04-JUL-C-7

 

A VERY EARLY START TO RIDE THE RUGGED ROAD OUT OF THUMONDE TOWARD THE PORT AU PRINCE CAPITAL TO CATCH THE OUTBOUND FLIGHT

 THROUGH MIA TOWARD DCA AND HOME

 

July 29, 2004

 

            The group which had not been on time at any departure yet, joking about Haitian time—when the delay was always caused by self-centered individuals figuring that the group could always wait while they did just one more whim of their own since these Haitians are never on time for anything anyway—all were anxiously whining to take off at xix o’clock AM this morning, since any delay might jeopardize their flight and they were eager to get themselves home.  So, after pushing and probing each of them each day to get us departing within an hour of the promised departure time, it was now up to the drivers to hear them whining about how insecure and anxious they were about being late.  We went down the road and were pounded through a lot of puddles and over heavy rocks with our convoy of identical grey shiny Nissan's SUV’s before we were a few hundred meters and the vehicles looked like the mud of the poor soils of the Haitian Plateau. 

 

NUMBER CRUNCHING:

 

THE TOTAL OF PATIENTS N THE DR= 761

THE TOTAL OF PATIENTS IN HAITI= 1058

(1ST CLINIC MARMONTE=172, 2ND CLINIC CONVENTION CHURCH=268, 3RD CLINIC SAVANNE PLATE=372, 4TH CLINIC SAPATERE= 246)

FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF 1,819 PATIENTS TREATED

 

            And one by one the group is falling sick.  The toll had included Laurie, then Martha and now Sarah, each of whom are in the throes of diarrhea and vomiting, not a pleasant problem to have when one is facing a road without any facilities, and a rather merciless pounding besides which would make one more aware of the condition.  But we made it past Cange in two hours and another two hours to the first paved road after the Dover-like chalk cliffs of the escarpment falling off to Port au Prince, the long dead coral reef when the sea's levels were higher and the world held more water and less ice in this latter day ice age.

 

CANGE= 18* 56.98 n, 71* 58.55 W

 

            We saw the dammed Artibonite River and its reservoir, and the fisherman plying its surface with their canoes.  The small stalls along the road were selling the kinds of local produce that makes the peasants come to market, and very sedate dignified elderly women were riding side saddles with their wide brimmed straw hats astride a straw cushion that here passes for a saddle.  They look like Queen Elizabeth re3viewing the horse guards of the household at Buckingham, and are on their way holding a chicken that is trussed, and turning its head upright to survey the passing scene as the only way to know that he is alive and taking note of his fate.  When we got closer to the city, we went into serious markets with wheelbarrows filled with trussed kids making baaing baby goat like noises.   The pigs were wallowing in the big mud puddles we churned up with the Nissans and a few of them were irate for being disturbed in their private mud baths. 

 

            Along the way we were treated to a chorus of immediate demands for Domino’s Pizza, several different desserts.  Vesta had said repeatedly a statement that I am sure the Haitian people would find amazing:  “I need dessert!”  Why, “Because I never finish my plate and always leave room for it!”  This is perhaps the most cogent remark for the developing world to emulate since I had someone tell me that the Haitians all had very good eyesight since she had never seen a single one of them wearing eyeglasses!  Of the scores of things that Haitians need, I do not think of any here –or anywhere else in the world—who truly is or are in desperate need of a dessert.   If this is said right after the evening wrap up session in which each testified as to the powerful change this experience would have on them, and in which they would no longer be just a “Spoiled brat” (a self-description) but a sensitive spoiled brat acutely aware of the nee3ds of others, then the lesson did not last long.  I sat next to two young women with their jackets pulled over their heads as they were bounced around the back seat, with the panoply of all Haiti bouncing by their mud-spattered windows, and they had screened it out since it is—well, depressing, to those concentrating on dessert!

 

PORT AU PRINCE= 18* 33.12 N, 72* 18.59 W

 

            We went directly to the Toussaint L’Overture International Airport and dropped Suzy off special for here earlier flight then took a brief drive around the capital and its few monumental buildings.  The National Palace was made to look like the US White House, and white it is, with the Haitian flag flying and a UN Armored Personnel Carrier in front of it behind the gates.  There are a few monuments to generals of long ago wars, and the painted numbers on the front show 1804—2004 a bicentennial that was hardly noticed, since it was going on during the riots and the revolt that had Aristide shipped out of Haiti for a second time (“kidnapped” this time he noted later by the US abductors) not going to Venezuela as he did during the last time which seemed too close, but to South Africa this time.  So it is another new and strained era in Haitian history, which is a follow-on to Paul Farmer’s book “The Uses of Haiti.”

 

            We drove around the streets and stopped at the same street corner we had once before “shopped among the cheap primitive art canvases and carvings, where we bargained for a couple among those displayed but not for my interest, which was nil.  We were going to go to the art gallery I had visited last time, but the pressures from obligate consumers brought us instead to the airport area where there was a hotel with a veranda overlooking the pool, where the UN peacekeeping force was bravely surveying the pool to guard against any invasion from that direction.  These soldiers of fortune are blue beret wearers and are the Brazilians in charge now, behind a huge compound of containers with concertina wire over it overgrown with vegetation, looking like Haiti will forever be “protected” by some kind of occupation army.

 

            We had lunch at the restaurant, those who could eat, minus four who could not plus two Project MediShare and the drivers.  Then, I collected seventeen passports and checked in seven bags at the airport, and also collected thirty US dollars each and got the tax for airport exit from each an bought them in a mass purchase.  Finally, after a delay caused by the fact that they ran out of the exit stamps after I had bought all of them minus two which were not delivered, then we could go through the immigration, where Sara fell out and vomited before being wheeled to the plane.  Nonetheless, all seventeen of us who were on the flight down are now on this A/A airbus on the way to MIA to get to immigrate there before going on the way to DCA in a bunch.  This means we are making it back with as many as we started, which is a mark of success, with the post-trip evaluations forms distributed and expected to be returned at the other end.  

 

The testimonials I heard last night were uniformly positive, and all of the people seemed eager to come back for another occasion which probably is a good thing since we seem to own Marmonte as our own professional field site.  So, soon I will be in a world of US mail, emails and photo development as well as a host of other amenities along with a new house decor which was trimmed and all the lampshade covers and plastic dust protectors removed in my absence in preparation for the professional photo shoot on August 4.  The last word has been sent that it will be postponed a month, since there seems to be a number of missing pieces, like dining room and master bedroom and den furniture which may remain permanently missing along with the individual around whom these pieces were planned and designed.  But, that is a problem few Haitians have to encounter as well, so a reality check on all sides is a good idea occasionally to remind one of the synthetic situations we contrive to believe are the real world, and one very object lesson orientation has just enforced the thought that “things could be worse” as one of the participants said last night.

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