Christmas time?

So, as I am sure many of you can relate, it is really hard to believe it is almost Christmas time. This time of year always seems to creep up, but for me, this year it has happened in a very different way. First of all, this is the first time that I have been in a tropical place during the winter months. The weather here is beautiful…in the upper 70s every day. Therefore, it is weird to hear that we got snow at home or see pictures of all of you in sweaters, jackets and all bundled up for the winter .

However, what is also missing is the hustle and bustle of the holiday season at home, especially the lack of commercialism here. There are no Christmas trees, no Christmas decorations, no advertisements or sales, no talk about Santa Clause coming and no discussion about what gifts people are getting for others. I asked what Christmas is like in Haiti and everyone says, it is mostly about going to church and then eating a nice meal with your family, maybe with some extra items they can’t usually afford. I actually find this environment so refreshing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas time at home, but I don’t love the added pressure of all the things that are supposed to be done at Christmas time from writing Christmas cards, to buying people gifts, to baking Christmas cookies, etc. I dislike how far away from the true meaning of Christmas this time of year has become in the states.

I have been finishing up a needs assessment conducted in the rural areas of the Leogane commune where households were asked what the biggest needs in their communities for women and children were. For women, the top responses were work, food, a house, education/literacy, hospital/health center and toilets. For children, it was school, food, health, hospital/health center, and clothes/shoes. For the children, a few people did mention the need for play, toys and camps, but only a handful of households identified these things as need. It reminds me how much the basic needs of people here are not met. They don’t have the luxury of thinking of the things they want because there are so many things that they need.

As we approach this holiday season, please take the time to remember the true meaning of this holiday season and think about how lucky we are in so many ways – myself included. I am so grateful for the many special people in my life, both in the states and in Haiti. I am so grateful to have been brought up in a home where more than just my needs were met, where I had the luxury of achieving an amazing education, where I grew up thinking that I could be anything I wanted to be and had the opportunities to achieve them. All of these things lead me to be able to live in Haiti. I am also so lucky to be able to come home for the holidays to spend time with the many friends and family members who have provided for me and supported me in all of my endeavors. Thank you all for being so wonderful!

Vacation

Life has been more than stressful over the past few months. CNP has undergone severe cutbacks due to a financial crisis. They scaled up rapidly post-earthquake, were forced to compete with the other larger NGOs that are now in Leogane, and were reliant on subgrant money from Save the Children to fund many of their programs. Now, they have learned they will not get any funding (compared to the $1 million they received post-quake) from Save the Children in 2011; therefore, they have to scale back rapidly in order to stay afloat. As a result, they made major cuts, both in programs and in employees, including myself. They terminated my contract early. Luckily for me, I was able to go full time for the month of December with the other organization I work for. However, the not knowing what was going to happen and the stress of seeing employees being cut back, etc. on top of dealing with the poor way it was all handled on the ground, was all very stressful. I ended up getting sick and getting shingles, so it was definitely time for a break.

My friend, Elisa, learned that her contract would not be renewed after November, so we decided to take some of our vacation days and travel in Haiti together before she returned home to Italy. We ended up going to the Southwestern part of Haiti, where the beaches were supposed to be beautiful. Let me just say, we were not disappointed.

We began our trip in Port Salut. All of the hotels around were very expensive for Haiti (at least $120 a night), so we decided to stay in a little hostel we found. It ended up being a perfect little place to stay. It was a nice change of pace to not have electricity all the time, to take bucket showers, etc.

Elisa inside our hostel

The view from upstairs

Our room

I fell in love with Port Salut! It was such a cute, quiet, clean city to live. The beach even had a sidewalk that was donated by the Taiwan government. It was refreshing to get away from the NGO infested beaches near Leogane. There were times where we were the only two people on the beach. We ended up spending 4 days there. We went to bed super early, I went for runs on the beach, read two books, watched the sunsets and best of all, we had no internet or computers with us, so we couldn’t do work at all. One of my favorite parts was the amazing dinners we had each night - grilled lobster. It was by far the best $10 dinner I had ever had!

Port Salut

Our nightly lobster dinner

The town of Port Salut

We ended up making some friends while we were there and took a day trip to Les Cayes and then to a waterfall. I found Les Cayes to also be a busy, but clean city without trash everywhere. Then, we left to find the waterfall. After driving for several hours through some very rocky roads in the mountains, we finally arrived at the waterfall. We had to find someone to open the gate and walked down to the waterfall. It was amazingly beautiful! I couldn’t help but go for a swim. The water was freezing, but it was totally worth it. I am so glad we were able to go. It was quite the hidden treasure!

Saut Mathurine

After leaving Port Salut, we went to the island off of Les Cayes called Ile-a-Vache for a night. We ended up taking a taxi boat over with a bunch of Haitians and an entire boat full of wooden boards. It was quite comical. There are two resorts on the islands and we stayed at one, Abaka Bay. As we pulled up, we were met on the dock with a drink. We could only afford to stay for one night and it turned out that Elisa and I were the only two people staying there. The place was built by a Haitian man and his wife who had lived in the states and returned to Haiti after years of working. It was amazingly done! We definitely got spoiled from the nice rooms to the amazing food to the hot shower. It felt like we were on our own private island. However, I felt guilty about being waited on hand and foot. Sadly, the time to leave came entirely too quickly. The weather was perfect on our whole trip and I definitely didn’t want to return to Leogane after such a relaxing 5 days.

Elisa and me at lunch

Our view from lunch

Our room

The view from our balcony

The dining room

Sunset at Abaka Bay

Elisa and me on the pier

I don’t think I realized how much I needed that vacation. Not only did I sleep for like 12 hours every night, but I also slept most of the day on the beach - I hadn’t realize how exhausted I was. With everything that had been going on combined with working for two organizations (where I clearly tried to work full time for both), I had done a horrible job at forcing myself to stop working. It was also so nice to be in a more laid back environment and to get away from what has become of Leogane. I don’t think I heard a single “hey you” or “blan” during my entire time there. It was a reminder of how beautiful Haiti is and what great potential it has. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to travel and see other parts of the beautiful country that Haiti is.

Life in Léogâne

I realize that none of you can fully understand what it is about Léogâne that makes it so special to me, but I thought I would try my best to describe the rich history, culture and amazing people that I come in contact with every day.

Léogâne is a coastal town located about 20 miles outside of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. It is the center of an agricultural region with its mainstays of economy including fishery, growing sugarcane, fruit and other crops.

Léogâne was formerly known as Yaguana and is the birthplace of the Taíno queen Anacaona. The Tainos inhabited Haiti long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Anacoana ruled the province in which Léogâne was located and it was the last holdout during the Spanish conquest of the island of Hispanola. After France gained control of Haiti in 1697, they built up the city of Léogâne and it became the administrative center of the French colony, Saint-Domingue. Léogâne was later destroyed in 1770 by an earthquake and rebuilt. In 1803, during Haiti’s fight for independence, one of the Haitian rebels, Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the city be burned to prevent it from falling into French hands.

When asked why people like Léogâne, they say they like it because it is not so busy and crowded like Port-au-Prince. It is a safe place where people look out and help each other and there is a sense of community here. Other favorite things about Léogâne include that it is close to the beach and centrally located between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel (a city in the Southeast with beautiful beaches). Everyone agrees that it is a good place to raise a family (it is more like a suburb).

Another unique aspect of Léogâne is that it is the center for Rara - a music festival during the week of Easter. People parade through the streets, playing an assortment of instruments made of repurposed objects and metal. Today, a lot of brass instruments from konpa bands are incorporated. The bands march through the town, creating the tempo from the stomping of their feet. (To listen to some songs and for more information on rara - http://rara.wesleyan.edu/music/analysis.php)

This unique blend of history and culture has cultivated amazing people who are determined and innovative. It is the Haitian people that keep me inspired every day. Despite the struggles of daily life here, the people are kind, generous, patient and resourceful. It is the kind acts of people that have no reason to be helping me, that motivate me and keep me grounded in what I am doing here. Of course some people yell out to me “blan”, white person, tell me how hungry they are, and ask me to give them money, some of whom really need it and others who don’t. However, there are also plenty of other amazing people who go out of their way to help foreigners such as myself and ask for nothing in return. For example, I met a woman in the market who took me around to find each of the things I needed (and this is not an easy place to navigate) and when I offered to buy her something for helping me, she declined. I am fortunate to have so many people looking after me and trying to take care of me from my former colleagues at the UND Filariasis Program to my friend, Kara’s husband, Guesly and his friends. It is not the place, but the people here that make Léogâne so amazing.

Me with some of Guesly's family

As for what my life is like here, it consists of working…a lot. I find it difficult to live and work in the same house with everyone. While I love the people I work and live with, it is just hard to not have time to myself. I also have a hard time making myself stop working and relax which is exacerbated by the lack of separation between work and living. I spend most of my days inside behind a computer which is definitely not ideal, but if that is where I am needed, I am happy to do it.

One of my favorite parts of my day is going on a run. If I don’t go on a run, there are some days where I don’t leave the house. Running is my little piece of freedom, the time I get to go out and enjoy Léogâne. Now, I no longer hear so many “Hey you!” as I run past, but instead I hear “Britt-a-nee”. Three of my favorite little kids (Marjory, Lovna and Stephenson) will chant my name as soon as they see me coming. I always stop and give them a hug and talk with them. Just seeing them, makes my day and makes my frustrations disappear.

Lovna

The big events of the week include Tuesday and Saturday night pratique (Latin dancing night) at Joe’s. From 7pm – 10pm, we go and practice dancing with everyone. This is usually quite an event that everyone gets dressed up for and is a special time to put everything else aside and just enjoy the music and dancing. Some of my friends have told me, that they don’t know how they could have gotten through life after the earthquake without dancing as an outlet.

On weekends, we try to get out of the house and go to the beach. It is nice to relax and enjoy the absolutely beautiful beaches that Haiti has. We are spoiled and have a cook during the week, but on weekends, we are on our own. As you all know, I love to cook! We improvise a lot to make things with what we can find here, but we eat everything for pizza to Indian food to enchiladas. The highlight of my time spent making food is using my Ice Cream/sorbet maker. So far we have made everything from chocolate sorbet to mango gelato to peanut butter ice cream with Reeses. I realize we are completely spoiled!

I do struggle with guilt knowing that I live in such a nice house, with electricity 24/7, and I have the pleasure of making food that I want to eat without worrying about how much it costs or when I will eat again. I also feel a bit isolated living here and disconnected from the community, so I am trying to find a homestay family to stay with. This way, I will be able to gain a better understanding of what their lives are like on a daily basis, be forced to practice Kreyol and gain a sense of connection here. I will keep you posted on when that works out. Léogâne truly is an amazing place and I know I am blessed to have the opportunity to be here and be surrounded by so many amazing individuals!