Lasting Memories in Haiti

I have now been back home in Vermont about 10 days . It has given me a chance to sort out pictures and things I learned while on my last trip. Haiti’s slave population gained freedom via a revolt in the early 1800’s, a good 65 years before the U.S. abolished slavery. Toussaint L’Ouverture, shown in this picture here, is the courageous slave credited with sparking the revolution that freed 30,000 slaves from the French. Throughout its 200 year independence, the country’s economy has been battered with frequent political upheavals and coups. Because of the violence and kidnappings that too often occur here, the numbers of international workers have been limited. One often finds missionaries and the religious orders that have been here for decades. There are also some courageous volunteers from many countries who come here in spite of Haiti’s instability, that come for the simple reason that they want to help. I was so impressed to meet a group of young men from Canada who are here to help the street kids in the northern region. There are many boys age 8 through 15 throughout the country who are sleeping and living on the streets. The volunteers want to provide intervention by teaching them how to start enterprises or gain skills before they become involved in crime.

Benito, my sponsor and Haitian program manager and his colleagues in the Mackage Agro Entreprise Association (pictured on the left.) have been working with those volunteers helping the street kids start rabit-raising or beekeeping enterprises and learn alternatives livelihoods and means of support. They also help provide food to the orphanages and have helped landscape the public parc shown in this picture. This is only a small pebble in a huge ocean of work that is badly needed here but its wonderful that these efforts are taking place.

The open air Marketplace in Cap-Haitien stretched for blocks. It was amazing to be able to watch all its activity from the 2nd floor office of Makage. In spite of rampant poverty and lack of employment, buying and selling is very active. I hope to return some day to see the positive changes that will undoubtedly take place in years to come.

In Haiti, the streets burst with activity and people

Haiti is the poorest nation in the western Hemisphere. 80% of its population lives in extreme poverty. The average life expectancy is 53 years old and unemployment is estimated to be at 50-70%. They tell me here that typical Haitians often skip 1 or 2 meals each day because there is not enough to eat. Most of the Haitians I have met seem to skip lunch regularly and just wait until Dinner to eat. Their stomach has shrunk to accommodate their ability to eat.

Sixty six percent (66%) of Haitians make a living through agriculture. But it is very difficult for food producers to get their products from their garden or farm to market because the roads are very bad. A typical vehicle will not last 3 years on such roads and the associations are the only means of joining together to eliminate some of the barriers in the Marketplace.

While in Cap-Haitien, I met a not-so-typical agricultural producer. Accene Augustin is a beekeeper who is also involved in growing fruit products, raising rabbits (elevage de lapin,) chicken, goat meat and more…. He is from the Grande Riviere about 26 km from Cap-Haitien, which takes 1.5 hours to reach the Cap on a good day. He has to bring his products to Cap-Haitien each week when in season. He is very active in the promotion of the Ag and Natural Resouces sector and Accene is the representative for the North to Association Nationale des Transformateur de Fruits (ANATRAF)… He was one of the founders of MAKAGE where he represents his commune (a commune is a district in his region.) He reports that the people of his commune have projects for preserving some fruits or drying. They make syrups and liquors from some of the fruits and honey. “Pladeg” is the name of the liquor or syrup/sugar that is made locally and MAKAGE sells it. There is a lot of outside competition for products from exterior markets such as the Dominican Republic which sends dozens of trucks filled to the rim each day. These mass-produced produce and staples most often are sold at lower prices and have better, more acceptance from the public. The cost in Haiti for sugar, energie etc.. is very costly and homemade Haitian goods cannot compete.

Haiti-A jewel in the Rough

Haiti has been good to the US... Here is an article that was sent to me by a friend while I've been in Cap-Hatien:

APRIL 19, 1802: Mosquitos Win the West ......Events that change America don't always occur within our borders. Consider the spring of 1802. Napoleon had sent a formidable army under his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc, to quell the rebellion of former slaves in Haiti.

On April 19, Leclerc reported to Napoleon that the rainy season had arrived, and his troops were falling ill. By the end of the year, almost the whole French force, including Leclerc himself, were dead of mosquito-borne yellow fever.
When Napoleon realized his reconquest had failed, he abandoned hopes of a New World empire, and decided to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

"Across a huge section of the American heartland, from New Orleans up through Montana, they ought to build statues to Toussaint L'Ouverture and the other heroes of the Haitian Revolution," says Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University."

Since being in Haiti, I have been busily engaged in training people at the Makouti Agro Entreprises also known as MAKAGE. It is a cooperative made up of members who produce vegetables, honey meat and crafts for marketing in the area of Cap-Haitian. First it was a one-day training on creating business and marketing plans then followed by individual sessions about creating Cashflow projections. Some are beekeeper enterprises associations that are busily trying to encourage households/farmer in Haiti to join the ranks of beekeeping--- an activity that lends itself rather well to this country. After several years of investment in Agriculture here, there are some 14,000 + beekeepers and growing. The problem, they cannot afford the hives or the material to make them so some are forming associations to try to raise monies, grants, or whatever will help these farmers manage.

Life in Cap-Haitien

The biggest event here in Haiti this week was the World Soccer Tournament. Many men from the village gathered in the TV room to view this big event. Of course , you would expect that everyone was rooting for France here in Haiti since everyone speaks French or Creole. Most want Brazil to win and were disappointed at France's win on Saturday.






I live and often work at the Hotel du Roi Christophe, an inn that reminds me of many old movies and of Bogey and Becall in Casablanca. The hotel is a 200 year old structure built as a Spanish Colonial House with verandas, endless rows of arches and inner courtyards and gardens. The Roi (King) Christophe is one of the original slaves of this place which was the Plantation owners' house. Christophe contributed to a revolt which freed the slaves and established Haiti as an independant state several hundred years ago. The owner of the hotel has very good taste in Haitian Art which can be found throughout the hotel. I have good food, nice surroundings at the hotel and sleep very well. There are air-conditioned rooms here but I have one with just a fan and it is fine. There are a handful of other US humanitarian workers here—I’ve met several health workers from Maine working on Health related programs, and one girl from Quebec who is a professor from the Univ. of Sherbrook (she is the one sitting in the rocking chair…) and is here training the high school teachers on curriculum development. Everybody I have met so far can speak French like I do.
This is the Hotel lobby on the right....
Communications here is a challenge. Cell phones work in Cap-Haitien but are terrible when communicating with Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. Internet is an iffy thing even when we have wireless. As if these people don't have enough to deal with.....It always seems that in countries where people are the most oppressed, or face extreme development challenges, that their means of communicating with each other and the rest of the world is all broken up-- but things are getting better here and you can see the hope in the people of this area (better than Port au Prince.) They are setting up their enterprises and farms and producing and planning for the future and people like Benito are extremely dedicated to helping their people and hopeful the country’s future is improving and people will be able to make more money and feed their families. There is wonderful potential for tourism here but the country has a long way to go to improve security for its travelers. But cruise ships do come by and stop for a day in limited places. The opportunities for picture taking are endless and I know I will have hundreds of beautiful pictures of street life when I return.

En Haiti, enfin!

Here I am in Haiti and in a beautiful tropical environment. I should be ecstatic to have returned to the Caribbean once again but this time I am not a tourist as there are very few here and this is not a land that caters to tourist. I am among a handful of volunteers who come to Haiti to help out in whatever way they can. The picture of me shows where I am found on most days –at the hotel busily preparing my training and where I have access to wireless internet.

The temperature is in the 90’s here and very humid, giving it a heat index above 95. It seems like an inescapable heat! Looking or hoping for a breeze in early July is a lost cause. In Haiti, electricity is intermittent. Air conditioners are practically non existent and during these times of high energy prices (gas is over $5/gal,) AC’s and luxuries of that kind are not possibility for most people. Luckily, my hotel, L’hotel du Roi Christophe has a large generator providing us 24 hour electricity.

I landed in Port au Prince about a week ago and after spending a day there going back and forth to the airport to find my lost suitcase, I was able to complete my journey to Cap-Haitien which is a small seaside city at the North of Haiti. “Le Cap” is where I will be spending the next few weeks working with and training officers and members of the Mikouti Agro Enterprises—a large group of agricultural producers and helping them build their management and marketing capacity. I am following up on the work of two other volunteers who have assisted the cooperative with developing a business strategy. Makouti’s main focus is on vegetable production, but members also produce processed food products, honey, goat meat, rabbit meat and eggs. Major vegetable crops include tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber and eggplant. The project for which I am volunteering aims to increase farmers’incomes by reducing crop losses and increasing production capacity and sales.