A New Year

Happy New Year!

Ok ok, so I guess we’re a couple days late, but a lot has happened, so we’ve been busy.

Abra and I left the Comfort House on New Years Day. We had spent 2.5 happy months there, but it was time to move on with our lives… and them with theirs. The goodbye was teary, but I’m sure it won’t be the end of that relationship. It’ll be exciting to hear about the kids growing up. The night before we left we took a few pictures of the family…so here’s that:

Back Row: Nadia (on the scooter), Elda (on my lap), me!, Lulu (on my lap), Roodline (with the hat), Gessica (blue in the middle), Abra, and Darlensky (on her lap).
Front Row: Romise (yellow chair), Rosy (just his head is between the babies), Babo (green chair), Marissa (pink chair), Mason (green shoes), Christian (scary eyes), and William (hidden behind Christian)

Once Momma and Dado arrived, the kids got in order

We left at 9am, after a long night of listening to the dogs bark, cry, and claw at the door, as they were scared of the sounds and fireworks from the new year celebrations. We hopped a tap-tap to Pont Sonde, and found a bus there going to Port. Perfect!

The throw up from the lady behind us was not so perfect, nor was having my lens pop out of my glasses. But besides that the drive was easy. We arrived at 1pm, then found ourselves a tap-tap going through town, to the rich suburb in the hills, called Petionville. It’s the Beverly Hills of Haiti, a place where all Haitians aspire to move. It’s full of big gated houses overlooking the city, and a relatively clean shopping area.

We had arranged to stay at a Guest House in Petionville, but when we found the place (finally) and heard of the price - $86 USD, we decided to look elsewhere. So we headed back down the hill, and as it started to get dark after a few tired hours of walking the streets, we began to wonder whether we should have just stayed! But lucky us, we found a few blancs (white people), and they offered us their living room for the night.

So a HUGE shout out to World Relief, and Joe, CeeCee, John and his wife and daughter for saving out butts. Joe took us into his house and fed us dinner, breakfast and lunch. World Relief  has their hands in many projects (rubble removal, rebuilding churches, and education about washing hands), and often has volunteers from the US. When the volunteers come over they stay at the “Pink Palace”, which is a huge mansion right by Joe’s House. Since his water was out, he took us over there for half-warm showers.

The next day was Sunday, so Abra and I went to church with Joe, CeeCee, and their guest photographer, David. It was a bit of a mistake because spending 2.5 hours in the wee-morning listening to a preacher who you can’t understand isn’t our idea of fun, but we were happy to do it to support our claims that we’re Christian.

After Church, Joe brought us to our new Guest House, which is nothing more than the offices of People In Need Partnership. PINP is a sponsorship non-profit, that finds poor people in Haiti, puts their profiles up on their websites, then finds Americans to pay monthly to support that person. They had a few beds for American volunteers, that were going unused.

We had found their postings as a Guest House on Kayak.com, but when we arrived here we realized how unofficial it really was. It was impossible to find (we couldn't find it on our own the first night), the road it's on and the roads around it are unmarked, inconsistent, and nonsensical. And the building is unmarked. Once inside you realize it's really not meant to be a Guest House at all. We might be the first guests. It's merely and office (we have to let the office workers in, in the morning), and no one's here at night. The electricity is off-and-on, there are cockroaches in the shower, and 2 light bulbs in the entire house. 

But it’s cheap! We talked the guy down from $40 to $20, and he agreed to give us internet (which he takes away for his personal use each night). So we set up shop, he left, and we had a house to ourselves! The place was mostly clean, though a bit odd. All the sinks dump water on the floor. The place is full of mosquitoes, and while we each have nets above our beds, it seems mine was made for a crib. I have to tape it up to give myself even partial protection, and the next day, Monday, I found myself sleeping under the net as if it were a blanket.

On Monday, (yesterday) we walked around Petionville, through the market and, took a tap-tap to get lost around downtown. We saw the National Palace, now in ruins after the January 12, 2010 quake. Across the street from the palace is a park (Champ de Mars) turned tent city, into which we took a few excursions.

Three story building collapsed like an accordian

It was incredible seeing people living in tiny 10’ x 10’ tents, filled entirely by a mattress, using shared port-a-potties, and bathing publicly for the world to see. At one point we did feel a bit cornered, as we were surrounded by 5 or 6 young guys, and I swear I felt someone brush against my back pocket. We didn’t take many pictures, because we didn’t want to show off our valuables, and we quickly made for an exit.

Tent in the middle of the traffic round-about/intersection

A little pantless girl has tied a string to a small plastic bag and is trying to fly it like a kite. (A little hard to see, but the bag is right above her head in this shot).

The tent city right across from the Palace downtown.

Looking into part of the tent city across from the Palace, with the Haiti flag raised in the back.

One of the nicer tents... wonder who gets that one?!

After a good 8 hours of walking around we decided to call it a day. So we hopped a tap-tap back up town, and ate at our new favorite bakery/fast food place (Epi D’Or!) before heading home.

Yesterday (Tuesday), we got off to a slow start, as Abra wasn’t feeling good. She’s still battling the cough and stuffy nose she complained about in her facebook status exactly a month ago. She also had a headache, and the meds we bought weren’t doing enough.

At noon, I decided to still make something of my day, so I hitched a tap-tap downtown. I took some more pictures of the palace, tried to climb a tower to take an aerial shot (the guards stopped me), then walked around the market for a bit. After a while, I decided to visit Cite Soleil- a notorious part of town for it’s poverty and the crime that accompanies it. It was the old stomping grounds of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (who had the support of Haiti’s poor), but when he was exiled it became very dangerous, especially for tourists. Kidnappings were common.

Residents build brick walls around their temporary homes to claim the land. This is illegal, because they don't actually own the property. 

                      

At one point called the most dangerous spot in the world, while it’s still not the safest, it’s definitely better. It was infamous for kidnappings and muggings, until the UN stepped in several years ago, and now a police station across the streets tries to keep order. It’s basically a permanent tent city, where the houses are made out of metal roofing, bricks and tarp, instead of just tarp.

It felt much safer than our previous tent city excursion, because I wasn't forced to walk through narrow passage ways between tents, but down broad roads. I still didn’t feel comfortable pulling out my camera, but it was more a product of not wanting to offend people, then worrying it might be stolen. Also, I gained a Haitian friend while there, and he ran off a few people who tried following me.

Admittedly, I probably went because I was told not to go. And really, I didn’t see much new there that I couldn’t see elsewhere. But it was interesting to see nonetheless, and the level of poverty was profound.

I got back to the ‘Guest House’ at 6:30, and Abra and I went for a steak sandwich and lasagna at the ol’ Epi D’Or, before calling it (another) early night at 10pm.

Today, Wednesday, Abra wanted to take it slow for one more day, so I went off into the city solo once again. This time I went up to Petionville, where I caught a taptap to Kenscoff, which is a mountain town about an hour away. It wasn't much to see, but some of the sights were cool. My taptap broke down on the way up (started smoking) and people started jumping ship. We walked the rest of the way. Once I got to town I got some information about traveling on to Seguin (which we're thinking about doing in a few days), then turned around and started walking back to Port. 

I eventually caught a taptap, made it to Port by 4:30, got my glasses fixed (I just needed a screw, I've been wearing my emergency contacts the last couple days), then headed to Epi D'Or before going home. Abra's thinking she'll venture out of the Guest House tomorrow, so we'll see.

For now, Goodnight! And Happy New Year!

Posted by Hans