Blogs from Haiti, Central America Caribbean - page 3

It's dusty. It's hot. There are tents and quansets and "theme camps" set up by NGO's everywhere. Law/military presence is real. There are a lot of people and not many resources....sounds like the start of a description of Burning Man, no? Yeah, except that there are TOO many people, there is trash EVERYWHERE, a lot of projects have gone wrong or weren't thought through all the way, malnourishment is evident. Doesn't sounds like radical self-reliance to me. In fact, Haitians have had little-to-no choice in the way they sustain their economy. Already with a history of being colonized, exploited, and having to pay reparations to the country (France) that enslaved them in order to be free (ironic, huh?), the earthquake 2 years ago did nothing to help the situation; and the following response did/is not addressing ... read more

Everything you heard about Haiti is probably not true. For one, everybody is not dirt poor and the country (at lease Port au Prince) is not crumbled. There are still buildings standing. Yes, some of the folks that lost their houses to the earthquake are still living in camps. The cholera epidemic is gone. I think you should visit, assess the situation first hand before making a judgment. If you ask me, I would tell you Haiti is just like any of the country I have visited in Latin America. I had a good time in Haiti. In fact, Haiti just replaced Colombia as my favorite country! I travelled with four of my friends from the university and we met up with another friend that graduated from the same uni who now works in Haiti. I ... read more

Today we got up and were able to ease into the day. After breakfast we packed up and waited for our rides. I tried to show Kissmer some good music on my ipad. He has been singing Backstreet Boys and Beyonce all week. I showed him Sam and Dave "Soul Man" and Bruce Springsteen. He seemed not so interested in either. We set out to reach the Baptist Mission. This area is way up in the mountain region. It was a lot cooler up there, however it took over 3 hours to get there due to the traffic in Port-Au-Prince. I liked our area in Petit Groave so much better due to the slower lifestyle and less traffic. We arrived and found a restaurant with burgers and sub sandwiches. This place really hit the spot! French ... read more

Oatmeal and hard boiled egg greeted me this morning. The gravel was very rough to dig at the site today. Duct tape came in very handy as well. I tried Sugar Cane for the first time. A man had a wheelbarrow full of them with a machete to chop it. It was very tough to chew, but the juices were sweet. You have to spit out the actual cane. One of the foremen "Samuel" is a very stern character. He got onto his son Emmanuel for being too close to dangerous areas. He swatted him with his gloved a few times. It was kinda sad. All of the other workers have been awesome. The two girl-workers were dancing and grooving to the Tuesday service we heard in the background. Five minutes later Samuel was laughing with ... read more

We got up and had breakfast. It was mainly the same food we had been eating. The one exception was hot dogs? We think this is the equivalent of sausage for them. We all got dressed up and went to church. This is the same church we had been working on (the library portion). Eglise Methodiste D'Haiti. The service lasted 2 1/2 hours. We tried to follow the translation best we good with the help of Tutu and Haiti. Today is Haiti's Father's Day, so the sermon was basically about how father's should act and their responsibilities. We introduced ourselves in front of the congregation one buy one with the help of the translators. I said "bonjour my name is Colin Hall from Little Rock, Arkansas. Thank you for letting us into your home." We then ... read more