"Snow day" #2

At this point, Sandy was a "tropical depression"

Oct.. 25, 2012

Snow Day #2. We awoke to no rain and some sun struggling to emerge. As breakfast came to a close, there was still no car appearing to take us to the campus. I approached Moise and learned that no, there would be no classes again today because the "municipe" had declared a red alert and ordered all schools remain closed, so there would be no bus for the students. He’d heard it on the radio but hadn’t mentioned it during breakfast. As one of the Haitian management professors had said earlier in the week, it is difficult to develop entrepreneurs in Haiti. Go with the flow doesn’t fit too well with initiative..





homes battened down against the rain



A home during dry weather.
 It is as small as it appears and typical..

Today isn’t quite as fun because now the two holidays next Thurs and Fri will be class days instead. So I used part of the time to interview Renate for an article for the Maryknoll Affiliate and Full Circle (former sisters’ association) newsletters. She had some tales to tell all right. E.g. during the coup when the US whisked Aristede away in the night, apparently because he was too independent for American interests, the Cubans ordered all but their medical people to go home or go to prison and Renate was one of the few white faces still here.

As part of the administration of the newly formed Fondwa University, she had to make the trip from Lower to Upper Fondwa to inventory the equipment after the exodus. Because it wasn’t safe for a white person to be on the roads, a local religious order put her in the habit and traveled with her. She lost her vocation the next day, however. During the same period, she was at an ex-pat hotel in Port au Prince having lunch when 6 armed men ordered all the guests dining on the veranda inside. Again the only white face, she was following one of the guards upstairs when he turned and said in English, "There is a bad man upstairs." Soon after, they came down and left with the man in tow, apparently someone the hotel owner had been hiding. And Renate went back and finished her lunch.

Gayitan and Luluz, two of the house staff

 Betty and I joke about the fluid community here in the guest house. People work here, visit here, come onto the porch looking for someone and then disappear. The roles and relationships of some we know and others we don’t are part of the flow of humanity that softly approaches or sways to and fro, always quiet, friendly, and courteous. One woman appeared one night and introduced herself as Frank’s friend. We chatted a bit and later learned she is a Cuban teacher of Spanish here and Renate’s tutor.

Frank and Betty

Frank is a Cuban who was imported by the senator to teach in the agronomy program and repair machinery. It was he who installed wiring in the guest house so that there is now an outlet in each room. I think he also had something to do with the flexible water pipe that runs from the city water cistern on the hill into the house for our running water. Which, I might mention, we have not had for 2 days now because the pump is run by the electricity that is now scarce. There is a bucket of water in each bathroom and a sponge bath may be just the thing tonight. That or a run in the rain.

the sea at rest

The one clean beach was in our plans for tomorrow but the only transportation is by "taxi," that is, motorcycle. The ride to town costs 25 gourdes, about 60 cents. But anyone with a motorcycle can be a taxi and the hills are very steep. On Sunday, we accepted an invitation to attend a church youth group meeting of one of our students. The meeting is from 3-4 but many of the 50 participants don’t come on time, to the chagrin of Eliassaint, who is the secretary and gives talks on punctuality to no avail. They start with 15 min. of meditation and then a talk.

same scene during the storm
the vessel is a long-half-sunken ship

Elva, our translator, and Linda, his fiancee

Sunday, we will be the guest speakers. The purpose is to widen their horizons so recently the topic was the U.N., which Betty may develop further. Eliassaint will translate for us. For my part, I will inquire about the mental health problems in Haiti, the resources here for meeting them, and the needs that exist in that area. Well, laptop battery is running low so I must wait until 7 p.m. and hope the city gives us current tonight.

"Snow Day" Wed. 10/24

Snow Day  Wed. 10/24

Yesterday the rains came and today even worse, with winds besides. Tropical Storm Sandy.In addition to soaking housing shacks outside and in and making rough roads muddy and rougher, Haitians fear the rain. Don’t know why, but they stay home or stand together under a sheltered spot and watch. After a late breakfast, we piled into the minivan to head for town and the campus to see if the school bus was running that day and if any students would be there, The streets, usually alive with shops and people, were nearly empty, the sea full of choppy brown waves and swells.

About 7 of the 100 plus students, most of them ours, had walked in the heavy rain to the bus stop in town and then taken the school bus to school but Amenold and Renate decided there were too few for class and so they ran back to catch the departing bus for town and then home. Quite an effort for them.


Some of our students. All 52 usually have near-perfect attendance.

    So we had a day off and it felt just like a snow day. AND there was electricity all day, as Maxo, our cook and all-purpose go-to person, went out and bought fuel for the generator. It was a good time to catch up and be ahead a bit on preparations and to do some writing. Though we had juice, alas there was no internet connection today so I couldn’t see email and learn if my photos got through. I must say, however, I thoroughly enjoy the lack of cell phone service, anacronist that I am ;o)

The other faculty members in the full house this week include a family from Illinois or Indiana or one of those states west of the Hudson. The couple are both writers and are here teaching English for a week. Janine teaches college English and Mike is a middle school history teacher who took a week off without pay to come.

Jianna teaching a lesson on homonyms

 Janine's daughter, Jianna, is 7 and a hoot. She

our wraparound veranda with Jianna

teaches a lesson or two each day and was the reason for the applause we heard on Monday. Renate had sat in on her lesson which was on homonyms. Jianna had her lesson plan on a clipboard, called on people by pointing to them, and made a large C in the air and said, "Correct!" to each right answer.

At the house, she has everyone playing raucous games of Uno, including her mom, her stepdad (who has a wicked sense of humor), Betty, and Moise, a Haitian computer expert and management professor from Fondwa who is here this week to teach the advanced students and work on the computer lab which is being set up. There are about 15 donated computers and he is getting them in working order. Like most Haitian men we’ve met, he is gentle and unassuming. And a card shark with a good sense of humor himself.
    

Monday night, most of us stayed up watching the live-streamed debate and cheering frequently. We’ll be home in time to vote and hope for no hanging chads.


 





the brown ocean if you can make it out
with the halfl-sunken ship that lives there





Dogs, Roosters, and the Mouse

Dogs are not pets in Haiti. They roam the streets or may belong to a house but they find food where they can and are often mistreated. During the day our 5 are pretty quiet except for chasing the hens around or protesting the passing by of rival dogs. But the night is theirs. Some nights are not too bad. But on others, they start around 4, just before the roosters. Speaking of which... Haitian roosters are not content to welcome the dawn. They crow all, I mean all, the day long. One even visited our class one day and took a seat at the back.

Put on your specs and you can see the little chap by the back wall



nap time for Raya (the German student) and one of the perps


The worst was the canine town meeting from about 2 until 4:30 or so one night last week. Every last dog for a mile around was yelping in unison or sequences. There must have been some hot issues they were debating. Finally, there was a break....that lasted... .and lasted...holding the breath...for five minutes. Whew. They’re done. And then........the roosters started. 


my nemesis

Last weekend Betty and I visited Renate's house and then treated ourselves to an overnight at the local B&B. The property is large with a lovely view of the ocean far in the distance, too far in fact to see the garbage washed in from the filthy sea or dumped on the beach because there’s no other place to put it. The waterfront property consists of shanties on a hillside with no indoor plumbing or outdoor facility. A chamber pot collects the waste which is then taken to the sea for disposal. Generally, trash is burned on the street and the remains swept up, though where that is taken remains a mystery.

Anyway, back on high we were hoping for a swim in the pool, hot shower, different food. The pool was tepid but refreshing enough. At 5 we stopped working to have a glass of wine and share a small cannister of Pringles, the only salty food available in Jeremie. Next thing, the server brings up our supper, an hour early because she thought we were hungry. Pizza. And a salad. Period. A couple who were also guests arrived at 6 and were served spaghetti and homemade meatballs, perhaps goat. There was plenty so they shared. Dessert, however, was served to all of us and was a treat. Homemade from scratch carrot cake.

 

This couple, also from the midwest, comes to Haiti several times a year to support one of the hundreds of local orphanages. Most of the kids are not true orphans but brought by parents who cannot care for them. The guy is in construction and a Mr.Fixit so makes repairs when he comes. That day, he had gotten the wells working to the joy of everyone. She is a retired English teacher whose brother built the orphanage and still does what he can to raise funds for it.

They bring medicines and hard to-get-supplies, buy local rice and other staples to take to the orphanage, and spend a week or so helping out the pair who runs the orphanage on no money. Local teachers come in for morning lessons and the children have nothing to do for the rest of the day. Whatever money these impressive people are given just manages to cover the teachers’ salaries and food for the children. Their endurance and faith is matched only by the Haitian people, who have so little and yet keep going.


the long-awaited shower

Now back to that hot shower for the spoiled first world folks. To the right is a photo of the trickle of water that, in a thermal competition, would actually lose to the pool. However, the soap smelled divine. And the bed was comfortable so I slept well until about 3 or so when...yes indeedy boys and girls...no dogs but a rooster outside my window who could do a rock concert without a mike. On and on and on and on. Having left my earplugs at the guest house, I attempted to make do with toilet paper wads and head under pillow. Right.Wonderfully effective. Not. I mean, this guy had verbal diarrhea. I even timed him. A full crow every 5-8 seconds. Once he went nearly a minute between. After a 2-star breakfast of rolls (there’s only one kind in Haiti), peanut butter or jelly, and scrambled eggs and a pleasant day of working outside on the veranda, "Home" was a welcome sight when we returned.

our kitchen with gas stove and charcoal stove lower right

 And now for the mouse. Sporting my headlamp for light, I crept downstairs to the guest house bathroom one night around 4 a.m. There are two bathrooms. The one on the right with the working sink that is fully attached to the wall and the toilet that flushes when there’s electricity for the pump but no light. And the one on the left with electricity and the working shower but no running water in the detaching sink or toilet flushing. So as I stood up to leave, a grey mouse scurried around in the corner of the room with no escape route. I quickly left and closed the door so he wouldn’t run anywhere else, especially not upstairs to the bedrooms. And slipped a note under Betty’s door to be careful should the need for elimination arise before dawn. She replied later with a report that he had indeed chewed her cloth sneaker in the night. I hope mice can’t climb bedsheets.



Third attempt -- Photos and Notes

Tuesday 10/23

It's now Tuesday and we're having a tropical storm. For 3 days. Electricity has gone off for the night and my laptop fades fast, so I'll continue tomorrow. Thanks to Mike and Jan for photo help. Let me know if these get through.  

Betty's i-pad takes great photos. Here are some of the best. Above is the local, and only, carwash -- a large puddle by the side of the road we take to the university every day. The bus is a typical local transport, though most Haitians walk everywhere, even long distances, sometimes with all sorts of things carried on their heads. We've seen large sacks of grain, bundles of wood, and even an ingeniously intertwined arrangement of about 8 chairs with no cord to hold them in place. A round twist of cloth on top of the head forms a kind of cushion and base on which to balance the load. Their necks are very strong and their posture straight and dignified.

A pile of rubbish on the beach to be disposed of one day

      One of our breakfast specials, scrambled eggs. All food is cooked over a charcoal fire in the kitchen. Another breakfast is below. My father always cooked oatmeal for us before school and made us eat it because "it sticks to your ribs." I imagine spaghetti does too.





5 dogs live at the house. One recently gave birth to 7 puppies who slept in a pile after running around and nursing last night.


  Part of the campus.

 


    Some of our 52 students, all of whom come to class. Twice, they took so long to complete the daily quiz, that they missed the school bus that takes them back into town. As we drove home, we passed many who were walking the 3 or 4 miles instead in 90 degree heat. Not one of them complained to us.

         Another view of the carwash.
Tomorrow we go to the market and then to Renate's new house and then the B&B until Sunday afternoon. There'll we have a bit of a change of scenery and venue and menu. If you want to be notified by email when I post a new entry, there is a place on the blog page where you can request that.

Have a good weekend everyone.
Love,
Mef

Nous sommes arrivees

    Well. Here we are. And today is the first time I have a minute to write. On our arrival in Port Au Prince, official looking men wearing a variety of badges swarmed the uninitiated. One approached 3 of us, saying very authoritatively he was a supervisor, asked for our baggage claim tickets, and went off to locate our luggage. When he insisted on more of a tip than we gave him. we politely prevailed. A series of two greeters carrying signs with our names appeared and we eventually found ourselves in the car the senator had sent for us, accompanied by his driver and his "bodyguard" (who laughingly told us no, there had never been an incident in which his services were needed),and climbing high up in the hills to our first night's stay.

    The senator is also the titular head of the University (UNOGA) and his Haiti residence the first stop for incoming guest (pro bono) faculty who must stay overnight because the one flight to Jeremie  is in the morning. Unfortunately he was sick with Dengue fever and a 104 temperature so we didnt meet him. A nice dinner and wine were followed by a shower that was literally a trickle but did the job, just more slowly and economically than usual for the first world. Surprisingly, the night was chilly enough for a blanket.
   We had gotten two different messages about whether we were to leave at 5 or 6 the next morning so were up at 4:15. No one around at 5 but the chickens and rooster. Ended up rousing some poor chap who appeared at 5:30 and we arrived at the airport at 6:15 a.m. for the 8 a.m. flight which went out at 10. Apparently when there are more passengers that need to go to Cape, which is more lucrative for Tortug'Air, they use the one plane for that. So the 9 of us going to Jeremie had to wait.    It worked out well though because we met "Betty" whom we had heard of because her Haitian husband runs a "classy" B&B a mile from the guest house where we are staying. So we'll spend the coming weekend with wifi, pool, 2 meals, and massages and pedicures available, for $66 a night each. Betty's work is as the public health director (RN, MPH, PhD) of a charitable foundation here so she provided lots of useful information about Haitian life, including mental health and views on treatment.

  Just recently, Jeremie has gained the luxury of electricity most of the time instead of the former two to four hours in the evening. The university's guest house where we are lodged is quite a place and a story for another day. Most of our spare time has been spent working on the course while sharing the one computer "stick" that permits the slow but welcome internet access among the house residents, one of whom lies sleeping with the university secretary's niece below..

 

  

 Next entry you'll hear about the adaptive start to our course, the mechanical challenges, mosquito nettiquette, the dogs, and hopefully see some photos of the local town center and the scenic route to the university on which we pass the "bus depot" and the "car wash". The pictures above include our arrival in Jeremie and the two of us working outside on the veranda in the evening looking like miners in the headlamps that supplement the bulb I estimate to be about 10 watts. But, hey, it's electricity.