BOGOTA

Mateo, David, Antonio, Gabriela, Clarita, Esther, Niko at a PARK in Bogota

lots more to say but for now Hello to DORIS and your family from COLUMBIA
Columbia misses you!!!

looking west and flying south

...our wise friend Patti says what often happen when people leave is they jump into a similar situation OR the extreme opposite OR crash in their parent's basement.  We have considered both (yes we will come sooner or later this year dear parents but not with our exploding suitcases : )  meaning we've considered WWOOFing in Nicaragua and surfing in Melbourne (i am 34 after all and haven't surfed but Googe and I have both less time and less delusions about saving the world - most places I've been there are already people doing that) 

The real reason I'm leaving Port au Prince is not lack of amenities (which actually improved our relationships and handiness), or Haitian customer service, or the perfect weather...the real reason I'm leaving is because I want to live in a walkable community.  I could say lots about how I adore walking and how fabulous walking is for a society but Enrique Peñalosa (mayor of Bogota from 1998-2000) says it so beautifully that I about had an orgasm reading it:

"One of the most powerful instruments for creating an egalitarian society is by improving public space. A high-quality park never ceases to cause joy. People need to walk and be with people, and this is essential to their happiness. Parks, green spaces and libraries make enormous improvements for the lives of the poor and create a more just, egalitarian society."  And this from Mr. Penalosa who thinks cities in the developing world are at a critical moment when they can learn from the mistakes of industrialized nations and choose to develop in a more people-friendly way.

"In order for these cities [cities in the developing world] to prosper, they must provide happiness for their citizens", the former mayor said. "This happiness does not come from individual wealth, but quality of life. This is extremely crucial for the developing world because it is our competitive edge--we cannot give high income, but we can give quality of life"

isn't it so beautiful... and true!

So we're going to Bogota (tomorrow) even though the weather is so cloudy that we probably won't stay just because I want to walk where others walk and bike just because it is essential to happiness... we'll stay until my yoga teacher training in California (Feb 19-28).  

after that only God knows...

our list looked like this on Thursday:

1. Bogota

2. Montreal

3. some city in Holland- i think Niko would be real cute speaking Dutch

4. Winnipeg/Calgary/Halifax

5. Boston- 3rd after Miami and NYC for Haitian population

6. Tanzania

7.


here are the criteria: 

- walkable and walking activists

- we don't get called out to for being black or white

- two languages is really nice and fun

Making this choice gives me the same feeling I have when I'm in Canada under the hottest-shower-I-can-stand for just a few more minutes that turns into 20.  GUILT.   Why do I have this choice and 99.99% of the world doesn't?  If you don't already think I'm crazy, while I was in Haiti, I repeatedly daydreamed (especially while someone was asking me for a loan) about being a Haitian peasant growing vegetables and taking them down the mountains to sell.   I think I'd love that!  The grass is always greener... many a Haitian no doubt thinks my life is a bowl of peaches because my husband has a car, not to mention changes diapers.   I am herein and forever more committed to not promoting this myth: that my car and my car-dependent lifestyle is more wonderful than something else.  Especially to my children.

As for the guilt if there's anyone out there who knows where I got it, let me know : )   The first time I got on a bike in Dezam, my neighbour saw me and just about fell of his bike...instead he exclaimed "SHE HAS A CAR and SHE HAS A MOTOCYCLE and SHE'S BIKING!! Yep, she really is a martian!  The director of MCC Dezam (Haitian-born Jean Remy) tells a story about going to the market and buying a sack of rice and walking home with it on his shoulder.  People saw him and yelled out "don't you care about us? if you did you would give us that job?"  "Are you too good for us now? (because you have a job with the white people: MCC).   Haitians say to me, if you can then you choose what's best for your family.  I am happy to be leaving Haiti with some Haitian values that have rubbed off onto my heart from our 5 years here, i mean there : (    Values of faith, sticking together, holding relationships tight, not holding onto stuff, the closeness of candlelight (that is easier to remember if you don't have regualar or any electricity), honouring the time it takes to prepare a meal,  honouring gender roles, always having time for children and anything else that happens in a moment...there are many.   Thank you Haiti for showing me/us a high quality of life. 
May rub Haiti off of us and onto others everywhere we go.  
sources for the Bogota stuff:  http://www.thefreelibrary.com, www.walkable.ca, Wikipedia

St. Catharines STANDARD and Sarnia OBSERVER

We were interviewed by St. Catharines Standard and Sarnia Observer.  See articles here and here:

The interviews and the subsequent stories seem to be somewhat related : )      

Thanks to our folks who hooked us up to the papers.

news

Thank you to those who have written us asking for more stories about Haiti that may complete the pictures you are seeing and hearing on the news up there...Thank you MOM, JENNIFER, JESSA and the rest of you. We've been receiving calls from CBC (Stephen Puddicombe) and the Sarnia Observer which is pretty cool. From my experience, the earthquake made what's bad in Haiti worse: physical infrastructure, people needing work and what's good in Haiti stronger: friendships, solidarity, caring for one another. We need to value these basic human needs and potentials everywhere. We need to see these stories of love!!!! We need to keep learning and working with these positives of Haiti and Haitians and the rest of us. We need to stop feeling sorry for Haitians. We need to give them what we would want. There's no "later, after this crisis" to start giving Haitians the dignity they need to move towards true independence. There's no way to peace, peace is the way. (A.J. Muste)

Facebook Saved a Life, Literally

A-Mazing story:

Our friend Trish (in Alberta) contacted me on Facebook (at 4:14 on Monday), about the brother (in Haiti) of a friend of a friend of hers (in Miami), who desperately needed dialysis after the quake. She was looking for places in PAP that had the equipment. I posted that on FB at 4:30. Got a message from an angel - Randy - on FB who I don't even know, at 4:36.  His org had brought dialysis machines to Hopital Militaire. I passed that on to Trish right away, who passed it on to her friend. The brother went to Hopital Militaire and got what he needed!

An inter-continental FB exchange that literally saved a life!!!!!!

This feels great!

Update

We are both finding it very hard to write at a time like this, so very briefly, I will just let you know that we are in the Dominican Republic. We came across by road on Sunday night. We are staying with some friends here in Santo Domingo for a few days while we figure out what to do. The "figuring out what to do" part is not easy.  I wish I were further away so I wouldn't feel such an intense draw to return. It is painful.

Thanks to everyone for all the notes, emails, comments, etc.

Matt and Esther.

life here in haiti

hi everyone, just a short message here to describe a little bit of life here post-earthquake.  this is a newer kind of blow to Haiti...the last earthquake recorded was 200 years ago so no one remembers it.  as i'm sure you've heard on the news many foreigners have been evacuated.  had we stuck around at the Canadian Embassy yesterday we would have been evacuated also...and although we are Canadian (Niko just received his temporary passport yesterday...that's why we were at the embassy) we are confused about getting evaucuated because Haiti is our home..and because we are surrounded by our Haitian neighbours and friends (all who are alive and fine- PRAISE GOD) who are not going anywhere...but rather are sitting together, processing the tragedy through stories and questions and frequent trips to the street, making and sharing food together, sleeping together (there are 25 people sleeping in our yard!), drinking coconuts together (there's a big tree in our yard!), singing together, laughing together.  Here a story an MCC friend told me that says it beautifully:  after the quake, everyone in her like many neighbourhoods, dragged their mattresses and blankets outside to sleep on top of the mountain above their houses.   They were all up there huddled up and someone said: "maybe God just thought we've been sleeping our houses too much."  My neighbour (another MCCer) asked me if i minded all the people in "my" yard.  I said, no way I LOVE it!! they keep me company and they feed us, play with Gabriela, and let me know when Niko needs to nurse because the rest of the time they are rocking him, singing to him, admiring him, teaching him Creole but more than these personal advantages for a tired Mama, watching these Haitians be together, support eachother, be in this moment is massaging my heart.  i wouldn't miss this for the world or for a hotel with stable electricity.  so as yet another mission arrives to rescue Haiti, Haiti is continuing it's mission as usual.  that's that. 
on the other hand, maybe why these folks are so chill about this earthquake is because they are so used to blows to the head.  there are people who's job it is to pick up bodies and load them into dumptrucks, there people who are gravely injured laying waiting in the dark not knowing how long they'll be there, there is a woman who stepped out to the market and came back to find her house collapsed her husband and daughter dead inside.   A Haitian friend of mine said today: now people won't build crappy houses here anymore!  but the reality is they will rebuild crappy houses for the same reason they built a crappy house in the first place.  there doesn't appear to be another good option for the majority in Haiti who are trying nothing more than to go to school, to work, to start a family, to raise children, in a peanut shell:  to be human.  it feels inhumane to be packing up and flying off.  (AS FOR OUR PERSONAL PLANS, a total minor news story,...as many of you know, we were planning to leave Haiti anyway...in fact just before the earthquake Matt and I were in the midst of our very popular discussion-- where are we going from here?  and well, we didn't decide Tuesday and by now what we've decided that we will try to get to the Domnican Republic where we have a friend, a wise friend who we hope will help us listen to where we will go next.  we'll keep you posted...we keep praying with you for ourselves and the world around us.)  love from us in HAITI

Barbies Without Borders

Two stories that I read a while ago, about big-hearted and well-meaning folks in North America trying to make a difference for Haiti again reminded me of the importance of sharing and showing the reality of the impact of "aid." An organization in Minnesota sent 285,000 pre-prepared meals to Haiti just before the holidays to help fight hunger. "We have decorations, we have presents, we have all this stuff and it's like a present to these kids is food...There's a cure for starvation, it's food and so if we can just get food into their bellies I think we can stop starvation, that's my hope, that's my Christmas hope if you will." In South Florida, a group of people is organizing a toy drive for Haiti and other countries in the Caribbean. I feel like a scrooge for saying it, but I really wonder what the long-term impact of sending anatomically impossible and very white Barbies to Haiti is! I mean really, Barbies!!

The "sending food" issue is more frustrating because of the great agricultural potential that Haiti has. In a nutshell, Haiti used to produce the majority of its food needs, especially rice. Deforestation and other economic factors have drastically reduced agricultural output here. In addition, the importation of foreign rice, made all the more possible for virtually no tariffs on those imports, means that rice production is nothing compared to what it used to be.

We all, me included, have this idea that we can change Haiti somehow, with our smarts and experience (we wrote a bit about that here) and by sending food and other stuff. But I really believe that real change will happen when Haitians in Haiti are empowered (by education, by access to resources, by a government that facilitates and encourages change and investment, etc). (Our friend Alexis, the MCC Haiti Policy Analyst, does a good job of posing this conundrum in a post about shoes.) It's frustrating and complex - balancing a heartfelt desire to help with and understanding of what really does help and I don't pretend to have the magic bullet. I guess we keep talking about it, keep caring about others, keep seeking motivation to help and keep asking ourselves, and more importantly, those we work with and those who benefit from this "help" about what they want and what works . . .

The debate continues.