Brush with Haiti (15 page)

"And peaceful."

"Do you think that's because the U.N. is here?"

"No." She shook her head. Even Port-au-Prince felt different to me this time. It seemed Haiti was making progress.

A local doctor was kind enough to let us stay at her house for the days we spent in Jeremie. She was from the States but now spent the majority of her time in Haiti, returning only occasionally to make enough money to live on the remainder of the year. She was away in Milwaukee giving full use of her home to Renate and me. Also staying with us for the next few days was Corinne, a psychology professor who was a friend of Renate.

The house was situated perhaps one hundred feet from the road and surrounded by trees. Each time we drove in I noticed a woman and her children nearby. They were very friendly and Renate spoke to them in Creole about any number of things. The houses were spaced not too far apart, and I wondered which one was theirs and how they became such close neighbors. Then I noticed the woman sweeping the steps. And her son, who must have been nine or ten-years-old was there to help us every time we appeared. He retrieved gasoline for the generator and for the truck, and seemed to eagerly await Renate's suggestions of what to do next.

"Where do they live?" I asked her.

"On the porch," she replied. "Didn't I tell you?"

Haitian society is still comprised largely of an informal economy and informal housing. People will do what they can to make a few
gourdes
to feed themselves and their families. And the money I saw the boy earn from Renate seemed to mean everything to him. I had never seen anyone so eager to work. I hoped that one day he would have an opportunity to go far. He certainly had the desire.

One afternoon the daughter ran up to Renate, waving a sheet of paper. Renate looked at it and smiled, saying something that seemed to please her.

"She did very well on her report card. She wanted to show it to us."

"Nice," I said, impressed that she could concentrate so hard in school when living on a porch with her mother and siblings.

"Academic achievement is such a priority here. It is amazing."

I agreed. The look on her face was inspiring, and wondered if I had commended my own children enough on their accomplishments when they were young. Their father and I were both teachers so we expected them to do their best in school, but I doubted they knew how much we really cared. Later, we saw the girl walking with her friends along the road. She beamed, knowing that we knew that she was a good student.

The first floor of the doctor's house was the only original part of the structure. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. The ceiling was low and the hallways a bit uneven and winding, but it provided what we needed and more. These were very good conditions in Haiti. Being there makes one much more aware of our own habits of consumption. Fueling a generator to run a refrigerator seems excessive, so it becomes more sensible to buy a few simple foods - some vegetables, fruits, a few eggs, butter, and bread - and consume them before they can go bad. The benefits of eating vegetarian are more apparent, as meat production is very costly and takes a tremendous toll on the planet when comparable nutrition can be found much more simply in plant products. Grinding coffee beans is a way of life - good coffee is expected everywhere in the Caribbean and lighting the stove each time to heat the percolator makes one more appreciative of every cup. The door was rarely closed during the day and chickens wandered in and out while we cooked and sat down at the table to eat.

The doctor had raised money to add on to the house building an impressive second and third floor above. Their ceilings were a good deal higher, and the concrete walls heavy. It was a wonder the lower level could sustain them. There were multiple rooms whose walls and floors were still raw and dusty where medical students from abroad would one day be able to stay, and gather for meetings. The accommodations were designed to be very valuable for those coming to do clinical work in the area. The residents of the area were in need of any medical care that was offered.

Though the first floor was dark and lit only sporadically in the evening when we decided the effort was worth it, the upper floors were bright and breezy. Large window openings captured hours of daylight more readily available above the tree tops. From the third floor balcony there was a beautiful and clear view of the sea in the distance. I hoped the future student visitors could appreciate just how lucky they were to be housed in such a place.

My room downstairs was furnished with a twin bed and small table, and the window invited fresh, warm air and sounds of country animals all hours of the day and night.

Renate and Corinne
were very busy in their psychology research and it was interesting to watch them exchange ideas. The work of the historian takes place primarily in solitude. We sometimes converse in ways that further our efforts, but mostly our communication is conducted with dead people who have left behind records, hints of what they were thinking, and evidence of what they accomplished in their lives on earth. It is our job to interpret what happened and how it influenced other events or human actions.

Some claim the discipline is a social science, while others consider it part of the humanities. I tend to fall into the latter category. It is not purely literature in that it is not imagined. And while we work with evidence grounded in real time and place, our methods are not scientific, not in an empirical sense. I was happy to have the opportunity to see two experts in psychology at work. They contemplated studies related to living human beings and deliberated how to apply what they knew in the community. More so, they were investigating ways to see the people of the Grand'Anse address their own issues.

Renate first came to Haiti several years before to perform sleep research. Looking for a society more reliant on the patterns of the sun than the artificially lit Chicago, she fell in love with Haiti and its people. She decided to spend as much time there as her funding would allow, and continued work at the University of Chicago essentially to support her ventures when grant money was no longer available. I am not sure what initially drew Corinne there, but she eventually married a Haitian man, had a child, and held a strong commitment to Haitian development. She and I talked some about her field, and she told me she was very pleased to be teaching in one of the few humanist psychology departments in the United States at the University of West Georgia.

They were working together to create a mental health clinic in Jeremie. At this point they were engaged in data collection through surveys to see what kinds of services were needed. They were also brainstorming possible ways in which they could match their work to existing Haitian concepts in order to see the dialogue unfold more freely. Even though the community was embracing the idea of a mental health clinic, this would be the first of its kind. The vocabulary of mental health did not yet exist. When I asked how they might go about teaching the vocabulary, Corinne pointed out that it was not so much teaching, as it was attempting to foster a culture where concepts of mental health challenges might be recognized. Until that happened there could be no real vocabulary, for what are words but symbols for concepts? The need for mental health practitioners in the Grand'Anse was great.

Finding cross-cultural parallels for ideas had posed challenges. In working with a local teacher, Corinne saw an opportunity to see whether a survey might be done conducted his school, giving her a chance to find out what kinds of issues exist among the children. A standard survey might prove difficult as they were still deciding what the questions might be. Rather, she considered that teachers might be asked open-ended questions, requesting that they note their observations of any particularly unusual behavior exhibited by a student in the classroom. It seemed a good starting place. At that point they were engaged in simple brainstorming, which in my experience has proved integral to good projects. It was interesting to observe how others utilize it in work about which I knew nothing.

In following days, I would get to learn much more. Renate and Corinne prepared a presentation for local students and health care providers to be held at the Universite de la Nouvelle Grand'Anse, locally referred to as UNOGA. It was a small technical school located about five kilometers outside Jeremie, which offered programs in management an agronomy. The grounds were lush green with plots for farming demonstrations, pig husbandry, and chicken coops. There were two classroom buildings, offices, and a large assembly hall spread far apart with areas of grass in between. The overcast sky and the humid air made the campus warm and inviting, while still feeling spacious.

In the large, marble-tiled room of the administration building, Renate and Corinne set up their laptop and proj ector as twenty or so people from the community arrived and took their seats. I was honored to be their slide changer. They spoke to the group in Creole, and I was able to understand the gist of what they were conveying through the magic of PowerPoint. I also watched body language carefully to see evidence of communication and understanding. It is surprising how much we can rely on alternative methods of understanding when challenged to do so. They spoke of signs and symptoms of stress, a topic familiar to me. The timing was perfect, for what they said reinforced what I needed to hear.

Toward the end of their talk, they introduced a relaxation exercise through meditation. I was content to continue my role as audio-visual assistant in the back of the room, but found myself joining in as everyone closed their eyes and began deep breathing. It was something members of the audience had not done, and something I needed to do. By the time it was over, a sense of incredible calm came over the room, and then smiles emerged as people became conscious of the effects it had on them. It was beautiful. At that moment there was nowhere else on earth I would rather be.

Though Renate was busy
catching up on her work, she kept her promise to introduce me to teachers in the area so I could learn more about the educational system from their perspectives. Peter was one. He worked nearby and had become a good friend of both her and Corinne. I was anxious to learn from him what teachers' lives were like and what they hoped to offer their students. Renate acted as interpreter.

Peter was a secondary school teacher of experimental sciences, physics, and biology. He was 26-years-old and had been teaching for six years. This was my first interview and I was admittedly a bit apprehensive, but he welcomed any questions from me and was thoughtful and considerate in his answers. He seemed a conscientious teacher.

According to Peter, a major problem in education there was understandably a lack of resources for facilities, materials, and salaries. He described his school as neither public nor private, but more a "community" school, where funding was unpredictable. He added that finances were not much more predictable in other schools. He negotiated a salary ofless than one dollar per hour at the beginning of the school year, though the director had not been able to pay him regularly. The lack of resources had made the school itself inter-pedagogical.

Whereas the blending of disciplines and age groups had been targets of innovation in wealthier school districts in the United States, they had become necessities in much of Haiti, where demands on teachers were especially high.

Peter was honest about the challenges he faced; for example, his school building was hot and benches intended to seat four students were forced to seat ten or eleven. Attendance was good, except following heavy rains. The students were eager to learn, and often walked an hour or two to school each day. Education, they felt, was the best path to a life of something better. I wondered what it must be like to teach the sciences with few materials and no laboratory facilities. He said the students in his school were fortunate to be using books, but had no opportunity to conduct experiments themselves. There were no test tubes, beakers, Bunsen burners, or whatever else might serve as basic provisions in a science classroom. I recalled my own 7th grade science class, which was home to our first real lab table. It was portable and small in comparison to what we would have later on, but it allow us chance to demonstrate experiments ourselves in front of the class. And seeing cells under a microscope for the first time made all the difference in the world. I wondered how he could convey what he needed without a hands-on experience for the students.

According to Peter, the funding for his school was consistently erratic, start-up money coming by way of special donations with some follow-up funding from time to time from the European Union or elsewhere. In recent days, political candidates had made appearances with some donations in hand, as national elections were scheduled for later that year. It was common for money to flow when politicians were campaigning, but he predicted that once the elections were over, the money would vanish.

What he told me was interesting and reinforced what I thought to be true about schooling in Haiti. As it was my first interview I was not sure yet what to ask, for I had nothing with which I could compare. In addition, having Renate interpret was a little awkward. I felt as if I had just arrived and was not quite acclimated to the area. Still, it was good. I was looking forward to talking with social studies teachers about their ideas on civics education. When the conversation took a turn, I learned just how committed Peter was in this area. He devoted much of his free time to educating people in his community about political engagement, urging them to learn about candidates and vote thoughtfully, based on what would prove beneficial for the community and not for personal gain. He said he wanted people to notice how candidates appeared with food and campaign promises before elections and how in a poor region that can be quite powerful. Peter encouraged prospective voters to think in the long term.