Life with my two Haitian Mothers

I mentioned that I was moving in to a new apartment on Monday in my last post. So far things are working out pretty well. My two roomates are about 10 years older than me and are named Gertrude and Daphney. So far they have treated me very well. In addition to rent, I am paying them to clean, do my laundry, and cook. But they have gone far beyond that - they cook me way too much food, make fruit juices by hand - I wish they wouldn't pamper me so much. They told me the other night that they want to be like mothers to me while I am in Haiti (hence the title of the post) which is really nice of them. We are in a part of Port-au-Prince that does not have electricity (Delmas 24) but my roomates think power will be restored in a couple of weeks. The biggest challenge has been the communication barrier. Both of them speak Creole and French, but little English. However, I think this will help me learn Creole quickly. Already I think I have gotten a lot better. The apartment consists of three consecutive rooms perpendicular to the street -two bedrooms seperated by the dining room. My room is furthest from the street and the apartment has steel doors and locks, which adds to my feeling of safety. On one side of the apartment is the roof of a neighboring apartment where I have spent a lot of time reading and talking to my roomates this past week. On the otherside is a hallway that leads to a bathroom and small kitchen. I will take pictures of my room and my roomates and try to post them on Picassa.

The apartment is not as close to work as I would like (about 3 miles) but so far my boss is picking me up in the morning and driving me home at night. Because my boss is leaving for Miami next weekend to visit his wife and kids (they left for Miami right after the earthquake), I need to be able to find my way to work. On Thursday we caught a taxi to work and then a tap tap on the way back. Typical of Haiti, the morning ride in the taxi (a rusted out sedan) was a tight fit with 9 people (4 in front, 5 in back). The tap tap, which is a pickup truck with extensions on the bed to fit a couple more people, was even more crowded and uncomfortable with 19 people. But it only cost $0.10 USD vs $0.50 for the taxi ride.

I have still been working on compiling a list of victums affected by the earthquake. Although it seems surprising that they're doing this 3 months after the EQ, I have learned about all the challenges with determining who was actually affected versus who is just trying to take advantage of the situation. In reality, all our clients were affected by the EQ at least indirectly through falling prices and reduced demand due to all the humanitarian aid coming in. One of our clients, who sells coffee, saw all but one of his clients die in the EQ. It is very difficult to be objective and determine where to draw the line.

I did not get to go on any trips into the field this week but I will in a few weeks. This morning I met and investigated a house for a group of nuns. I will be traveling to the northern part of the country to investigate some chapels for them but they wanted me to look at their residence in PAP. They had already had a structural engineer look and say it needed to be knocked down but they wanted a second opinion. When I got to the house, I found it hard to beleive because the damage was mostly cosmetic (some doors wouldn't close, the plaster was cracked). I gave them an ok but told them to have the government inspectors look it over before making the minor repairs. Buildings that have been inspected by the Haitian government in PAP contain painted numbers on the outside. The numbers are in green if the building has been deemed safe, yellow if repairs are necessary, and red if the building needs to be destroyed (or already is). Anyway, I'd be shocked if the building didn't get green based based on the damage I've seen.

I haven't gotten to do much service outside of work yet but hopefully will get a chance to one of these weekends...maybe next week. I've been working from about 8-7 so haven't had a whole lot of free time so far. But I know the work we are doing will be very important for helping people restart their businesses (and hopefully generate money to rebuild their homes) after the earthquake.

First Week at Fonkoze

Just wanted to fill you all in on how my first full week in Port-au-Prince. Thank you to all of you that have left messages so far - it's been great reading them. The week started with a trip to a beach an hour north of Port-au-Prince last Sunday. The family I am staying with invited me to come with them and I thought it would be a neat experience to see what it was like. They charged roughly $15 to enter. There was a seaside restaurant and bar and a 300 yd stretch of beach shaded by large palm trees. They had waiters that came around to take drink/food orders as well as men hawking things like coconuts and seafood. It was a nice setting but my only complaint (I feel like a snob saying this) is that the sand had so many rocks that I found it difficult to walk on. Needless to say, I spent most of the time reading on a beach chair. As I mentioned in my last post, I feel a little guilty about experiences like this we passed refugee camps on the way to the beach but I think it is important to experience different facets of Haiti. Sometime soon I will update the Picassa site with some of the pictures I took.

On Monday I met my boss, Getro, and learned what I would be working on for the first few weeks. He is a Haitian but has spent a semester studying at NIU in Dekalb so his English is pretty good. We will be focusing on business development loans - $1500-$25,000 USD loans given to develop small shops, typically run by women. He has been training me to study loan applications and financial statements and has been teaching me about the requirements for clients (which we call ti marchann, or merchant women) to recieve loans. The hope (if I understood him correctly) is that after training, I will be able to review loan applications. The other focus of the first few weeks is implementing a program for clients that have been affected by the earthquake in which we will: 1) provide them with a small stipend, 2) cancel their existing loans, and 3) renogotiate new loans.

One thing I really liked about my first week is that Getro asked me to come on a couple of trips to meet with clients of some of the other branches. On Tuesday we took a day trip to Marigo, which is a small city on the southern coast of Haiti. He surprised me again on Wednesday asking me if I wanted to come with him to Tyot, another small city but along the border with the Dominican Republic. We met with several clients at each location to inquire how business has changed for them since the earthquake. We also met with clients late on their loan payments to inquire why they were having difficulty. A common answer was that someone in their family or even the client themselves had gotten sick. Amusingly, one gentlemen told us how he had to take a break from his construction business because he ran to be the town deputy. I wouldn't quite call us loan-sharks because the clients had already taken the initiative to try to pay off the rest of their loans. However, Getro and I where joking about whipping out knives and brass knuckles if the cleints decided not to repay their loands. I guess my nickname from Washu, "brass knuckles O'Brien," was well-deserved.

I hope I continue to be offered the opportunity to travel to different branches across the country like I have. I will admit that Port-au-Prince isn't exactly a pretty city, but the countryside is amazing. The first part of our trip to Tyot we went up and down bare mountains along a dry riverbed and then all of a sudden where in a village called the forest of pines. If I didn't know where I was, I would have thought it was Pennsylvania. When we got close to Tyot, the climate transitioned again to a rain forest.

When I got back last night I swung by the Port-au-Prince country club to become a member of a library run by a Canadian gentleman. I did not expect to have access to a library with English books in Haiti but life is full of surprises. Because the library is only open for a couple hours on Friday evenings, last night was a social gathering of mostly American and Canadians working in Haiti. I was able to chat with several very interesting people, including one man who lived at Four Lakes Apartments several years ago (down the road from my high school).

Finally, today I went to a prayer service and then to look for an apartment with Getro. I definitely need to build my stamina - I haven't gotten out of a Haitian church in less than two hours yet. Luckily I have found a reasonably priced place to move into on Monday. I will be renting a room in a three bedroom apartment with two women. One of the women is looking for a job and the other is studying to be a lawyer. I'll have to fill you all in on my next post how that goes but I met them both today and both of them seem very nice. Hope everyone stateside is having a nice weekend!

Link to Pictures

Since I have a good internet connection at Fonkoze and have a bit of free time, I thought I'd throw up some of my pictures on Picasa. I doubt you're interested in all the pictures of cracks and collapsed walls but there are also a few pictures in the other folders of all the tents around Port-au-Prince and the countryside. The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/109023387440893709524

Back to Port-au-Prince

The last few days of our stay in Baudin went well. We were able to meet with some of the local engineers and contractors that were involved in the design and construction of the church and school in Baudin to hear what they thought about the damage and their ideas for repairs. I worry about reconstruction as I know they do not understand earthquakes and how to design for them. There is still no building code in Haiti but I think most organizations that have contributed to the releif efforts will demand the buildings are built to some seismic building code.

I arrived in Port-au-Prince (PAP) on Thursday afternoon and am already missing the countryside. The views in the mountains are just incredible. It was really neat seeing the people in Baudin again. On Thursday we made a stop in Jacmel on our way to PAP. It is a port town on the southern coast of Haiti, and although smaller than PAP, is much cleaner and nicer (before the EQ at least). There we stopped to meet the interim bishop, who used to be the pastor in Baudin. He had us inspect a couple of his schools which were quite large (one was 4 stories and the other was 5 stories). After that we headed to PAP. The ride from Jacmel to PAP was about 2 hours and was paved the whole way, which felt like a luxury after driving on gravel roads for the last week. It was a very curvy road that wound through the mountains before flattening near Leogone, the epicenter of the quake.

In PAP, our first order of business was to meet with Catholic Relief Services to see if they might contribute to our efforts to support Baudin. It was neat to hear what they were apart of. We were able to see Martin, our translator's damaged house and then went up into the hills, where he is currently staying at a friend's place. I am still shocked to see all the damage in PAP. Every block there is something to see, be it collapsed buildings or fields/streets full of tents. On some of the hillsides it seems like 75% of the homes have collapsed. Once again I tried to upload pictures to no avail. There are people out trying to clean the streets as well as dump trucks and bulldozers but they still have a long way to go. It is sad to see but at the same time happy to see how helpfull and gracious the Haitians are to each other and visitors after the catastrophe.

Yesturday we dropped the other members of the group, John and Rob, off at the airport and then headed to Fonkoze. After some car trouble (Martin, I, and a couple of Haitian good samaritans had to push start his truck backwards down a one-way street, haha), Martin dropped me off at Fonkoze. I think I have found a permanent place to stay that I will move into sometime next week, but for this weekend the intern coordinator has been gracious enough to invite me to stay at her home, where I am writing from now. It is a very nice place and I must admit I feel a little guilty that I am living this nicely. The last few days have been a little overwhelming at times but I have been trying to remain calm. Sorry for the long post. I will try to keep posts shorter but felt like I had a lot that happened in the last few days.

Over the last couple days we have been inspecting churches and schools in different villages. Most of the older concrete structures were severly damaged, while wooden structures or newer concrete structures with better construction were not as badly damaged, if at all. Today we met with a local contractor and engineer to learn about their building practices and what their opinion about some of the buildings we both inspected. They are treating us like kings where we are staying. They are serving us three large meals each day. Some of the common dishes are fried plantains, rice and beens, chicken or goat and potato soup. Last night we watched Hotel Rawanda with some of the Hatians here on a projector one of the other engineers brought down. What was really neat is that one of the songs during the credits was by Wyclef Jean (a famous Haitian rapper). The scenery is amazing. The many mountains around create some great views. I tried to upload some pictures but the internet is too slow. Hopefully I'll be able to in Port-au-Prince.

Status Update - Arrival in Haiti

Hey all. Just thought I'd post a summary of my first day in Haiti. I don't have a lot of time because I'm writing from a little mountain village named Baudin on a computer powered by solar panels and there's not a lot of sun today. My flight yesturday went very smoothly - going through customs at the Port au Prince airport was not a problem. As soon as we walked out of the aiport, we were mobbed with kids asking for a dollar. Even though I had followed the news closely and saw a lot of pictures, I was surprised how much damage there was. However, plenty of people were out in the streets and makets selling things. Hopefully I can post some pictures soon. I am spending the current week surveying earthquake damage in the village of Baudin. We are staying in a 15' x 15' tent that has four beds and is nice. Today we looked at the rectory to see if we could savage it. The building construction is obviously not as good as in the US. I will admit that when I got here I first felt a little overwhelmed but have since calmed down and become calmer. Our translator Martin, who I have become good friends with (he was a translator for my last trip as well) is going to help me get settled when I return to Port au Prince. I will try to update and post more pictures later.