Day 14: It's Friday Friday gotta get down on Friday

Today was our vacation day, but apparently my immune system took a vacation as well. The day started out fun with great weather and an awesome beach resort. I enjoyed the sun, sand, and waves. However I got sick. I had a slight fever and an uneasy stomach. I thought it might go away, but it got worse as the day went on and I even missed the good meal they set out because of how sick I felt. Delmonte prayed for me and I took a few tums and I felt a little better.

It was really strange seeing how segregated the beach was as the only Haitians there were those trying  sell us stuff. The only Haitians there to enjoy themselves were Delmonte and Macles. Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere, so it made sense that they wouldn't be able to afford a day or week off to relax, which got me to thinking about the best way to help -if there is a way to help. Since Haiti is in the natural resource trap, the bad government trap and occasionally the civil war trap, Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion maintains that sending more aid will only worsen the problem or give minimal assistance at best. It seems Haiti is in a bit of a rut and needs leaders from its own community to help it out. 

Day 13: A day out in the fields/ A visit from St. Nicholas

Remember that scene from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? The one where Peter, Edmond, Susan, and Lucy were walking through Narnia and they think they here the sleigh bells of the Witch, but it was actually Saint Nicholas coming to give them gifts that they desperately needed? That was how today was -except that we didn't run away from a witch.

We went to Thomaseau to inspect the fields and give suggestions on how they can fix certain problems. The funny part came when they would ask us to repeat the presentation to those who had missed it. Every time the first presenter would go and they would ask a question totally unrelated. Actually, all of their questions revolved around instant solutions to pest control and soil improvements. Mission of Hope's Haitian staff answered a lot of the specific questions.

During the trip here I've been questioning where God wants we to go with my career, specifically if He wants me on the Pre-Med path. God sent Dr. Steve Smith like Santa to the Peter, Edmond, Susan, and Lucy. He told us a lot about his Pre-Med school experiences and his medical school experiences. Apparently it's only 6 years of academics (including undergrad) and the rest is on the job training. It was good to get a glimpse of what medical school holds for me.

Day 12: More of NOT being the monkey

Remember how when the NU group visited a village uninvited and kind of awkwardly, and then we visited Turpin and felt acceptance and less like Duane Elmer's monkey? This time we did it even better.

Today, I felt like a celebrity, in all the good ways. We went to a Thomaseau, a remote farming community in a valley. We greatly respected and they even had a few drinks and snacks waiting for us when we arrived. We were able to give more advanced presentations and they drank in the information. When I spoke, I forgot to mention my name and after my presentation they made a big deal of knowing my name and I felt honored.

They Thomaseau community valued the help and were puzzled as to why we did it for free. They even gave us a lavish meal of chicken, rice, and other vegetables they were growing. Tomorrow we get to investigate their fields and help problem solve troublesome areas in their farms. I feel that this approach was a lot more relevant and part of the Haitian culture, or at least done in a way they respect.

On a side note was totally rude to one the members of the NU team today. Devon said something I disagreed with and I feel like the way in which I voiced my thoughts was too harsh as it closed off any room for discussion. I tend to do this a lot, so I hope she knows that I respect her and care about her.

Also, we got stuck on the way back, which was a pretty fun adventure in and of itself.

Day 11: Delmonte Shapes Up

Previously on the NU Haiti trip...

Delmonte had not worked at all. He passively stood while the team and Macles (the other translator worked their butts off. However, when word reached his supervisors about his work ethic, he had but one choice: shape up or shape out...

After the some one had a conversation with Delmonte's supervisors, his behaviour drastically changed. He worked a lot harder and even broke a sweat. Clearly hard work is in Haitian culture, just Delmonte needed some gentle reminders. Delmonte is actually a very talented young man and demonstrates what Paul Colliers in The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, calls the "brain drain" or that when a country falls behind and all the talent leaves to more prosperous areas. Also, we worked on fixing up a small field and planting 4 different types of wheat seeds in it. 

Despite the focus being on work today, one of the interns still managed to annoy me. I don't know if he would normally annoy me, but it was just the right amount of me being tired, him being both arrogant and overly talkative, or that he didn't work very hard.  I later observed that what I perceived to be arrogance may have just been his nervous reaction. That is, that he may have talked arrogantly about himself and his family and everything he's ever done because he was nervous. I hope it was a nervous reaction. 

Day 10: Mobile Medical Clinic Day!

You can learn a lot about a culture by examining the people of that culture medically. That's what I did today.  I was in the triage station, so I organized about 40 patients by taking vitals (pulse, temperature, and blood pressure) and asking some basic health history questions through an interpreter.

Haitians have a very high emphasis on cleanliness, but they don't understand that to clean some one, you need clean water. This is evidenced in that all of the women that came in today had one common complaint: vaginal itching and discharge. Not only do they douche a lot, but they use dirty river water to do this which is the source of their discomfort. With some basic knowledge of about proper cleanliness this problem could be corrected.

What surprised me most was when a 16 year old girl walked in. Her right eye was swollen with bleeding in her eye with the surrounding area being heavily bruised. When I asked her how she got it, she said her father beat her. The translator didn't even flinch. when I asked him about it later, he said it was normal for a man to beat his children or wife in Haiti. Not an organized spanking or some form of discipline, but just a man losing his temper and beating his family. While some things may be right or merely different, this aspect of Haitian culture is wrong.

Day 9: What will heaven be like?

We went to church today and it was wonderful. Normally I would tune out to a service in an entirely different language, but today was different. Even though more than half of the songs were in Creole, there was a great peace and I felt like God was there. 

I let a couple of kids use my Tablet even though it had my Bible on it. It felt good to let them use it for a bit and I got to use the time to just talk to God. The pastor only seemed to reference the scriptures anyways. The Haitian Pastor is pretty animated and I couldn't tell if it was one of those "Fire and Brimstone" services or he was just excited. I'm glad I couldn't because it would have ruined the whole experience if it was a fire and brimstone service. 

Also their churches are a lot more open, literally. Most of the "walls" are metal bars placed to  in such a way that they don't give you the impression that you're in a prison, which is quite a feat for metal bar windows. 

Even though it was in a different language it was beautiful and made me think of what Heaven will be like. Since I knew the songs it wasn't to hard to follow. I figure Heaven will have people of every culture so it'll have a bit of this feeling we had today where there were Haitians and American Christians coming together to worship God.

Day 8: Foiled by the Fallen Rain

Yesterday we collected soil samples reflecting only the field we planted in. Our goal today was to take soil samples from the surrounding area to see how we could best serve the Turpin community. God had different plans for us as the road to Turpin was completely blocked by a river that had swelled due to the rainfall we've had in the past few days.

Instead of more soil sampling, we given a unique opportunity. We learned how the recent cholera epidemic was handled and the RN was willing to let some of us shadow Mission Of Hope's mobile medical clinic. She gave us pointers on how to read blood pressure and pulse. Also she told us how they had to hire equally from all the gangs in City Solei to keep them from attacking each other while they were handling the Cholera epidemic.

Later Dr. Dirt, Dr. Steinkamp, Cristina, Andee, Hannah, Devan, Carly, Angela, and I went to see how bad the river was. It had cleared up by the time we got there to a reasonable depth to cross so we went on and saw a pretty good layout of the land. Also we saw a site that looked like it may have been used for some ritual and got to do spider hunting.

Day 7: Soil Sampling Solei

Today we cultivated soil and planted the beans we sorted yesterday. The goal is to find a variety that is resistant to the plant virions in the Haitian soil, has good nodulation, and can grow in harsh soil conditions (Nodulation is when the bacteria in a root forms a node which is used to transfer some of the nitrogen from the air into the soil so it can be used by plants). In all we planted 1200+ st. ft. of bean seeds for 3 reps of 100 seeds for 16 different varieties with a total of 4800 seeds planted. We also sampled the soil around the area.

Turpin is a generous village as the local church donated the field we used so we could conduct research. A big sacrifice as it could have produced a lot of food for them. Besides that they were also very hospitable and even brought us a large bowl full of mangoes.

We also got to view the spectrum of the Haitian work ethic. Delmonte just sat there and tried to take pictures of himself to make it look like he was working, while Macles worked his butt off. I think this is just a representation of the individuals themselves and not of Haitian society as a whole although I am told that Haitians think it strange to see 1 or 2 Haitians working with a group of Americans if they're not getting paid. Delmonte was getting paid so he's still not excused.

Day 6: Banishing the Bad Beans

Today we presented i n a different mountain village to present and the canter couldn't make it up a hill. So we walked the rest of the way. A whole forty yards. This village also accepted us quickly and surprisingly all the kids of the village really liked Delmonte as he led them through a few spontaneous games and songs. The guy definitely has a way with children.

One of the strange quirks of Haitian culture is when it is appropriate to be naked. Apparently as long as you are either bathing or washing clothes it doesn't matter where you are. even swimming counts. A lot of the time they bath or wash clothes right next to the road or village and don't really care if who's watching.

While we gave our presentations we received a little visit from the local witch doctor. He was polite and didn't cause a scene, which apparently he did last year.

After we got back we started sorting beans for an experiment that Dr. Dirt is doing. Mostly we just threw out the bad beans.

Also, a few of our crew probably need a "strategic withdrawal" as their snapping a little easier at each other. Duane Elmer calls a "strategic withdrawal" a temporary withdrawal from the foreign culture to give yourself a break and then to re-enter. I'm hoping our problems will be fixed by some sleep and a little break from the new culture.

Day 5: Presenting the info like a boss

Yesterday was a day of awkward. Today was a day of feeling like a boss. Yesterday we barged into a village unannounced. Today we were invited and sought after. This time I did not feel like a monkey.

We traveled to Turpin to give the farmers a presentation on the nutrient needs of plants, composting, and how to improve their soil. Seems like no big deal, but the farmers stopped farming about forty years ago and they lost a lot of knowledge about farming. Also Haitian farmers believe that if they add anything to the soil their crop is no longer Haitian. Convoy of Hope wants to help them with seeds and farming education. Convoy of hope only gives them seed if they agree to get instruction and give Convoy of Hope ten percent of their harvest; that way it's a hand up and not a hand out.The farmers were attentive (at least for the first two hours) and asked some good questions about the material mostly about pest control and didn't seem like they had a hard time with composting as we had expected them to. 

After the presentation we explored the farmland, which was pretty flippin' sweet! I felt like David Livingstone or Bear Grylls. Mostly today was good because there were no forced conversations or asking for handouts, just us working with the Haitians. We treated them with respect by not treating the people like zoo animals and in turn they opened up to us and gave us respect. It works a lot better this way. 

Day 4: Voyage into the Village (Feelin' like a monkey)

In Duane Elmer's Book, he brings up a short illustration about a monkey and a fish. The monkey notices a fish, struggling in the river. The monkey decides that he wants to help this struggling fish. At great risk to himself he goes out on a limb and after a few tries he successfully grabs the fish. After his valiant rescue the monkey notices the fish struggles at first, but finally it attains a great peace and "rests". Feeling a new burst of confidence the monkey walks off, having saved another life. 

Today I felt like that monkey. From the start, the day was set up to achieve this; neither of our professors accompanied us and even the Mission of Hope intern/guide failed to show. With just our two translators, Delmonte and Macles (Marco), we started our trek into some smaller village near Leveque... or Bercy... I forget.

We marched right into the village like the tourists we were. Our translators attempted to start up random conversations with the locals for us, while I was keenly aware of how awkward the situation was. It was like going to a zoo, but you also got to insult a bunch of people you're to trying to build a relationship with by the very way you visited. 

A lot of the adults didn't trust us at first...or at all. I completely got that. I wouldn't trust a bunch of strange rich foreigners waltzing right into a village uninvited and unwelcome. The kids seemed happy to see us and an elderly woman asked us to pray for her. After a few of the locals started asking us for money we/our translators decided it was time to head back. I hope to never visit a town in such an awkward manner again. 

Day 3: Bob Ross would be proud

Today marked the first day of actual work. Everybody was ready to work as we already had two days of just chilling. We painting the inside of two cement buildings and a few of the local Haitians joined in with us as we worked. During the quake in 2010, the deaf community in Haiti realized they need to band together to survive. Afterwards a lot of them moved to Berci and the villagers that helped us just so happened to be deaf.

Dr. "Dirt" (Dr. Jason Streubel) has a PhD in Soil and is leading to effort in educating the Haitian farmers about how soil affects their crops. His son Macquin turned out to help us paint. He's only twelve.  After most of the work had been done he decided that my shirt would also make a great canvas. He failed to enlighten me as to his plans, which I think was his intention. It kinda annoyed me so I took away his paint roller, so he wouldn't use it against anyone else. I still wonder it my reaction was too much. It stopped the little Haitian kids from following emulating his behaviour, but it may have been a little too quick of a reaction. I was also annoyed because I hadn't gotten any paint on my shirt yet. oh well 

Day 2: Hate is strong word, but...

In our preparation for this trip, we read a few books about cross-cultural experiences and one the of the books we read was Cross-Cultural Connections, by Duane Elmer. In his book he talks a great deal about how to best engage new cultures and how acceptance is key to cross-cultural connections. I was not very accepting today.
In my defense, I totally accepted Haitian culture today; it was just the other group with us that ticked me off. In my defense I only openly mocked them once or twice -and it was even to their faces (although I doubt they realized it). 

They were a group from North Carolina. I have nothing against North Carolina. They were from a Christian "Leadership College". I'm a Christian so we're still good at this point. However, this group has some interesting quirks. They felt like Bible Thumpers in that they were uneducated in everything except their college's view  on leadership and the bible. They are also hospitable to women in that they help them, but it always has to be announced. It felt very insincere. 

It can be actually be very loving when a man carries a woman's luggage, especially if the woman is smaller and the man is quite strong. It instantly loses it's charm when another group's leader publicly commands every male to carry the women's luggage -especially when there are about five males in a group with a size of over fifty. Also, the guys constantly tried to one up me whenever I did something nice that wasn't publicly announced. I kinda ticked me off a bit, so I guess I wasn't too accepting of them. Maybe the sermon in church was about that today. Too bad it was in Creole. I guess I'll never know, but what I do know is that a bunch kids were a lot more loving than me. The kids we visited at the small village of Berci were really accepting and SUPER happy to see us. They were accepting. I would've just starred at a bunch of weird strangers walking through me village, but they were super happy to see us.

Day 1: Arrival

Last minute packing is my specialty. I successfully packed everything I needed for Haiti in less than two hours. Those were also the last two hours I had before I had to leave for Haiti. My team consisted of twelve total members: Our two professors, Dr. Steinkamp and Dr. Tomandl; nine other biology majors, Andee Callaghan, Angela Naa-Dei Martey, Bethany Zilger, Carly Moeller, Cristina De Anda, Devan Pascarella,  Hannah Jacob, Joy Mukiri, and Paul Lee D; and me. We left later on the seventeenth from Seattle with next to no idea what we would be doing for the next eighteen days and arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday Morning.

Haiti has made some vast improvements on it's airport, or so I have been told. This year we only suffered minor hustling by the fake airport staff. According to the great Steinkamp, last year was a lot worse. They pseudo Haitian airport staff dress in red polo shirts and wear almost legit name tags. Almost meaning almost complete, or not so real-looking, or yeah-I'm-a-guy-trying-to-hustle-you-into-paying-me-to-do-something shades of phony. They proceeded to accost Steinkamp and tell him we were not allowed to claim our own luggage and needed to give them our baggage claim tickets and they would get our stuff for us. It's a very smart business idea, but definitely something I'm glad doesn't happen in the States.

Once we got to the Mission of Hope Compound, we played some basketball with a few of the Haitian children who live on the compound.