d.e.c.

Correction

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:33:00 -0400

The burdens of the world

on my back

lighten the world

not a whit while

removing them greatly

decreases my specific

gravity

-A.R. Ammons

foodfriendsfever

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:41:00 -0400

My lady friend came all the way to Jérémie to visit. We got all of our friends on a really special and isolated beach south of Anse d’Hainault and had a cookout and took photos of each other eating the food.

My favorite siblings.

“David konn bay blag ayisyen kounye a.” -Pierre Renel

After the excursion, Lauren and I camped on my boss’ private beach near Dame Marie. Our friend Edner came and cut some coconuts and apricots for us.

During this time period, Lauren contracted either Dengue Fever or Pneumonia.

I don’t know what to say.

*Photos courtesy of Lauren Lefty.

Higher resolution photo of Makandal

Wed, 18 May 2011 12:19:22 -0400

Higher resolution photo of Makandal

Makandal, Jérémie

Wed, 18 May 2011 12:15:00 -0400

Hebert is a guy from Port-au-Prince who moved to Jeremie for reasons that he’d rather not talk about. “I came to Jeremie because I came to Jeremie,” he told me with a smile. He is interested in community organizing and neighborhood revitalization. My boss—a lovely tenacious nun from Missouri who has been living here since 1989—told me, “He is just too effective to risk asking about his past. I’d really rather not know why he’s here or what he does to support his children. He could be a drug runner for all I know, but I will not go there.” Since coming to to Jeremie three years ago, he hasn’t held a job. He has seven children, five of which live with him in Jeremie and all of them go to school (he somehow pays for tuition, books, uniforms). They are all well-fed, and he seems to be a very good father. Why no job? He needs this time to get to know the people in the neighborhood, he says, as well as their needs. Where is his money coming from? “My wife has a little stand, and she sells cookies and cigarettes and candy.” Right.

He started PONT 2000, a community organization for the neighborhood of Makandal. He took a census of the entire zone—456 houses in a confusing maze in the poorest area of the city. He has plans to make a map of the entire zone, and to establish and name real streets. His organization runs free computer classes for residents of the neighborhood. He organized the selection of 50 of the most rundown homes to be rebuilt (that was where I came in). He is talking to every single organization that could possibly fund the construction of a school—he has even secured and cleared the land on which to build it. He has connected me with several young artists who are now making a decent amount of money selling their art in my artisan store.

He has been pushing cleanliness, building cement drainage ditches on his own time, cleaning up trash, and pushing for the construction of latrines in the area. Where people have normally gone to the bathroom and dumped their trash, he built a public park out by the water, with cement benches and a nice spot for fishing.

My time in Makandal has really given me a lot. Given the political and economic circumstances (read: isolated, overlooked), it looks like the best possible way forward. People taking stock of the resources in their own area (which often come from NGOs) and organizing themselves around issues that are important to them so that they can make those organizations more likely to use their resources in their zone. The sustainability lies in the fact that the neighborhood takes complete ownership over the work, as it is the neighborhood that advocates for the development projects. At the same time, they’re doing a tremendous amount of work to put themselves in a position that is more conducive to progress using the resources at hand in their own neighborhood, like informal education and census taking.

In the past, this neighborhood was filled with semi-permanent houses and squatters, people in between living situations that settled there temporarily, out of necessity. Since the influx of folks displaced from the earthquake, it’s become a permanent residence for most, for better or worse. Hebert has worked at revitalizing other neighborhoods in his lifetime, but not like this. “I guess I didn’t really realize what I was getting myself into. When I got here, I was pretty shocked. I didn’t know that we could come as far as we have.” When we finish the 50th house, Hebert is going to start fundraising to make a big sign for the entrance into the neighborhood that reads: Bienvenue à Makandal

Fort Matin

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 11:55:00 -0400

Sorry.

I took a little trip the other day. It went like this:

View Abricot, Dame Marie, Fort Matin in a larger map

We left Jeremie early in the morning. There, we found a bit of rioting due to some reversed election results for the Deputy of Bonbon and Abricot. Some ‘vagabonds’ were burning tires, barrels, and smashing glass bottles in the street. We skidaddled, and passed a batallion of blue-helmeted Uruguayan MINUSTAH peace-keeping forces speeding towards Jeremie. Not sure how that panned out, but we avoided it nicely.

We arrived in Abricot, a beautiful little coastal fishing village with a hostel.

The hostel was full, but there was a boat heading to Dame Marie that afternoon. So we paid a guy $2 to take us in his dug-out canoe (‘bwa fouye’ or ‘dug out wood) to the Captain George boat. In kreyòl these large boats are called ‘batiman,’ which derives from the French word for building, ‘bâtiment.’

The ship was packed with people and food and mattresses and construction materials and all manner of things. It had come directly from Port-au-Prince the previous afternoon, and it smelt like feces and throw-up and sweat. There was much yelling and transporting of goods and humans to and fro.

Somehow we ended up paying for transport to and from the ship both in Abricot and Dame Marie, but we didn’t pay for passage on the Captain George. I don’t know how this makes any sense. But! The ride was quite pretty, and the sun was quite strong. So much cursing! I guess after 24 hours on a boat people get pretty grumpy.

From Dame Marie, we walked an hour south to Fort Matin. A real nice man named Edner showed us a beach where we could set up our tent.

We bought fish from some young fishin’ boys and grilled it on the beach. Edner cut some sugar cane for us to chew on for dessert, as the sun set over the ocean.

Okay thanks send me an email Happy Easter!

still here/lost the blogarithm

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:03:24 -0500

Last weekend I went to Castillon to document the selection of 50 new houses that we’re going to rebuild. It’s a really isolated, resource-poor, and mountainous zone. I slept well in a down sleeping bag, even. I spent three days there, and we did a lot of hiking throughout the zone with the Health Agent.

This is the sub-zone of Tosier. There are perhaps 20 homes here. It is about a two hour hike from the road, and this involves going down one perilously steep ravine (some serious elevation change), and up the other side. When descending, one of my co-workers asked the health agent, Phito, why people would ever choose to live here. Phito’s response was another poignant question: “Why would you assume it’s a choice?” In the dry riverbed at the bottom of the drainage, we sat on the rocks to take a little rest and eat some comparette. I started playing with the rocks, as I tend to do. I broke one in half and gave it a sniff: petroleum! There are all sorts of things under the ground here. Resources waiting to be tapped. There are known bauxite deposits, little-known (though my geologist friend is very confident) natural gas, and oil?

February is bean-planting season. Due to a dearth of good farmland, beans are planted in the steep hillside. Yes, this is as problematic as it sounds. Collectives of planters, known as kombits or corvées, plant the beans together, and slowly work their way up the hill. They stab the ground with a machete, drop three seeds into the hole, and step on it. They sing lots of songs as they work, and show a great deal of camaraderie.

And this, mesyedam, is a really nice sunrise.

biznis fanmi a

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:46:36 -0500

Here is a family making cassava flour (and then bread, probably).

First, the older brother peels the manioc root.

Then Mom squeezes out all of the moisture (and cyanide) from the root in an old t-shirt.

Then little brother grates it all to hell.

After they dry the flour out, they can make delicious breads. It can be made sweet, with sugar and cinnamon, or salty with spices and coconut flakes (called bobory). Here is a nice video on cassava production in Haiti.

unctuous

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:45:18 -0500

This is Hebert and I in Makandal. He organized a co-op in the very poor neighborhood which has facilitated the construction of a bunch of new homes that we’ve been supporting. Behind us are some unusable latrines that we’d like to repair.

A really sweet mute woman in Testasse (perhaps she’d be less sweet if she could talk?).

Lastly, this is my boss with a bunch of chillun. They did not pose for this photograph .She is a salt of the earth Catholic nun from Missouri who once told me, “Now I’m not Haitian. I don’t dick around with prices.” She and Pierre Renel are my favorite people in Jeremie.

trying to be culturally relativistic even when it comes to slowly murdering cute puppies.

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:36:00 -0500

If you are a big fan of the beasts you may not want to read this.

There’s this guy I know who I will call Ti Terib. This isn’t his real name. He has a congenital defect that causes his arms to curl up into his body, but he was lucky enough to get surgery at a young age. While he can’t move anything heavy around or reach the glasses in the top of the cupboard, he can write and drive a motorcycle. He can also speak great english, due to the fact that he spent a bit of time in the US as a kid for the surgery. All in all, he’s quite fortunate given the cards that were dealt him. In Haiti, it’d normally be a lot worse.

He had an incident about a month ago. He didn’t cover his latrine, and a puppy fell down into the bottom of it. Instead of asking someone to help him get it out (he couldn’t, given his physical limitations) or killing it with a gun, he let it die slowly, in a pile of shit, over a period of five days. It was making all kinds of awful sounds, I am told. It makes me want to throw up and break what little arms he has. I really like dogs.

I told this story to my best friend, Pierre Renel. He is one of the sweetest and most gentle people I’ve ever met. When I finished, he started laughing really really hard. When I tried to talk about the dying puppy noises, thinking that would silence his laughter, he just chuckled even harder. Then he received a phone call, picked up, and explained that “David was just telling me a really great joke.” He looked at me and said, “This happens in Haiti, man. Did you forget about cholera already?”

So, what to take away from this? Every blan I know became fairly outraged when they heard what Ti Terib had done. Pierre Renel had said that the same thing had happened to him when he was 12 years old, living in the mountains of Leon. I saw a dead puppy today on the road while I was driving to work, and I have been thinking about it a bit today. I guess everyone has their own “I moved to a different country and was shocked to find out that they don’t take their dogs for walks or give them baths” kind of stories. This is mine.

Take good care of your dogs.

This is the moon rising over the ocean from Calas, a neighborhood up the hill that overlooks Jérémie.

"Big Setback" for Haitian Democracy as U.S. Gets Its Way

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:50:24 -0500

"Big Setback" for Haitian Democracy as U.S. Gets Its Way:

Forces Runoff Elections Between Two Right-Wing Candidates, CEPR Co-Director Says

Deportations

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:40:01 -0500

Two good articles on Haitians being deported from the US and the DR.

My friend Jeff who spent some time in Jeremie in late 2010 wrote this post for the Huffington Post. This article was written by another journalist friend of mine in Port-au-Prince, showing how cholera has affected deportations from the DR.

Enjoy!

Oh, hi blog. Sorry for neglecting you. I’ll try to give...

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:35:00 -0500

Oh, hi blog. Sorry for neglecting you. I’ll try to give you a photo and a blurb every week from now on. Promise. If I don’t make good on this promise, send me a freemale: davidernestcorner(at)gmail(dot)com

Cholera has abated for now. At the worst point (late December), the CTC in Jeremie had 200 patients. We’re down to under 40 now. Cool!
I bought a motorcycle and borrowed a helmet (featured earlier), allowing me to go on many more adventures without haggling with taxi drivers. Driving motorcycles is a little scary, but I go slowly and feel good about it.
I have a roommate who speaks English and my backgammon skills are improving.
This photo is pretty great, right? It’s not a clever candied apple. Just mud.

I have a helmet now

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:59:00 -0500

I have a helmet now

"If I spend all day shooting in a camp, I find that I can pretend until I don’t feel like..."

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 07:09:32 -0500

“

If I spend all day shooting in a camp, I find that I can pretend until I don’t feel like I’m pretending anymore. There’s a lot of urine in the gutters and parents who beat their kids, but I walk around with a straight back and smile at small children. I laugh with old ladies and share beers with old men.

I find the dignity, where it surfaces. I look for it. I write down what everyone says and feel useful. Then I come home grim, depressed.

If I’m working at home, like today, I’m looking out at the island from a hotel on a hill. Finally, I am appreciating what is beautiful here. Then it rains. I think about the tents, but since I’m not actually in one, both my guilt and my gratitude feel disingenuous.

”

- http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/15/a-journalist-in-haiti-a-year-of-collecting-pain/

Govt in Jérémie illegally raze homes of 47 families w/o notification

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:18:00 -0500

Govt in Jérémie illegally raze homes of 47 families w/o notification

Rockslide and Razing Homes in Jérémie

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:11:00 -0500

Rockslide and Razing Homes in Jérémie:

Rains caused a rockslide on Friday morning, killing a mother and 3 of her 10 children. Government showed up during the day and razed the homes of almost 40 families without any prior notification. Most of the families slept in St. Pierre School last night to get out of the rain, so I went down and talked to a lot of them this morning. Everyone lost almost all of their possessions, including birth certificates, ID cards, school books, school uniforms. No one knows where they’re going to stay tonight, and the government has still not said a word. I’m going to do some more digging and see what I can find out.

a quick visit to the u.s.

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:47:53 -0500

This trip gives me some bandwidth, so I can do a quick “photo dump,” if you will. Be warned, there are lots of photos after the jump, some of which may not be good to look at while eating.

The city of Jérémie from the road to Les Cayes. This is home, for now.

Casimir teaching a lesson on HIV/AIDS and responsible sexuality at a school in Sassier

Carpenters at work, building desks outside of the school in Sassier

Antoine and Lowney mixing Oral Rehydration Serum a day after the first cases of cholera arrived in Jérémie

Hebert presents Sister Maryann with a gift from the people of Makandal. This is after the completion of 10 new homes in the poorest neighborhood in the city.

Ecole Mixte de l’Union Patriotique de Camagnol. There are three classes squeezed into one room. None of the students have any books or uniforms.

Visiting medical staff from South Dakota treat a man for dehydration in Grand Fond

The kitchen at Sant Lespwa, making lunch for all of the students at St. Pierre School (around 1,200 meals a day)

The only school in the village of Mahotiere (above) and the students (below)

Dr. Ramlein at a dental post in Grand Fond, and Marie Michel (below), her lovely assistant

The pharmacy outside of the post in Grand Fond. Medications are always scarce—if you know of anyone who would be willing to donate large quantities of unexpired medications please get in touch with me!

Fishermen off the coast of Makandal

Madame Etenne’s home before (above) and after (below). This is the development project in the neighborhood of Makandal, where I’ve been spending a lot of my time.

Lovely old woman in Makandal

Kids in Makandal

The countryside of the Grand’Anse, on the way to Dayere

Coffee beans harvested in Campagne

Singing the Lave Men (Wash Your Hands) song at the health post in Palmiste

A donated mill from the excellent organization, Compatible Technology International. The youth group of Palmiste is receiving a training (in the cock fight arena) on how to use and maintain the mill, which they will use to make and sell peanut butter.

On the beach to the east of Jérémie, which you can see in the background

Outside of my apartment the morning after Hurricane Tomas

The Grand’Anse river and this guy. When going for walks, one often picks up one-hour friends.

My bed

Market in Carrefour Prince

The excellent nurse Marc Antoine checks a child’s breathing for an acute respiratory infection

Road work

The mill in town where AKAmil is ground

1st graders eating the akamil at lunchtime

And last but not least, a fungal infection at a post in Mahotiere. This is what happens to athlete’s foot without access to clean water and soap.

US will pay for Haitian vote fraud

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:51:01 -0500

US will pay for Haitian vote fraud

Haiti's election: Whomever they voted for, the government plans to win

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:07:00 -0500

Haiti's election: Whomever they voted for, the government plans to win:

My Dad recently told me that I post too many half-assed entries without any substantive explanations, and that sometimes hearing about gunfire and riots in Jeremie without any explanation frightens him. He’s probably right. I am, however, really really busy right now. I have several things I want to write about, but for now I’ll share this very concise roundup of the issues in the recent election. This is why people are burning tires and cars and buildings (just tires in Jeremie, though).

Today Madame Manigat and Martelly rejected a recount and a run-off that included all three candidates (i.e. one that includes Preval’s candidate from the Inite party, Jude Celestin).

The airport has been closed since last wednesday, but is scheduled to re-open on Tuesday, and I’m scheduled to fly home for a holiday visit on Saturday. Hopefully that will all work out as planned! Despite the closure, Sarah Palin still found a way to come to Haiti today.

Lastly: cholera is really bad here. Here is an article from Haiti Libre (bad translating) that gives you an idea. They’re building a second Cholera Treatment Center in Jeremie, and we’re in hyper-education mode right now. In that vein, today I worked with Aqua Clara and a bunch of nurse educators and nearby health agents to build a 55 gallon water filter out of a drum, pvc piping, 150 US pennies, and various layers of sifted sand and rocks. Next week we’ll build one out in the mountains and if it goes well, we should be able to train health agents on their construction. As my friend Pierre Emile put it, “we can teach 40 people, and they all teach 2 people, and then they teach all of their communities.” That seems to be the model around here, and I heartily approve.

the will of the people!

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:58:00 -0500

I saw this t-shirt last week. “There is no change without citizen participation.”

Presidential election results announced last night with no provincial counts, and Celestin curiously beating Martelly by less than a percent. Everyone in Haiti recognizes that this is a robbery, including the US Embassy. Lots of rioting last night, and quite a bit of gunfire. I’m sure the gossip train will be running at work today, and I’ll get an update in here pretty soon.

Mid-day Update: There are riots all over Haiti, including Jeremie. I passed two burning tires on my way to work today, and the street in front of the Hospital (and the Cholera Treatment Center) is not passable for cars and ambulances.

Things I’ve heard today from people I work with:

”Is the street hot?” “Yeah, they’re burning Martelly’s tires.”
“The police, MINUSTAH, politicians, they never do anything. I understand that, I accept that. But when Haitians do something—when we vote—the least they can do is give us that.”