A New Appreciation for Chicken

Chickens are generally viewed as farm animals without a whole lot of use. They can produce eggs, and they will eventually become chicken nuggets or chicken sandwiches, but beyond that there is not a whole lot was can do with them. Or so I thought!

One of the problems the mission has is that there are a bunch of cockroaches that scurry around in the kitchen and the halls. Not only do they dirty everything they crawl on, but they’re gross. They rarely come into my room, probably because they’ve seen the rather unfortunate results of the few who have ventured there, but they are in the kitchen and the hall, and now with the warmer and damper weather, they seem to be multiplying. More and more are scurrying around the halls at night, and even though my shoe can keep a few from venturing into my bedroom, it can’t do much else.

The mission needs an effective way to deal with the roaches. The traditional American solution, getting an exterminator, is out because Haiti doesn’t have any exterminators. The mission can put out roach traps, but their affect is limited and unless we have every group of volunteers bring more roach traps, they won’t have a significant impact on the roach problem. The fewer people who bring traps the better, every additional pound of traps brought down by volunteers means one less pound of hammers, books, computers and other more useful things. The other problem with roach traps is that they have to be disposed of in some way. Haiti doesn’t have an effective garbage collection system, so the traps would have to either be burned or dumped in a vacant lot. There are many environmental problems with dumping poisonous roach traps into a vacant area, the most significant of which being that someone’s animal (and savings account) could mistakenly eat it and die. So what is the mission to do? Should we just learn to deal with them and carry a heavy shoe where ever we go?

One afternoon when I was getting my lunch ready I came out to the porch outside of my room to see a chicken wandering around. The mission keeps a few chickens around in the garden, and they occasionally wander outside of it when school is not in session. I figured that this chicken must have been on the lam for quite some time because she had managed to get herself to the second story of the mission. There is only one entrance to the second story and it is probably one hundred feet from the garden with a few obstacles in between. The chickens here are pretty friendly and so I didn’t think too much of the chicken until I saw it jump forward and begin to peck vigorously at the ground. What was this crazy chicken doing? I wasn’t 100% sure if the chicken would attack my foot if it got close enough, but in the name of an entertaining story I crept forward. I saw the chicken quickly dash forward again and leap down on a cockroach.

I thought this chicken had wandered up to around my room by accident, but the chicken was actually being quite smart. The chicken must have somehow stumbled upon the many colonies of bugs that live around the mission, and made her way up to our level for dinner. The chicken was jumping around and eating any cockroach that dared jump out into the open. She would jump out and go for the kill. The chicken was great, she was pretty small so she could get in some of the small nooks where the bugs hid, and she was fast. The cockroaches didn’t stand a chance.

This lesson is one the most important lessons Haiti has taught me; success has no formula. If something works, it works. Even if a solution does not look good or is not “conventional” doesn’t mean it can’t adequately address a problem. When I first came to Haiti my vision for success was not a Haitian picture but an American picture. I envisioned a technical school very similar to something I would have seen in Pittsburgh, a standard school that runs during the day and has a job placement service. What I have created is something totally different. The La Croix trade school does not have the normal hours that a trade school in the US would have, the internship and job placement process is much different than it would be in the US, even the teachers are different than I thought they would be. The only thing that this school has in common with a school in the US is that it adequately prepares students with a trade they can use, and that’s what matters. I found a Haitian solution that works for the Haitian people.

This chicken was great. She didn’t cost anything, she didn’t have any poison or release anything harmful into the environment, and most importantly she cut down on the cockroach population. The only issue I have with her is that I can’t easily pick her up and bring her to feast daily. 

My Fury Little Friends

Despite Haiti’s depleted forests and ravaged landscape, I have had some very interesting interactions with animals, both domesticated and wild. I’ve written about the goats, cows, and pigs, but recently I’ve experienced some of Haiti’s other “wild” life.

There is a cat at the mission who I have taken a liking to. Her name is Mimi, though to be fair she doesn’t really have a name, Mimi is the Haitian Creole word for kitty. Haitians don’t keep pets the way Americans do. Any animal that a Haitian keeps must serve a purpose beyond being cute, and most of them are not given names the way we give animals names. Mimi is here at the mission to keep out the rats, and she does a good job because I’ve only seen one rat so far. Mimi will often be found in the kitchen cabinets. She’s not in their by her own accord, rather she is thrown in there by one of the women who works in the kitchen in order to hunt the rats living there. Mimi is very sweet, but she is also pretty scrawny looking. She is about half the size of an average American cat without very much meat on her.

A few weeks ago Mimi had a litter of kittens, and now any time I go walking up the stairs to the roof I hear three high pitched kittens shouting “meow” at me. Now some people don’t care for cats, but I don’t think there is anyone who dislikes kittens. These three kittens, or as I call them “Petit Mimis”, are absolutely adorable and have consumed much of my time in the past few days. They all have bright blue eyes, and are about as playful as any animal I’ve ever seen. They are still getting used to walking, and will regularly slide around, some times spilling out on all fours when walking on the tile floor. They have become comfortable with me and now follow me around. When I go down the three steps from the porch to my room, they hesitantly follow me. They take a few steps, look out on to the stairs, and leap down in an almost cartoon like fashion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen three more adorable animals.

Every night when I am up working, at some point I hear a quiet but shrill “eee-eee-eee”. The noise is never very loud, so I just figured that it was some bird or some small animal outside of my window. When the volunteer groups were here the sound went away, but recently the sound has come back. The other night I was talking with Pastor Evans and I heard it again. I asked him about it and he said that it was a bat. I always knew there were bats around the mission, though I can’t say I was thrilled to learn that they were living right outside of my bedroom. While sitting on the roof late at night, I had seen them occasionally flying around and quietly making noises and finding bugs. There are lots of dark spots in the mission that don’t receive any sun during the day, and that is where the bats perch themselves until night fall when the bats come out to feast on the many insects swarming all over the place. When the mission teams are here they make a lot more noise and emit a lot more light than I do when I am here alone, thus causing the bats try to stay away. Now that I am the only one here, the bats have come back in full force and regularly patrol the halls of the mission at night. Most nights when I am walking up the dark hallway that leads to the porch, I will see some black thing flapping around in the air. The other night I was walking to the bathroom and one just flew right at me. I get a little freaked out by them, but I can’t complain too much because they eat the majority of the bugs that would other wise eat me. The bats are kind of neat to see flying around in the sky. They are not anywhere near as sleek or smooth as I would have expected, they flap around and look almost jumpy as they dance in the night sky.

The other night I was sitting out on the roof and I heard something rustle in the trees. I figured it was a goat or cow below, but it kept moving around, so I flashed my light on it only to see a giant rat staring right back at me. Now I have no idea how the rat got onto the tree, the three is about forty feet in the air, and there are no branches on it except at the very top (the tree is a papaya tree with only papayas on the very top), so I don’t think the rat climbed the tree from the ground. The tree is about two feet from the roof, so I guess the rat could have jumped from the roof onto the tree, but two feet seems like a far distance for a rat to simply jump. The rat rustled around a little more and then disappeared. I have no idea where that rat disappeared to, but I’ve seen Mimi scouring the field below the roof where the tree sits, so I can’t help but wonder if she found him.

There seems to be an infinite amount of flies, bugs, roaches, spiders, and other creepy crawly little creatures constantly scuttling and flying around the mission. The other day a spider who’s body looked to be as big as a quarter waltzed right into my room. I threw my sandal at him and he scurried away. I knew he had come in not because I could see him but because I heard him on the ground. The other bugs are pretty annoying though they don’t do much to gross me out. There are a bunch of moths that constantly flutter around my computer screen and get dirt all over my computer. There are thousands of mosquitoes who swarm around me, but I’ve become quite adept at swatting them and catching them mid air. I’ve lost most any fear I once had of roaches or other big bugs. There are roaches that crawl around the kitchen and the halls outside of my room. I will squish them when I have a shoe hard enough to do the job. There are lizards that slink around the mission gobbling up any insect not fast enough to escape it. I used to think the lizards were kind of gross but now I appreciate them because they eat everything that would otherwise try to eat me.

Haiti is full of surprises, not all of which are human.  

Cultural Space

I’ve been trying to get out as much as possible, and I’ve realized some very interesting differences about Haitian culture. A few weeks ago Shelly wanted to have all of her Haitian friends over for dinner. She was about to leave, and she wanted a chance to say good bye to everyone and thank them for all they had done for her. In the US, a customary thing to do in this event is to invite someone over for dinner. Shelly decided to do this, and I thought it was a really nice idea. The week before she went around and asked everyone to come Thursday night, and she also gave Jazumen (one of the women who cooks here) money to buy chicken, rice, beans, and vegetables for the evening. The night eventually rolled around and both Shelly and I were excited to see everyone. Together we had invited about twenty five people, and we thought that it would be a really fun dinner party where we would get to thank the Haitians who had contributed to our well being the past nine months. This is something I’ve done quite a few times in the US and I thought it would be no different here.

Shelly and I thought we would do the majority of the cooking, since it was our party, but Jazumen and Yvette (the two women who work in the kitchen) would not let us make anything. They didn’t really kick us out, but anytime we went to do something, they would push us out of the way and start doing it themselves. This was not uncommon, when we try to make dinner they usually intervene and end up cooking whatever we are trying to make, but we thought this would be different. First of all we told them that we were cooking, and more importantly, we had invited them. We felt bad asking someone to cook the meal for the party they themselves were attending.

When the women brushed me off in the kitchen, I used to think it was because I was a guy. I figured that they saw the kitchen as their domain and having a man in the kitchen was some broach of cultural conduct. It would kind of be like having a straight man working at a make up counter in the US. After talking with Pastor Pierre about this for a little while after the dinner though, I began to realize there was another aspect of Haitian culture (specifically rural culture) that I had missed up to that point. Jazumen and Yvette both take their jobs very seriously, and they are rare in that they have formal employment. Most Haitians in the rural country don’t have a formal job. They work on their fields and sell the produce, but having a formal job, being employed by someone is a big deal. They didn’t want me doing their job because they took such pride in their job. This is strange for me, because all this time I thought I was doing them a favor by trying to cook for myself, when I might have actually been a bit offensive.

Everyone started arriving at 6:00, and by about 7:00 everyone had come (some people were functioning on Haitian time) and we sat down to eat. There was more than enough rice and beans, and there was just enough chicken. Everyone was very civil, and there was a little chit chat, but most people served themselves and focused on their food. About ten or fifteen minutes passed, and then everyone was finished. This wasn’t a problem, but it wasn’t exactly what Shelly had planned, she wanted to have everyone stick around and chat, but no one really seemed inclined to do so. We took some pictures, and everyone was extremely friendly and perfectly happy to stick around for a little while longer, but it certainly wasn’t the same as it is in the US. In the US dinner parties like these last for hours, this one lasted a little more than an hour.

After clearing the plates (I would have done the dishes but Jazumen and Yvette wouldn’t have wanted me to do that much work in the kitchen) I realized that coming over to dinner isn’t really a thing in Haiti, and there are a few factors of Haitian life that make this the case.

The first factor creating this dynamic is that food is much more scarce in Haiti than in America. Not everyone goes hungry (though there is a high percentage of the rural population that is malnourished), but even those who have money and can afford food don’t have a readily available supply at home. Homes in rural Haiti don’t have refrigerators stocked with food, they don’t have convenient stores within driving distance. The only food they have is few bags of dry goods stored in a small shack located outside of their homes, and those generally need to be prepared. There are some small stands by the road that sell cooked rice or friend plantains, but overall food is much more difficult to come by in Haiti. The types of food that people do eat is also pretty bland. People don’t brag about the nutty flavor of their walnut chicken like they do in the US. Overall food is in Haiti is much more expensive and much less exciting.

The food however was not the only factor creating this cultural difference. Shelly and I both thought about the fact that people don’t have the over abundance of food most Americans have, and figured that breaking bread with our friends would be a really great way to show our appreciation. Even if food isn’t as celebrated, wouldn’t that just emphasize the intention of our gesture, and maybe make the people want to stay longer? For the most part those who came were quite touched that we invited them to break bread with us. After talking with Pastor Pierre for a little while, I think the reason our guests didn’t stick around to socialize was because, unlike Americans, Haitians spend most of their time around other people and very little time in private. Most Haitian Lakous (the collections of Haitian homes) are much more densely populated than American neighborhoods. The Lakou right next to the mission probably occupies the same amount of land that two or three US houses, but has ten or fifteen families living on it, and each family probably has at least four children rather than two or three. The community of Hope, the mission’s housing project, has twelve families living in it, as well as a gain mill and a carpenter’s shop, and the land it sits on is probably only twice the amount of land that my house at home occupies. Every time I walk out of my home in the US, I might see one or two neighbors, but there’s a likely chance I won’t see anyone. If a Haitian walks outside of his or her home, he or she is right in the midst of the ten of twelve other families hanging out. The mud huts that the majority of the population lives in don’t offer much ventilation, and they can get unbearably hot in the mid day sun, so most Haitians spend the majority of their time outside of their homes. I remember walking through a Lakou one day and thinking how much like my freshman year dorm it felt, because everyone was hanging out in the common areas, not in their rooms. Then I remembered the times in college where I felt overwhelmed by never having a minute to myself, and I realized that this is the life of most Haitians. If they want to wash themselves or their clothes, they have to go to a river or stream where there are probably four or five others washing. If they want to go get water they have to the pump and wait in line behind three or four other people getting water. If they want to go any where by car, they most likely have to travel via Tap-Tap. The average Tap-Tap is a pick up truck, and there are twelve to fifteen people packed into it. I’ve seen tap taps with people literally sitting on the roof because the inside was so crowded. All aspects of life besides sleeping are done with dozens of people around. Privacy is a rare privilege most rural Haitians never get to enjoy.

In the US, most people can go days on end without needing to interact with anyone outside of their immediate family. When I was working this time last year, I could easily go from Friday night to Monday morning in my house and see no one besides my parents if I didn’t want to go out with my friends or go to church (this was rare, but was still possible). During my twenty minute commute to work, the only person I listened to was Steve Inskeep on NPR, I traveled by myself in my own car, not packed into the cab of a tap-tap with fifteen other people. Most Americans spend much more time alone or with their immediate family than the Haitians in La Croix do. As Americans, we spend most of their time away from other people, so we go out of our way to see people by cooking for them and having them over. Haitians have the opposite problem; they are constantly tripping over each other. Time alone is a privilege, which was why most Haitians didn’t linger with us as we assumed they would.

Once I realized this, once I began to consider how space affects people’s interactions, I began to understand other aspects of Haitian culture that had previously mystified me. Haitians don’t have the same notion of personal space as Americans do. The other day when I was riding back from repairing a well, I was in the back of the big truck with our supplies, and we picked up about ten teachers who needed to come to the mission. They piled in, and they were all over each other. They were leaning up against each other, resting each other, and it was no big deal. If I were to rest my hand on a friend’s thigh like I saw a few Haitians do, he or she would think I was coming on to them and quickly scoot away. If I saw someone else doing it, I would assume they were dating. Yet this was totally common behavior between Haitian friends. I began to speak with a group of male teachers about soccer, and pretty soon I had about three guys within eight inches of my face. The road we were traveling along was a bumpy dirt road, so I was constantly bumping into them and they into me. I was worried that I might spit on them or head butt one if we hit a big enough bump. I am a pretty affectionate person, but I also like my own personal space. Having three people so close to me was a bit unnerving for me, but was no big deal for the Haitians.

Just as I was writing this post, I saw Jethro, one of the guys who works here, and he was listening to music on his phone. He said to me “m’renmen mizik” (I love music), so I thought it would be nice for me to bring my computer out and share some of my music with him. I sat next to him, and he immediately scooted right next to me and began to stare at my computer screen. His face was about two or three inches from my shoulder amd neck, and he was looking right at my screen. I wasn’t doing anything secretive (and he can’t speak English so even if I was it wouldn’t have mattered), but it was a little unnerving. Imagine if you sit down at a coffee house with a friend and they come right up to you and lean in to see what you are doing. It wasn’t normal for me, but after thinking about how closely packed I see the children sit when they are in school, or how tightly seated everyone is at church, it made sense to me. This wasn’t uncommon for Haitians.

Haitian culture is, and will hopefully always be, a mystery. Just when I think I understand it, something comes my way and I am totally blindsided. Discovering Haitian culture has been one of the best parts of this experience. Not only have I emerged myself in another surrounding and learned about another way of life, but I have made so many great friends in the process. I just now need to figure out how I can thank them in other ways beyond inviting them over for dinner.

Speech to students

One of my last assignments here is to go around to all of the classes, from seventh grade to 10th grade, and promote the vocational school. Since I am an American, and people here view Americans as professionally successful, my presence will emphasize what I am saying. Below is the speech I am planning to give. Let me know what you think!

Ray

Thank you all for having me here today. I am honored to have worked with you these past few months, and I am privileged to call many of you my friends. The reason I came to Haiti, the project that drew me to the La Croix New Testament Mission, was the creation of a vocational school. This school would teach all of you a trade, a skill that you could use to not only find respectable employment, but to develop Haiti’s infrastructure and change her future for the better.

The school started in November and it is doing very well. We have five disciplines, sewing for seamstresses and sewing for tailors, masonry, electrical, and welding. We have great teachers teaching, but there is one thing we need to make the school really great. We need you. We need you to become a part of it. All of you have demonstrated that you are intelligent and capable students. We want to take the great potential you hold, the great promise you all hold, and unlock it. We can do this through the vocational school.

At the vocational school you will learn not only a trade but the best practices of that trade. You will learn how to implant true quality into the work that you do. You will be able to build things that will stand strong for years to come and help people live safer and more productive lives. You will learn to build the strongest homes that have electricity in them. You will learn to truly change people’s lives with what you create, erecting structures that turn communities into groups of people working for each other’s benefit.

You will learn in these classes the measures you need to take in order to be safe. You will learn use practices that will not only keep you from getting hurt on the job, but safe for those receiving your services. You will learn to build things that are safe and don't collapse in the storms. You will need to take the safety lessons seriously, and you will have to focus on creating high quality products. This will not be easy, and you will have to work hard. But if you work hard at this, if you really give this your all, you will be able to create a great life for yourself and you will provide your community with the tools needed to make a better life for everyone in it.

There are so many people around here who have made such a difference in the La Croix community with their trade. Gesner Phillipe was able to build a new school here, not only making a good income for himself, but he made a building that improved the lives thousands of students. Danielle the welder has is able to make gates for people, helping them keep their homes safer. The tailors and seamstresses can make dresses and suits that people will pay over 2000 GDS for. These men and women have improved their lives and the whole community. They have made people safer, healthier, and happier. 

This is a great skill you will have and no one can take it away from you. You can never lose this skill, you can only sharpen it the harder you work. This is a skill that you can take anywhere. It is a skill that will give you a good job in L’estere, in Brazil, in Gonaives, in the Dominican Republic, in St. Marc, in the United States, or right here in La Croix. If you work hard and finish from the school, you will be hired from the mission upon your completion from the school. If you cannot afford the school we will find a way for you to cover the tuition either by sponsorship or by working for the mission after your completion. I will be back here in January, and I hope to see all of you enrolled in these classes when I come back.

Thank you so much. I will keep you in my prayers and I hope to see you all learning a trade in January when I return!

A Trip to Paul

Saturday was really interesting and pretty fun. I got up around 5:30 AM to go up to the community of Paul and fix two wells there. Now there are two unbelievable things about this last sentence. First off, when I say “I went to fix wells” I don’t mean that I went alone to fix an entire well. I basically tagged along with Mark Gilbert and Dave Errett, two volunteers from the US who are very knowledgeable on well maintenance. Mark has been a commercial builder for over thirty years and Dave has been an environmental engineer for over thirty years. Both of these guys are incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated to the mission. I basically serve as their lackey who helps with the more mundane tasks while they do the big thinking. I have learned so much from both of them and I am incredibly grateful for the work they do, not only for the sake of the community but for my learning as well. I feel quite confident now on the basics of water well maintenance thanks to their help. And second, yes, I did voluntarily wake up at 5:30 AM on a Saturday to go do work. If there is any mark this experience has made me a changed person, look no further

Paul is up in the mountains and the road to get there is not as much a road as it is a dirt path with stones every where. Sure it’s clear of all brush and there are no buildings on it, but driving on it is kind of like riding a roller coaster, except there is nothing holding you down or keeping your car from falling uncontrollably. I generally have a pretty tough stomach for heights and relatively dangerous driving situations, but there were a few points today when I was worried the car would over turn and we’d go flying down the hill. The road is literally up a mountain, and there is no pavement or guardrail, so as I was forcefully bouncing up the mountains, my eye would occasionally catch the 4000 foot drop just three feet away. Even if the car kept on the road I was being jostled around so much I was worried I might just fly out the window if the car took a sharp enough turn. Fortunately everything was fine. Mark was driving and he did a great job.

When we got to the clinic at Paul, the location of the first well we unloaded and went to see the status of the well. Every well the mission maintains has at least one person who looks over it and keeps it locked up. Though I was tired from the early wake up, I was glad to be out early because it was nice and cool in the morning. We got to the first well at the clinic, and when we tried to pump water out everything seemed just fine. The pump seemed heavy, but water was coming up so we decided to move on and look at the next well.

We got to the next well, about a mile away, and we met with Tony, the member of the community who has been charged with maintaining the well. He said that we would have to walk about a half mile with all of our supplies to get to the well. There was a road but it was wet from the rain. We decided to drive and we were fine. The road was no worse than the other six miles we’d already driven that day. This is a somewhat interesting difference between most Haitians and Americans, most Haitians don’t really understand the capability of a car. Most Haitians don’t know how to drive, let alone what ideal road conditions are like. Tony wasn’t sure what the road would be like or if it would create any problems, but he was being considerate, he didn’t want us to get stuck. I don’t think he took into consideration the 100 plus pounds of equipment we had with us, but I appreciated his hesitation.

We got to the well and started pumping water. The handle was very difficult to pump, but the water was flowing. Then all of a sudden the water stopped coming up. We weren’t sure what was happening, so we began to take the well apart. This is one of the coolest things I’ve done, and I owe all of the success to Mark, Dave, and Roland. We basically had the Haitians all do the work while he instructed them on what to do. We did not do this out of laziness, but in order for the community to care about this well, we need to get them involved in the project. The work we had them do was very respectable work but it was hard. We wanted to give these people a sense of ownership for the community resources we give them. This will encourage them to take care of the well, and will hopefully erode the culture of handouts. We started by taking the wellhead off and arranged the sucker rod so that we could begin to pull the piping out  (the sucker rod is attached to the handle and when the handle is pulled this rod pulls on a neoprene cloth that creates a suction and draws the water up). Taking the well head off is a fairly complicated procedure, and if its not done correctly it could ruin the well, so we did that ourselves, but the rest of the project we had the Haitians work on.

There were three Haitian men under Mark’s direction, and they pulled the ninety feet or pipe out of the ground. We had them do this by have each Haitian worker fasten a pipe wrench onto the well pipe, and then lifting it as far as they could. Once they had lifted it as far as they could (usually about three or four feet) Mark would fasten a clamp at the base of the pipe while the three Haitians dropped their wrenches down three or more feet, and then they lifted again. This was a very slow process but it worked. We picked the well pipe up three feet at a time, and eventually got all ninety feet out.

The part of the well that does all of the work sits at the bottom of ninety feet of pipe. This section of the well is made of brass, and its basically a three foot cylinder with a small cone on the bottom that draws the water up. Inside is a neoprene cloth that, when pulled up, creates a suction and draws the water up. Eventually, when the pump is pumped enough that water comes up to the surface. Dave and Mark fixed one of the valves and then began the whole process of putting the well back together, basically lowering each section of pipe the same way they pulled it up.

The well was eventually put back together and the people began to pump out water. The pump was still “hard”, in that one had to push very hard repeatedly for the flow of water to begin. There were also random points in which there would be no water emerging from the nozzle on well, but it would be coming out the sides. This was very bizarre, but after about twenty minutes of ground water CSI, Mark and Dave realized that the pump was drawing water out faster than the ground water source could supply it. This meant that sometimes the pump was drawing up air instead of water. There is nothing that can be done to fix this, unless you want to dig a new well. What we could do however was to help educate the people on how to properly pump. Basically what we had to tell them is that they needed to pump slowly, with full strokes.

This was really great not only because we helped repair a well, but we got to see the Haitians take over and do what we needed them to do. We got to see the Haitians taking care of their community. All I can hope in the future is that at some point in the future, hopefully sooner rather than later, there will be a Haitian filling and taking care of this without me ever being there.  

Life Without Electricity

At 5:00 AM this morning I woke up. I was covered in sweat and I felt a bit disoriented. I wasn’t having a nightmare; I was just really hot and uncomfortable. I lay in bed for about ten minutes, trying to go back to sleep, and I eventually gave up. I felt like I was in a sauna, except that there was no cold pool I could go jump into in the next room over. Right when as I sat up I got tangled in my mosquito net, and after flailing around I eventually emerged from my bug free chamber and tried to find the light switch. I stumbled around, knocking into my bed and my chair, eventually finding wall and the light switch. Click….. Nothing. Click-click-click? Still nothing. My eyes had adjusted a little at this point and I looked at my ceiling to roughly make out the shape of my fan sitting motionless. This could only mean one thing. The power was dead.

The electricity situation at the mission is pretty complicated. We are hooked up to the public electricity, which I have deemed “Haiti Power”. I joke that Haitian power runs on Haitian time. It will eventually come on, but it might be late. Sometimes its off for an hour at a time, other times its off for a few days at a time. To supplement the power when Haiti power is off the mission has installed twelve solar panels. These solar panels charge two banks of batteries that have a combined power capacity of about 1400 Amp/hours. How quickly these 1400 Amp hours last depends on how much power the mission is using. When volunteer groups are here, the batteries will usually last for about three or four hours. When there are no groups here (like right now) they should last the entire night, though that’s not always the case, as last night demonstrated. An average day’s worth of sun can easily charge the entire battery bank, so we will always have power during the day when the sun is out, but once the sun sets, the batteries have nothing charging them. If they die, we have two diesel generators we can turn on that will provide the mission with the power it needs and charge the batteries. One generator is supposed to turn on automatically when the batteries reach a certain capacity, but for some reason the automatic start did not work this morning.

This inconsistent electricity is a pain, but at the end of the day it’s not that big of a deal. The only time it really bothers me is when I either can’t get my work done or I can’t talk with friends and family at home. Not having my fan running while I sleep or having to take a shower by flashlight is a minor inconvenience in comparison. 

This experience however has taught me an interesting lesson about the importance of electricity in our lives, and what living without it really means. Electricity is connected to almost everything productive we do. Without electricity and the only source of light being the sun, your day is over when the sun sets. You can’t really see enough to do anything productive at night, even if there is a full moon. This is not too difficult for the rural farmers, since they begin their day at dawn to avoid working in the hot afternoon hours, but it poses a big problem to the students who have homework to do and can’t finish it before sun down. When the students study for the state exams, they will often huddle together under a flashlight in order to work after dark.

The inconsistent supply of electricity also causes an inconsistent supply of water, this is why the only source of water beyond the streams and rivers is the water gathered from manual hand pumps. Though electrical pumps would be much less labor intensive, they are impractical because they would only work when the power worked. If the power was out for two days (which has been the case on multiple occasions), no one could get water for two days. The only reliable way to supply a community with water is, unfortunately, with a manually operated hand pump.

Probably the most significant consequence of this lack of power is that everyone has to basically learn to function without electricity. The school buildings have these large windows built in that let in lots of sun light in, and only two of the classrooms have any electrical hook up in them at all. Any profession that requires electricity is simply not possible to perform in the rural areas. All of the masonry, carpentry, and plumbing, students have to learn to work completely without electricity. The seamstresses and tailors all have to use mechanical sewing machines powered with a foot pedal to do all of their sewing. Any profession that requires the use of information technology is simply not possible in La Croix. The computers would not only go for days without power, but the power is so sporadic to begin with, they would randomly shut off, creating a huge data loss problem.

This inability to reliably and consistently deliver electricity greatly hamper’s Haiti’s capacity to develop. This problem not only plagues La Croix and the rural areas. During Aristide’s reign in the 1990’s and the early 2000’s he promised to deliver 24-hour electricity to the urban slums. This was one of Aristide’s many lofty goals, and like so many of the goals Aristide set forward, it was not realized. There are some technological implementations that could be made to improve the rural area’s access to electricity. If more homes had solar panels, they could potentially gain access to a reliable source of power, but this would be extremely difficult. Property rights are already very shaky in Haiti, and I feel that people would have a very difficult time protecting something as valuable as solar panels from theft or vandalism. This problem is one that must be met not only by the people but by the government. The government must either figure out how to adequately and equitably distribute power to the people of the rural areas, or secure property rights and up hold the rule of law fairly enough so that some firm can equitably supply people with the electricity they need.

I have hope for Haiti. Since I got here last September the main highway has improved dramatically. Improving a public highway is a little more complicated than developing an an electrical grid, but the political infrastructure needed to build a new road is the same infrastructure needed to supply people with consistent and reliable electricity. It might not be in a year, but I hope that in the next few years the rural farmers in La Croix will be able to install lights in their homes that can turn on when they flick the switch. In the mean time I just have to keep a flashlight closer to my bed. 

About the Welding Class

One of my tasks for the vocational school is to write a report explaining the  organization for each vocational class. I just finished the report on the welding class and I thought you would all be interested to see it!

(I don't know the proper spelling of Danielle's name so I just left it blank)

                          Welding Course Structure Report

This document contains the course curriculum and a course management plan for the Welding program at the La Croix New Testament Mission

                                                 Course Management Plan

Course Overview

Danielle _____ will be in charge of the Welding program at the La Croix New Testament mission school. Altenor Phillip, the superintendent of the La Croix schools will be overseeing the class. There are two main components to the welding program, (1) the theoretical course work and (2) the application of that knowledge to the construction profession in Haiti. Since welding is such a hands on craft, both of these components will be taught together. Danielle will instruct his students on the theory of welding and best practice methods, and then have the students practice the lesson directly after he has taught it. Danielle has been contracted by the mission to do most of the mission’s iron work. He will help the students practice their welding skills on the projects he has been assigned by the mission. This will not only help the mission be more productive, but it will help the students gain experience working on real projects.

Calendar:

Beginning of Course: November 2012

Expected completion for current class: May 2013

Danielle feels that the students will be adequately able to work as welders with about four months of preparation. For the current class of welders, he will work with them until the next class comes, and then he will give them some of the projects that the mission has assigned to him to the welders who have completed the course. They have been working recently on a gate and will begin to focus on making more chairs for the roof deck.

Weekly class schedule: The class meets five times a week. Two of the days will have a lesson incorporated in them, and the lesson will last for about one hour. The average week will have about ten hours of both course work and practical application. During every class the students will spend time working on their projects and practicing the lessons Danielle has taught them.

Apprenticeships:

The apprenticeship portion of the class is meant to give the students better preparation and training. Though this is not required by any governing entity, we think they will be beneficial for the following reasons:

1.     Welding is a physically demanding occupation and the students should be tested to see if they are physically capable before entering into the workforce as a welder.

2.     The apprenticeships will give the students a chance to better understand the theoretical material and better prepare the labor market.

3.     The students will be instructed on the safety issues associated with welding and the proper procedures to prevent any long term harm

4.     The students will practice proper welding techniques and learn how to use each tool to its fullest capability

5.     The best practices will be enforced during the apprenticeship and the students will go into the labor market knowing not only how to weld but how to deliver a high quality product.

The apprenticeships will be under the supervision of Danielle ____. They will focus on the welding projects for the mission. They are right now working on a gate for the mission and will address all of the metal needs for the new construction going on in Pacot and Paul. There has been a considerable amount of supplies donated to the welders by the American volunteers and right now they have everything they need to keep working. They will eventually need to replace their supplies, but that is not an immediate concern.

Work after Graduation:

Minimum expected wage upon graduation: 500 GDS per day. Depending on the skill of the student though, the wage can increase dramatically. For Danielle, a job for a house pays 8000-9000 HGD per job.

Hiring expectation: The students will be allowed to work for whomever they please upon graduation. If the students delay their tuition and owe money to the school, they will be able to repay the mission by working on different projects for the mission at a reduced salary. Pastor Pierre has a long list of building projects he is working on, and feels that he can help every student get started in their professional career by giving them project to work on at the mission. Pastor Pierre said that there is enough building in Pacot alone to employ this current class of welders as well as the and upcoming class of welders once they complete their course work. The students can use this experience to get started, they can also use this experience to get in touch with other masons, welders, and tradesmen who they can work with on future projects. Pastor Pierre feels confident that the students who graduate from this program will have many opportunities in La Croix and the surrounding areas (L’estere, Gonaives, Saint Marc) to find viable employment. The mission has a good reputation in the community, and Pastor Pierre and Danielle will give a good recommendation any student who has successfully completed the course.

Certification: There is no formal state certification for welders. The mission will award a certificate to each student who successfully completes the course. Given the good reputation of the mission, this certificate should help the students find employment around the La Croix area.

The Student Body

Student motivation: Pastor Pierre and Danielle want as many students to graduate from the welding program as possible, but they know that the program is not for everyone. Right now they have two students in the program. The two students are exceptional students and extremely motivated. The incoming class will have ten to fifteen students. Danielle wanted to use this time as a trial period so he took on fewer students. He now feels quite confident that he can instruct a class of ten to fifteen students and have enough projects to give each student adequate hands on training.

Evaluation: The students will be evaluated on two levels; written exams and performance on projects. Since there is no formal state exam, the majority of the student’s evaluation will be based on the students performance on the projects assigned to the student by Danielle. A student will not finish school unless he or she has demonstrated high ability and an understanding of high quality work. There will be an emphasis both in the theoretical teachings and during the projects on safety and the importance of using proper equipment.

Student Demographics:

The students in the welding program will be ages 15 and up. Right now there is one student who is 16 and one student who is 28. The students for the welding program do not have to be enrolled in high school. Since welding is a profession that can be taught relatively quickly, the classes will be open to members of the community as well as the high school students.  The students will need to demonstrate an understanding of basic mathematics, specifically measurements. The students will be encouraged to complete their high school education if they are enrolled in high school. This is not a possibility for all students however, so for those students who have a greater need to start providing for themselves and their families, they are able to drop out of high school and begin working full time once they finish the course.

Supplies:

Welder

Welder delco

Electrodes bank

3/8 Iron

1/4 Iron

1/2 inch angle iron

1/2 iron

Iron Clamp

Helmet and glasses

Cold Chisel

Welder Hammer

Framework saw

Blade saw

White paint

Minimum gallon

Inch brush

Sheet metal

1/4 inch profile

5/8 solid iron bars

3/4 inch flat iron

Measuring tape

Electric grinder

Aluminum Gallon

Drill

(For quantities, see attached spreadsheet)

Why go down in the first place

Below is a potential chapter to my ebook, let me know what you think!

Why should I go in the first place?

A few years ago my father read the book Mountains Beyond Mountains and was inspired to do more with his life. Mountains Beyond Mountains is an incredible story about Paul Farmer who come to Haiti and established Partners in Health, a health care organization aimed at being a “preferential option for the poor”[1]. My father had been (and still is) very successful in his professional career, but felt called devote more of his time to something like Partners in Health, something oriented to helping those in need. He began to investigate the work our church was doing in Haiti and in 2009 he travelled with a group of volunteers to the community our church supports in Haiti. The mission he went to (the same mission where I ended up completing my fellowship three years later) was known for doing some incredible work. They had set up a housing project, a school that taught over 3,500 students, and two medical clinics. He went down with a group of doctors and nurses, hoping to discover his own story in Haiti, and this mission seemed to be the perfect place to go. It was right in the middle of one of the poorest places on earth and it was intensively addressing the community’s most pressing needs. 

My father is a smart man, but he doesn’t have any skills that can be easily put to use in rural Haiti. He wasn’t able to contribute to the solutions the mission was providing because he didn’t really know how. He didn’t know how to fix a diesel generator or prescribe the correct prenatal treatment for an expecting mother in the rural highlands. He was in the midst of all these people doing such great work and he did not feel particularly useful. He was able to help the doctors organize some of their materials, but there was nothing truly unique that he could contribute to the mission. My father felt conflicted. He had found a great organization doing great work, but he had no skills that were particularly useful to the mission. He wasn’t as handy as the engineers who set up the solar panels or the doctors who went out into the community and healed all of the sick people. My dad was a successful salesman for small technology companies, but the community of La Croix didn’t need to figure out how to market their IT industry; La Croix needed electricians who could safely bring electricity out into the villages. The only productive thing he could contribute was money. 

When my father got back he was still inspired by Paul Farmer and all of the good work he had observed in La Croix, but he needed to figure out a better way to contribute. His whole trip had cost about $1,100 in total, and he was worried that the money could have been more productively used had he donated it directly to the mission. My father spent a week helping the doctors administer medicine, but with the money he spent going to Haiti he could have hired a nurse for over a month to go out. My father did a lot of thinking and began to worry that he had almost cheated the mission in a way. He went down because he was looking to fulfill something that he himself wanted to do, but the whole point of the trip was to serve the Haitian people, not to make himself feel better. If he was to really embrace the ethos of service that he found so inspiring, shouldn’t he not go to Haiti and donate money instead?

This is a very difficult dilemma and one that affects not only my father but many who work in development efforts across the world. How can we be most useful to countries like Haiti, how can we best help the poorest among us, especially if we don’t have any technical skills that can be useful? (I am willing to guess that one of the reasons you purchased this book was because a similar dilemma struck you) This is a question I’ve asked myself many times and is something I had to justify when I was planning to come to Haiti initially. The mission where I worked needed to devote a significant amount of resources to my coming here, how was I sure the investment would be worthwhile? How would I know that I would be productive and not deplete the few resources the mission has? The reality is much more complicated than what appears at first glance. Money and charitable contributions are an important piece to every development initiative, but short term trips of volunteers is also incredibly valuable, even when those trips are people like my dad who don’t have a specific set of skills.

***

Is Our Money Being Spent Well?

Most economic institutions we interact with on a day-to-day basis have a natural incentive to do the work we want them to do. The grocery store selling food, the movie theatre showing movies, and the gas station selling gas all have to follow through on the services they claim to provide in order to stay in business. A gas station that sells watered down fuel or a grocery store that sells expired food will go out of business quickly because people will stop shopping there and will go other places for their fuel or food. This is the natural cycle of our economy, and it works relatively well, but that cycle does not extend to the administration of aid to developing countries. Bill Easterly, one of the premier development economists, described this as “One really unique thing about aid is that there is no way for the intended beneficiaries, the people we are trying to help, to give any feed back on whether its working for them or not”[2]. This is a problem that not only faces aid administered by large government organizations, but most all aid initiatives.

Since there is no natural feed back loop, since there is no mechanism to indicate if aid is being administered effectively, there has to be some other method of evaluating the aid’s effectiveness. The most efficient way to see if aid is being effective is to send a group of people to see everything that is going on, someone or some group of people has go and see that everything that is sent down is being administered effectively. This is the first and most valuable service of a short-term trip.

The La Croix Mission, the mission where I worked, has a network of over twenty us churches and non-profits that support it. Each of these churches sends money as well as people. Every organization that supports the mission has to justify its expenses and the best way to justify those expenses is to send someone to evaluate how the money is being spent. When corporations invest money overseas in new plants or factories, they always send a group to oversee the administration of the money being spent, why should we?

---

[1] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1124311,00.html

[2] Econ talk podcast with Bill Easterly

The Times I Wish I was back in America

Today I went out with Dave and Mark, two volunteers who are working on some of the wells here, and we spent the day fixing one of the wells in La Coupe. We had a fantastic day, and I will write more on it soon, but when I came home I began to really miss being back in America. I wasn’t missing any one thing in particular (though I had missed lunch and a Chipotle burrito would have been awesome), but I was really missing my access to the news and the whole coverage of the explosions at the Boston Marathon.

The events that happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon were tragic and will likely reshape the how we think about terrorism in the future. Some of my closest friends live in Boston and all I wanted to do today was pick up the phone and call to see they were ok. I have never lived in Boston, but I have visited there plenty of times and ever year when my sister and I were in college my sister would talk about the great Patriot’s Day celebration and the Kiss Tunnel she would participate in as a Wellesley student. Even though I have a relatively loose connection to Boston and the Boston Marathon, I am a proud American and anytime there is an attack against Americans like what happened today I want to do all I can to support those affected. Sometimes this just means sitting by the TV, making sure my friends are ok, and praying for those affected. I can still do that in Haiti, but I feel so much more removed from the whole situation. I can’t call anyone, I can’t watch anything on TV, I can’t even get the full story delivered to my door in the morning, I can’t even stream a YouTube video. I can check in with my friends via e-mail, so I know they are safe, but its not personal, that’s not what I want. I can also read the stories online, which is fine, but it all feels so far removed. I want to be back in America, I want to not only know what’s going on but feel it. I feel like my friend has just gone into the hospital and I’m too far away to visit. The only updates I get are from their twitter feed.

National tragedies like these are times not only for relief to friends, but they are times when we as a country come together and re-evaluate ourselves and the path we are on. What are we taking for granted? What are we doing incorrectly? What do we need to change? Though these tragedies are devastating in the present, they reshape our future. I remember being home during the Sandy Hook School Shooting, and thinking about the duty I have to reach out to those who feel cast out by society. I rethought about what peace really meant. I didn’t know anyone at Sandy Hook but the whole tragedy gave me pause and forced me to rethink my values. When I sit here I am too busy getting worked up because the internet won’t load or trying to fix the power that I can’t really focus in on the story, I’m too far removed. As the story continues to develop about Boston, I am sure it will force me to re-evaluate my life, but I wish I could dig into the story more. I wish I could be in America and experience this among other Americans.

  

Conviction and Humility

I am in the midst of a great book by Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Bell is trying to explain how some pieces of modern day Christianity have become obsolete, in particular, Bell tries to explain how we have confined the definition of God and in response to this he does a great job of explaining the vastness of God. Bell made a fascinating point about God that has really come clear to me in Haiti. Bell contents that that a person of conviction can also be a person of humility. On the surface this seems like a difficult position to take. If I am a person of conviction, if I have a certain code I adhere to strictly, than how can I have humility, how can I acknowledge the flaws in my beliefs? Doesn’t acknowledging the holes in my beliefs undermine my conviction? Before I came to Haiti I would have thought that this was the case, I would have assumed that once a person researches a certain point of view long enough, he or she could reach a place of absolute certainty. He or she would have answered all of the questions out there on the subject and would have been able to assert a position with absolute certainty. Coming to Haiti though, trying to implement these different development initiatives, has shown me that conviction not only co-exists peacefully with humility, but the two complement each other quite well

Every evening I go up to the roof and ask myself “What can I do to help that farmer, what can I do to make the small rural farmer better off?”. The vocational school will help the next generation, but it would do little for the older generation of Haitians, the Haitian parents working so hard to put their kids through school. Last fall this was when I realized that the goat project would be something that could be very helpful for the Haitians. When I started to develop the project, when I started to move from an idea on the roof to an actual plan, I had to ask a bunch of questions. I had to talk with Edvens and Pastor Pierre and the other Haitians at the mission about the certain consequences of giving people animals, and the incentives this would create and the problems it would solve. I had to understand the importance of certain provisions of the project. I had to gain a better “Haitian state of mind”, and see the project through the eyes of the recipients who would be enjoying the benefits of the animals. This intensive questioning process was not easy. Not only did I have to work hard to investigate the best way of doing everything, but I had to set aside my own ego. I had to admit that my knowledge was limited. This process is still going on in a very serious way. When I was preparing to go back last week and raise money for more goats and cows, I had to question everything I had already done. I decided to cut pigs from the program and only offer cows and goats.

This intensive questioning and evaluation process had two consequences. Not only did it force me to set aside my own ego, but it also allowed me to get lost in the project. I was able to learn so much about the culture in La Croix and how important these animals are. I was able to learn about the needs of the people here. I came out of this process having a much greater knowledge of the community around me as well as a much greater appreciation for the culture in La Croix. This intensive questioning process gave me a kind of conditional certainty, it gave me a sense that I knew I was doing something worth while, but I was still open to acknowledging the flaws of the program. By questioning I learned so much more about this program and developed a passion for it. The questioning fueled my passion which in turn fueled my convictions about the project. I understand my own limitations and I understand that the project isn’t perfect, but I also understand the importance of these goats, and I appreciate how they help the La Croix community.

Christianity at heart is a very comforting religion, but it presents us with paradoxes that are very difficult to understand. In What We Talk About When We Talk About God Rob Bell’s book identifies many of these paradoxes and begins to explain them. They can only be explained so much though, because many of these life lessons have can’t be taught, but have to be learned. They have to be experienced, they have to make us feel uncomfortable and only then can they really reshape us.  

Back in Haiti

Last week I went back home to Pittsburgh for about six days, mainly to raise money to buy more goats and cows for the mission here and pick up a few supplies for one of the computer systems being installed here. The trip was very successful over all, I got over twenty orders for goats and cows, and I have a set of supplies to be used at the school here. I had a wonderful time being home and it gave me a very interesting outlook on my time in Haiti and the personal development I have made as a person since I committed to this project almost a year ago.

I have made some big changes and some small ones. I think I am a better driver, though I am sure there are some who will contend with me on that. I am used to driving on dirt roads and now that I have paved roads I feel like I have more control of the car. I will still sometimes let my eyes wander when they should be focused on the cars around me. I have not lost any tastes for anything. I still love greasy food and soda, but I have developed a better ability to restrict how much I indulge when I go out to eat.

One of the changes that I am very happy to have made is that I feel much more confident in myself. There are a few reasons for this, the first being that I am very proud to tell people about my work in Haiti. When I left for Haiti last September I did not have a whole lot to feel good about. My grades from Robert Morris weren’t anything special, I didn’t have any distinct professional achievements, and I had just come off of a very difficult few months trying to find a job. Now not only have I had been relatively successful in Haiti and my grades at Robert Morris have improved, but I have something that really excites focus on. When I was struggling to find a job before I went to Haiti, all I could think about were my Robert Morris classes that I was struggling to complete and the fact that I didn’t have a job. Now I have the goats that I am going to give away to think about. I am going to think about the potential of the students going through the vocational program. Thinking about the goats we’re giving away doesn’t make me think about how great I am, but just about the program in general. My focus has shifted away from myself, which is great!

I am back, and I would love to write more but I am really tired. I am currently in the process of putting together the e-book so I want to try to write something new everyday, but its not easy after 12 hours in transit.  

My Book!

I have some exciting news- I am going to publish a short book on Haiti! I had a wonderful conversation with a publisher today and he wants to work with me on a small ebook. We have a few titles we are working with, but the title we are tentatively using for now is The Trouble with Candy in Haiti.

The book will be a short ebook, about 40-60 pages, and it will be a collection of the lessons I learned during my time in Haiti. Some of the chapters in the book will be straightforward, like why giving candy away to kids can be a bad idea. Some of the chapters will be more theoretical, like the differences in planning a project in the developing world where labor is very cheap and supplies are more expensive. The book will be a combination of my economics background, my technical knowledge applied to the developing world, and some of the more entertaining stories I have from my time in Haiti. I will draw from my blog posts as well as some of the other newer ideas.

I need your help. Since some of the book is going to be made up of old blog posts, I would love to get your thoughts on which blog posts I should use? Which blog posts made you think? Which blog posts really taught you something new and interesting about Haiti? I would love to know which blog posts you enjoyed and which blog posts you thought were less than thrilling. Were there any blog posts that might have changed your opinion on some topic? Maybe a blog post that caused you to turn to the books and do a little more research?

I will have more news in the coming days but I would love to get your suggestions on the blog posts you most enjoyed. You can e-mail me (vancleve.raymond@gmail.com) or you can simply write in the comment box.

Thanks!