost been 3 months in Haiti and I realize that I haven't posted since my 6 week mark-- time has flown!  Since my last post, I have gone to the beach in Gran Goave, had a successful Thanksgiving potluck with friends, attended my work Christmas party, made my first solo batch of Banan Peze and Pikliz, and celebrated my 25th birthday. On Christmas, I'll be meeting up with my family in Punta Cana, DR and then on NYE with some friends in Santo Domingo! Below are some pictures from my last month and a half:

Gran Goave, Haiti

Obligatory ocean picture -- Gran Goave, Haiti (Kate's photo)

Note the little kabrit  hanging out in the shadows--- I think I ate him for lunch that day ;) -- Gran Goave, Haiti (Kate's photo)

Turkey Leg Lunch on Thanksgiving Day

My First Turkey (cooked for our Friendsgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving) = success! 

Work Christmas Party - (photo credit to CRS photographer)

Celebrating my 25th in Haiti- with a blow torch shoved in an ice cream sundae (photo credit to Kettianne)

Successful Homemade Banan Peze ak Pikliz!!

I had this post written up for Thanksgiving, but I never got around to posting it. I figured I might as well just try and pass it off as a Jwaye Nwèl post rather than deleting it:  

This year at Christmas, I am thankful:  

-For the adorable ti moun (children) with neatly pressed uniforms walking hand-in-hand to school who make me smile every morning on my way to work and who give me hope for the future.

-For the persistent ti moun with tattered clothes who ask to wash my car windows every morning, who are NOT in school, and who remind me that statistics (that 50% of Haitian children do not attend school) have names and faces. 

-For my coworkers who excuse me for my lack of a wardrobe (Haitians are very fashionable and I am not) and who push me to be more confident about my work (lest I be walked all over)

2 of my 3 wonderful neighbors (Kate's photo)

-For my neighbors who make Haiti feel like home, who are always just around the corner when I feel lonely in my 2 BR apartment or need a cup of flour, who give my jokes way too much credit, and who keep me from making a fool of myself at work Christmas parties (or at least give their best attempt).

-For the drivers, who are constantly making me laugh, who have taught me more about Haiti and Kreyol than anyone else here, who are respectful and courteous, and who always seem happy to see me (even when I know they really were hoping I would get another ride home so that they could go home early)

-For market days, where I get to practice my Kreyol, buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and haggle with the ti machann (market women) over prices and make them laugh with my attempts to speak in Kreyol. 

Happy Hour on the roof!

-For Kompa music, which reminds me that it is OK to make a fool of yourself in front of a large crowd of strangers.

-For Kreyol food, Haiti's famous Barbancourt Rhum, Prestige Beer, and for Happy Hour on the roof. 

-For Petionville and my fancy apartment--- a constant reminder of my easy access to privileges I didn’t earn.

-For my friends back in the US who humor me with skype calls, who send me Whatsapp texts to update me on all of the hot gossip in Omaha and to dish about potential love interests… who make me feel like things won’t change despite the distance.

-For my family who has been unbelievably supportive of this journey, from cards at every holiday to offering to bring essentially everything but the kitchen sink for me when they come visit in the DR. I couldn't ask for a more loving family. 

-For the opportunity to see the world--- both its beauty and its ugliness--- and to discard my rosy-colored glasses at every chance I get.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. 

By the numbers

Weeks 4, 5, and 6 have each brought their own challenges and rewards.  In a nutshell, weeks 4/5 were dedicated to work trips (visiting 6 of our 7 partner hospitals) and week 6 was a rather stressful and confusing work week. Between weeks 5 and 6 was Fete Gede- a Haitian holiday similar to the Mexican "Day of the Dead" celebrations. Fete Gede provided us with a nice, long 3-day weekend, and we used it to travel to Jacmel, which is a small beach town south of Port-au-Prince.  I have been very lucky to have seen so much of this beautiful country already.  I'll spare you from a day-to-day recap and just give you some stats on my first 6 weeks in Haiti (this idea was stolen from a friend's blog about her time in Kenya):

SIX:
-weeks in Haiti....which means I've now been in Haiti longer than I have been in any other country! (besides the US, of course).

ZERO:
-illnesses (fingers and toes crossed that this continues)

ONE:  
-new apartment
-quart of pikliz consumed. I am obsessed.  Pikliz is a spicy cabbage slaw that people put on all of the tasty fried snacks (fritay) here

TWO:
-bowls of bouillon (delicious Haitian soup with dumplings)
-LOUD coworkers (although they also have two of the best laughs I've ever heard)
-beaches visited

THREE: 
-bottles of Barbancourt rhum

EIGHT:
-roommates in our cottage on the beach in Jacmel

TEN:
-LONG car trips (the road to Jacmel included approx. 360 curves in the road)
-cities (Jacmel, Cap Haitien, Milot, Pilate, Limbe, Gros Morne, Fond-des-Blancs, Fond-des-Negres, Croix-des-Boquets, Port-au-Prince/Petionville)

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN:
-minutes stuck in stand-still traffic on our drive back from Jacmel (the president decided to have a concert on one of the biggest travel days of the year)

Too many to count:
-beautiful places and people
-broken conversations in Kreyol/Spanish/English
-times I've tripped going up a flight of stairs in front of a coworker (it probably doesn't help that my only work shoes are a full size too big)
-ants swarming in my apartment after leaving even a crumb of food out
-times the power has gone out (luckily we have a generator, so it *almost* always comes right back on)
-International Development or CRS-specific acronyms I didn't know
-times I've awkwardly greeted someone with a handshake only to realize that they were going in for the typical two-cheek kiss greeting
-adorable kids in uniforms, holding hands and walking to school each morning

And last but not least, some pictures of the beautiful Haitian countryside:

On my first road trip (we went to Southern Haiti to visit a couple of our partner hospitals):

On my second road trip (we went through the Central Plateau and up to Northern Haiti, also to visit hospitals):

On my weekend getaway in Jacmel (first row is pictures of our little oceanfront cottage and second row is from our visit to Bassin Bleu-- a waterfall near Jacmel--- photo credit to Lam for the Bassin Bleu pictures):

 





I don't have anymore trips scheduled until my much anticipated trip to the DR, so I will start putting up blog posts more regularly :)

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.  All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated

Apatman mwen an Petionville!

I've had a busy last two weeks, so I'll try and give you a synopsis of what I've been up to since I last posted. Please excuse the grammatical errors (i'm sure there are many) and choppy writing as I kind of just threw this together.  

Week 2:
I spent the week finishing up the last of my logistical/settling-in tasks and trying to better define my role. Then, on Friday we went to Press Cafe for drinks.  We listened to the live Kompa music, attempted to dance, and drank too much Barbancourt rhum, which is made here in Haiti. It was the first time where I felt like I was actually in Haiti rather than trapped in an Expat bubble. Before this we had only been to places that catered to expats---places where the only Haitians in the bar were the ones working there.  It was refreshing to be somewhere that actually felt like Haiti. By the way, Kompa is a popular type of Haitian music--- click here for an example of Kompa. The singer, whose stage name is "Sweet Mickey," is actually the current Haitian president! 

The next day we went to the Artisanat en Fete which was an art festival that brought together artists from all over Haiti.  There were paper maiche animals and voodoo-inspired paintings from Jacmel, metal work sculptures from Croix des Bouquets, and folk art paintings from the Plateau Central (just to name a few of the things we saw). I could have probably spent an entire paycheck there, but I didn't realize that it was all going to be high-end art (aka expensive), so I hadn't brought enough money-- which was probably a good thing.  I will have the chance to visit most of the places where this art came from throughout my time in Haiti, so I figured that I would have plenty of opportunities to buy some of the things that I really liked. Below are some pictures that I took at the Fete.  (Left- voodoo-inspired paintings, Center- clever fountain art piece, Right- Huge bottle of Barbancourt rhum)

The next day was move-in day, and, in true Haitian style, I was supposed to move in at 1pm and didn't end up getting to the apartment until 6pm.  The apartment is beautiful and in a perfect location in Petionville (a suburb of Port-au-Prince). I am close to the two big grocery stores in PAP where they have ATMs and just about any American or import product that you could possibly want if you're willing to pay the price (e.g. Fage greek yogurt and Ezekial Bread.  Crazy!)  I am also within walking distance of several restaurants (although they are likely out of my price range for a normal meal since most of the Petionville restaurants cost at least $15-20/entrée--- these restaurants cater to the wealthy expats that live in this suburb).  My apartment feels very safe (there is always a guard watching the apartment) and I am able to walk around during the day.  There are two small outdoor markets that are just a short walk away.  It is very strange to be living in such a nice apartment, and I feel very spoiled with the apartment that I have.  In other places in Latin America where I've lived, my accommodations have been MUCH more basic.  Also, I have an extra bedroom, so if you know anyone who would like a place to stay while they are in Port-au-Prince, please send them my way.  I would love to have a guest! I think it will feel a little strange living by myself since I've always had at least 1 roommate. It will be nice to have my own space, though. Below are some pictures of my apartment (the last two pictures are the view from my porch and the view from the roof).

Week 3: 

This past week was VERY busy as most of the key people at the office were participating in a "positioning" workshop that lasted the whole week.  My boss suggested that I sit in on the workshop to get some context on how the organization pursues funding opportunities, and it ended up being a really interesting and informative week.  It was great because we spent a lot of time working in our small Health sector group to put together a health strategy.  I was able to contribute some of my thoughts/opinions to the group during these small group discussions, and it gave me an opportunity to really feel like I was a part of the team.  It also helped that the workshop was conducted entirely in English. (It's just another reminder that I need to find a French tutor so that I can participate more fully in future workshops/meetings that will undoubtedly be held in French! This was surely an exception to the rule). Here is a picture of one of our office's neighbors who joined me after lunch on the last day of the workshop after everyone else had left for the day (the office was technically closed for a national holiday):  
 

As I mentioned earlier, I set up a meeting with my bosses in order to go over what their expectations are for my position and to lay out concrete tasks.  We had a really great meeting and we identified several things that I could begin working on right away.  So, for those of you who had asked me what I will do every day, I can finally tell you!  I will be working on doing a review of the current literature and best practices for Hospital Networks (especially in other developing countries and in Haiti) as well as doing a lit review on some other related topics (supply chain management, electronic medical records, etc.).  I will also be visiting our some of the hospitals that are a part of the hospital network with which we work.  I'll have the opportunity to visit 6 of our hospitals just in this first month.  Tomorrow and Tuesday, I will traveling to Southern Haiti to visit two of our hospitals there, and then the following week I will be traveling to 4 of our partner hospitals in the North. I'm very excited to see the hospitals and to have the chance to see quite a bit of Haiti in my first month here! 

This weekend was a whirlwind.  I had people over for drinks at my new place on Friday night and then on Saturday I spent most of the day shopping for things that I needed for my apartment (dishware, bleach, ant traps, a mop... you name it).  Then my neighbors and I went to a cute little bar/restaurant in Croix des Bouquets on Saturday night.  I finally got to have some banan peze (called tostones, patacones, or platanos fritos in other latin american countries, it's basically double-fried disks of smashed plantains made from green/unripe plantains, which taste similar to a potato when cooked). It was also salsa night at the restaurant, so we watched people dance salsa over some really tasty Passion Fruit drinks (made with Barbancourt rhum, of course). You've gotta love the Heineken glass they're served in :)

That's all for the past two weeks... I probably won't post again until the end of the month because I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead with some works trips.  Thanks for reading :)  

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. 

Little by Little

It feels like I have been in Haiti for at least a month now, but as I look back in my calendar, I realize that it has been just 7 days since I arrived here at the airport.  So it seems that I am right on time for my weekly blog post. My plan is to try and post updates to this blog once a week so that I can share my experience with anyone who is willing to wade through my meandering thoughts about Haiti and my life here.  So, here goes nothing!  (P.S.  I promise that my blog posts will get shorter-- I just had a lot to say in this first post!  Also- I will try to get better with taking pictures to make this more interesting)

Arriving in Haiti:

Haiti's inescapable label as "the poorest country in the Western hemisphere" precedes it, so I thought that I was relatively prepared for what I would encounter when I landed in Haiti. I knew that I would find a country still damaged from the 2010 earthquake along with a level of abject poverty that I had never seen before (even paling in comparison to other very impoverished parts of Latin America where I had worked and traveled). Despite this mental preparation, my stomach dropped as the plane approached Port-au-Prince and we flew over countless buildings & homes which had been reduced to crumbling frames and which still remained broken and abandoned. Even more visually unsettling were the blue-roofed tents that dotted the landscape, evolving into large, tent cities as we got closer to the airport (and this is nearly THREE years after the earthquake). Even from a hundred feet in the air, the problems seemed almost insurmountable.

Feeling a bit nervous after landing (partly because I don't know any French and only a tiny amount of Haitian Creole, but mostly because everyone whom I'd talked to about Haiti told me that the airport was mass chaos), I stepped into the swarm of people collecting their luggage from the carousel. I got my luggage outside after wrangling all of my bags and met up with my driver who was waiting outside for me. All-in-all, not as painful as I thought it would be. After a quick hello to the driver, we loaded everything in the car and we were on our way to the hotel, where I would stay for the night before moving into the Guest House.

"Koman ou ye?" (How are you?), I asked the driver.

"M' byen. Merci! Ou pale Kreyol!?" (I'm good. Thank you! You speak Creole?!), said my driver, both surprised and pleased.

"Wi, M'ap aprann"  (Yes. I am learning), I said.

"Se bon! Se Bon! Piti piti na rive!"  (Good! Good!  Little by little, we will get there!), he said.

"Piti piti na rive" or "Little by little, we'll get there" ---- I recognized this Haitian proverb from a book that I had read about Haiti while preparing for my trip. I've also heard this same phrase used a few more times in conversation this week and I've realized that this mentality is a valuable one for Haiti.  In the days leading up to my trip here, I had gotten more and more worried about what I could actually accomplish in Haiti. I felt overwhelmed by the grandiosity of the problems in Haiti and by my lack of knowledge on how to solve even the smallest ones.  And, I think, rightfully so. The scope of the problems here seem too big to conquer, even on a good day. Haiti has been screwed by wealthier international powers since Christopher Columbus stepped foot on the island of Hispaniola in 1492, resulting in the deaths of virtually all of the native people living there (these lives were subsequently replaced by hundreds of thousands of Africans who were brought to the island as slaves).  And that is just the beginning of the transgressions committed against Haiti and the island of Hispaniola. (See this article for some examples.  It is a bit dramatic, but it does make an important point-- You break it, you buy it--- We, as the developed world, grew our wealth by pillaging the natural resources and human capital of other nations, so we are responsible to some degree for their failings.  We didn't cause the earthquake in 2010, but we didn't set Haiti up to be able to deal with these sorts of crises either //steps off soapbox//). [Side note: I recognize that aid has repeatedly failed to do what it set out to do in Haiti--- that is a topic for another blog post--- but this doesn't give us the option to walk away from the problem].

So, how is it possible to reverse that many years of damage? The answer---- Piti piti na rive.  Little by little, we'll get there.... Because we have to.  Because this is what justice requires of us. Because people are suffering. To reference another great one-liner from my first week in Haiti (this from one of our partners during a sometimes tense meeting with a hospital network in Haiti): "If it were easy, it would already be done."  Getting there will not be easy, but it would be wrong NOT to try, and if we are going to try, we will have to make changes (both in Haiti and at home) little by little, doing our best to make progress, albeit slowly.

What most energizes me and makes me believe that this is true (that progress is possible, that things will change, that we will get there, etc.) are the attitudes of the Haitians that I have met this week.  The optimism and strength that I have seen in many of my coworkers is unbelievable.  After all that their country has been through, it seems that the natural reaction would be cynicism or despair.  But what I see is a sense of humor, resilience, and the belief that it will eventually get better. One of my coworkers told me the other day that
"Haitians who have the means to move away from Haiti, but who choose to stay, are very strong. They have to be. It is not an easy place to live.  People here are fighting every day just to survive." It is clear that I am working with the cream of the crop--- Haitians and international staff who are well-educated, well-spoken, motivated, bi-lingual at a MINIMUM, and who choose to stay in Haiti in order to make things better.

It will not be an easy two years and I have a lot to learn, but I think I am in the right place.  I will straighten out this whole business of when I should say Bonjour vs. Bonsoir vs. Bon nuit.  I will remember to put the toilet paper in the waste basket, not in the toilet.  I will learn how to convert US dollars to Haitian Gourdes in my head (so that the lady at the market doesn't think I am an idiot when I stand there dumbfounded, trying to divide the price she gives me by 43.5 so that I know whether or not it is too expensive for me). I will learn the language. I will make friends with the little lizard that is crawling around the Guest House and convince him that he should live outside on the porch.  I will figure out how I can contribute in some small way.  Little by little.



DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.