Day 2 – February 24, 2011
Petionville to Petit-Goave
Today we travelled from the Petionville guest house to our job site in Petit-Goave where we will be for the next 6 days. The Petit-Goave site is in a more remote area and we are told less reliable for internet service so our posts and emails made be delayed be a few days. I'll try and upload these photos as we have more time.
This day started with a great breakfast at 7AM with a number of UMVIM groups from Washington D.C., Texas and New Hampshire. We then packed and then left for Petit-Goave. There were the 8 of us from Vashon and Gail, our driver Axel plus our 27 year old interpreter, Ricardo. Gail was meeting another UMVIM group in Petit-Goave. All UMVIM groups in Haiti are assigned an interpreter who is hired by UMVIM to assist in language barriers at the work site and throughout out stay here.
Leaving Petionville Guest House
Our 11 Passenger Van
Our luggage was transported in one van while we left in an 11 passenger Kia. Seeing the streets of Petionville again and on through to Port au Prince and into the countryside to the southwest of Port au Prince was more interesting today than it was yesterday. The colorful Tap Taps (Haitian Taxis) were packed with people and we saw them on almost every street.
Colorful Tap Taps
Typical Street Vendors
The earthquake damage was more evident now as we traveled through some of the steeper parts of Petionville and back down into Port au Prince. We also noticed several “tent” camps where crowds of people were living in stressed conditions. Ricardo told us that many Haitians were still living in tents because of the fear of another earthquake and didn’t want to move back to their homes. We also saw many homes being repaired along the way.
Evidence of the Earthquake
Repairing the Damage
After a short time we came to an area that had some of the worst living conditions we had seen yet. We all were not sure what to expect once getting here but this may have been more like my vision of what Haiti was going to look like. It’s difficult for us to understand the way Haitians can live with garbage littering the streets. Sometimes the smell of burning garbage, food and dirty water were difficult to take along the drive. Dirt and dust from the roads mixed together with uncontrolled surface water runoff combined for what I would consider unhealthy living conditions. Although it’s a stark contrast to where we live, the unsanitary conditions (on the surface) don’t seem to affect the people here as they go about their daily lives like we would on a typical Thursday morning in Tacoma, Seattle or Vashon.
Garbage Everywhere
One of the most shocking sights to me was this garbage landfill and an example of how poor some of the people are here. We saw burning piles of garbage and kids sifting through the trash in the midst of the all the smoke and ash. I wondered what kind of respiratory stress these conditions must have on them.
Burning Garbage at a Roadside Landfill
As we left the crowded street of the city, the road opened up and the bay appeared on our right. There we saw vegetation typical to a tropical area; banana trees, sugar cane, mangos. There were quite a few less people as we made our way further into the countryside. We could also see some of the mountains surrounding the bay above Port au Prince.
Mountains Overlooking Port au Prince
The driving, which was generally crazy and uncontrolled in the City, now became a bit more dangerous as the road opened up and rate of speed become significantly greater. It reminded me of driving in Mexico where road hazards were common and cars and trucks all raced each other down the highway to be first. It didn’t seem to matter who or what might be in the way; it was drive faster than the person in front of you.
We encountered some significant road damage and had to slow down at these places and where some speed bumps or Topes were. There were also several damaged bridges that we saw along the way. This particular bridge had a by-pass where we drove right through the river.
By-Pass for Damaged Bridge
After about 2 hours we arrived at Petit-Goave and met with Pastor Maude, a soft spoken woman with a strong accent who spoke fairly good English. After some discussion with Nancy about doing some children’s activities, she arranged for us to attend church with her somewhere “up in the mountains” on Sunday where we could be closer to some of the children. She said that although we could go to the local children’s school, they had over 200 students and that unless we gave gifts to all the children, it made things awkward if a someone didn’t receive something .
Meeting Pastor Maude in Petit-Goave
Pastor Maud then took us to look at the project we’d be working on and discussed with the local foreman what we’d be doing the next day. The project consisted of repairing a meeting center on the property that was damaged in the earthquake. Local Haitians were plastering the exterior of the building with stucco that day.
Plaster on the Meeting Center Exterior
We left Pastor Maud’s place and walked down to a house that is owned by Pastor Admirable who is also part of the Methodist church and UMCOR/UMVIM support efforts in the region. Pastor Admirable lives about a ½ mile down the street from Pastor Maude. We are staying at his house for lodging and food while we go back and forth to Pastor Maud’s to work. We took a leisure walk down to the beach with Ricardo and relaxed until dinner time.
Walking to the Beach
Beach in Petit-Goave
Discussing Our Expectations During Lunch
After that we had some engaging discussion about our thoughts and expectations so far on the trip. We discussed whether the UMCOR/UMVIN organization needed a local manager to oversee all the projects under their combined efforts. Someone to identify each project’s specific needs prior to groups coming to Haiti. For the 8 months leading up to this trip including the first days we spent with Pastor Tom, nobody could tell us what we were going to be helping with. Without knowing in advance what we were doing it became evident that some or all of the tools we brought may be obsolete. It seemed to some of us that knowing what each project would be in advance of our trip would have helped in our preparation. Steve told us again, as he did before our trip, to keep our expectations low and to be flexible. Our roles would be much clearer as to what types of work we’d be doing very soon. Some of the things that concerned me were: why 2 teams at one location; what would we do; what was our purpose; do they need us here; do they have the skills to successfully organize and run more than one work site. Each of us hopes that our questions will soon be answered tomorrow.
- Bruce Stirling
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