After writing from Delmas 53(I think it was 53...it was directly across from one of the first photos I shot in PAP of a pancaked building), Sasha was on the phone. We had just left their place, but apparently Danny Glover was in their toilet...of course he was.

We headed up to a restaurant in Petionville for a meeting with someone from a certain unnamed NGO. I had already called my friend Nathalie about meeting up and she said she would like to. I called her back about two hours later from the restaurant. She said she'd take a raincheck. Since her housem in Delmas 33 collapsed she'd been staying with her neighbor. On the phone she told me that one of the people in the house had just been shot in the head and that she needed to go to find out what was going on.

I sat back down. We discussed rumors that another aid worker was kidnapped for a bit and then we moved on to other topics.

We headed to another bar, in a beautiful building I knew from last summer, but I knew it from another business there. We were just hanging out when a guy sat down, saying he had been stood up. Turned out to be a journalist with one of the big wire services. I created an opening in the conversation as our NGO-friend fled the conversation. We discussed the coverage of Haiti, what had been written, how it had been written, future stories he's working on. Apparently there's some harder hitting stuff coming out within the near future, but only time will tell.

That was the last half of my day yesterday. If I don't write these things down, large parts are gone in a matter of days. I'm keeping parts of this one purposely vague, but it was an interesting night, with a lot more details worth sharing offline. Off to Santo Domingo in about and hour. Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone.

I made it to PAP. I rode in the back of the bus, which I was warned not to since every time I would hit a bump I'd go flying. This didn't turn out to be the case, luckily. I paid my 25 gourdes, which I was willing to double since I was essentially taking two people's space with my baggage. A man came back and sat next to me. He said he's a Haitian doctor, who recently lost his job doing mobile clinics with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

MSF had two of their people kidnapped (and returned within days) in Port-au-Prince and now this Haitian doctor doesn't have a job. He told me he was in a meeting on January 12th at the Montana and left at 4:20. Had he left half an hour later, he would've been dead.

Finding any Haitian doctor unemployed seems criminal to me, especially now. Many Haitians responded with free care immediately after the earthquake, but now, months later, are facing massive bills. With billions of dollars donated, who is going to help Haitian institutions pay their bills? If Haiti is supposed to become self sufficient, international NGO's cannot allow these few and small institutions fall apart. Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes was responding early on, even photographing the dead, if I recall correctly from the Corbett List early on post-earthquake. Now, she's facing a big financial problem. The Washington Post is reporting that other clinics are having the same problem as a steady supply of international doctors come in to give necessary care.

The question is: How can Haiti rebuild destroyed institutions and maintain current ones while still accepting international aid, essentially free competition?

Switching back to my day, I arrived in Martissant and hopped on a moto for more than I should've paid, but I just wanted to get out. I'm not too comfortable on the tail end of a motorbike, especially with a huge rucksack between me and the driver. We drove through Chan Mas, which smelled like sewage. With Queens of the Stone Age's "Everybody Knows That You're Insane" stuck in my head, we zig zagged through streets and almost hit a woman who wasn't looking. I swore at her in English, my driver swore at her in Kreyol (all I picked up was "kaka"). I'm glad I went to the bathroom before I left Leogane.

I arrived at Delmas 33 and dropped my stuff. I saw a few people I recognized, but no SOIL folks. I picked up Leslie Desmangles' Faces of the Gods for a few minutes before the heat lulled me into a nap on the tile floor. I awoke a couple hours later to find a certain SOIL person had just pissed on the bathroom floor, trying to use a toilet bag being piloted at the moment. Always a unique experience with a little toilet humor.

Monday devastated me. I spent the day working at the clinic again. Early in the morning a baby came in. An interpreter pointed the mother out since they didn't have a standard sheet, but a handwritten referral as we sometimes see from other clinics. I pushed her to the front of the line after looking at her infant.

Her head was clearly too large and her eyes were dialated and fixed. She was 40 days old. The doctor stood up and walked two steps toward me, clearly shaken, and said, "I just want to cry." That shook me coming from a doctor. She paused, then continued saying that this was the second baby like this that morning. Since I was the clinic runner she gave me instructions: "Go to the white house and talk to the coordinators about arranging a ride to Project Medishare in Port-au-Prince. We can't do anything here for her. If they can't arrange a ride, then we're basically done here."

I stayed through my 2 hour break to help out after that. This week's crew is short-staffed and losing all of the runners at once wasn't going to help. People in lines outside were getting angry, standing in the heat for hours, many in pain. I took a short break later in the day. The woman sat for a couple of hours with her daughter and only once we had a ride arranged was she notified just how serious her daughter's condition was. I went back to Belval Plaza exhausted and slept for almost two hours before dinner.

Tuesday morning I came in and got a radio call for a runner. I came to find the woman and her baby. She missed the shuttle to Port-au-Prince. She had been there since 4am, but somehow missed the shuttle.

Besides that Tuesday was less stressful and less busy, but I clearly needed a break. Today I signed up for house cleaning, which is a disgusting task (we throw our used toilet paper into waste baskets, which get cleaned everyday). I took the afternoon off and packed to go. After 30 days we're required to take a break. I'm a little early, but it's necessary.

I'm heading to Port-au-Prince tomorrow and I have two options. I could take the "shuttle" we have for $80, splitting it with other occupants (but there won't be any) or I can take public transport, which is about 25 gourdes (65 American cents). Guess which route I'm going.

I'm crashing in Delmas 33 Thurs. night, getting picked up by my friend Andy on Friday morning, and heading to Santo Domingo for the weekend. I'll crash in Delmas again Sunday and head up the mountain Monday morning to visit Vivian. I'm excited for the weekend because I'll be with great people, visiting new places, and relaxing. I will not be bringing my laptop so you will likely not hear from me for about a week.

Peace!

I spent three days this week at the Rousseau site with a really good crew. People worked hard in the heat, were sensitive to all of the kids and people in the area, and there were good conversations. By Friday I had run out of tshirts to wear, since they've either been stolen or were in the wash (probably waiting to be stolen). It's kind of astounding to me that an organization can fly into a disaster area, set up a decent sized operation, yet thinks it an insurmountable task to keep people's laundry in their own possession...oh well.

On Friday I did an orientation at the Nursing school next door where Notre Dame and the Worldwide Village and the Filariasis study are running daily clinics and a field hospital. I shadowed Eleanor in the afternoon, who had been working as an interpreter (fluent in French, picking up some Kreyol).

Yesterday I went back to help out. My Wilderness First Responder training is helpful, but language skills would be more helpful. I started in triage taking people's blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. Within a couple minutes Gabe came in and sat down to do the same work, but faster and with more experience. I helped interpret.

I had worked on a lot of vocab before coming in Saturday and went from there. When I clearly couldn't understand something I could pull another interpreter from a few feet away. Lots of fever, diahrrea, loss of appetite, etc. We saw cases of scabies, women unsure of pregnancy or unwanting, a man with a large swollen stomach, and a case of measles.

Early in the morning a woman brought her two year old son in. He was unresponsive. We checked to see if he was breathing, which he was, but decided to run him over to the field hospital. There he woke up and started crying. His stomach clearly looked problematic, but whether it was malnutrition or something else, I don't know.

We returned to our spot in the clinic where a chicken decided to lay an egg in our corner, about four feet away. It was annoying to say the least.

I took a short break for lunch and returned to find a turkey wandering into the tent, which I then had to chase out. I don't think I've actually seen a turkey in Haiti before, but there were three of them hanging around our door.

I left the clinic/hospital/nursing school feeling good about the day, but it's definitely heavier work than smashing rubble. Rubble work has its moments, especially when you find personal effects, or family members tell their story, but you mostly focus on the work. The work at the clinic is work that shouldn't be there in a lot of cases. These people come in with easily treatable diseases that have festered for years due to a lack of health care.

Switching gears a bit, I've received all of my offers from grad schools and I'm weighing them. It's hard to do until I know about a few financial applications which won't come for a few weeks, but I'm leaning toward U of London SOAS due to cost, length of program, and quality. Nothing's set of course.

My friend Andy and his wife are coming out to visit today. Next week I have to take at least 3 days away from the base for mental health. Andy invited me to Santo Domingo so if that offer still stands I should be spending my first time in the D.R. I haven't had a huge desire to go, but why pass it up? Time to grab an egg sandwich e bannan ak pikliz. orevwa.

I haven't had time to really write much, but I thought I'd post some things that I either sent to one or two of you or began writing, but was interrupted. You won't find anything uplifting in this post so don't read if that's what you're looking for. That said, these are very small portions of my day, the little or big disappointments that you live with, ignore, avoid, etc.


Making Friends - March 18th
I was in a tap tap heading to a site yesterday when this guy started talking about Vodou. He said that people get to choose their own devils, whatever devil they wanted to talk to. Someone asked if he wanted to go to a ceremony and he said "No, I don't want to talk to any devils." at which point I said "There is no devil." He said, "yeah, you get to choose whichever one you want to talk to." I elaborated, saying there is no such thing in Haitian Vodou. He said, "There is, this guy on the street told me." I told him he was talking to a Christian, in which case there is a devil, but not in Vodou. He said "Well, I guess we'll agree to disagree." I said, "I'm not agreeing to anything because you're wrong."

I don't think we'll be friends.

Mental Health Breaks - March 16th

A Haitian-American woman here in Leogane just returned from a 4 day mental health break. We're required to take them after being here 30 days (we work 6/week, have Sundays off). She went up to see her family in the mountains. Beforehand they went to Petionville where she witnessed a body being pulled from the rubble. She thought it was a dog because it was so small and shriveled, but it was a man. A short while later a woman was shot in the back of the head, her body laid on the ground twitching as her killer robbed her. My friend sat in her car in traffic next to this scene.

She told me this at a rubble site in Leogane today as we were working to remove large sections of rebar, smashing through the strong ceiling of a collapsed home. So much for mental health breaks.

Mapous - March 12th

I asked one of the HODR interpreters if there were any mapous around Leogane. He said "no" and added: "Everywhere there is a mapou there is a devil."

Here's a video with pictures that I shot, recorded, and edited over the past week or so.

On Monday I went out to shoot some photos at the Laduceur site and decided to walk back to Belval Plaza where we’re staying. On my way back I stopped as a funeral procession, led by a band, slowly made it down the street. My route took me through the center of Leogane where the Canadians have recently cleared the St. Rose de Lima school, where many people died. Initialy estimates were at 500, but I don’t know what they actually came down to.
When I got to the center of town it was blocked off. I spoke with a French Canadian who told me it was a VIP visit, but more journalists than VIPs. I walked around to the other side and thought I spotted Harry Reid. It turned out that Michaelle Jean was visiting. I know your reaction, THEE MICHAELLE JEAN!? Yes, Michaelle Jean.
Ok, so you don’t know who Michaelle Jean is…but that’s ok. She was born in Jacmel, adopted a child from Jacmel, and has roots in Leogane. She is the Canadian Governor General, which is more a symbolic position than anything since she is a representative to the Queen. Remember that the Queen of England is the head of state of Canada.
Leogane’s mayor, Santos Alexis, was hanging out afterward and I took a photo of him. Below are a few shots.

So it's been a while. I've been busy getting settled in and into the swing of things. Our days are like this:

Wake up at 6:30, eat breakfest, head to work at 7:30. Stop working at 11:30, eat lunch, nap (or whatever), return to work from 1:30-4:30. Dinner is always followed by a meeting, which can last an hour. By 7:30 we usually have the night to ourselves until lights out at 10pm.

I started working on rubble removal the first couple of days, but then took up a couple of photo projects. We've documented the story behind one house's collapse and I will be finishing that this week hopefully. The second video I'm doing is more of an overview of Project Leogane. That should be done first.

We're staying next door to the Nursing school, which now runs a clinic and a field hospital. HODR people are sorting out their pharmacy and acting as runners to the doctors. The doctors shift out on a weekly basis. They are currently seeing a lot of cases of elephantitis, which goes neglected for years in Haiti due to the lack of access to medical care. Many public health people are appalled at some of the easily preventable diseases they see here. Unfortunately, our economic system doesn't prioritize eradicating diseases. Maybe we should be working on that...

My Kreyol is making great progress. From clearing Haitian children from dangerous areas to "the egg sandwich lady" as she's commonly known, I've been getting a good amount of practice. Just today I was getting a couple of sandwiches and my Kreyol has progressed to the point that I knew they were laughing at my red beard and commenting on my Irish heritage. Some people have picked up on the fact that I can understand a bit more than some others so sometimes they'll call me over to talk to me and watch me stare blankly. "Mwen pa konpran" and then laughter.

I noticed an ounfo a couple of blocks down the street and today found an interesting building, which I can talk about later. I asked one of our interpreters if there were any mapou trees in the area. He answered "no" and followed that with, "wherever there is a mapou there is a devil." This train of thought does not bode well for the mapous.

I went out to a site the other day with our new interpreter, Berlyn. We've been practicing our language skills together. We see mud, we both learn how to say "mud" or "muddy" in another language. It's a good deal. We stopped by a vendor selling books and picked up an English, Kreyol book. We opened it to a random page and found the top phrase to be (censored for some of you) "Oh sh**, shut the f*** up." Seriously? How often does this phrase come up in Haitian Kreyol? We didn't buy the book, but I got a picture to prove it.

I'm going to leave this entry here and try to post some pictures. Clicking on any of the pictures below will take you to my Flickr account where there are many more pictures. I'll try to get some captions on this blog somehow. Sorry for the crappy design. I need help with it!

Like that title? See what I did there? yep...

On Tuesday I ran around PAP again with the SOIL crew and got to see Route de Freres and Tabarre, which I know well from last summer. The damage was minimal compared to other areas of the city. I also got through to my friend Nathalie, who is now homeless as well.

Marcorel dropped me at the airport where I jumped into a "shuttle" with two other people and the driver. The word "shuttle" brings to mind a van or truck. We got a mid-90's Toyota Camry or something similar. Remember that I alone have 200 lbs of luggage in 5 bags. It was a sweaty ride out to Leogane. I couldn't believe Carrefour. It was more like what I expected PAP to be. By the time we made it to Leogane it was getting pretty dark.

We wandered in during a group meeting, which follows dinner every night. I met a few people, grabbed a bunk, set up my mosquito net, and went to sleep. I got to sleep quickly, despite the standard (in Haiti) roosters crowing and dogs barking/fighting. Some time in the middle of the night I heard a loud noise and crashing things and, still asleep, I thought to myself "What idiot is knocking stuff over." That's when people started yelling "EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE!" I'm furthest from the open air part of the building we're staying in so I threw my net over my body and ran to the center. The sound of the train rolling in seemed to stop by the time I made it to the middle.

We all stood in silence under the stars as the dogs began to bark again. After pausing we all headed back to our bunks. That's when I noticed that I slammed my leg into the bunk's ladder, leaving a good scratch on my right leg. The sooner I can get into open air with my tent, the better. These earthquakes are not very strong and not the 37 seconds of the original, but it will be good for peace of mind.

In the morning I was up for my first day of work. We headed down the street to a three story building which collapsed. Rebar juts out at every angle imaginable and the progress looks slow. The 10 of us started working, rotating the shovels, sledge hammers, pick axes, and wheelbarrows of rubble...so basically it's just like my job at Northwestern Mutual.

We dump the rubble on the road outside and are hoping the Canadian military picks it up soon. Children causes problems since they want to get into everything you're doing, but it's quite dangerous for them. Besides the work, we spent a lot of time moving kids out of the way.

One child approached us and told us that two people had been crushed in this building's collapse and that she very nearly had been as well. People were on the third floor and leapt to avoid being crushed, while the two who died were running between buildings toward the road. This will not be the last story like this, but I'm just glad we're not digging anyone out on my first project.

The heat and exhaustion is extraordinary. We discussed medical issues yesterday and today they came into good use. I spotted someone who clearly was not feeling well. At lunch I talked to him, suggested he rest for the afternoon, and then told another (more experienced) person to watch him.

In the post-lunch shift I found the sun to be exhausting and I started taking longer breaks. Joe, a former MP in the Army, had just sat things out for a while and then made me sit down at one point when he saw how red my face was. Once I was sitting I started going through my symptoms. It's great that so many people here have medical experience and are watching out for each other.

Beyond all of that I've been running little errands that require me to slaughter the Haitian language. Hopefully I can work on that. I'm going to go relax and try to upload more photos. Will update soon.

...so Dodo picked me up and we went to Matthew 25 in Delmas 33 where Sasha and the rest of the crew are working out of for the time being. It was great seeing everyone, especially Ti Paul who I haven't seen in two years. He's always fun. Sasha also has Ron in from Mexico to help her as she starts to build toilets for Oxfam. This is by far the biggest project SOIL has undertaken.

Toilet seats double as picture frames:



We began by touring the adjacent tent camp (Parc Izmery). The toilets weren't too bad, but definitely not sufficient. People must be going to the bathroom elsewhere.

We then drove around PAP and up to Petionville, where I lived this past summer. It's crazy to see Place Boyer and Place (I forget) filled with shelters. The main park smells like sewage and something needs to be done immediately. Doctors Without Borders and a private Haitian company have set up some basic public toilets, but more needs to be done.

Pancaked building on Delmas:



We stopped by EpiMac for some quick fast food. As we were waiting for the food I saw a man I thought I recognized so I went up to him:

Me: "Excuse me, I think I know you"
Him: "Maybe"

At that point I knew it was him by his voice, but he looked a bit ragged in street clothes vs. the last time I saw him. I had to remind him that we met at the embassy last summer. It's always good to see people alive. His house collapsed, but family is fine and has been living in his car. This man isn't just a random guy, but works for the Prime Minister and with the UNDP. Haitians of all backgrounds have been affected, but obviously some have the resources to recover more quickly than others.

The day closed with a committee meeting from the camp behind Matthew 25, which I only partially listened to. I called my friend Andy who said he wanted to hang out, but (as I could hear) his wife was crying in the background with a bad toothache. He said he needed drugs, but couldn't find any and had to go. He was a bit frantic, but since there was a medical team and set up at Matthew 25 I was able to get him a bunch of stuff to help her out. Andy drove me around a bit last summer and I invited me to a ceremony so I'm glad I could repay him a bit.

We headed up to the Jet Set (I think that was the name), where last summer I was able to witness a bunch of huge MINUSTAH dudes picking up prostitutes. While I know this happens, and not just in Haiti, it's a bit more disturbing when you get to witness this yourself. This dinner rehabilitated the restaurant in my eyes to some extent. We had dinner with some higher ups in bigger NGO's and the Haitian govt., discussing toilets most of the night. It's the kind of nerd fun I'm into.

I'll leave this post here and continue on another.

If there is some overlap in my posts I'm sorry. Let's start from the beginning.

Last summer I worked with the Digital Library of the Caribbean at the U.S. embassy. The project coordinator (Brooke) allowed me to crash which amounted to a little more than an hour of sleep before my flight on Monday. She visited Port-au-Prince a couple weeks ago to assess the situation. I haven't read this article, but if you're interested in that, check out this Miami Herald article.

On the flight in I had a good conversation about medical supplies and I'm keeping my eyes open to help that guy/organization out.

Arrival was more chaotic than usual, but the usual mobbing by men who want to help you with your bags. It's pretty standard to pay them (even what they ask) and then have them ask you to pay them more, which is exactly what happened. In Haitian terms I probably paid about three days wages in 15 minutes, but that's ok. I did have a lot of stuff (about 200lbs) and he helped me through the crowd quite well. The power is going out in ten minutes so I can't tell you about my day Monday, but I'll try to get a picture or two up. I also hope to work on the design of this site a bit, but it sounds like life in Leogane will be very busy for the next few days.

I'll leave you with a picture of my very unscientific packing method. It's called spread everything out, stuff it in, and forget your bedding:

So let’s get the basic details out of the way:

I will be volunteering with HODR in Léogane, basically the epicenter of the recent earthquake. I have read that 90% of buildings in Léogane have been heavily damaged or destroyed. I will be clearing rubble from properties so people can begin rebuilding or setting up shelters on their property. There’s always a possibility that I will work with another organization since HODR actively seeks partnerships.

HODR has set up at club in town, but I’m not sure the details on it, except that it’s open air. It has bunks and all tent space is now occupied, but they will be opening more space in the back of the building.

I was able to reach Medecins Sans Frontieres before leaving and plan on giving them about 50lbs of medical supplies. I don’t know if my medical certification will be of much use to them, but if I can help there, I will.

Throughout my time in Léogane I’m hoping to get out and photograph things. I’m hoping to do a little freelance work to help fund my future internship with Fonkoze. I’ve also brought my digital voice recorder and will hopefully find a use for that as well.

This is an especially boring post, but I’ll have more to say when I get out and about. I’m spending the first night in PAP with Sasha to catch up a bit and then heading to Léogane Tuesday afternoon.
Until later. :)