"Thank you for visiting my country"

I think that when most people come here, most white people that is, they stay in their cars and fear the people. They are afraid of people begging or stealing or afraid of the filth and the chaos.
We visited the church on Sunday morning. Everyone was beautifully dressed and clean and pressed, even though some of them came across the street from the tent city. The church was packed because it was first communion for the kids so we couldn't find a seat.
So we went across the street to another fancy hotel and I had pumpkin soup for breakfast. Much better than the pumpkin soup I tried to make. The hotel was another gorgeous building and had a pristine landscape. Again, with a tent city right outside its windows. Every inch of public landscape that was free is being used now for tents. There are no public spaces left for gathering, playing soccer, no parks or statues or fields. In the tent city we visited, people were using a public sculpture representing the Haitian freedom from slavery to do their laundry and tie up their tents.
We visited the Caribe hotel- where we were supposed to stay- and it would be a fancy hotel by US standards. It was super nice, pool, tennis courts, spa. We sat in the shade and talked for hours.
In the afternoon, Antonio, Cheryl, Ray and I went for a walk. People stared. They aren't used to people walking their streets and sharing their space with them. We were never in danger, the only thing uncomfortable about the walk was maybe the smell and the heat. My favorite part of the experience was the joy on the kids faces when we would wave at them. We acknowledged them- that's all. We talked to a few different people (Ray speaks Creole) and one group of guys asked us if we felt safe walking and if we were comfortable and they were happy that we were. One man actually said to us in english, "Thank you for visiting my country" We walked into a soccer stadium- inside the teams were warming up for a game and right outside there was another tent city. We went into a cemetery and a hospital. We saw a pile of rubble with a teddy bear and a little shoe. But everywhere we went if we said Bon Swa (I'm sure that's not how it's spelled but it means Good afternoon) they'd respond happily and in a friendly manner. I think that hour and a half walk has been the most impactful time on this trip for me, to see how the people know they are perceived in a negative way and to try to break down those barriers.

The view from the back of a pick-up

So day one in Haiti, we visited the Haiti Y, which is a nice new clean building with a computer lab that I'm using now, and meeting and office space. The kids mainly play outside at the front of the building and do their homework. To get from place to place with 11 or so people we often have to not only cram into a car, we also have to cram into the back of a pick up truck. So I have had the opportunity to do something I would never do at home!
Buildings are in ruin here. Tent cities everywhere. Rubble and trash everywhere. Pigs eat garbage in the street. The Y is a safe clean place for these kids.
For dinner we walked to the Olifson- an old mansion converted to a hotel and restaurant with open porches and decoration. I tried some Conch. Everything is good. And again, there is such a discrepancy between those who have money and those who don't. We walked to the hotel through streets covered in sewage and trash, walk up the stairs and we're in a different world. It's not like there's a bad part of town and the hotel is in the fancy part, they're right there together. It's hard to understand why it is that we can eat a fancy dinner where we throw food away, when the people outside probably only eat two meals a day that they cook over a little stove or fire on the street. It's not like we deserve it more, we were just born in a more privileged position.
People here aren't as accepting of us taking photos- who can blame them? Where they're living isn't always a pretty scene and it is again treating them somewhat like a zoo. Although, despite the unsanitary conditions they live in, most of the people are clean and neat. The little girls have their hair in braids and bows and are just beautiful.
Day Two, we heard from a professor about the history of Haiti, including some politics. Then we went to visit the tent city across from the Presidential Palace. It is an amazing image- imagine the White House caved in, collapsed and destroyed, still that way a year after the destruction. And then imagine the yard in front of the White House covered in a city of tents, one after the other, each leading to the next, a maze. No sanitation. 6 people living in one tent, but where else do they go? Their buildings and businesses are still in ruin. They don't have the machinery to remove it. And if you were to stay and work on removing the rubble from the site of your home- first of all where do you put it and second of all, if you're doing that all day how would you ever earn money for food? So homes are abandoned for tents and selling things on the street seems to be the way to earn an income. And the hillsides here are just homes built up up up one after the other so that if any catastrophe comes they all come tumbling down.
The kids jump rope in front of the Y with a simple piece of rope, like something we'd use to haul something. But they dance and laugh and enjoy life. The Y has an area at the back that was donated to them because it was a tennis court that was damaged in the earthquake. So we painted it all together. Us foreigners and then the kids quickly took over, all pitching in to paint different parts.
We went for dinner that evening at the Plantation, a french restaurant. I tried a snail. Super fancy. The Haitian staff joined us, they are inspiring in the passion they put into their work here. Some of them only volunteers. We spent four hours at dinner, just enjoying conversation and one anothers company.

Starting over

So, one big thing I was afraid of in Haiti was the airport- before I came. I was told that that would be the scariest part of going to Haiti and it was nothing- no one bothered us, it was orderly, no chaos. And since that was so easy, I should have known everything would be fine there on out.
The Y of Haiti, we're going to learn more about it this morning, but because of all the support they've received they've been able to build a completely new building after their Y was destroyed in the earthquake. They are very proud that nothing was looted from their old site, the people of the community respected them too much to steal anything. They've built the first building of its kind in Haiti- earthquake and hurricane proof. The furniture can all be collapsed quickly to make this an emergency center. It is also environmentally friendly. They wanted it to be a model in the community that they have to rebuild the right way. It was $100,000 to build and 15% of it went to pay customs including bribes to get the materials into the country. They could have rebuilt somewhere else- it would have been easier but they didn't want to let down this community. We interviewed the director, Gwenael and one of the staff Guerline and I can't wait to share it with you. It was so impactful and I think it brought tears to everyone's eyes. But right now, I'm headed out to learn some more :)

Tricky Tricky

So Day 3 in the DR we had an amazing leadership seminar from Ray Smith who will be visiting me at some point in the future and I hope will always continue to teach and challenge me.
We went to a very nice oceanside restaurant and experienced our first taxi ride. Having said nothing about the DR and Haiti traffic I feel the need to comment a little here. There is no order. No rules, no lines, no traffic signs that are obeyed. You turn when you want to turn and traffic has to stop for you. I would never survive in an aggressive driving environment like that. City Mouse might. . . hmmm.
Then we had an afternoon at the beach. Andres wanted to send us off happy and we did have a really nice relaxing afternoon. He sent a bodyguard and his son with us . . . Some went shopping but I had a foot massage and got braids put in my hair. I would never have done this on my own but was forced and by golly, 3 days later I still have my little bead braids. Ray loves Haiti and the woman on the beach in the DR was Haitian so he bought a couple of us the braids and the massage and through his example I see the importance of investing in these people- not giving them money when they beg but supporting them in their work. Because no matter how little money I think I make, it will always be so much more than they can imagine.
I also stood in the ocean for awhile and it was super nice, even though the beach was just down from an oil refinery. So here's my lesson for the day.
We had several little boys with shoe shining equipment leave their tools under our table, the asked us to watch them for them. They did some gymnastics on the beach and played around and we took photos and they looked at them and they were so sweet. So after an hour or two they came back. And I can't understand the language but they are talking amongst themselves- it seems almost like an argument. They begin counting their money and still talking. I'm not paying too much attention but then they start using my sandal to dig in the sand so we try asking them what they've lost. And they are missing 25 pesos which is a small amount but they are digging frantically in the sand for it. So we give them some money to make up for their lost amount. They sincerely say thank you and go on their way. Later it comes up and many in our group comment about how they have a nice little scheme going on and Cheryl and I say what? Noooo. They were sincere, we believe them etc. And so we ask the bodyguard who only speaks spanish and he said no, they tricked us! And that about made me cry. I can handle the sights I've seen here. The poverty and the filth. But when it comes to deception, I can't handle that.
Ray says that if you give a Haitian women 1000 pesos to go buy you sandals, which he did, she will go do it and bring you back the change. Because you have honored her by trusting her. They are different cultures so I'm not sure the same applies for the Dominicans but I have felt less threatened about someone taking my stuff in Haiti than in the Dominican.
We went to a nice farewell barbecue at the beach with music and dancing. We all joined in and I'm sure the Dominicans were like, these crazy white people!
That night before we left for Haiti we were all so fearful. Ray told us not to open our eyes in the shower! And then there's Baby Doc (Duvalier) and all the "scary" things in Haiti. I just think back to all that fear and shake my head.

Dominican Republic with the Y Day 2

See how I need City Mouse to create the titles? No originality! My friend Vicki titled this day "Frogger" You know, the old Atari game?
Today we went to two more DR Ys. The 2nd was in a very poor neighborhood. The Y came there in the 70s after a hurricane to help rebuild houses and saw that there was not one school in the neighborhood so they started a school. They have a ton of space to build on and an old broken down basketball court- outdoors and no money to expand. The people here cannot pay for the school, it's only $100 a year and they get physical checkups and two meals a day plus an education. We went across the street to visit the village- dirt floors, leaky roofs, cook over fires, bare feet in a nasty field, a skinny pig tied up in the yard, naked children but. . . families grouped together, older kids helping to care for the young, respect for adults, playing baseball with the simplest tools in the only space they have.
It's hard to be in these countries and to keep from feeling like it's a zoo. I don't want to walk around and stare at them and take photos and do nothing to help them.
On the way back, one of our cars broke down and they had to push it off of the road (thus the frogger). We had pizza that night and ice cream bars and french fries. Everything here is very relaxed and it makes me a little disgusted with the American culture- no offense. In the US we value every minute instead of every person. We rush around accomplishing tasks- and we all know I am one of the worst offenders. But here, you spend 4 hours at dinner discussing things that matter. You take the time to enjoy every minute. We've talked about how ours is an individualistic culture and here it's collectivist. In the US we look out for #1 and here it's your family and your community that you value.
We went to another beach for beer and coconuts. I drank coconut milk and ate some coconut and coming from a coconut hater- real coconut is nothing like the artifical stuff.
When we came back to the hotel room there was a pair of pink underwear that didn't belong to me on the table beside my bed! We had a number of speculations about how that underwear got there but I have decided to believe that they cleaned under the bed and found it and hopefully it was clean. But I assure you I sanitized the area after I removed it. I suppose I should have titled this blog- pink panties and more people would read it :)

The Dominican Republic Day One with the Y

So now that I've been in Haii a few days, my time in the Dominican Republic seems like it was a year ago. I have some great travel companions, from Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota, New Mexico, Chicago, Des Moines. The first night, we were all nervous about venturing out on our own and how to manage the water and what can we eat, and what do we do when people ask us for money. . . and of course there's the whole getting to know you thing but we're all family now. In fact, we are discussing now how our leader, Antonio, is the youngest of us. There are three younger than me.
So the DR YMCA is led by Andres. A jolly man who draws small children like a magnet and leads the Y with a passion and desire to serve and better his country. He has gone to every effort to make sure we are taken care of and comfortable. His leadership is led with passion and vision but not so much organization. The big problem in the Dominican is that there isn't enough public education, so the Y is in place to meet the community need through schooling. But most of the families can't afford the $5 per month for the half day of school on weekdays so the schools loose money. So he's trying to develop ways to earn an income by building a new facility in a middle class neighborhood that will provide a fitness area and aerobics.
So, we went to the main Y, it has a classroom, a computer lab with computers that were probably used in the US 20 years ago. A Technical school to teach adults skills needed to work in restaurant services, beauty salon, fixing computers, electrical. Then we went to talk to the president of the DR Lawyers Association, and he talked to us about the history of the DR and Haiti. And there is just so much there that I am totally unaware of. We've heard so many different perspectives here from some really really smart people. The DR and Haiti don't really get along. Yet Andres was one of the first to support the Haiti Y after the earthquake. Haiti was the 1st independent nation from a slave revolt and they never want to be enslaved again- this affects their relationship with us and with every foreign country. We went through the whole history about the dictators in the past that behaved like Hitler with killing off of certain ethnicities and people who opposed them. Currently, the biggest challenges facing the island (a bird with two wings) involve migration, as the Haitians migrate to the DR, they aren't citizens so they take the benefits of the country but don't pay taxes because they don't have citizenship, even if they are born here. This drains the DR. There is no leadership here because the leaders were all killed off during the dictatorship so there is a void of leadership. I think it is definitely something we should all become more aware of. . . I mean I had no idea that there was a genocide going on here just a few decades ago. And this affects all of us, as we learned yesterday, you can't choose your neighbors, we have to work together like it or not. Of course, this is the girl who doesn't watch TV or follow the news.
We traveled to another neighborhood within Santo Domingo to visit a Y facility that has several classrooms, a computer lab with absolutely no working computers, a playground on the roof, a health clinic area, and a preschool. The children sang and prayed and ate lunch with us. They are all taught core values. We communicate through gestures and we take their photos and show them to them on our digital screens and they love it! They are all clean and dressed in uniforms but Ray told us that they're putting their best foot forward for us. The preschool is for single mothers- mothers from Haiti, husbands in jail, domestic violence while they work as street vendors.
We visited the new Y site. He wants it done in 3 months, they work by hand. He has amazing vision for this place. It was a huge beach house with a view of the ocean and they are building onto it a gym, aerobics, a medical clinic (that's the other thing, they provide medical check ups for their students) 8 classrooms, computer lab, kitchen. . so many dreams and not a lot of cash. It would be like us starting building a building without the money to finish. They don't want to borrow money because they come from a history of bankruptcy. After seeing the Haitian men that work in the sun laboring over the construction site for under $3 an hour, we went to the navy social club and sat by the beach and drank beer. That is one of the main things I am going to take away from this trip- the amazing discrepancy between those who have money and those who don't. And the beer in the Dominican Republic, by the way, is el Presidente. And I like it. We also had wine. I totally thought I wouldn't drink alcohol my entire time here - because of expense and the malaria pills-and I've had a drink every day. Mainly because of my generous family members here. I've also learned that females should not pour their own wine. Huh.
We went to a traditional Dominican Republic food buffet. I danced with a Dominican Republican man. He kept having to put his hands on my hips and say side-to-side No! Meringue. We have been eating very well in both countries. I'm probably gaining weight. I remember clear back on that night, sitting by the pool discussing Baby Doc (Duvalier) and our fears about going to Haiti. Ha! There is no need to fear Haiti.

More about Kim

By the way, I'm in Haiti now. Arrival and airport transport all went well and we're at the Haiti YMCA in the cybercafe.
So back the DR. Kim ate six pieces of pizza and ice cream! We had a great time asking one another questions. The zoo and aquarium were both closed so we just ate and drove around. She didn't get disappointed or anything, they were all so sweet- It was her, her mom, her two sisters, a translator, a driver and the woman from Children International who works with Kim's family. It was a great day. Kim takes 12 courses at school and it's only an afternoon school. All three girls have great dreams for the future- to be a dentist, accountant and Kim wants to be a pediatrician. They sang and danced for me and tried to teach me a little. She asked three times if I would come back someday. . . and I think maybe I will.
My spanish is a struggle. I speak a few words and revert back to english!
I have to go to lunch now. I hope to tell you about the DR Y later.

So much to say. . .

Wow. I can't belive it's only been 3 days since I left. So everything is fine, there may be difficulties that I didn't anticipate in the cleanliness area and choosing what to eat but I'm having a good time.
To start with at the airport as soon as I got in line, a man started talking to me about universal religion- because I had a Y shirt on. Not only did he want to talk in line, he wanted me to meet him at the gate and continue our conversation! But he ended up being a nice guy, I thought he was misguided, he thinks I am but we agreed to disagree. . . or I stopped talking and maybe he thought he'd given me something to think about. He also did me the favor of finding Antonio- my Y leader. So, the dynamic of a flight in the middle of winter to Miami- want to take a guess of the median age?
So arrival in the Dominican Republic was very welcoming, Andres is the director of the DR YMCA and also the leader of the Carribean Alliance of YMCA's. We met up with him and his son, and Ray, a gentleman from Kentucky who used to live in Hait and is our Haiti expert. They took me out to a beautiful restaurant on the beach with multi levels and colors and I tried Mofundo, or something like that, plantains mixed with some meat and tropical fruit juice. It was good. Probably the most cultural food I have had so far. It was a great introduction to the country. I was warned not to expect that every night.
The hotel. So that first night, I had a room alone. And I know I thought to myself, I haven't done this for awhile. . . and it's almost panic when you realize how far you are out of your comfort zone. And I'm still only in the DR. When we came to my hotel room, the refridge had been left open and leaked all over the floor. . . and some of you know the problem I have with wet floors. Someone was supposed to clean it up while we were gone and didn't. Then, the shower didn't work. I got all ready for my nice hot shower after a day of travel and then a trickle of cold came out. It was about 12:15 a.m. and I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. Uh oh. So you deal with it. I imagine it's going to get a lot worse. Sleeping in bug repellent. Man.
And I'm thinking, how did I get here?
And I think back to a night where I was sitting in the pool office catching up on my reading because there weren't enough lifeguards and I read a Y Discovery Magazine about these ILI experiences and I thought, I'd like to do that someday. . . and then at a training this fall I heard about this opportunity again and I made it one of my short term goals. . . and I've wanted to come to the Dominican Republic for a few years because I have a sponsored child through Children International that I wanted to meet. Kimberlyn. And then I just happen to notice on our national Y website this ILI opportunity in the Dominican Republic (and Haiti) and I thought. . . well maybe I'll apply for that, just a few days before it was due. And I got in. So there you go, I'm here.
So after a breakfast of scrambled eggs and what I found out today is SPAM I headed out to meet Kimberlyn. . . which was amazing. Honestly. Not only is she real, she's really sweet and mature, and tall and gets along with her sisters and is considerate. But I should probably get off this computer now, so I'll have to tell you about Kim and the amazing work of the DR YMCA later. I've been drinking beer.

Country Mouse is off to new lands!

One week and counting