Peace and Happiness

Today, Sunday, was International Peace Day celebration at the Peace Park in Mizak, with the theme of peace and happiness. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay very long in the services. There were many people there young and old, the new playground equipment and the blown up beach balls for decorations added lots of colors to the celebration. But I had a bit of a headache so I decided I might be of more use and more at peace myself if I could help out in the kitchen. Selene was happy to see me and handed me a grater and a bowl of coconut. I grated the coconut for a short time until my hand got tired and I asked for another job. I was given a tub of boiled carrots, potatoes, and beets to cut up. I was happy as the people and the kitchen festivities moved in rhythm around me; but soon we had to go to English class.
In class, I read a book, “Small Pig”, by Arnold Lobel about a pig who found his home in the ‘good, soft, mud’. A story about the comforts of home and the peace in your soul that comes “[When you] sit down, and sink down into the good, soft mud.” At the end of the second English class we sang Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ in brought my heart happiness as I sang along and watched the students singing along and jamming out, proud that they know all the words in English.
After four hours of English class I waited around the center for Lee to finish the poverty intervention meeting. I sat in on the Creole Literacy Classes watching as all the students wrote their names on the board; after the angels sang a beautiful little song, that reflected the rhythm of the county. I couldn’t understand all the words but the rhythm of the music spoke to my soul and reflected the cadence of this beautiful country. The voices moved with the march of the tired madam carrying water for her family. I felt Haiti inside of me and that was peaceful and filled with happiness.

Blessings in Disguise

There is always room for one more and we take care of people

Finally we were heading down to Jacmel after making a side trip of 2 hours. A man in the street stopped us in Mizak to see if we were going to Jacmel, he had things to load up and take to there. We pulled up the road to the Dispensary. They had been working and had all their tools plus cement bags, planks of wood, and a wheel barrow. A few people got out of the truck as we loaded up all these supplies. We were not sure how everyone was going to fit on the truck but it worked, it always seems to work. We were off down the road again, with that sweet baby girl in the red dress beside me fast asleep. Just a little bit down the road we had to pull over; one of the gentlemen in the back had passed out. They poured water on him and asked him how he was doing. He threw up over the side of the truck. Some of the other men were asking him questions, the rest of the people were waiting patiently and wondering what would happen next. After a bit the man came to and said he had to go to the bathroom, right away people started making small references to Cholera. But this was not cholera, they reassured. I think the man had not had anything to eat today and probably little to drink. Then he was riding in the blazing sun in the back of a truck down bouncy miserable roads. We set off again; Tigo stopped by his house just a bit down the road and had his sister bring the man 2 packages of saltine crackers. Sometime later we arrived at the ‘bus station’ to go to PaP. The man who was sick got out; others were shouting he needed to go to the hospital in Jacmel.
I just watched, wondering what they were all going to do. The man walked down a steep hill and lay down against it. I told Tigo “We can’t just leave him here.” he said the man was going to PaP; he didn’t want to go Jacmel. I was frustrated, what to do? It didn’t seem right and yet what can we do so I whispered to Tigo ‘Then get him something to drink before we leave.” Tigo wondered off between the crowds of people going to PaP. He came back with a Sprite and a little bag with some sort of food in it and took it down to the sick man. The people left on the truck were happy saying ‘oh bon chauffeur, bon chauffeur’. I felt better too, we did what we could and we planned on checking on him when we came back to see if he was still there. We could have taken him to the hospital but he didn’t want that. But we could have left him there with nothing, too. Sometimes you just do what you can do for a person at the time.

Another Day of Making Traffic

I needed to go down to Jacmel, so I called Tigo to ask him if he was going that way. He was and leaving now. I quickly gathered all of my things and hurried down to meet the truck, only to see we were headed in the other direction. Oh well, here is to adventures. I jumped in the back of the truck as there were already people up front. I was with about 15 cement sacks and 3 ladies, 1 of which was lying in the bed of the truck against the cement bags with a shirt over her head. She didn’t look well, tired and exhausted from a hard life. As we rode up the bumpy mountain; I tried to soak in the scenery and think about life, my life, the Haitian life, the varying degrees of life in Haiti and the world. We passed by big beautiful houses with no one living in them and children with raggy clothes carrying water. I thought about the beauty of the county as I gazed down at the trees in the valley then the misery I have heard the Haitians speak of.

Its complex God and I don’t understand.

We arrived in another community, Blokes, people tried to tease the ‘blan’ a bit I just played back. We ate an orange as we waited for people to load up in the truck to go back to Jacmel. I watched this sweet baby girl in a little red dress eat a banana while she waited with us for the truck to go too. And I watched the humor and compassion of the people even with orange peels and trash in the street.

Maybe it is not so complex God and maybe I don’t need to understand.

Today I wanted to be creative in class.

We have Haitian teachers in our English classes with Living Media. So of course they teach in the same manner in which they were taught. The teaching style in Haiti is memorization. When I lived over with Paul and the family I would listen to Doris (his daughter) studying. She was just memorizing paragraphs. But when I would ask her what she was learning, what she thought about that, she couldn’t tell me. I remember when I memorized things for a test I didn’t really learn it; I just knew it long enough to pass the test. It also doesn’t give your mind a chance to process the information.
I have been thinking a lot about how I learned English. I also know that they talk and talk about how important it is to read to your children. So I started class today by looking at “Cat in the Hat”. Luture and Felix, the first two students were interested and opened the book and started reading it. They read line by line and together they translated them into Creole as they went, with me encouraging them and helping them along. When the next student, Nicole came in she started reading the lines in English with them too. After we were finished I asked them to listen and look at the picture as I read the whole thing to them.
After reading the book, we used some flashcards to work on colors and objects. When we just had a few minutes left of class I asked if anyone had any questions. Nicole said, “Can I say, “You make me happy?” I said yes, repeating that in English and then in Creole. Then Luture said, “You want to say, Angelica makes you happy?” She just smiled and said ‘wi’. After Luture picked up his bag, smiled and shrugged saying with his whole body, “I feel good today.”
The whole class made me happy too. And I feel good today too.” 

Part 2 - Making Traffic (read the next blog first)

After waiting in Di Mez for some time we had a couple of people when we got a call that the bakery up the mountain needed us to haul bread to LaVallee. When we crossed the river we picked up two more people and a bunch of bags full of things. When we arrived in Mizak we had to unload all the people and things that we picked up. I felt really bad but we had to load up all the bread first and it was down a narrow bad road and there was mud. So we headed down the hill, the other very large truck was very stuck in the mud. We came in and with the help of several people we loaded up all the bread, along with the people that would sell the bread in Retori. I thought the truck was full and wondered about the people we had left waiting. But when we met them in the road we reloaded all of their things and them into the truck; all but one woman and her two small children under the age of 2. I was very sad for the woman, I was going to suggest the children sit up front with us and her in the back but the kids were wet. The person who wanted all the bread hauled, gave her money to take a motorcycle with the children. We drove up the mountain and unloaded everyone at the market. Then we started selling the bread out of the back of the truck. People flocked to load up their bags of bread so that they could resell them in the market. Tigo and I went and checked out the market. It is one of the biggest and best in the area and it happens every Friday. I had never been there before but it was incredible the amount of people in town and the amount of products there. We just sat there and watched the market, until a lady carrying a giant basket through the market. I thought it would be perfect for a laundry basket; Tigo didn’t skip a beat to tell me to go and ask the price of the basket. I explained to him things cost more for the white girl; he should go ask the price. He did and then we waved me over. I bought the basket and we walked back over to the truck and helped sell bread out of the truck. It was good to sell the bread. It gave me a little lesson in the money in Haiti. I still don’t really understand it. There is the Haitian Dollar which is 8 times the American dollar but doesn’t actually exist it is just referred to. Then there is the Goude, which is the money exchanged and it is 5 times the Haitian dollar. But it helped me practice a bit in counting out the bread - 50 Goude for 3 pieces of bread. They sold over half of the bread and decided they were ready to go home. I was able to drive home – which was a great joy. It is something I miss the most in the United States. The market place is always a learning place. We had gone also gone for a big walk. I saw the Catholic Church and the school. We were going back down to Jacmel but we were all too tired and I was a bit sunburned, not expecting to be out selling bread in the hot sun for a few hours. Again you just really don’t know what life might bring to you.

Making Traffic in the truck

I have been wanting to shadow people since I came back to Haiti. This last Friday it finally happened. I am going to break down the day into 2 blogs. I decided I would ‘make traffic’ with my friend Tigo. He told me he started at 4:00AM. This of course ridiculously early, but if you want the full experience you have to go for the gold. He was supposed to call me when he was ready to go. Luckily for me he wasn’t feeling the 4:00AM either, so we left at 5:30AM. This is one of my favorite times in Haiti anyway, because the light across the trees is beautiful. And the sounds when the country side wakes up just makes you smile and appreciate nature. We headed down the road a bit as the rain was starting. There was a group of ladies waiting with large rice sacks filled with different fruits and vegetables, mostly avocados to sell in the market in Jacmel. We loaded up all their goods in the rain. It is a little Toyota pickup truck with a rack on the top that is extended from the back rails so people can sit in the bed of the truck. We put 8 – 5 gallon pails on the top of the roof of the cab. Then 7 ladies with some more produce in the bed of the truck. Then Tigo got a tarp out of the cab of the truck to cover the ladies to protect them from the rain. We picked up a couple of other people along the way, but I was also noticing many people that were just walking with their produce to Jacmel. It is a 40 min ride down the mountain to Jacmel by truck. It is difficult to imagine these women walking all that way with all they have to sell on their heads. We arrived in the normally bustling city of Jacmel to silence in the market. With just a few people there in the market starting to arrive with the bananas, avocados, corn, clothes, and much, much more. Usually you cannot even walk through this area and we just pulled in with the truck without a problem. After unloading the truck we went to a different area to wait for people exiting the city. We ate a pati, this is like a homemade hot pocket. It may actually be the original Hot pocket. These particular ones had some unidentifiable meat and boiled eggs in them; it was delicious. No one was coming to load up in the truck; the rain had kept them in bed a bit longer this morning. So I got to drive to Di Mize so we could wait at the cross road path up the mountain to La Vallee.

At Di Mez, we waited and waited. Di Mez is a little crossroads town that is a junction of people coming to and from Port au Prince and Jacmel up into the mountain communities. As I watched everyone setting up their shops there too, I asked if anyone actually lived in Di Mez. Not really, no one lives in this area they just set up shops there – I guess it is a Haitian mall or a strip mall or I don’t know, just trying to think of a comparison to the United States. As we waited their doing nothing, I wish I had a book. And then I saw a women preparing food. I asked Tigo if I could help her and he looked confused at the notion, I think wondering why, but just going with it as we Americans do crazy things sometimes. I ended up asking the women, she gave me the same look – and I don’t understand why look. Then she handed me the knife and the breadfruit. I was happy, something to do. She just kept telling me in Creole over and over, “Don’t cut yourself. Pay attention.” When I finished she looked at me like ok that was nice, but I asked to cut another piece. Then as people would pass by she would tell them, look at this girl helping me. It was entertainment for awhile, while we waited for people. You never know what a day will bring and you need to be ready to embrace it. Instead of just sitting around and waiting for what was next I decided to try and learn something new and maybe help someone out.

Something that is simple - yet not

In the morning I awaken to the sounds of chicken, goats, and birds. I can hear the breeze blowing through the trees. And then I hear a baby laughing my heart is filled with joy. Then I walk to the home of the family who cooks for me . Julie, her daughter and niece are doing laundry. She asks me “Do you know how to wash Angelica?” No I don’t’ I have tried and think I am doing what it takes to wash the clothes by hand but I don’t make the right squishy noise. I wish I could help, but then again a piece of me is happy I don’t know how. And I know that it gives someone else a job too. It is a lot of work. Think of washing your whole family’s laundry by hand. Julie says life in Haiti is miserable. I ask because of the laundry? “Yes,” she responds, “ we don’t have machines like you do in your county.”
I am sad and I try and voice what I experience this morning – the beauty of Haiti. And yet as I watch Julie scrub and wash that white blouse by hand; I realize how complex it is to understand someone else’s point of view of their world. It is not a simple task to understand people where they are at and learn from them and discover what you might have to offer them to make the whole world a better place. And yet we need to continue to keep our mind open and try.

What is really needed this season?

This season has made me think about what is really needed in our world. In Haiti there is always people coming to ask for something. It can be overwhelming sometimes, but their are many needs of the people. There is the common asking in the streets for some change or food. This is come to be expected and I think that might be their view on it too, it is just second nature to ask the visiter in your town. But then there are other requests; ones where I see the person coming to Lee's home or to the Learning Center for LMI. Often times it looks like they are embarassed that they need to ask but also feel as though they have no other choice. The other day a woman came to ask for her child to be in the sponsorship program. We of course have too many people in the sponsorship program already. I can always see with Lee his heart breaks when he has to tell people, 'no' the list is already too long. It broke my heart too as I watched this interaction and tears well up in my eyes. But these are the realities of the world we live in.
I remember one other day we were sitting in the house talking and this young man, all of 8 or 9 years old comes walking in the house. With his little button down shirt tucked into his high-water jeans with his belt cinched up, he addressed Mr. Lee with confidence. He was requesting to go to school. He talked for sometime and then patiently waited. Lee stirred and shifted....and I felt the same uncomfortableness. How can you tell a 8 year old boy 'no, we can't help you go to school'? ....well you can't. You take his picture and add him to the list and pray. You just continue to pray and have faith that you will find more sponsors. It only costs $150 to send a child to school for a year. This covers their tuition, books, and uniform. Maybe you can answer a prayer for a Haitian Family and make a difference and give something that is really needed in this world. Education and change for our future. Following blog are kids you could sponsor. Contact me at artistic_angelica@yahoo.com if you are interested. Thanks.