Jan. 8: Preske La (Almost There)

Tonight during reflection, Melody asked us all to write a Tweet (140 characters) about our day. Mine: “5 team members, 4 hours, 3 translators, 2 clinics, 1 Haiti.”

Short though that is, it seems a remarkably complete summary of our day. We woke up early this morning, before the sun rose, ate breakfast and got into the nicest vehicle I have ever seen in Haiti for the drive to Les Cayes. A few traffic jams and a little more than four hours later, we arrived later than planned in the beautiful south of Haiti. After some time for lunch and a break, we picked up our translators, and headed into the city of Les Cayes to do more surveys. We arrived at the first clinic, where we were hoping to do surveys of the patients to gather data for future ICC programs.

Because we arrived so much later than planned, all of the patients were gone, as was the case at the next clinic we tried. So, rather than following our original idea, we got a tour of the General Hospital of Les Cayes, as well as an explanation of how tuberculosis is being treated throughout Haiti, a major focus of ICC. We got to see the offices of ICC in the Southern Department of Haiti, as well as a nursing home and a large portion of the city.

This evening, we had a long time to rest, and a long reflection with the team about our purpose now and in the future. We had some giggles, a good talk, and a chance to rest. We’re excited for the chance to do some surveys tomorrow and ready for our last day in Haiti.

Pou ekip-la nan Ayiti (for the team in Haiti),
Grace

Jan. 7: Transitions

This morning was definitely difficult to say goodbye to Gabie (and our new friend Tina). To say that our team enjoyed our time in Cap Haitian and working with Sonje Ayiti would be an understatement; everything the organization does and the people who run it are so in line with our teams’ goals and missions that it made our time with them run so smoothly.

View of Haitian the countryside from our flight

We got off to an early start to catch an 8:30 flight out of Cap Haitian to Port-au-Prince (which was apparently running on Haitian time: about 30-40 minutes late). The flight itself was smooth and easy and it was really neat to be able to see the countryside from an aerial view. Haiti is truly a country of “mountains beyond mountains”. We could even spot the citadel on top of one of the mountains from the plane.

Rachel (the former trip coordinator from ICC) met us at the airport (and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief! My biggest fear was that nobody would be at the airport to pick us up when we landed!) and we drove back to Walls Guesthouse in an open top tap-tap. I think Grace has been the only one to experience riding in an open tap-tap, so the rest of us were really enjoying soaking up the Haitian sun and breeze in the back of the truck.

After we got settled into the guesthouse, we took a trip over to Grace Children’s Hospital where we would be working for the rest of the day. I finally got to meet the new ICC trip coordinator that I have been in almost constant contact with to plan this trip- which was really great to finally be able to put a name to a face I’ve written so many emails to! There is also another group from Ohio that is working with ICC the same time we are so we got to meet them at GCH before we parted ways to do our own projects. Our good friend Robenson gave us a tour of the hospital, which does everything from Tb clinics and eye care, to gynecology and treating children. (more can be found about GCH in a blog post from last year when we visited the hospital). We walked across the street to where the old hospital used to be, and it was amazing to see a big empty plot of land where a collapsed hospital laid just one year before. Thanks to the generosity of Rachel and Emily, we were able to “supplement” our packed lunches from Walls with peanut butter sandwiches, fruit and chips. After lunch, we got down to work: surveying for the micro-enterprise program that ICC is thinking of implementing in PaP. We went around to the patients that were sitting in the waiting room to survey them, asking things ranging from their age, employment status, former schooling and their family situation to what their weekly expenses were and how they viewed loans/micro enterprise programs. I think that we all really enjoyed the chance to talk to the local Haitians.

Robenson and Melody at Grace Children's Hospital

After surveying, we met with the ICC director of Haiti- Dr. Bijou- to talk to her a little more about the micro enterprise program. ICC has a pilot program already implemented in the north and are now thinking about starting one in the south. The major objective of the program is to help with health conditions. The loans help these Haitian women to improve their economic activities which ideally then they will use to provide themselves with healthcare. I think some things may have been lost in translation, so a debrief with Emily really helped the team understand the terms/goals of the micro enterprise program, and how our role with conducting surveys plays into everything. After our debrief with Emily, we worked on consolidating all of the information we found during the day into one Excel document so we could keep adding to it once we collected more surveys and can easily share it.

The guesthouse gave us the option to put Brian with some random people, or to find a room where 5 of us could fit. We opted to stay together as a team, so after a long day of travel and work when everybody’s’ delirious and goofy sides came out, we had an interesting night. All in all, though it was sad to leave Gabie and move on to other work, the team handled the transition well and we are all looking forward to heading to Les Cayes tomorrow!

Haitilove,
Hannah and the HCTeam

January 6: Dirty Hands

We've spent most of the past two days bagging compost at Sonje's new nursery they're establishing in partnership with the Environment Ministry. By day's end, as a group we'd managed to turn out 2,091 new bags, which will eventually turn into Haitian trees in the area and hopefully work to prevent things like deaths that are caused by casual flooding in the area, and other forms of damage - both to life and property - occasioned by the erosion that accompanies rain storms and other, more severe weather.

Sitting for hours in a hunched forward position on the rocky ground doesn't do wonders for the body, and I think the group is benefiting from some of the yoga lessons we imparted to the ladies of the mountain. To finish out our day and a half of composting, and to celebrate our last afternoon in Cap, Gabby took us out to Cornier Plage, a beautiful stretch of beach where we immediately made the change to swim gear and headed into the ocean. After floating around for about 30 minutes, we splayed out on chairs jamming to music, eating coconuts, and generally finding ourselves once again appreciative of the basic physical beauty presented by so much of Haiti. 

Like all days up until this point, we returned to Gabby's house around 4 p.m. and spent the rest of the evening showering, laying out on the roof, and reflecting. For our last night in Cap, and with Sonje, both Tina (our new honorary Compact member) and Gabby joined us on the roof for a discussion of Sonje's work going forward, and the ways in which we can all work harder and more mindfully about affecting greater dignity and empowerment both in Haiti and in our own communities.

More to come.

Brian


(Funny moment of the day: driving up to the beach and seeing a large boat sitting on the sand with some people loitering around it. When we asked Steve what the boat was for, he simply replied 'For the U.S. - my people are always ready.')

Cornier Plage

Jan. 5 Moment by Moment

Based on a conversation during reflection, my goal today was to appreciate each moment as it came. And so, I have a list of moments for you:

We awoke to a breeze coming through the windows of Gabie’s house. A good sign!
Gabie took us on a quick walk around the corner from her home to an NGO with the sing-song name, “Mama Baby Haiti.” It was started by Canadians a few years ago and their thing is, well, mamas and babies. We met with a volunteer midwife who’d been there for six weeks, and caught five babies (but seen a total of 40 born). It was airy and beautiful, and fun to have the connection with midwifery given team member Grace’s interest.
After a beautifully quick drive, we arrived at the Sonje Ayiti office at Acul-du-Nord, part of Cap Haitien. They have a huge plot of land that they’re using to develop a botanical garden (this land goes back in Steve’s family). Already, the guardians of the land have planted a ton: black beans, mango trees, guyava, bananas. We followed Steve up the hill to an overlook where we could see the bay in one direction, the Citadelle to our right, and mountains all around. Again, breezy. 

As we walked back down the hill, one of the guardians cut down some oranges, peeled them with a machete and halved them. They were the sweetest we’d had. Ever. Imagine it. I’m not a huge fan of sticky stuff running down my arm, and had it not been for the large amount of DEET that I’d have consumed in the process, I would have licked all that goodness slap off.

Best.Orange.Ever!

Stationed under some trees, we set up in two groups - each with varying numbers of Haitian co-workers - to pack compost into small black bags to start tree seedlings. Sonje Ayiti has a contract with the Ministry of Environment to grow 200,000 of them (they were originally set to do !00,000 but could do double with the budget they were given). After they began paying workers per piece to pack these bags - and after the workers saw the output of one industrious young man who’d traveled many kms to be there - they’re rolling along with it. So, the moment: we sat cross-legged at the base of compost piled in the center of our groups, working, laughing and talking with the Haitian workers who joined us. One man, who was deaf and did not speak, connected with me nonetheless when I fell off the bucket I was trying to sit on. And every once in a while, a huge pre-storm-feeling breeze would come upon us, and we’d all lean back and take it in.
Last moment: left early for a dinner at the Bar-Resto RENDEZ-VOUS, which they spelled in all caps to show how good it was. Moment: DJ setting up for a party later, running the volume of his Gaga/Bruno Mars/J Lo mix up and down while we ate Creole-sauced seafood.

We came home to reflect under the stars on Gabie’s roof and wrapped up our day.

Much love to all!

-Melody

Jan. 4 Mountains and Yoga

We woke up this morning to the crowing roosters, cows bleating their disapproval at the blazing sun, and dogs growling at random intervals. Rural Haiti, though lacking the busyness of Port-au-Prince, comes with its own distinct sounds and smells and activity.

After breakfast our team packed into the truck, and headed up to the mountains to see the women of Bailly, a community health project connected to Sonje Ayiti. Several hours over bumpy roads and beautiful views brought us to a concrete church/school/community building deep in the mountains. Inside, women of all ages and sizes and their young children sat on benches, staring at the group of white people, a rare sight this deep into the Haitian mountains. After an introduction, the Haiti Compact team headed to a side room with 20 or so pregnant women.

Tail Wags!

Led by Katie and assisted by a few translators, the women learned how to alleviate back pain, re-align their hips, and hopefully how to take a minute for themselves. The prenatal yoga seemed to be a hit--laughter was frequent. This lasted for two classes and almost an hour, at the end of which we cleaned up and settled in for lunch. Someone hid climbed a tree and brought down several coconuts, which were macheted open for us to drink the juice. (The flap created by this method of opening created the nickname “to-go-conuts”.)

After lunch, we crammed back into the car, minus a suitcase full of yoga mats, (donated by the College Rec Sports department, which, thankfully, were left on the mountain), and drove back to Gabie’s beautiful home. I think the team felt like we had accomplished what we were hoping, and the news that the women were going to gather together on Sunday to do again the moves that we taught them.

The night ended watching a meteor shower over the Haitian mountains--a success I’d say.

-Grace

January 3: Smooth Sailing (Flying) [from 3:30AM to 6PM!!]

**Sorry guys! We have had limited access up here in Cap Haitien. Everyone is doing well. We have been doing some pretty amazing work, so expect the blogs to start rolling in soon!***

So, as you can probably assume via the lovely blog title, today was a LONG day of traveling. Grace, Brian and myself all woke up in Northern VA at 3:30AM to be at the airport for our flight from Dulles to Newark at 6AM. After a few hours of layover in Newark where we met up with Hannah and Melody, we then flew to Port au Prince and THEN from Port au Prince to Cap Haitien in the North of Haiti. Finally, we met with our community partner Gabie (of Sonje Ayiti - also on Facebook) and drove back to her wonderful house (where we are staying) and were ultimately at our destination at 6pm – a full 12hrs after leaving Virginia, can you imagine?

I have to say that despite the length of the travel, this was one of the smoothest, easiest and most enjoyable experiences getting to our destination in Haiti ever– and the whole team (which includes people who have been to Haiti several times) agrees. We had zero problems with flights and transportation – an unheard of occurrence – and some of our flights were even early, which is truly some sort of Haitian miracle. We're taking this as a good omen for what will follow with the rest of our trip :)

It was so awesome to see Gabie again. She is honestly one of the most amazing, genuine, cool, classy, inspiring people I have ever met, and seeing her face outside the Cap Haitien airport was such a great relief after a long day. It feels so familiar, for all of us I think, to be back, and to have such a caring friend waiting for us was just what we needed. So naturally, I ran up to her and gave her huge hug and she hugged me back just as hard because she's like that and she's great.

For Hannah and myself, this has been a tough year planning the trip and for things to finally come together and to finally have our feet on the ground is just such a wonderful feeling of success. I am so proud of us and SO thankful for all the help we have received from Gabie and from Emily (who we will meet up with in Port au Prince on Monday) along the way and finally the guidance and support we received all year from the team and especially Melody. 

We are exhausted but so excited to get started and hit the ground running with Sonje Ayiti at our side! Tomorrow we head to Bailly to do our work with prenatal education and exercise – get pumped!