Wrapping Up

Greetings from U.S. soil, where we are all back safe and sound (and relatively healthy). This is Helaina writing, for a last wrap-up about the trip and a personal sign-off. It has been a while since our last post – unfortunately the generator at the presbytery became less and less reliable as the trip went on (read: no running water for the last week and so we all became very skilled at taking bucket showers by candlelight).

Reflecting back on our mindset going into this trip, we had three main objectives: 1) Implement the 100 Projects for Peace grant for $10,000 to facilitate the construction of the maternal birthing center and train traditional birth attendants in sanitary birthing methods, 2) Conduct research on rural resilience, agriculture, and maternal health, and 3) Strengthen our partnership with our sister committee, RESPE: Balan, and improve communication mechanisms for the future. I’m going to speak a bit about how we fared for each objective:

1. 100 Projects for Peace Grant: Managing this $10,000 grant while on the ground in Haiti was definitely a unique learning experience for everyone. Given that we were working in a developing country and that, in general, things never go according to plan, we were prepared for most of the surprises and pitfalls that we encountered. A few days after we arrived and settled in, it became clear that the timeline of the maternal birthing center construction would have to be altered. The center is intended to be part of a larger clinic that the Catholic Church is overseeing, and RESPE has worked closely with the Church in the past. However, due to issues of communication access leading up to the trip, we were not aware that construction on the clinic had been paused while Father Acnys, the overseer of the project, was awaiting the recommendations of engineers to ensure that the building would be seismically sound. (In light of the earthquake, all construction in Haiti has been significantly slowed and people are proceeding very cautiously.) In the end, we we were able to purchase equipment and supplies for the maternal birthing center, which are currently being stored until construction of the clinic will resume next month. Our community partners, RESPE: Balan, will keep us up-to-date about the construction and if things go somewhat according to plan, the center should be completed by December. In addition, RESPE’s engineer affiliates at Tufts, Sustainable Energy Access for Haiti, will be traveling to Balan in a week to conduct evaluations and take measurements for the eventual installation of a solar panel system to power the clinic. We are very excited about this step of the project to ensure that the clinic be energy-efficient and sustainable. The other part of the grant, training traditional birth attendants, went quite well: instead of the five that we had planned for, sixteen midwives attended for a week of training on sanitary birthing methods run by Dr. Youseline Telemaque and Marie Lourdes Gauthier. The midwives each received a kit to help with training younger midwives and they will be able to replenish the kit with extra supplies for future births.

2. Research: Over the course of our time in Balan, we delved fairly deeply into the research areas we had identified as our goals – rural resilience, agriculture, and maternal health. Thanks to our community partners, ever skilled at community organizing and recruitment, we were able to hold about fifteen focus groups and ten individual follow-up or key-informant interviews. It was important to both us as researchers and to our community partners that the research we conduct be from geographically diverse areas of Balan, to ensure that all voices were taken into account. In addition, we made an effort to speak with equal numbers of men and women and, as much as possible, achieve diversity in ages. At the end of our stay, we held a public forum to report back to the community and to participants in our research about what we had been doing and what we had gleaned at that point. With RESPE: Balan presiding over the event, we each presented our preliminary findings and recommendations to the 200+ people present, followed by a thank you meal that we had organized and prepared with the help of generous volunteers. Many people present expressed their appreciation for us not only taking an interest in learning about their community but also for taking the time to be transparent and respectful by reporting back to them at the end. Once the semester starts up, the real work of sorting and analyzing the research begins, with our ultimate goal being to publish articles and papers in addition to using the research to drive more development in Balan.

3. Partnership and Communication Between RESPE: Boston and RESPE: Balan: This objective, in my opinion, was the most important to ensure sustainability and success of RESPE in years to come. It was also perhaps the hardest objective to achieve because of issues of communication access leading up to the trip. While on the ground, we had some difficult but productive conversations about communication, autonomy, accountability, information-sharing, and sustainability. To avoid future lapses in communication and to ensure that communication be on an institutional rather than an individual level, we helped set up a RESPE: Balan e-mail account that all members know the password to. We also interviewed and photographed all of the RESPE: Balan members to put their bios up on our RESPE website this semester. After discussing future project ideas and hearing RESPE: Balan express their desire to eventually have their own office, we decided to leave one of our laptop computers with them as the first building block of that office. We trained several of the members in important functions for the internet, e-mail, creating documents, and downloading English language programs. In the end, I feel confident that we worked out a reliable system of communicating, complete with a reporting timeline and representatives on both sides of RESPE. An issue that RESPE will always grapple with is that here at Tufts, we are a group of students, who are by nature transient. That’s why it is so important that we continue to inculcate new members with the mission and mindset of RESPE. I’m very happy with the status of that objective for now, thanks to the dedication of old members to share past experience and knowledge and of new members to learn and explore.

RESPE has a lot of work ahead. Objectives for the next year include the following: following up on the maternal health center construction, continuing to outfit the center with equipment, analyzing and sharing findings, fundraising through the sales of music recorded last summer in Balan (thanks to our partners PeaceTones through InternetBar), continuing to grow and educate our membership at Tufts, and exploring new directions for future projects (Agricultural trainings? More energy and engineering projects? Creating a RESPE scholarship fund for youth in Balan? Establishing a mango drying and preserving business? Exporting Haitian art for sale in the U.S.? Building roads? Dismantling the U.S. rice subsidy system to revive the Haitian rice industry? Creating a capable and competent government? Now I’m getting ahead of myself…)

Now comes the hardest time for me: letting go. As a Tufts graduate, I will no longer be involved as a student member of RESPE. However, as I expressed to our community partners and all my friends in Balan, I will definitely remain involved as an adviser/alumni/mentor/friend. RESPE pou lavi! (RESPE for life!) It has been an incredible honor to have co-founded and co-led RESPE over the past three years. The experience of working on a student-community partnership and development initiative, though extremely challenging, has been unbelievably rewarding and it has shaped my time at Tufts and who I am today. Looking at RESPE: Boston’s current membership, numbering about fifteen enthusiastic and committed new and old members, and RESPE: Balan’s current membership, numbering about ten lifelong community leaders, I am very confident about the future of the project. I can’t wait to see how RESPE grows and develops over years to come!

Signing off,

Helaina

Five corners of Balan…

On Sight

Our group leaves the presbytery and walks toward the market on Balan’s dirt path, filled with puddles from rain from the previous afternoon. We make our way through crowds of people. Some reach out their hands to offer us fried plantains and granadia (passion fruit) and some carry loads of straws on their hands. After several minutes, the nature begins to surround us with cows grazing beside the path and the rocky incline ahead. The men and women who walk down the trail with buckets balanced on their heads or with flip flops on their feet act as inspiration as we make our way up the mountain. Finally, we reach a break in the trees and turn around to look at the view below and above us. We see the blue water, far-away peaks in the clouds, and mountain-sides that are filled with rows of manioc and corn. The scene is breathtakingly beautiful, yet the moment allows us to catch our breath before continuing on our way up the path to Port Francais, a mountain community whose inhabitants trek up and down the same path we took several times a day.  – Tali Lieber

On Sound

3 am: Crowing roosters that actually go cock-a-doodle-doo. 5 am: The skin-crawling sound of a mosquito hovering over your head, deciding where to land. 6 am: Bells from the church. 6:30 am: Heavenly voices praising the Bon Dye, loud enough to enjoy, but soft enough to drift in and out. 7 am: Breakfast sounds. Dishes clinking, pans clanking. 8 am-7pm: Blan! Blan! Shouts from the children as we walk past. They are drowned out only by the motos as they provide textbook examples of the doplar effect, whizzing past the groups of people sitting, chatting in the shade. Rapid Creole: “Bonswa, Kouman ou ye? Mwen byen.” Good afternoon, How are you? I’m good. A hundred times over, the pattern broken by broken Creole from us, broken English from them. 8 pm: Oh my gosh, I feel so sticky, Oh my gosh, Haitian food is so good, Oh my gosh, I had a conversation in Creole! 9 pm: The whirring of the generator as it comes to life. 10 pm: The soft voices of people chatting below while we sit in silence, taking advantage of the moment to use internet. 12 am: The sudden stillness as the generator turns off, soon overtaken by bird calls, insect songs, and roosters crowing. We’re in the rural region of a developing country, but the sounds seem louder than the city. And the experiences accompanying these sounds seem louder than life.  – Mae Humiston

On Touch

On Tuesdays and Fridays, the center Carrefour of Balan is taken over by its local market. The street is overwhelmed with goods brought over from markets that took place the day before across the border in the Dominican Republic because for most products the agricultural and irrigation system in northern Haiti is too week to support the demand. Rice is one of few locally produced items that can be found in the buckets lining the streets. A woman gracefully dips her hand into her vat of dried rice. Her hand sensually navigates the grains just as in her mind she is still negotiating the price, mulling over the value of her labor on one hand and the enormity of her family’s wants and needs on the other. This is “diri pays,” or “Haitian rice”, and her leathery fingers slip familiarly through the granules. Feeling that grain, still brown, unbleached, of diri pays is something I came to know on our second day in Haiti, in one of the rice mills an INGO recently restored in Balan. The character of diri pais is dry and smooth, not unlike the dust powdered and sun worn fingers that I held it with, and pressing a grain between the thumb and forefinger brings out its particularly nutritious brand of grit. Alas diri pays continues to be considered second-class to “Miami Rice,” the well-subsidized U.S. long grain white rice whose ubiquity is incomprehensible. As we ask to buy only Haitian rice for our meals, I wonder how quaint the vendor and our companion, Guilaine, must think our fascination with all things local, and the feel of recently milled rice slipping through our fingers.  – Charlotte Bourdillon

On Smell

A pungent yet mildly pleasant scent of rich smoke follows us almost everywhere we go. Burning wood, burning trash, and burning leaves mix together to create a powerful mix that is constantly fluctuating in intensity and fragrance. Driving around Cap Haitien, where the main ingredient is trash, the smoke bites through the air and intertwines with diesel exhaust to overpower almost all other senses. Closer to rural areas, the scent of agricultural burning blends hints of cedar, vanilla, musk, earth, and wood (and the occasional waft of fried goat meat) in a rich tone that some of us enjoy and others find disagreeable. Whatever the smells are, they are an unfortunate reminder of the dire state of Haiti’s air quality and environment in general – burning trees to make charcoal is one of the only means of economic survival for many Haitians, leaving Haiti suffering from rampant deforestation. Luckily initiatives like the Lambi Fund’s grassroots restoration program are making small strides to undo the deleterious effects of deforestation in Haiti. Nonetheless, the smoke that clouds the air is constant reminder of one of many systemic roadblocks tethering rural Haiti to underdevelopment.  – Helaina Stein

On Taste

Being in Haiti has suddenly awakened my palate from dull mundane dishes to the authentic taste of Haitian food. The food here is beyond delicious and aroma of Haitian cuisine is intoxicating and alluring. The food is made with the right blend of herbs and spices giving Haitian cuisine its rich and flavorful taste. My favorite dish thus far is that of Karbit, bannann peze avec du riz et pois rouge ( goat, fried Plantains  and rice with red beans). In additions, each meal is served with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Haitian Mangoes are my favorites. In Haiti there are several types of Mangoes, but my favorite is that of Francis mangoes. Francis Mangoes are served fresh( sometimes right off the tree) they are sweet, juicy, and heavy in taste causing you to eat more than one.  The taste  of Haitian food evokes memories of my mother’s cooking and suddenly brings me back to my childhood. Haitian food is labor intensive but it is prepared with such care and “love” as my mother us to tell me. Haitians take such pride in their cuisine, its often a display of emotions. If you haven’t tried Haitian food, its time to give it a try, you will not regret it.  – Marie Gabby Isidore

One week in…

The past few days have been long but very productive. We have been organizing focus groups and interviews, overseeing the traditional birth attendant training sessions, planning for the maternal health center construction, and meeting with our sister committee RESPE: Balan.

Today was especially important for us because we were able to meet with the most isolated region of Balan, a section called Port Francais that requires a long and exhausting hike up a precarious mountainside (at our brisk pace it took us over an hour, while most Balan residents can make it up in thirty minutes). Speaking with Port Francais residents, they are distinctly aware of the impact that their isolation has on situations of health and emergencies. The extra journey to carry a pregnant woman on a back or even a door down the mountain is an example of why it is so hard to make healthcare accessible in rural Haiti, where there has never been a concerted investment in infrastructure of any sort.

In other news, we have a mango problem. We’ve learnt that Haiti has an excess of mango production (export potential!) and one of our ongoing tasks is to singlehandedly eliminate that surplus. Who knew that there were at least fifteen different varieties of mangos?

We are hearing a lot of actionable suggestions for the kinds of training and capacity building that people would like to see in Balan, especially from the farmers (about 90% of people in Balan’s lives depend either directly or indirectly on farming). They know their techniques are archaic and lack precision in terms of yielding as much as a skilled and technically trained farming system would. However, they have never had the excess resources to spend on their innovative ideas that they have shared with us, like an experimental garden. As we’ve heard before, Balan knows exactly what it lacks, and RESPE: Balan works to be the link that considers existing strengths and empowers people with the knowledge and resources necessary to overcome those deficiencies.

Tomorrow we’re heading in to Cap Haitien to run some errands and after that we’re looking forward to an afternoon of relaxation and…interview transcriptions. The generator is full of fuel so we’ll be back soon.

Na we pi ta!

(Translation: See you later!)

N’ap boule.

(Translation: We’re rolling.)

This morning, an adventure to a rice field yielded falls in mud and spectacular views of mountains and rice fields. We followed narrow dirt paths through rice paddies, jumping over pits and pigs. The experience of walking through the fields made up for the news we got: We had intended to have our first focus group with the farmers whose field we were walking through but because of a miscommunication (not all that uncommon for this kind of work) we had to reschedule for Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the amazing Dr. Youseline Telemaque of Justinien Hospital arrived to begin the traditional birth attendant (TBA) trainings. This project is an important part of our grant from 100 Projects for Peace not only because it complements the construction of the birthing ward, but also because having stakeholders like traditional birth attendants on board is crucial for the sustainability and effectiveness of the clinic. RESPE: Balan has been dedicated to ensuring that the participants represent even the most isolated regions. Sitting in on part of the training, we were struck by the emphasis on participation, the animation of the trainers, and the enthusiasm of the participants.

This afternoon brought a productive and insightful focus group session as we met with a women’s commerce organization called Famn Pa Chita (Women Who Don’t Sit). Besides having a discussion about the role of women in providing for their family and community, our participants were eager to recount how their experiences in commerce are intertwined with the events of the earthquake. For example, the cost of imported “Miami” rice has increased because the supply and distribution channels have been crippled, which poses particular challenges when families are hosting their displaced friends and relatives. We are starting to hear accounts that elaborate on the news stories about post-earthquake Haiti and it is our hope that our work is doing a small part to give voice to the rural experience of Haiti’s most recent iteration of social upheaval.

Tomorrow promises to be an exciting day – we’re getting an early start to go to the market and a few gourdes of passion fruit await us.

Nou la!

(Translation: We’re here!)

We’ve arrived in Balan safe and sound, though the trip was a bit adventurous. Over the past two days, we have met community members (old friends and new), strategized with our sister committee RESPE: Balan, worked on preparations for the maternal health initiative and research, and eaten lots of delicious Haitian food.

Sitting down with RESPE: Balan has reminded us why we are here and why we are all a part of RESPE. It was encouraging to see how their excitement mirrors our own and we hope to continue strengthening our communication and relationship with the entire group. We are really looking forward to the upcoming week in which we will be holding focus groups to discuss maternal health and agriculture in Balan, as well organizing a training session for birth attendants from different regions of the town. The trainings will be conducted by a team from Justinien Hospital and will incorporate birthing kits that we will be putting together from materials we brought along.

At the same as the training sessions, we will be traveling to different parts of the town to conduct focus groups and interviews to learn about topics including the evolving methods and perceptions regarding agriculture. By interviewing men, women, young and old farmers, fishermen, teachers, and health workers, we will gain a better understanding of the effect agriculture has on  overall nutrition and well-being in Balan.

We’re excited to wake up again to the sounds of church choirs and roosters and we hope for many more rewarding and productive days filled with the unexpected!

Also, RESPE is mentioned in an article by Partners in Health. Check it out at http://www.pih.org/blog/entry/a-short-term-push-with-a-long-term-plan/.

Why are we going to Haiti?

RESPE: Haiti is excited to embark on a two-week trip (7/15 – 7/29) to Balan to continue work on our maternal health initiative. As the 2010 Tufts recipients of the Katherine Davis 100 Projects for Peace grant, we will be overseeing the construction of a sanitary birthing ward and facilitating maternal health training sessions for traditional birth attendants in the community. In addition, we will be conducting research on maternal health and on rural resilience and recovery after the earthquake. We are hoping to share the lessons we learn about the strength and resilience of Balan to help the rest of rural Haiti move forward in recovery and development efforts.

The travel team representing RESPE: Haiti in Balan this summer includes: Helaina Stein, Mae Humiston, Talia Lieber, Charlotte Bourdillon, Sabina Carlson, and Marie-Gabby Isidore. We will also be joined by one of our founding mentors, Franklin Dalembert, the executive director of the Somerville Haitian Coalition. In this blog, we will be documenting our progress towards our trip objectives and sharing our experience, reflections, and insights. Internet access and electricity permitting, we hope to post updates every two or three days.

We are all looking forward to hitting the ground running for a productive and fruitful trip!