Reflections and directions

I haven't had access to e-mail very frequently this trip, nor electricity for charging my computer, so it's been a time of quiet reflection, and I didn't even have a journal to write my thoughts or experiences, and so, rather, I kept jotting  notes into a little notebook that had a few pieces of free paper.

I'm back in Port au Prince, with only two sleeps before heading home. I'll be honest- I'm ready for the cold of our Canadian climate- I crave snow, especially those sunny March days when you can ski wearing few layers. It has been a wonderfully productive trip, but I'm definitely ready to be back home, and out of the heat. I'm ready to breathe in some clean air (my lungs are still feeling a bit compromised, and even as I write this, the 'incense' that wafts into the straw bale house is tinged with scent of burning plastic). I am committed to getting as much plastering done on Andy's building as possible- I have had some challenges finding the perfect recipe, but I have found a solution for that, at least, so...onward. That will be a separate building entry.

In the meantime, I spent some time my last few days in Deslandes with some of my favourite people. I was able to sit in the outdoor kitchen with Benitta and Mme Alyen, helping prepare some of my favourite dishes.

Mmmm, how to make fried plantain, with all the secrets. Note the donated cutting board & cleaver that I sent over to Benitta- she didn't know how to use them (they are so adept at using other devices!).

I can wrestle my way through some conversation now, and when people break it down enough, I can understand bits & pieces. Actually, I can always understand bits & pieces, and now I'm starting to understand things like di mwen (tell me) becomes 'dim' in short form. Tricky stuff, and the sentence order isn't quite the same as french. I'm reasonably satisfied with my creole though.

Things I observed on my last few days, or that I had forgotten to write about

•Free range animals- This morning there was a gaggle, no, a flock, hmmm, a herd- OK, a large gathering of baby goats (kids?) frolicking on the front steps of the school. It was uber cute. I spent about 15 minutes watching them play on my last morning there- head butting, pushing one another off of the steps, etc, and couldn't help but giggle as they played.
Goats, donkeys, horses, cattle- all animals roam freely, so you look both ways before crossing the dirt road to watch for galloping wild life! I love that they can roam anywhere. We did shoo a family of donkeys from the playground the other day, though! All in all, it's quite comforting to see animals wandering about freely.

•Coal production: I had written about the process of making charcoal last year- you cut trees, tree limbs, branches, etc., and pile them in a rectangular stack.

Here's a neat stack of wood, ready to be covered with leaves and sod

Then you pile sod on top of the wood, start a fire within (leaving some holes for oxygen), and 4 or so days later, that pile of wood becomes charcoal. Charcoal is by far the most popular choice for cooking in Haiti, as it burns a hotter heat, and for longer, than wood.

Here's a burning pit of wood transforming to charcoal

You see large dump trucks full of feed bags of coal- which represents a lot of wood being cut. Yesterday, I heard someone hacking at a tree, and went and saw someone high up in a decent sized tree, cutting it down bit by bit with a very sharp machete (yup, not an axe, not a chainsaw- a machete. You can bet your life there weren't any safety belts involved!). There is already so much pollution in Haiti, and so few forests- at least 80% of all forests have disappeared, with very few efforts to replant, so to continue to support making charcoal isn't sustainable in any way shape or form. It's not a pleasant smell to ingest in the outdoor kitchen, either.

A fellow Canadian is here at Haiti Communitère, and he is making solar ovens & cookers. He's ready to do some cooking demonstrations with his first prototype, so I'm going to get him hooked up with the folks in Deslandes. Both Benitta and St. Geste (director of the school) are supportive of having a solar cooker for their kitchen. They have plans to start cooking for the students once again (they had been providing a meal prior to a hurricane a few years ago that caused extensive flooding which dessimated their crops). There is no shortage of sun, free, wonderful sun heat in Haiti, so we're going to try to take advantage of this. All that is required is some fundraising, which I'm prepared to do.

•Lessons learned: In the countryside, people wear clothing most of the time, apart from children, who you often see running nudy butt around their courtyards. However, for river crossings and bathing, it's common to strip down and swim in underwear, or naked- no second thoughts, no gawking as you might find in North America. We did find out the hard way, however, that in the city, you need to be fully clothed. We were walking to the grocery store one day, and one of the blancs in our group was wearing pants and a sports bra/top...we were stopped by the police and told that it was strictly forbidden to walk around like that, and after that encounter (we were almost at the grocery store so continued our journey), there were countless stares from people walking by (Haitians aren't shy about staring when they want to- sometimes they stare at your whiteness, sometimes out of curiosity, but these were deliberate stares, of disgust). A few guys from the military outside of the UN hurled insults our way, so we learned our lesson. I was wearing a tank top one day that has a slit that reveals a tiny bit of my belly, and at the market in Deslandes, a woman commented on it, and touched my belly...so, cover up when in Haiti!

We also learned the hard lesson of gift giving. We had been asked to be very discrete if we were going to give out gifts, but unfortunately, not all of our group respected that, and we soon saw the results of that. There were people lining up wanting gifts, and many kids started asking for things- money, balls, etc. It is so hard to be somewhere like Haiti, where of course, almost everyone you meet truly needs something- shoes, a meal, clothing, etc. That's why I suggested giving the gifts to the school administrators so they could distribute things accordingly to those most in need. Live and learn. We'll have to be more strict about that in future.

Benitta and Mme Alyen, in the outdoor kitchen. Note the charcoal burners

•Privacy: There just isn't much privacy, if any, in Haiti. When you close the curtains and shutters to your room at night, people can't peer in, but your room does adjoin the other interior sleeping rooms, so you are semi-private at that time. I hadn't realised how much I crave my alone time, but now that I'm in PaP again, I can hole myself away in the straw bale house and have some alone time, which feels decadent. I distinctly remember when I was in Thailand commenting on that huge difference: Thai people are much more respectful about personal space, whereas Haitians are more outgoing, and if you are sitting on your porch, there will be kids, and passersby who will come join you. One evening I just wanted to work on my computer alone, so I trudged across the school field and sat on a bench doing my writing...the next morning Benitta commented that she had seen me going there. Haitians have superior night vision- I started training myself to see without my flashlight. Easier on a bright moon-lit night, as there isn't any light to block out the starry sky.