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.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
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.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Looking out, looking back.
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
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
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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
Friday, July 21, 2006
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.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Tree Planting Edition
Greetings friends far and wide,
these days we get up at 4 AM or before to be at one of the 22 tree nurseries
at dawn when the local population is expected to show up with baskets,
plastic containers, buckets, and calabash shells to pick up trees. It's
early but great fun and lots of chaos (mostly because standing in a line
isn't natural-- remember grade 1-- and many here haven't done it so push to
the front, stand in the middle of the path, and call out "mango, manGO,
MANGO" until you get one or, worse, beg your friends who work in the tree
nursery to give you whatever you want out of ORDER which drives us anal N.
Americans crazy and provides obvious insights into Haitian politics.
We DO love the work. Growing trees in the sunshine. It's like hugs for the
heart. See photo of Matt handing out mangoes to the young ones (on the blog
site). We do mangoes last as a bribe to get folks to leave (that's why they
all have their containers on their heads). the truth is as all my degroots
can tell you, it's just fun hanging out in a pepinyè/tree nursery!
getting up at 4AM means. . . you go to bed in the rain . . . well . . .
ideally. It seems to rain for a few days and then stop for a few days.
This has caused a bit of havoc in our tree distributions which start with
the rains. It's a crazy, but very rewarding time of year because it is the
culmination of the last 8 months of work with MCC's 22 local tree nurseries
and school tree nurseries (for their 1st year). We don't have the final
figures yet, but we hope that we will reach our objective of planting around
375,000 trees this year.
We will post a few pictures on our blog site, so head on over there if you
want to see what a tree distribution looks like. Although the pictures don't
do justice to it, it will at least give you a glimpse. Of course, if you
were to visit at this time, you'd see for yourself how fun and crazy it is
all at the same time.
On a personal note, we are planning to be in Canada for a few weeks in July.
We will probably bump into at least a few of you. I (Matt) will head out to
Vancouver for 5 days to be with my brother and sister-in-law and my
nephew/niece in utero, as well as some great friends that I haven't seen in
forever. The plan is to catch up, fish, eat and watch Holland win the World
Cup!
Hup Holland Hup!
The rest of the time will be in Ontario. I (Esther) will spend most of the
time with A&T family in Sarnia specifically Lake Huron where we'll catch up
with Matt after Vancouver. After we get back to Haiti in mid-July, we are
hoping that they be a darling baby arriving ! Of course, we are excited, and
ANXIOUS too. The first-time parent jitters I guess. Please pray for us as
we will be new parents and we're also going to try some ancient/modern
things like adoptive breastfeeding (I, Esther am already on drugs, herbs,
and breast stimulation so we can partially feed our babe naturally) and
diaper-free (we've never seen a disposable and rarely a cloth diaper on a
Haitian baby). We'd appreciate your prayers and support already (especially
Mama Natty herself Tanya Black). So, the next time you hear from us, it may
very well be the baby news!
(For parents with babies 6 months or under, do check out Ingrid Bauer's
Diaper Free. It's obvious and could save a land from being filled.)
Stay tuned, and be well.
Don't forget to check the blog site for pictures:
http://www.mattandestherinhaiti.blogspot.com
Matt and Esther, planting trees in Haiti, with big smiles!
prayer requests:
1. rain for Dezam area and all of Haiti
2. health and goat proofing for the new young trees being planted daily
3. health for the mother and baby in utero that we hope to adopt and our
several siblings who are expecting as well.
4. health for our young laundry woman's daughter who is 7 months pregnant
and suffering without explanation.
5. safe travels and happiness as we get together with family and some of you
too
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Earth Day Edition
Happy Earth Day EVERYONE !
We hope you are all out enjoying Springtime, working in your gardens, planting trees ?! (and reading e-mail from Haiti : -)
Tree-planting season is nearly here in Haiti. We’re so excited about planting and even more EXCITED about becoming parents. We wanted to share a little bit of planting and parenting with you. We believe both will be good for the future of this little island.
Adoptions aren’t free, so we thought about selling something Haitian like vanilla or handicrafts-- but you’re already probably trying to Spring-clean your house . . .
. . . so here’s our idea. For every dollar you donate to our adoption of a Haitian baby, we will plant or give out a tree seedling to our friends and neighbours for them to plant. Currently we need to raise around $1750 CAN ($1500 US) (There is no minimum or maximum to trees seedling we are ready to plant!)
The trees we plant and give out for planting in gardens, mountainsides, fresh water springs, and riverbeds on the island off Haiti will be part of the heritage of our little one and the other little ones of Haiti who are growing up and learning the great gift of trees.
If you have some money left over and do want to try something Haitian, check out your grocery store and you may have the chance to taste a bit of Haiti in a mango. Baskets and donkeys and trucks loaded with perfect mangoes travel through and from Dezam daily. That’s right, it’s mango season and Haitian mangoes are coming soon to a store near you. Not much is sweeter than a Haitian mango (see photo below for evidence)!
If you’re not ready to help out with money, thoughts, prayers and e-mails are just as welcome! Adopting feels like a daunting challenge, but with all of your love and support we already feel hopeful about where this adventure is going.
Here are the contacts for donations by cash or cheque:
Ted and Marge Van Geest
59 Simpson Rd.
St. Catharines, ON L2N 3Z5
OR
Thea and Art DeGroot
6090 Brigden Rd.
Sarnia, ON N7T 7H2
Mèsi !
Esther and Matt
(Here’s our e-mail: greatspirit@fastmail.fm)
DISCLAIMER: So you’ve probably noticed, we’re all about trees. Please note that the trees we plant and give out to raise money for our adoption are NOT in any way part of our reforestation work with MCC.
**Also, MCC is helping us out by paying the equivalent amount to childbirth costs in Haiti (~$2500 US). The total cost of adoption within Haiti is around $4000 US. If total donations exceed $1500 US, we will turn over the extra $ to MCC.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Motorcycle Diaries
Well, it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the famous motorcycle journey of Ché Guevara, but our recent motorbike trip was quite the adventure anyway. This past Sunday, myself and three other MCCers (James, Brian and Edwin) headed out on our motorbikes from Port-au-Prince. Destination: Jeremie and the Southern peninsula. James and Edwin are both leaving Haiti soon and neither had seen that part of the country yet, so we decided to check it out.
I ride my motorbike a lot for work in Dezam, but I’ve never been on it for more than an hour in a row, so even after the first few hours after leaving Port, my butt was pretty sore. This would become a theme of the trip.
I won’t get into all the details, just share a few highlights;
The road from Aux Cayes on the southern coast all around the western tip of the southern coast was quite good. We were expecting this road to be terrible and the road from Jeremie to Aux Cayes over the mountains to be much better. The coastal road was beautiful, winding it’s way in and out of the mountains and spending a lot of time along the beach. There are a few pictures here on the blog site of this road. The road of the mountains, which is a national highway, was, in fact, complete junk. It was rough, windy, rocky and not a lot of fun to drive on. We made it though!
We got a great (and free) lunch at a little guesthouse on the way to Aux Cayes, which even included chocolate cake for desert. Chocolate cake became another one of our themes, and it even made a welcome appearance a few days later! After lunch, we hit the beach and did some body boarding in the waves. Very fun.
There are some beautiful, clean, well kept towns on the south western coast, including Aristide’s hometown of Port Salud. We stopped once and tried to buy some beachfront property, but all the guy wanted to talk about was the need for a latrine project in his community. Since this wasn’t a work trip, we didn’t pursue that one and quickly gave up on the idea of buying his land. Maybe someday though!
When we got to Jeremie, we had no idea where we were going to stay so just started driving. Ed had heard of a place outside of town so we took a road we thought might go in that direction. We stopped at the local airport and started asking around about hotels and they pointed us to a place further up the road which was owned by a Haitian-Canadian couple. It was a little paradise at most end of the road place you can get. It was a beautiful place, quiet, good food and nice hammocks. We played cards, drank a few Prestige’s but didn’t brave the ocean because it was too cold. The rain came that night, which cooled things off, but made us a bit afraid of the roads the next day.
They didn’t turn out to be too bad despite the rain, but it was a bit muddy at times. Nothing these intrepid motorbikers couldn’t handle though. We hit Jeremie, filled our tanks and headed for the mountain road that would complete our loop back to Aux Cayes. On our final day, we were going from Aux Cayes to Port in order to make it to a farewell lunch for James back at the MCC office. The day was going smoothly until an unfortunate accident where an old man crossed the road in front of Ed. Ed started to veer around him to the right thinking the man would keep going. The man froze, hesitated, then turned back, in the same direction Ed had just veered. He hit him head on. Both hit the pavement hard. James, Brian and I were a bit further back and didn’t see it happen and when we got there a large crowd had already formed. Ed waved us down and we stopped. The old guy was pretty hurt and we started figuring out what to do. We wanted to pay some money and get out of there. Accidents can be bad for the driver in that crowds can get angry and violent at times. We about had it settled and were going to take off when we realized that someone had taken Ed’s bike key. More talking and finally it was agreed that we would go to the hospital with the man to ensure he was ok and to pay all the necessary expenses. This was another adventure. Hospitals are notorious for exploitation and the fact that we were white didn’t help. We ended up spending about 3 hours there, including having to go ourselves to the pharmacy and to pick up the X-ray tech to get x-rays done. We paid for all the expenses and a handsome sum to the family on top of that. Ed decided to take off about half way through just in case there were more problems. The family started to ask where he was but we just said that he went to check something out and he would come back. We finally got it settled and hit the road again meeting up with Ed just outside of Port.
We finally made it back to the office around 5 where they still had a little food left over from the farewell party that we, including the guest of honour, missed. All told, we did almost 800 km’s from Port to Aux Cayes, Jeremie and back. Total riding time over the 5 days was probably 35 hours. I had a great time and was really happy I went. The pictures here show some more of the story. I don’t know if I need to do a trip like that in a while, but it sure is a great way to see a country!
I ride my motorbike a lot for work in Dezam, but I’ve never been on it for more than an hour in a row, so even after the first few hours after leaving Port, my butt was pretty sore. This would become a theme of the trip.
I won’t get into all the details, just share a few highlights;
The road from Aux Cayes on the southern coast all around the western tip of the southern coast was quite good. We were expecting this road to be terrible and the road from Jeremie to Aux Cayes over the mountains to be much better. The coastal road was beautiful, winding it’s way in and out of the mountains and spending a lot of time along the beach. There are a few pictures here on the blog site of this road. The road of the mountains, which is a national highway, was, in fact, complete junk. It was rough, windy, rocky and not a lot of fun to drive on. We made it though!
We got a great (and free) lunch at a little guesthouse on the way to Aux Cayes, which even included chocolate cake for desert. Chocolate cake became another one of our themes, and it even made a welcome appearance a few days later! After lunch, we hit the beach and did some body boarding in the waves. Very fun.
There are some beautiful, clean, well kept towns on the south western coast, including Aristide’s hometown of Port Salud. We stopped once and tried to buy some beachfront property, but all the guy wanted to talk about was the need for a latrine project in his community. Since this wasn’t a work trip, we didn’t pursue that one and quickly gave up on the idea of buying his land. Maybe someday though!
When we got to Jeremie, we had no idea where we were going to stay so just started driving. Ed had heard of a place outside of town so we took a road we thought might go in that direction. We stopped at the local airport and started asking around about hotels and they pointed us to a place further up the road which was owned by a Haitian-Canadian couple. It was a little paradise at most end of the road place you can get. It was a beautiful place, quiet, good food and nice hammocks. We played cards, drank a few Prestige’s but didn’t brave the ocean because it was too cold. The rain came that night, which cooled things off, but made us a bit afraid of the roads the next day.
They didn’t turn out to be too bad despite the rain, but it was a bit muddy at times. Nothing these intrepid motorbikers couldn’t handle though. We hit Jeremie, filled our tanks and headed for the mountain road that would complete our loop back to Aux Cayes. On our final day, we were going from Aux Cayes to Port in order to make it to a farewell lunch for James back at the MCC office. The day was going smoothly until an unfortunate accident where an old man crossed the road in front of Ed. Ed started to veer around him to the right thinking the man would keep going. The man froze, hesitated, then turned back, in the same direction Ed had just veered. He hit him head on. Both hit the pavement hard. James, Brian and I were a bit further back and didn’t see it happen and when we got there a large crowd had already formed. Ed waved us down and we stopped. The old guy was pretty hurt and we started figuring out what to do. We wanted to pay some money and get out of there. Accidents can be bad for the driver in that crowds can get angry and violent at times. We about had it settled and were going to take off when we realized that someone had taken Ed’s bike key. More talking and finally it was agreed that we would go to the hospital with the man to ensure he was ok and to pay all the necessary expenses. This was another adventure. Hospitals are notorious for exploitation and the fact that we were white didn’t help. We ended up spending about 3 hours there, including having to go ourselves to the pharmacy and to pick up the X-ray tech to get x-rays done. We paid for all the expenses and a handsome sum to the family on top of that. Ed decided to take off about half way through just in case there were more problems. The family started to ask where he was but we just said that he went to check something out and he would come back. We finally got it settled and hit the road again meeting up with Ed just outside of Port.
We finally made it back to the office around 5 where they still had a little food left over from the farewell party that we, including the guest of honour, missed. All told, we did almost 800 km’s from Port to Aux Cayes, Jeremie and back. Total riding time over the 5 days was probably 35 hours. I had a great time and was really happy I went. The pictures here show some more of the story. I don’t know if I need to do a trip like that in a while, but it sure is a great way to see a country!
Friday, April 14, 2006
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