Week 1 is Over, Now what???

This post is broken into two sections for those of you not interested in my ideas of Haitian Development - My Thoughts (Philosophy) & My Actions (What I did).


Part 1: My thoughts
The start of week 2 and I am seriously wondering why I am here. We'll, not only me, but why any of these groups are here in Haiti. If you didn't already know, there were over 3,000 NGOs (non-governmental organization's) in Haiti before the earthquake, and 6 months later there are probably hundreds more. Everybody has their own idea of what will help Haiti.

But, there is only one thing I know that is going to 'build' a strong Haiti, and that are Haitians, empowered by other Haitians. An NGO, like Save The Children, no matter how big or how much money, cannot develop a county. An outside governmental force, like the United Nations, cannot develop a county. As I have stated before, I know of no country today that has been build upon the foundation of an NGO or another country's government. It simply doesn't make sense. Governments never do things out of the goodness of their hearts. They invest in a country only if they have something to gain. Some people look at Haiti and say, what do they have to give? Why should we help them when we have our 'own' people to think about? Exactly, why would our stingy government pour money into a place when they refuse to improve the position of America's poor? The obvious thing is population, which means labor resources. Whichever country has control over Haiti has control over Haiti's business. So, American companies can continue to come and set up their huge sweat shops like they've done elsewhere in the world, and continue to stuff the pockets of America's finest. America and the other powerful nations would like people to believe they are on humanitarian missions, but why else would they be fighting over which country gets power over the 'rebuilding'?

The point is, all this NGO business is bullcrap and not helping anything. NGO's aid individuals temporarily, but do nothing for the strengthening of the country. Let's say, for example the NGO I am working for, AIDG does train 10,000 masons in Haiti to know how to build earthquake resistant structures. Can those 10,000 masons then go out and get good paying jobs building purposeful structures? I guess they can continue to build nice homes for the white and mulattoes around the country, but what effect is that going to have on the majority of the population? I'm not saying that their program isn't helping, but none of this makes sense when thinking about the functionality of a society, even if your goal is self-sustainability.

So I think I'm through with the NGO side of development, including the United Nations. The most power to change a situation comes from infiltrating our own government, or becoming a powerful businessperson, a force stronger than the US government itself.

Keeping that in mind I am going to consider myself being here a vacation, where I get to hang out with friends and think about some business ideas, while I do the job I need to do to stay hosted in this country.

Part 2: My Actions
I have over 31 mosquito bites now. I stopped counting. About 12 are on my left leg, 10 are on the right, and the others are spread across my chest, back, arms, stomach and butt (ouch!). On Saturday I went with Sam, who just started working for AIDG and is going to be one of my tutors, to the GLOBAL VOLUNTEER NETWORK (GVN) house. I met a bunch of people from various walks of life that had come to Haiti to volunteer for 2 or 4 weeks. I slept there overnight Friday and took a tour of Port-au-Prince with them Saturday morning, which included going to the Palace, the Ministry, and tourist shopping.
They are sleeping in tents over at GVN...I don't know why.


The grounds of the Ministry building that had collapsed there were a few tents set up by Unicef that the citizens told me was a school. A woman holding a baby came up to ask me for some money, and I told her in Kreyol I didn't have any (a lie of course). She asked if I was Haitian and I told her no, I am American and I only spoke a little Kreyol. She asked if my parents were haitian and I said no. Afterwards some other kids came up, and I asked if they were all hers, only the baby (3 months) and another one that looked about 3 or 4. She was probably younger than me. Her friend came up and asked me for money too - she had a 1 month old. I asked them if they worked, and they said no. I said its hard to work with babies anyway, and they agreed. They said they didn't have a tent to sleep or live in, so they lived on the street. I asked them why didn't they have a tent, and they said no one gave them one. Then I realized the people who had tents were better off than those who didn't. They asked why I was with a bunch of white people (the GVN volunteers), and i said I don't know, because I really didn't know. Sam said we were leaving, so I told them goodbye - m'ale (I'm leaving). What else could I do or say?

It ended with us going to a hotel "Visa Lounge" and them paying $18.50 to eat and swim. I wouldn't even pay that much at home to swim and eat. I called Davidson and they (him & his sisters boyfriend Christopher) came and picked me up.

YAAAAAAAAAY I was getting a break from nothingness.

From there we went to Davidson's house, said hi to his mom and his brother's wife, who was in PAP for some reason - I think to sell some stuff and make money. Besides the girl they had working there before, there was a younger boy working in the house. We ate some spaghetti (too much that I couldn't finish but I HAD to) and then we were going to head to Petionville to go to the 'disco'. It starting pouring down rain, so I didn't think that was a good idea, but Christopher said he could drive in it so whatever. By the time we left it wasn't actually raining, but it was getting dark, and they realized the headlights weren't going to work. We went to MacEpi (a place that serves burgers, fries, crepes, and icecream) instead. I again wasn't even hungry but they were acting like they were going there just for me, so I had some fries while we listened to music. They had beer and icecream. We got back kinda early (8pm) so we just hung out and I practiced my broken Kreyol and Christopher his broken English. Christopher and I stayed over, he got Davidson's brother's room, I got Davidson's room, and I don't know where Davidson had to sleep, I think in the family room.

The next morning I wasn't sure if I had to go back for work - it turned out I didn't. So, we ate breakfast (plantains and onions - which I had to force myself to finish lest I offend anyone) and went to the beach. Well first we spent about an hour trying to find a gas station that would exchange my money fairly, then we went to the beach.
The road to the beach....

This isn't the type of beach I went to with the AIDG crew - it was all black Haitians at the little hidden warf thing frying fish and drinking on the shore. There was not much sand - the rocks just ran into water at some point.

Anyway it looked pretty rugged so I didn't really want to get in, and I was the only one with an actual bathing suit on so I felt stupid - everyone else had on shorts and a tshirt (women) or boxers (men). Plus I didn't want to get my hair wet. But, Christopher wanted to take the little boat over to a small island, so we paid like 50 gourdes ($1.20) and went. The ride was nice, but the little island was littered with glass and debris.



Tropical fish and some other animal whose name is "efgsekfh" or something in Kreyol

I didn't think it was an animal until Christopher put it on land and it started moving back towards the water

Marsh type area

View from our little boat

Skipping Rocks like little boys


By the time we headed back to the main beach, it started THUNDERING AND LIGHTENING. We were still on the boat, so we went inside were the captains slept. IT WAS SWEATY AND HOT!! Our little boat was having issues and I did not want to be stuck in middle of the sea inside a hot sweaty boat so I got back out on deck and jumped onto the beach when we got close enough. By this time it was more than pouring. I told them I don't know what you do here but in the states when lightening is striking we GET OUT OF THE WATER!! OH NOOOOOOOO. When it started to rain harder everyone jumped into the water! I was already soaked and my hair ruined anyway so why would I stand out on the cold beach? Davidson and Christopher threw me the car keys so I put my glasses and camera in the car and ran into the warmth of the water. The water was salty and it felt like I was stepping in slim at the bottom. I didn't even want to know what was down there. I taught them how to play SPLASH ATTACK but they really didn't get the point. You need more people for it to be fun anyway. I huge bolt of lightening hit and I screamed - all the Haitians laughed and kept playing in the water. O_O

The Brazil game was starting at 1:30, so we left and dried off in the car. I felt dirty until I got back here to shower and wash my hair around 7pm. We watched half the game at Davidson's house, and then went to take Christopher home. We picked up another friend, Donald I think, and looked for a place in Petionville to chill until I had to go home (before it got dark because of the headlights). We saw one place that looked really cool - but the people looked weird to me. They all looked like gay hispanics (dont ask what gay hispanics look like), so I thought it was a gay club, but there were some girls so I said whatever. As soon as we stepped inside, I saw it was like a real American club. One half second after stepping in, a guy said they were closed - but they were clearly open so I was completely confused. I asked Davidson to ask if I could just use their bathroom but he said let's just go so I did. I'm a black american so of course I know racism when I see it -- I didn't need any further explanation. The people in the club were all 'white' (mixed)Haitians, and blacks weren't allowed. I wish I could speak Kreyol, because I would tell them I wish that they could come to America and get the same dose of racism they are giving out, because there they'd be just another nigger (or just another dirty immigrant). I thought back to a few weeks ago when Alena, Araba, and the kids were told the public park they had stopped to picnic at in rural Pennsylvania was reserved and they'd have to go elsewhere. But, we found another place with a pool table and food, where we all shared a naked pizza and they played a game of pool with a cocky, cussing, white Haitian little boy. He was a good but obnoxious player, and I just wanted to slap some respect into him. His whole white Haitian family was jeering him on. Dave lost by 1 shot, which was debatable, because they were playing using some different rule or something. The only thing that consoled me was that they were trying to get my attention because I was American, and I completely blew them off.

After that I was dropped back off at home, got in bed, and restlessly tried to sleep as thoughts of ongoing racism and colonialism ran through my head.