On the Steps of the Palace

Two of the main attractions in the north is La Citadelle or Citadelle Laferrière and Sans-Souci Palace.  While I have learned a little bit of Haitian history since I've been here, it was pretty cool to actually see some of it.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1982) is located a little way south of Cap-Haitian and was a pretty easy tap-tap ride.  I probably should have posted a map on my last post but I didn't, so here's a map.  One the first day, we went from Gros Morne to Gonaives, then to Cap-Haitian.  On the second day we did Cap-Haitian to La Citadelle and back, then from Cap-Haitian to Labadee.  Then we did it all in reverse order a few days later to get back home.

I'm going to begin with Sans-Souci Palace, because that was the first thing we did.  The palace was built by Henri Christophe, a former slave, leader of the slave rebellion, elected president of the northern State of Haiti in 1807 (it had been divided between Christophe and Alexandre Pétion when neither could agree on who should be in power) and then self-proclaimed king of Haiti in 1811.  Sans-Souci, which means "carefree" in French, was his attempt to build his own Versailles, but it was destroyed around 30 years after it was constructed.  Construction was finished in 1813, but was ruined and abandoned in 1842 after the earthquake.  It was once a beautiful and luxurious palace - Christophe's proof that Haiti was a cultured nation.  In addition to the palace itself for the king, his queen Marie-Louise and their two daughters, the grounds included extensive gardens, a hospital, army barracks, a school and a printing press.

I love ruins and seeing old architecture, so I was pretty excited to walk through the palace.  It was, however, a little strange to be seeing something that seemed so European in style and feel in the middle of Haiti.  The palace itself was used to show the rest of the world (especially Europe and the US) the power that the first black nation had, but Christophe's reign was based on European monarchical traditions.

The entrance and the church that Christophe built.

In the extreme foreground are the ministers quarters, where advisors and other political officials lived.  The fountain-looking thing in the middle is part of the King's garden.  In the background is the army barracks.

Through the door, you can see a Cayemite tree.  I believe this tree played a significant role in Haitian politics because Christophe had official meetings and signed important documents under its limbs.

On the lower right side is the car shed, the stables, the queen's palace and garden and off the left side would be the print shop.  Although it was much smaller than Versailles, I was definitely getting some Versailles-esk vibes.

The best part.  Grass!!!!!

O Kap

We started our New Year with an adventure.  On the 1st, Beth, Frankie, Eliza, Marine (a French girl who is volunteering with another organization), Renette (one of the girls that Eliza works with and is very close to),  and I left Gros Morne for the north.  Our final destination was Labadee, a town on the northern coast, but we were going to make a few stops along the way.

The gang (missing Marine - she was getting food)
in our first tap-tap before it filled up.
(Photo courtesy of Eliza)

This was going to be our first venture into the realm of public transportation beyond motorcycles.  In addition to the moto, one can also take two kinds of buses - coach-type buses or an old school bus.  These primarily travel between major cities instead of doing more local travel.  You can also take a tap-tap.  This is a pick-up truck that has benches in the back.  Some of them have metal roofs while others are open.  During our whole trip, we took 8 tap-taps.  We were hoping to get spots on a bus, but they were all taken when we arrived at the bus station and you couldn't book them in advance.  While they are a super inexpensive way of traveling, just a few bucks for a tap-tap gets you just about anywhere, but it isn’t necessarily the most comfortable mode of transportation.  We squeezed 14 people and their bags into the back of an enclosed pick-up, with two people sitting on the roof and three people standing on the bumper and hanging on.  On our final leg of the journey between Gonaïves and Gros Morne, we had 18 people and 18 peoples' worth of stuff in the back of an open pick-up.  Over the course of the rides, I ended up with several bruises, a cut on my back from a screw behind my seat and a scar on one of my knees from laundry baskets that we were scrunched against.  But, each tap-tap got us to where we needed and no one fell out, so I can't complain.

A view from the road.  We had to cross 2ish mountain ranges to Cap-Haitian.  It was pretty windy and we were all a little nauseous by the time we were done.  The roads were paved and in pretty good condition, but it was a little scary to see big buses taking all the switch backs.  On our ride home, we stopped on one curve to see a van that had gone off the road and was (luckily) caught on a tree which prevented it from crashing to the bottom.  As we continued, we could see the car as a white speck across the valley and the understood more clearly the several hundred foot drop that the vehicle would have made had that tree not been there.

Our first stop was Cap-Haitian (Kapayisyen or Okap in Creole), the second largest city in Haiti after Port-au-Prince.  Around 200,000 people live in the city.  It was initially called Cap-Français, and was founded in 1670.  Under the quickly-growing plantation economy, Cap-Français was an important and valuable port for the export of sugar, coffee, cotton and indigo.  In fact, the city became so wealthy that it was nicknamed “Paris of the Antilles.”  But, Cap-Français’ history was not always so rich.  It saw various rebellions, was completely burned to the ground in 1803 on orders by Toussaint Louverture to prevent its capture by Napoleon’s army.  An earthquake brought everything back down to the ground in 1842.  In fact, the city has been leveled 5 times throughout its history.  Although it was once a political and economic hub, it seems to have never fully recovered and Port-au-Prince has replaced it.

Cap-Haitian (Beth's photo)

It was interesting to visit the city.  I spent one morning driving around part of Port-au-Prince that wasn’t really downtown, so I can’t really compare it to another Haitian city.  But it was definitely different from Gros Morne.  The city itself was incredibly dirty.  In fact, it was probably the most trash-filled city I’ve ever been in.  There was litter all along the sides of the road and on the sidewalks.  Huge piles of garbage could be found on street corners and the coastline was covered with rubbish.  The architecture was pretty different too.  It had a much older and European feel.  The buildings were taller, with balconies jutting out over the street.  Decorative railings surrounded the balconies.  Tall doors led into shops.  (Fun Fact - in the olden days, the tall double doors signified a shop, with the owners home above.)  It sort of reminded me of images I’ve seen of old houses in New Orleans' French Quarter.

Eliza really wanted to take our picture in front of some of the trash.  Piles of trash like this one were a pretty frequent sighting on street corners.

Some nice, inconspicuous LL Bean product placement as well as a better perspective on the quantity of trash.

The outside of the Iron Market

It was odd to be a tourist in Cap-Haitian.  We saw a couple of the oldest buildings in the city.  We also visited some government buildings.  We walked through the market, which was similar to the market here in Gros Morne, but much larger.  We also saw the "marche de fer" or iron market.  When Eliza first said this, I was thinking that it was going to be a section of the market that sold metal-work.  We walked through and I didn't see anything that was metal.  Then I realized that she was talking about the structure we were walking through.  The iron market is the center of the market, with vendors spilling out all around it.  Since the city is right on the water we visited the Atlantic Ocean.  I was all excited to put my feet back in the Atlantic, but when we got there, the “beach” was covered in garbage.  We had really good BBQ for dinner from a little restaurant on a street corner.  It seemed a little strange, but it was actually some of the best BBQ chicken I've ever had.  We spent the night in a hotel that only cost $10.  Although we only had electricity during the night, we did have running water and a flushing toilet and a pretty comfortable bed and apart from the 60+ bug bites (seriously, I'm not exaggerating) I got during the night, I can't complain about our accommodations.

The inside of the Iron Market. (Eliza's photo)

This is one of the older buildings in the city.  It was a mansion build in 1898.

Cathédrale Notre Dame

This was a small shop.  The sign on the door says "ici robe mariage a louer" which translates to "here, wedding dresses for rent."  I thought that was pretty great.  I tried looking in the window to see if they had anything that was my style, but the shutters were closed.

The Atlantic.  The black things in the water are part of a sunken ship.

The "beach."  As you can see, it was pretty gross.  I put my toes in the water to test it out.  It was colder than the Caribbean, but considerably warmer than the Atlantic by my house (especially at this time of the year).

It's a littler hard to see, but on the front of this fire engine is "Courtoisie de Boston" or "Courtesy of Boston."  

Auld Lang Syne

It's always interesting to be in other places during holidays to see how other cultures celebrate.  Sometimes its fun to see how the 4th of July and Martin Luther King Day are just regular days and no one pays them any attention.  But it is also fun to see how bigger holidays are celebrated differently.  First of all, Thanksgiving is not a thing in Haiti, which should hopefully be pretty obvious.  Given the fact that over 90% of the population of Haiti follows some variety of Christianity, Christmas is the next major holiday.  The religious aspects of Christmas are more central here.  There is less focus on the gift-giving and materialism and more on what the day itself actually represents in biblical history.  For example, most people go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve.  Some people hang up Christmas lights.  There were a few houses here that had lights and other decorations and there were more houses and businesses in Port-au-Prince that were all done up for the season.  The younger kids in Fon Ibo colored pictures of Tonton Noël (Santa, but literally Uncle Christmas) during school.  Other than these, however, there are not really any big Christmas traditions.

This Christmas felt a little strange.  It never really felt like Christmas.  I knew that it was coming, but I was never really into the "Christmas spirit," despite my one night of wrapping presents for everyone here and watching Love Actually and White Christmas.  I realized that one of the reasons it felt so strange was that I never went through the season progression.  It was pretty much the same temperature in December as it was in September, so my mind/body was all confused.  I never thought how much my body and mind was used to the seasons until I came to a place that is really only broken down into a rainy and dry season or just hot and then even hotter.  

New Year's is more of a celebratory day.  This is mostly because the 1st of January coincides with Haiti’s Day of Independence.  Haiti gained its independence from the French in 1804, after the Haitian Revolution.  St. Domingue, as Haiti was called under French rule, was the most profitable colony in the Americas with its exports of sugar and coffee.  During the French Revolution, the white population in St. Domingue was split between Royalists and Revolutionaries.  Slaves took advantage of this division and an open rebellion ensued in the summer of 1791.  The next decade was full of violence, chaos, French, Spanish and US interference that turned into open civil war.  Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, (the airport in PAP is named after him), was a powerful figure both in the rebellion and in ending the war, but also in the building of Haitian politics.  In 1800, he was named the colony’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief and eventually Governor General for Life.  Under his rule, slavery was abolished and equality between races was called for in the new constitution.  Catholicism was accepted as the national religion and voodoo was outlawed.  He continued to enforce the plantation system and mainly exported to France.  Because of his policies, many thought that he was trying to reinstate slavery.  In 1801, more rebellion, this time against Louverture’s regime, erupted.  France returned to "try and restore peace," but was eventually forced to evacuate their troops in late 1803.  On 1 January 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared independence, was named the first ruler of the new country and made Haiti the first black republic.

Today, January 1st is a family day.  Years ago, people returned to their parent's house to receive a blessing from their father.  While this specific practice may not be as common today, January 1st is still reserved for family.  Almost everything in the country is shut down for the celebrations.  The most important Independence Day tradition has to do with what food is eaten.  While under French rule, slaves were not permitted to eat soup joumou (pumpkin soup).  To celebrate their freedom, every Haitian eats soup joumou on Independence Day.

I spent New Year's Eve at Tiden’s Bar.  He had a big party.  We celebrated with Prestige (Haiti’s beer), konpa music (and a few American classics), and even fireworks at midnight.  It was fun to sing and dance and to see that New Year's seems to be celebrated in pretty similar ways around the world. The night ended with Frankie getting her phone stolen and me driving Beth and her home in a gator that belongs to an American couple who lives here for part of the year.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to eat any soup joumou on New Year's Day because we left for our next adventure — vacation in the North.  But that’s another post.

Happy New Year!

This picture makes me look much calmer than what I was feeling.  I was so scared to be driving in a vehicle I knew nothing about, at night and on roads that I had only been driven down a handful of times.  I was terrified that dogs or goats or people would cross just in front of us and I wouldn't be able to stop.  But, we made it back safely and with only had one minor problem -- trying to figure out how to turn the engine off when we got home!

Since driving and blowing the horn to warn people and various animals of our approach was a little too much for me to do at the same time, Beth was in charge of our epic horn.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/haitian-rev

http://library.brown.edu/haitihistory/11.html

Home for the Holidays

As many of you know, we just finished up the holiday season, with Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas and then New Years.  I’m sure many of you were wondering what was happening here, and what it was like to celebrate these holidays in Haiti.  Most Quest volunteers stay here for the holidays, but the program and the sisters were flexible and generous enough to allow me to go home for Christmas and surprise my family for Thanksgiving.  This was really important that I be able to do this and I’m so thankful that I was able to be with my family.

It was both nice and a little strange to be home.  I loved being able to spend time with the family, help out with Thanksgiving and Christmas activities, eat ice cream and have hot showers, but it was definitely a little different.  It felt a little weird to be part of the crowd again.  Here, we stick out like extremely sore thumbs (the red, throbbing, cartoon kind), and I have had to get accustomed to the stares, having “blan” shouted after me all the time and just being noticed by everyone.  This has been an aspect of living as a minority and a transition that had to be made.  But, when I was home, no one stared at me (or at least they were subtle about it), no one shouted at me or really took any notice.  I was able to just go about my business.  I will admit, it was a pretty nice break, especially for a girl who doesn’t really like being stared at.

I was surprised, that even after three months in Haiti, how different my perspective was.  I found myself turning the water off while showering, letting the yellow mellow and looking for the compost bin.  I was struck at how much waste we generated over a few days.  Going into stores was extremely overwhelming in terms of the size and the amount of things.  I was in awe at the amount of seemingly useless tchotchkes that one could purchase.  I kept thinking about why would anyone really need some of the gadgets and gizmos they were selling?  How necessary was it to life?  It was weird to think about everyone worrying about Christmas and all the last minute shopping when I knew plenty of kids who would be getting nothing and would be lucky if they even got a hot meal for Christmas.

One of the most common questions that I was asked when I was home was "what were the most difficult things to get used to?"  I figured since so many people wanted to know, I would answer the question here.  To those who have already heard my response, feel free to skip ahead a couple of paragraphs.  Those who haven’t—read on.

Apart from the general changes in food, sleeping habits, environment, living with new people, etc., there have really only been two things that I have had to adjust to.  One has been Haitian men.  Before I continue, it is important for me to say that not all men are like this.  I have met plenty of nice men, so I wouldn’t want my observations to make you think that it applies to everyone.  Also, this is only one perspective, in one area of Haiti.  When trying to find words to describe my observations, the only one that seemed fitting (and I’m still not sure it is exactly what I’m looking for), is that some men - of all ages - here are extremely forward.  After brief formalities, the typical next question is “do you have a boyfriend” or something about how beautiful one is followed by that question.  If I respond truthfully, I usually get something that hints at “don’t you want me to be your boyfriend?” and “how come?” when I respond in the negative.  During my immersion, I had this conversation so frequently, that I made up a story just to catch a break.

In addition to unwanted questions about my personal life, “kissy faces” and “kissy noises” are frequently made at us when walking through the street.  I’ve even had one young man lean in for the kiss when Beth and I were running down main street one evening.  It seems that some of the first English people learn here has to do with sex or such related topics.  I have had 12 and 14 year-old boys say “give me a kiss” while passing in the street.

Between the three of us (Beth, Frankie and I), we have had men say that they wanted to have babies with us or have sex with us (both politely and in more vulgar terms).  If you say that you have a boyfriend, whom you love very much, back in the states, this is sometimes passed off and the questions and demands persist.  Learning about how Haitian men interact with women, whether they be white or black, has been an interesting part of the culture here.  Sex does not seem to be a very private or personal thing.  Men, and women too, may have more than one partner.  Children with the same mom, may have siblings from one or two different men.  Given the limited space that families live in, children are exposed early in life.  I’ve seen young kids, like 4 and 5 year olds, using condoms as balloons.  Marriage, in the sense of the word that we understand in the states, is less frequent and may occur long after a couple has been together or has had children together.

The second thing that I have had to get used to is saying "no".  On a daily basis, people of all ages will come to our house or stop us on the street and ask us for food or money or other things like bracelets we’re wearing, hats, bags, etc.  Sometimes its as simple as “Ban m sa a” (and point to something) or “Ban m kòb” which translates to “give me that” or “give me money.”  Other times, someone will tell us a story about a child or sibling who is very sick and needs to go to hospital but they don’t have money, or they have been to the hospital but now don’t have money for medicine.  Each of us has had to learn how to politely say that we are unable to help.  At first, it was incredibly hard to say no to people when you know that they really are in need and it still is at some points.  It is much easier now, which sometimes is a little disconcerting and makes me feel like I have been hardened a little bit by having to do this so often.

Although I did go home to see my family, one of the other reasons I went home for Christmas was to attend our annual Christmas party.  Every year, my family hosts a big party where we serve soup, people decorate our christmas tree and we collect something for a different charity.  In the past, we have collected vitamins for an orphanage in Malawi, books for an adult learning center in Maine, and school supplies for an after school program that supported children affected by 9/11.  For the people and organizations we work with, we try to have a direct connection - whether it be a friend of a friend or an acquaintance who knows someone.  This year, given my current location, we collected for Haiti.  After much deliberation, we decided that collecting toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap would be the most useful.  We also asked party-goers to bring vitamins that can be given to kids who may need them as well as hand sanitizer we can use throughout the summer's activities. We host a summer camp every year for the kids at Fon Ibo and at the end of camp they each receive a small "goody" bag.  In addition to the typical stickers and other small trinkets in the bag, we thought it would be nice if kids got something that would actually benefit their health.  There isn't really a dentist here.  There is supposed to be one at the hospital, but it is pretty unaffordable for the majority of the population and many kids suffer from rotten teeth, cavities and other dental issues.  Fungus and various other skin maladies are common too, so we thought soap would be useful.  In total, we collected over 400 toothbrushes, over 200 tubes of toothpaste, and around 200 bars of soap.  All of these, in addition to some that we may purchase in the market here, will be given to the 300+ Kon Klodin (Camp Claudine) campers and counselors this summer.  Thank you to all who contributed to this effort!

I did have a great time at home.  I was able to enjoy both fall and some winter - something that I was really missing here.  Although it has gotten a little cooler since we arrived in August, it’s pretty much the same temperature every day.  I was struck at how much I missed watching the leaves change and then fall and pulling all my flannel shirts and SmartWool socks out as fall turned into winter.  It was also nice to take a break from some of frustrations I have here and kind of regroup.  But, I was thrilled to return and get back to work.

We got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way to the airport.  Turns out it was because of a demonstration taking place in one of the towns for improved water and electricity.

The grocery store in Port-au-Prince.

Approaching JFK.

My first meal back in the States!!!

Fall!  In addition to sitting with pumpkins and eating a pumpkin whoopie pie, I went "apple picking" with the leftover apples that were never picked from the trees at the orchard near my Grandmom's house.

Winter!  While my brothers were wearing shorts and complaining that it was too warm for November, I was freezing.  I was much too used to the 80º daily temperature we experience here in Gros Morne.

It's a little difficult to see, but behind the gas station you can see some of the light-up reindeer on top of one of the buildings in PAP.  This is the only picture I have of the Christmas decorations I saw both in Gros Morne and PAP.

Our Christmas tree at home!

Our tree in Haiti.  Given the complete lack of your classic christmas trees species here, as well as opposition from one of our community members (Sr. Pat, environmentalist through and through), an artificial one does the trick!

Christmas in Philadelphia!

A lovely view on my way back to Haiti.

Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News

Several weeks ago now, given my total slacking on the blog front, I had another opportunity to work with a 10-person team of doctors, nurses, hospital workers, a physical therapist, and a pharmacist at 6 different clinics in and around Gros Morne.  Sr. Mary Jo is the executive director of Global Health Ministry and managed the team.  This organization has been sending teams of doctors and other health care professionals to Guatemala, Peru, Haiti and Jamaica for several years to provide free health care and health education.  In the past, Global Health Workers have not only provided healthcare services and surgeries, but, at the request of "in-country partners," given health classes to high school students and offered other health classes to community health professions on hygiene, first aid and other similar topics.

It was very clear that this was not Sr. Mary Jo's first rodeo.  There was a definite plan, almost a science, as to how each clinic was set up and where everything went.  I was amazed at how smoothly everything went and how well the group (who did not know each other before the trip) worked with each other.  Each doctor had a translator that was with them for the whole week.  I think one of the women translating was a nurse, and the other may have been a nurse, but I'm not sure.  The pharmacy also had a translator who explained the medications to each person who came through.

Because there were limited supplies both for the week, and what could be carried in the trucks each day, we only saw around 100 people at the clinic.  The way that each clinic worked was that 100 people (we could only do 100 because of time and limited medicine resources) would be given a small slip of paper and these people would come forward, give their name, age and complaint to a nurse or public health official from the clinic that we were working with, and then move to two workers from the hospital in Gros Morne to get AIDS tested.  After that, they would move to triage, where they would get their blood pressure taken, temperature taken, etc.  After that, they would wait for the doctor and after consulting with them, head to the pharmacy to pick up their medications.

I did a few different things throughout the week.  I spent most of my time in what they called triage, helping take blood pressure, temperature, weighing babies and translating basic questions, like how many children women had and when their last doctor's visit was.  At the end of the day, when we stopped checking people in, I would help the pharmacy explain medications to people or help Sr. Mary Jo figure out which glasses worked best for people who needed glasses.  The last two days, I did the initial intake of patients because there was no local nurse or public health worker.  I would take names and ages and write them down on the paper that the doctors would fill out to give to the pharmacy.  Another aspect of the initial intake was crowd control, which, thanks to my days as a resident assistant at school, I was relativity prepared for.  The initial distribution of tickets was compete chaos because numbers were given to children and the elderly first, regardless of the fact that 10 people may have been waiting there for an hour while the child had just arrived.  In addition to this, people without tickets would wait around or try to get seen even though they didn’t have a ticket.  I did most of this by myself, but every once in awhile, things would get very crazy and I would be totally swarmed by people trying to get in, and Barak, our handyman and driver (for this week), would come to my rescue and repeat what I was saying until people finally listened.  The first day I did this, it was incredibly exhausting and difficult.  The second day was a little bit easier because there was less of a crowd, but hearing and then writing people’s names was very difficult and I’m pretty sure I spelled 98% of them wrong.  It was also really hard to have to tell people that they could not see the doctor.  Throughout the whole week, we probably turned away several hundred people.  Some of these people arrived to the clinic hours before it opened and waited there all day, and still were unable to see the doctor.

One of the most interesting parts of having these experiences is knowing what people come to the doctors for.  Similar to my previous clinic experience, many people come in for general pain or stomach pain.  Many women would come in with vaginal infections and children would have fevers or colds.  We did have some different cases.  For example, I waited with a young boy who was sent immediately to the hospital because he had meningitis.  There were a handful of severely malnourished babies.  One little boy had had a cerebral hemorrhage that had impacted his ability to walk, so he and his mom received a walker and some exercises for him to do to hopefully let him walk again.

I’ve surprised myself at how much I enjoy working in these clinics - to the point that I have actually contemplated it being a potential career path.  But then I remind myself that I still want to pass out or throw up when I see certain things, and reality sets back in again.  But still, working at the clinics has been an incredibly interesting aspect of the work I have done thus far in Haiti.  It has given me insight into some of the needs that people really have, the toll that the lifestyle Haitians lead can have on their bodies, and how difficult health care is.  It has allowed me to meet tons of people, both Haitians and Americans, and see more of the area surrounding where I’m living.  I am constantly reminded how easy it is for me to take for granted not only my good health, but my access to bandaids and Tylenol as well as more intense health care.  Having to firsthand deny access to people who were in need of care was very difficult, and it made me realize that while it is wonderful to have groups like this come in and the work that they do is important, there is still a need for a self-sustaining health-care infrastructure here in Haiti.

Twins!!!  These two little guys came in with colds and fevers.  I told their mom that I had a twin brother and asked if I could take a picture to send to my mom.  She thought that it was so funny, but they were so cute I couldn't resist!

At one of the clinics, they gave us food.  This is lame veritable (breadfruit) and something else.  Just adding it to my ever-growing list of new foods that I've tried here.

Sr. Jackie surrounded by people checking in to see the doctor.

The little boy with the brain hemorrhage.  The physical therapist was showing the mom how to help him.

It rained a few times on our drive back to Gros Morne - mind you, we were all sitting in the bed of a truck, totally exposed to the elements.  Luckily, we missed the really heavy rains.

The crowds waiting.

Pharmacy - run out of several large suitcases.

These were at the guest house that the team stayed at.  Goldfish had never tasted so good!!!