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Breaking News from Haiti

Breaking News: Something Happening In Haiti

Cool Photography Project in Haiti

Just stumbled across a pretty interesting photography project going on with students here in Haiti.
Here is an excerpt from the website http://www.rocksandtrees.ca/haiti/index.html

Gabriela and the coffee tree

monday is market day in Leje

Gabriela and the "mi mi"

Money

Money is a touchy issue here in Haiti. As foreigners, we are constantly associated with having it. As employees of a development organization that finances community development work, we are looked to as a major source. On the street, we are almost constantly asked for it. It's frustrating and has been one of the most challenging aspects of living in Haiti. It was similar when we lived in Senegal.

BUT, just the other day we were in a little deli/restaurant about 45 minutes away, on our way to Port au Prince. Inside were two boisterous, loud, middle aged Americans from Kansas or something. They were super happy to see us. They didn't speak a lot of kreyol and were obviously just off the plane, doing some kind of mission trip for spring break or something.
Anyway, we got to talking and joking around. They asked what we were doing in Haiti, who we worked for, etc. Then, of course, we got to talking about money. They asked if we had to raise our own support, if we were paid, etc. We explained the MCC system and that we get a small stipend per month, but also get most of our living expenses covered. I guess these guys started feeling sorry for us so they offered to pay for our lunch. We politely declined, saying that it was covered by MCC and wouldn't come out of our pocket, so it wasn't a big deal.

I couldn't believe what happened next.

One of the guys whipped out his wallet and stated rifling through his Haitian money - gourdes. He obviously wasn't familiar with the value of the different currency notes, so he pulls out two 50's and literally throws them at me and says, "here, take this." He's got this big goofy look on his face like he is the most generous friendly God Bless America kinda guy in the world. I look down at the money and see the two 50's, which actually equals about $2.50 US and just couldn't believe how insulted I felt by this dirty, cheap gesture. In a way, I appreciated the thought - he was trying to be generous to us when he realized that we really don't make any money doing our work here in Haiti. But at the same time, I was totally insulted that first, he literally threw the money at me, second that it was less than three bucks (kinda like giving a little kid a quarter to go buy a popsicle) and third, that he thought that money would make me feel good.

It was quite the cultural experience and sure made me laugh.

MvG

Shout out

Just wanted to send a shout out to our friend and colleague Kurt. Kurt's the dude who showed me how to post videos on our blog - much to the grandparent's delight. Kurt is a cool cat and you can check him out at http://www.kwhildebrand.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Matt

Gabriela Stands!

Gabriela Eats Sugarcane

Esther's parents have arrived and we went for a walk today to see some gardens near our house, including our colleague Jean Remy's sugar cane garden. We all sat in the shade eating sugar cane and Gabriela felt a little left out. So, here she is, sucking on her first piece of sugar cane.

Gabriela and Esther Laughing

Looking out, looking back.

Looking out, looking back., originally uploaded by Gabriela Dora.

We recently took a trip up above Port au Prince to an area called Kenscoff. It's lovely and cool, a nice break from the heat and dirtiness of Port au Prince. Kurt, another MCCer and I, are looking out over a valley filled with small mountainside farms. Gabriela is looking back at Esther.

We're back

Well, it's been quite a while since we've posted. To learn what has been going on the last six months, go over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/17291444@N00/

Gabriela has been keeping us busy and there have been lots of ups and downs. We celebrate the ups and are working through the downs. Thanks for your support!

Our work with MCC continues to go well. The new tree planting season is just starting. January and February are the first few months for the tree nurseries to get organized, get materials prepared and start planting seeds. This will all culminate in June with the eventual distribution of more than 400,000 trees. The school program is also going well and we have added 4 new school this past year.

Anyway, this is just a quick update. We hope to get back into blogging a bit more. Don't forget to check out our picture site on flickr too - http://www.flickr.com/photos/17291444@N00/

Blessings to you all.

Matt and Esther

Which way to go - the Bagdhadisation of Haiti or nation building?

(copied from
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000043/004339
.htm)

Which way to go - the Bagdhadisation of Haiti or nation building?

Monday, November 20, 2006

by Jean H Charles

When the Americans invaded Baghdad and the citizens of that city descended
onto the Museum to pilfer and steal documents and pieces that go back to the
beginning of civilisation, I thought here we are again: the Iraqis and the
Haitians are brothers under the skin.

After each so-called revolution, some Haitians have gone on to destroy the
best pieces that are part of their national patrimony. It came to my mind
that pacifying Iraqi will be a difficult task if it is not reasoned within
the context of nation building. Two years after the invasion, the issue of
nation building or pacification of the belligerents is still the debate du
jour.

Saddam Hussein, like his comrade Mashall Tito, had kept his country united
with the sheer tools of dictatorship, using one group to dominate and
oppress another one. Yugoslavia was dismantled into several countries as
soon as Tito was dethroned. Iraq might sink into a civil warfare that might
create three or four Iraqs if the concept of nation building is not quickly
ingrained into the ethos of the population.

Haiti has been going through the same process. A pioneer of people
self-determination, it has shown the way through independence (after) and
nation building (before) the United States. This guiding light was of a
short span, Haiti descended into revisionism from 1806 (the assassination of
its founder father: Jean Jacques Dessalines) to today, 2006. It is
inhospitable to the majority of its population: the former slaves that
climbed the mountains after the independence have not received any
privileges or rights of citizenship. They live in their rural counties where
successive governments have not bothered to invest the minimum of capital
infrastructure to create roads, build schools and hospitals for them. Two
governments that claimed to remedy that problem, Duvalier and Aristide, have
in the end exacerbated the Haitian situation by using the Tito and the
Saddam Hussein tools (the Ton Ton Macoutes and the Chimeres) to maintain a
stable and submissive Haiti.

Which way for Haiti, or as a matter of fact for Iraq? Should the United
Nations through the MINUSTHA keep order in Cité Soleil (one of the major
slums of Haiti) with the cannons and the tanks or should it become a
catalyst for the creation of a Haiti that will be hospitable to all. The
same equation is also valuable for Iraq: should the American and Coalition
forces maintain order with more troops or should they urge the Kurds, the
Shiites and the Sunnis to create an Iraq where all the citizens of the same
country will strive for a shared vision of the future.

This question is at the heart of most of the problems of this world. Should
the United States build a wall à la Israel to keep the Mexicans from
entering illegally into this country or should it urge Mexico to become more
hospitable to its own people, so they will have no urge to leave their
homeland? Should France make life miserable for the Africans in France as a
deterrent for tempting to immigrate to France, or should it urge the African
leaders to be more sensitive to the needs of their people, so immigration
would not be an enviable option.

In the end, the salvation for Haiti or Iraq resides in the strong will of
the government and of the civil society to create a nation where the shared
vision of the future is part of the ethos and of the fabric of the
citizenry. The United States through the Civil War and the Civil Rights
Movement has suffered the labour pain of creating that impulse where black
and white feel united in creating a country where the shared vision of the
future is tantamount. The United States will win the hearts and the minds of
the people of this world if it is willing to export and sell its experience
of nation building. The war against terrorism has a strong ally in the
concept of nation building but terrorism will thrive in the land of failed
States and perishes naturally in countries where nationhood is a state
policy.

The people of the United States have changed course in the midterm elections
because the protracted war in Iraq led by the Republican government seems
without an issue. In fact, the people of Iraq like the people of Haiti (with
MINUSTHA nicknamed TOURISTHA by the naughty Haitian mind) have lost
confidence in their saviour to bring them into the Promised Land. In Haiti,
like in Iraq, kidnappings and terrorism have quadrupled under the nose of
the occupying forces. There will never be enough troops to pacify those
countries unless and until the local population sees itself part of the new
paradigm of building a country that will be good and benevolent to all. In
Haiti, I have not seen a minimum of signals that a caring government or a
caring United Nations are involved in injecting the sense that Cité Soleil
is unfit for human habitation, that the development of Haiti will start when
each rural county will receive a minimum of investment or patronage to take
off with the multiplying synergy of the willing Haitian work force.

I was visiting some Caribbean islands recently: Dominica (an interesting
model of governance), St Lucia (where there are no slums), and Antigua (on
the move!); It pains me that Haiti, with its nine million inhabitants; with
a century-old university that provides every year thousands of young
professionals in medicine, law and engineering; with a Diaspora filled with
luminaries, cannot get itself together to lead the region in vision, growth
and development.

Iraq, the ancient Mesopotamia - the Mother of Civilisation - like Haiti -
the cradle of black emancipation - should become respectively the guiding
light for the Middle East and the motor of the Caribbean region when both
countries will understand that salvation comes from within in reconciling
with thy brethren to create a nation that is good for all.

Jean H Charles, MWS, JD, is Executive Director of AIDNOH Inc, a non-profit
organisation dedicated to make Haiti more hospitable to Haitians. He can be
reached at Jeanhcharles@aol.com

Gabriela sightings.

Gabriela has escaped cyberspace! She's obviously out exploring.
She has been sighted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17291444@N00/ where
she has her own slideshow. Check her out : )

Fans of Gabriela.

Visitors!

Visitors!
Originally uploaded by mattnest.