Haiti Journal -- Day Two

January 20, 2011 – I woke up around 4 am and never really went back to sleep. Not long afterward the Zanmi Lasante community began to come to life. Roosters crowed, voices began calling, musical instruments began rehearsing, and the whole place was humming by about 6 am. I showered and went down by 7:30, but no one from our group was around yet, even though breakfast was to be served at 7:30. Turns out that we’re only 4 miles from the border with the Dominican Republic, which is a different time zone an hour ahead of us, and my phone must have picked up that signal. I might actually have been awake since 3 am!

So before breakfast I took a walk. There was singing in the church, which drew me in. A young man named Woody took an interest in me and welcomed me in to hear the rehearsal of a men’s choir. Beautiful harmonies. They’ll be singing in church on Sunday morning, he tells me. Took some video of the rehearsal. Afterward, he wanted to play the accordion for me. He also wanted my phone number and email, which I declined to give. This was the first of many appeals from Woody over the coming days. We all got to know him well!

After a very nice breakfast, Jackie took us on a walking tour of the ZL compound. Amazing place. People are lined up for the ophthalmology clinic, the emergency room, and the multi-drug-resistant TB clinic – one of Paul Farmer’s signature contributions to medicine in the developing world. Lots of sick people coming here from all over – even as far as Port-au-Prince, and perhaps farther. We almost had to step over people at times. The pediatrics ward was sad to see – mothers with their sick little children; there was even a neo-natal clinic. I say sad, but it would be so much more sad if this place were not here.

Jackie also took us to see Paul Farmer’s house, just a five minute walk from the compound. It is a simple little bungalow surrounded by a lovely garden and bamboo grove, with a great view from the back from where you can see “mountains beyond mountains.” Most of us (perhaps all of us in the group) had read Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, before coming here. It is, of course, the story of Paul Farmer and Partners in Health – highly recommended reading for anyone who doesn’t know the story.

I learned while here that this phrase, “mountains beyond mountains,” speaks to a deep kind of resignation in the Haitian spirit – the idea that beyond this mountain (or obstacle or challenge of any kind) there will always be another. It makes the Haitian people very accepting of life’s challenges, on the one hand, but also resigned and even fatalistic on the other. Jackie has known Paul since he began his work here over twenty years ago, and also got to know Tracy Kidder during the time he was writing the book. She told me that he originally was going to title it something like “Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these…” but the marketing people came up with Mountains Beyond Mountains, which turns out to have been a good title for the book.

From there, we went to the College Bon Sauveur, the school on the compound where about 1000 students go to school every day. Primary grades meet in the morning, and secondary in the afternoon. We were there in the morning. Some of the classes sang for us (including a particularly special rendition in English of “the more we get together the happier we’ll be” – with accent on the “pi” of hap-PI-er). The children are beautiful, all dressed immaculately in their uniforms. The facilities are very nice, and the student/teacher ration is quite low (a little over 30/1 – not bad in a developing country). The teaching seemed to be the rote learning style I’ve seen so often in African schools – lots of repeating after teachers in unison, with the children sitting at benches all in rows.

By about 10:30 Jackie started giving us our work assignments. Three of us (Doug, Linda and I) were sent to the library to organize the French literature section – all the books alphabetically by author last name. We had lots of philosophical discussion about whether “de Montfreid” was to be under the d’s or the m’s. No librarians in the group. We worked hard for a couple of hours, but were very happy to be called for lunch.

After lunch some of us took a little rest (not Jackie – it’s tough keeping up with this lady!). And then it was back at it in the library. George joined us since their work assignment hadn’t really gotten off the ground – someone hadn’t shown up to pick them up. We finished by about 3 pm. We headed back to the art center to check in just in time to begin an English lesson with the hospital administrator for PIH. Jackie proceeded to empty a huge box of various medical supplies and OTC remedies brought by Dave Lewis, and we each took turns reading the directions off the labels to him, then Jackie would have him repeat them back to us. The rote learning method apparently works for adult language learning also. This went on for some time, our student being much more patient than any of the rest of us. After about an hour, three more young men arrived for their lesson. We took turns reading from a children’s picture book of Haitian history, Pouissant and the slave rebellion of 1804. We learned a lot, but we were tired. Didn’t dare get up or try to leave, however. We had another long discussion of current events in Haiti while they all practiced their English, and some history of the Duvaliers and whether Baby Doc had left the country today or not as expected (he had not).

Finally, we had a lovely supper around 6 pm, then a time for an evening group reflection on the events of the past two days. We closed with prayers for the end of the day and headed for bed. Long day. Will sleep well.