In Haiti!

Phew! So I have arrived in Haiti and boy have we arrived! It is pretty chaotic here. Everyone talks about “Haiti time” but man I feel like I need to just catch my breath! We arrived Sunday morning (and today’s Tuesday) so I guess I’ve already been here three days. We started Sunday by going for a tour of Port-au-Prince (PAP) in a car, which was quite protective (and isolating) but the destruction literally hit me in the stomach, which I wasn’t expecting. The collapsed buildings, the destruction, the bodies that still haven’t been found… It’s a lot to digest, and it’s impossible to avoid. We then tried to go to the JP/HRO foundation, we accidentally were led to Sean Penn’s actually house by a very kind lady who offered to lead us- I’m sure she thought we were invited to whatever event was there. But me being annoyingly honest played my cards on the table right away and said we were actually looking for the camp etc. to which her demeanor completely changed and she said the camp was on “lock down” because of the protests and I returned sheepishly to the car.  Remi the director, however, is quite persistent and we promptly ended up finding the camp and driving through it all the way to the hospital. There we said hello to the patients with cholera who were surprisingly friendly and then tried to have a very confusing conversation with some UN soldiers who could only speak Spanish and our group only being able to speak English, French and Creole. However we managed to get what we wanted out of them and exhausted returned to our guesthouse which is home to a variety of other interesting characters.

            There seem to be a lot of people that come to Haiti once, and then either end up staying way beyond their expected duration, or come back year after year.  Many of these individuals are staying at Wall’s Guesthouse where we are privileged to stay. There are seriously about a dozen photo journalists who all talk about the election and were all the exciting protests (manifestations as they call them here). They talk about how they got tear gassed or almost got run over by a UN car that was getting attacked… and I can’t help but have a tinge of envy, I love being in the middle of the action. However, I’ve already gotten a lecture of how we can’t be political and I totally agree so I greedily listen to their stories. There are some incredible journalists one in particular who is British and so naturally has a dry sense of humor. I can and have just listened to him for hours about the history of Haiti and how what happened when he was here during the 1990 Coup.

            Yesterday ironically we started our day by meeting with the Aristide foundation. They do incredible work with children however their name is from the past president Aristide who actually got over thrown twice and exiled in before mentioned coup.  So not sure if we will be able to work with him as we need to be non-political, but they were incredibly friendly and it was wonderful to actually meet an organization. We then went there to try and visit more Internal Displacement Camps (IDCs) and our driver suggested we check out the Caradeux (sp?) camp. As we drove up he called someone over to tell us about the camp and to see if we could talk to the director (the camps are getting quite organized now that people have been living in them for so long and there is a protocol for visiting).  She told us the director had been arrested that morning and that they were thinking of doing a manifestation at the police station to get him released. We then made our way to where the vice director was and someone must have told him we were there as he came down to meet us, however much like many things it wasn’t quite true what she had said as it was the actual director that came to meet us and it was an elder that had got arrested. His demeanor was extremely pained and you could tell he was not only hurt and worried but there were stirrings of anger that were more clearly expressed in the people around him. We talked to him for a while explaining that we do healing work and want to help with trauma etc. he said there was a lot of need here and brought us to the pastor who had been attacked nine days earlier and who had several stitches in the side of his head. He was totally dejected; they said he couldn’t speak for two days after the incident. We did some healing work on him with the other elders and the director. At the end the Pastor was sitting up and the director was smiling as was everyone else. We all really bonded during the process and they and the pastor profusely thanked us. They’ve invited us back and depending on the election results we are supposed to go there tomorrow. There’s talk of me working with them long term, and they want to show us a mountain top where they take sick people and they are healed or partially healed. It was a profound experience which I can’t fully explain except to say that after we had left I burst into tears feeling completely overwhelmed with everything that is going on and everything I must carry out after Remi and Adelle leave. That was yesterday.

            Today has been tense with the election results suppose to be coming out, first at 10am, then noon, then 3pm, then 6pm and now almost at 9pm they are just being announced.  Everyone is worried about the manifestations as Haiti has a history of violent protests during these times. The worst is if they declare it a tie between the top two candidates that happens if no one wins by 50%, which is a certainty… However life goes on and people are thinking that perhaps it won’t be so violent so please those that know me don’t worry J. 

            So today we stated by meeting with a local named Geto, who actually has his masters in community development from the USA and so speaks perfect English (a rarity here!!!!) It was wonderful to meet him we are defiantly going to collaborate and he is going to try and set us up with Foncoze so we can do micro financing with a group we are already working with. It was very encouraging but none was as encouraging (for me at least) as meeting with Grass Roots United. I’m quite sure this will be my home for the next year. They seemed just incredible, supporting any volunteer organization that they feel is trying to do good work in Haiti. They will provide me with other organizations to collaborate with, translators, tap tap drivers, as well as a home that is home to a whack load of other volunteers so I can have a support system and debrief with others who are going through the same thing! My heart is singing for joy, I didn’t realize how petrified I was of Remi and Adelle leaving and me having no idea what to do or where to go and being completely overwhelmed. Ohhhh I feel like I have my power back having this home! I’m to live in a tent for the next year so I’m not sure what’s going to happen during hurricane season… but one hurdle at a time eh?

So now the evening is ending with a deep discussion of the top candidates and sporadic moments of all of us freezing in order to try and translate the results that are being announced over the radio. It sounds like tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day… Not sure if we will be meeting with that group after all.  Not sure if I’m going to get that breath. I promise I’ll be safe.