Dining

We had a light breakfast every morning. The meals do not very much especially breakfast. The menu: hard boiled eggs topped with carrot shreds that have been soaked in some sort of hot sauce spice, also has a hint of vinegar. Not sure exactly how they prepare the carrot shreds, but really tasty with the hard boiled egg. Fruit: bananas are the standard, but we also had pineapple and mango one morning. A loaf of bread, you have to rip off a hunk. Peanuts are mixed in with your hard boiled eggs to create an egg and peanuts salad, a quite popular dish. We also had Haitian peanut butter. Similar to peanut butter you can find in the US but with some spice, kind of peppery flavor. We also had jelly so we could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Haitians eat one large meal a day usually around 3 pm. I loved this meal everyday. So good. The food was cooked fresh each day. Rice and bean were always included; white rice with either black or pinto beans. The rice and beans would either be mixed or served separate. Also served was fried chicken drum sticks. What made the meal for me was the sauce the cooks prepared. The sauce was a light tomato sauce with onions, scallions and chunk tomato accompanied by a few other vegetables and spices. The sauce atop the rice, beans and chicken created an incredible feast.

Lunch was always accompanied by a half liter bottle of Coke or Sprite. The Coca Cola is much tastier in Haiti then in the US. When it is manufactured they use real sugar instead of corn syrup as a base, providing the beverage a little sweeter and lasting taste. Everyone that in the program agreed coke tasted much better. Another interesting thing that is not seen in the US anymore is that they reuse all the coke and sprite bottles. All the bottles are worn on the bottoms and the sides that touch when packaged. When you buy a case of Coke from a store you pay an initial deposit for the bottles. As long as you always bring back a case full of empty bottles you are not charged the extra deposit fee, you are just paying for the liquid in the bottle. At the little snack stands on the side of the road if you purchase a bottle of coke you need to finish the bottle before you leave the stand. It thought their little system was interesting.

A there is late evening snack, much like breakfast, that consist of bread, bananas and peanut butter.

I don’t know the history of Haitian meals, but I think one meal a day has to do with the fact that there is a lack of food for many people. I if you don’t have the money to buy the food then you cannot eat three large meals a day.

Weather Permitting

Pretty much everything thing in Haiti is weather permitting. If you wake up and it is raining it is usually safe to role over and catch another hour of shut eye. Plans get pushed backed easily when it rains, especially when your line of work requires you to be out doors pouring and build with cement. When it rains in Haiti all the roads turn into a muddy mess which either seizes or greatly hinders travel. The SOIL crew said they have gone a month when it rains everyday and their schedules and work just get pushed back. The weather is definitely something you cannot control and can become extremely frustrating at times. I have observed through Sasha, Kevin and Sarah that patience has become a virtue in Haiti. Things get done, but usually not when expected. Dates are almost always penciled in. If the sky is clear and the sun is shining, you cross you fingers that truck will start and that you can get from A to B without breaking down or puncturing a tire.

Example: One of the days we planned to leave the house at 10:30a.m. to see the progress of the toilet that was being built in Doug’s Village. After awaking we soon found out that Doug, who was suppose to come and pick us up, got his car stuck in a hole/ditch, one of the many obstacles to avoid while driving in Haiti. With the help of 20 people the car was removed from the hole. The same morning the SOIL truck got a flat while Marcorel was driving in town. A couple nights prior we forgot to remove the spare from the bed of the truck, in the morning the tire was gone. The SOIL team never became angry or upset with the set backs we encountered. No one person is blamed for any problem. It was clear to me that SOIL/SOL work as a team, one single unit with the same visions; improving lives.

Schedule flexibility is a way of life in Haiti. You cannot get angry or frustrated if something is not going as it should, you have to role with the punches. It is not a matter of being lazy or unmotivated when work is not being completed Haiti; you can only do so much depending on the given situation. Adaptation to the changing environment and finding a way to always remain productive is a skill SOIL members have that I greatly respect.

Looking Through Their Eyes

Kevin, one of the members of SOIL, is in charge of a photo project they call “Looking Through Their Eyes.” A group of 10 or so kids is each equipped with donated digital cameras. The kids have 1 or 2 days with the cameras and are asked to take pictures of:

What makes you happy?

What makes you sad?

What makes you angry?

What do you like about your community?

What do not like about your community?

After a couple of days Kevin meets with the group of kids, they all share their photos and have a discussion about the five questions asked. They explain their reasons for taking each photo and Kevin notes each student’s response. Kevin prints out hard copies of the photos and then gives each of the participants a copy of the photos they took. When Kevin delivers the hard copies the kids go nuts. They are so excitement to see their own work. Kevin presented a slide show of a previous project and I was amazed at the photos and work these kids had done. They all are able to see what the major issues and problems are in their communities. What makes them angry or sad? Pictures of polluted drinking water, piles and piles of trash on their beaches, sick and homeless people on the streets, parents and family without jobs. What makes them happy? Their mom, dad, brother, a plate of food, when their dad can find a job.

Watching the slide show and reading all the direct quotes from the kids was really moving; seeing something like this helps to realign your priorities in life and puts everything into perspective.

First Day / Doug's Village

First full day in Haiti

We ate breakfast at the house around 8:30am. Breakfast in Haiti is not to complicated and is pretty much the same every morning: Bread, hardboiled eggs, fruit (usually bananas) and peanuts.

We visited Doug’s village which is really not that far from SOIL head quarters, but takes about half an hour to get there via pickup truck. It takes a little while to get to places in Haiti because of the combination of dirt roads and extreme pot holes. It was always fun riding in the back of the pick up although you butt might be a little sore at the end of the day.

Doug is not part of SOIL, but has worked with SOIL in photo projects and has had SOIL build two toilets in his village. Doug has been in Haiti for the past 11 years and has focused his work on getting kids off the streets. What Doug has accomplished over those 11 years with not much help is truly amazing. Doug has created a three step process that helps to get kids off the streets, into schools and become a active participant in society.

1. The first part of the process is getting the kids off the streets. Doug has an intake center in Cap Haitian where kids can come daily and will receive a shower, meal and change of clothe. During their hours of operation, from early morning to around 3 pm, the kids are also taught basic reading, writing and mathematics skills. We were told that many of the kids that come to the intake center smell of paint or paint thinner because they huff the products in order to suppress their hunger.

2. Once the kids have been attending the center and have shown commitment to the program for six months to a year they will be transferred to a village (Doug’s Village) located at the outskirts of Cap Haitian. At the village the kids receive a primary education and training in areas such as masonry, steel work and agriculture. The village also has an outdoor basketball court and soccer field. The families of the kids are contacted and permission has to be granted by the families for them to start attending Doug’s Village on a regular basis. If the kids live close enough to Doug’s Village they are encouraged to live at home and commute to the village daily. If the kids live out of town and a commute would be too great or the kids don’t have a family, then they will stay in dorm style housing in the village.

3. After the students have completed the primary education they will leave the village and begin attending high school. The kids are encouraged to move back in with their families while attending high school, but a close eye is still watching to make sure they keep attending school and working hard. If the kids don’t have a home, Doug offers them apartments they can rent with other student from the village at a low rate while they attend high school. A group home is another option for kids leaving the village. For the students struggling with self discipline and need structured schedules, this is the best option.

The hope is that all the students that go through system will acquire some skills on any level and be able to become an active participant in society and provide for themselves and their family. Doug told us of a few stories of kids that he has worked with that have gone from living in the streets to getting a job and providing for themselves; really moving and impressive.

Arriving in Haiti

I arrived in Haiti on the second of January around 9 am on a flight from Miami. Rachel, Brain, Erica, Emma and Woody were all on the same flight. Erica and Brain flew from Wisconsin (where they go to school) and all the others were students from University of Miami. The plane held 20 or so passengers. Because the plane was so small everyone had the luxury of an aisle and window seat.

A little under three hours we started to make our decent into Cap Haitian (northern Haiti). The view from the plane was incredible, a beautiful Caribbean mountainous island, white sand beach coves scattered the coastline.

The airport in Cap was really small (similar size to the airport on Block Island). We all exit the plane on the runway and followed the locals who were on the flight to the customs desk. Our passports were stamped and we were waved through to "baggage claim" where we await our bags.

Sasha Kramer, one of the founders of SOIL, greeted us at the airport accompanied by her crew, Rosemond, Wisnel and Denik. We all piled into the back of SOIL's maroon pick up truck and headed back to SOIL/SOL headquarters where we would be living for the next nine days.

I was impressed with the housing situation. I did not think our dorms and the SOIL house was going to be as nice as it was. The building location was pretty much in the center of the city and was probably one of the nicest buildings/house in the city. Extremely nice for Haitian standards; running water, warm showers and flush toilets, the basic necessities most people take for granted.

The makeshift bunk beds that were strapped together with door hinges made me chuckle. We were the first group of student that SOIL has hosted so the dorms had just been created. They used the resources they had to build the bunks; they were creative and seemed sturdy.