Sleeping in Haiti was amazing! Even though the rain was loud it was still very peaceful. I wondered about the people in the Tent cities. Would they be dry? Or is the rain another headache that they have to deal with in the morning?
We woke up at 6am to the sound of the roosters crowing and I was so excited to be in Haiti. Waking up in Tania's room the day after we arrived was finally that moment where I exclaimed YES!!! We are here :D
Tania's mother prepared us breakfast: fruit- MANGO! and Avacado!! among other dishes. We had this while we waited for the Asosyasyon Peyizan Fondwa (Association of the Peasants of Fondwa) or APF. [To find out more about this organization click this link to their Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Peasants-Fondwa/188925504112#!/pages/Association-of-Peasants-Fondwa/188925504112?v=info#info_edit_sections]
Our drivers Rudy and Edmont were great chauffeurs. They drove us by the National Palace, which up close is nothing like it is on TV. The Palace is not even being worked on. We talked about that today- progress would be restoring the iconic building in the capital city. If this was D.C. and a natural disaster toppled the White House, this would be one of the first things that would be rebuilt. A sign of strength a point to say yes, we are back.
[Streams of Consciousness]
Driving past the National Palace there are a lot of grand manchanns along the main streets. A lot of people leaving church, it's amazing how crowded the streets are.
There is so much trash and the houses (huts) are right on top of each other, it really reminds me of TJ (tijuana, Mexico). Especially the further out your get from Port-au-Prince(PAP), the area we will be staying Fondwa, sort of reminds me of driving to Rosarito. Just outside of PAP you can see the ocean, the beautiful blue ocean and a series of little houses all along the strip of the water. There are hills! OMG the hills beautiful lush green hills with the background of this cool blue water is breathtaking- THIS was the Haiti I was waiting to see. This WAS the Haiti I could imagine in my dreams.
And the tap-taps, there were so many and beautifully designed. If I find the one with Tupac on it I will be pleasantly happy.
(11:45)
We arrived at Fondwa this morning a little after 10am, got acquainted with the area and Sister Claudette. She's a nun here in Fondwa and is connected to APF because of Father Joseph Philippe-He's the founder of APF and Fonkoze. We haven't met him yet, but we are here :)
We met with a woman named Chantelle, she teaches here at L'UNIF. She spent some time teaching us our first lessons in Kreyol! I am excited to be here. My Tati was right, by the time I get back to the states I WILL be able to speak the language like a true Ayicienne (haitian). We are about to have dinner--lunch. (2:00pm)
We went for a walk through the city near Fondwa site and it made me extremely uncomfortable because we were walking through their community and I couldn't really get into it because I just felt like an intruder. We walked through this area behind the Restaurant (what I am assuming will be the "home base") of this trip, there are people working, heading to church, people in their yards, going through their everyday lives. As we walked by there was no real association, Sister Claudette and another young man from APF walk us through, chatting along the way and saying hello. But I'm realizing that with every additional step I am getting more and more anxious and awareness of not fitting in.I still feel like an outsider even though I am Haitian, it is the most awkward situation.
After lunch we met with 5 students from L'UNIF they are:
Jeff Jean-Louis
Edme Obenson
Mozar Jocelin
Vernet Calixte
Mede
The conversation started of slow. It is a little awkward because Tania has to translate for all of us. They understand English, but there is still some translation that needs to happen. It takes a minute to warm up, and I think we are still trying to figure out how to have a conversation with them as well. But once we have a rhythm, the conversation goes a little better. They are very nice young men. They expressed their sorrow in losing family and friends through the earthquake. And how they are much different because of the experience. I can only imagine what that must feel like to lose everything you've worked hard for. I think of my cousin- I wonder where his body is located. Where in this country did they place the 1,000s of bodies.
The guys, they are so happy to continue their education and do what they can to revitalize their community. Most of the guys are studying agronomy (a discipline, I am not familiar with) there is one Obenson, he is studying Management- they call him "The Boss."
They spoke about their anger towards the NGOs here. That they come with their new ideas but do nothing to help. It's nice that the sentiments are the same and that my feelings as a Haitian-American resonate with their feelings.
After our mtg the guys invited us to a party with their school. it was nice to feel this atmosphere of college students just being college students. We don't know what they were saying, but the familiarity of fun was still there. It was some sort of showcase, each male associated with the University was partnered with a woman University affiliate- each couple didn't know who their opposite was until the "unveiling." They had nicknames, and I guess they wrote letters to each other throughout their weekend gathering. It was pretty interesting.
OH!! We met some other volunteers today- Alex and Adam. They help Ed with the IT stuff for the University. We don't know them yet, so we'll see what the next few days bring. It is nice to see more "blans" around.
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Reflection:
Tonight I shared my concern of being an outsider in my "homeland." It is very frustrating to not know the language and be surrounded by people that I want to be close to and feel connected to and with. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
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