Haiti Snapshot #3 - A Love Song

"I cannot do all the things that the world needs,

but the world needs all of the things that I can do"

As the 45 sweetly accented voices repeated this chorus over and over my friend, Emily, and I could not help but notice the way that one little boy's gaze never left us. He paid no attention to the choir director's enthusiastic arm-waving, but steadily studied the two of us as we sat on the wooden bench in the back of the church.

This is Nelson. At age 10, he really looked more like he was seven years old. He arrived early every day, wearing his Sunday best, a blue and yellow sports jersey tucked into khaki dress pants secured with a belt pulled tight abound his abdomen. Around 7:30 am he would take his place on the exposed foundation of the school that acted more as a bench for the children to sit on while we finished preparations for the classes that would begin at 8:00.

Usually sitting by himself on one of the front rows during the morning assembly, it never appeared that he had too many friends. But the smile on his face exposed the delight and enthusiasm that he felt for the Art Camp that we were putting on for these kids.

One day, Emily and I went on a walk on some of the paths outside of the compound where we had been staying. We explored some roaming trails and found a few local folks that we greeted with hearty Bon Swa-s, and took some photos of some of the children herding goats. We found our way the dirt soccer pitch where the kids passed around whatever they could find to act as a ball. And suddenly Nelson appeared, wearing only some baggy blue shorts, running over to us, holding our hands, delighted to indicated to the others that he knew these foreigners. Our lack of language skills didn't ever allow us to really get to know much about this boy, but I think that it wasn't actually too difficult to fill in the blanks on what his life was probably like.

On the bench in the church, as Emily and I sat watching Nelson singing this beautiful refrain in both English and French, I turned to Emily and said,

"Look how Nelson is looking at us - I think that he's singing us a love song."

After the song ended, we waved him over and he almost flew across the church to squeeze in between the both of us.

Haiti Snapshot #2 - Juxtapositons

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As the plane began to prepare for its descent into Port au Prince I pressed my face up against the small plastic oval of a window and scanned for signs of the havoc that the notorious January earthquake had wreaked on this fragile city. From the air what was mostly visible was a landscape dotted with dwellings, lush flowering trees and snakey dirt roads. As the land drew closer, however, many of those dwellings revealed themselves to be acres of tents, and the piles of rubble were more apparent. Inside Baggage Claim, the scent of diesel fumes mixed with dust quickly reminds me that I am in another world.

Right outside of the airport is where many people in their tent-cities currently reside, and as we casually drove by I was astonished at the number. In truth, Port au Prince resembles more of a war-zone like Kosovo or Baghdad. Fallen walls have crushed cars. There are piles of rubble that line the street. Some buildings are standing, but jut out at odd 45-degree angles reminding you that things are not as they seem. The presidential palace, the symbol of hard-earned hope and freedom for the proud Haitians is now a concave behemoth, a symbolic testament to the enormity of the effect that the earthquake has had on this fragile country.

Yet, in front of this somber backdrop, vital signs of life juxtapose themselves with the tragedy that is seen everywhere. Joyful pops of color can be found on everything from the tap-taps and mini-busses, to the Digicel umbrellas, to the works of art that adorn a concrete wall, and the lively political graffiti on every blank meter of concrete, reminding you that the spirit is not broken.

People bustle about, avoiding the broken pieces of the road amidst the hum and honks of the traffic. Demonstrators celebrate the birthday of deposed President Aristide in front of the presidential palace, which is kitty-corner to the completely toppled Holy Trinity Anglican church. Everyone largely agrees that these demonstrators must have been paid to do this. Uniformed school children walk home in groups, making up for school time lost in January and February.

In a rented van, our group begins our ascent into the mountains above Port au Prince, Petion-ville, where the shocks were also felt. The lush canopy of banana trees, palm trees, and other vegetation masks the demolition that has happened here, too. Many churches and homes built into the hillside couldn’t withstand the tremors and tumbled down. Many people are making-do in donated tents, but the rainy season that is now upon us threatens this existence as well.

In Petion-ville, our hosts inform us that the view of the valley below was where hundreds of sugar-cane plantations once were. They show us the heavily rusted iron neck chain that was found in the garden, and most assuredly was worn long-ago by a slave who escaped to these very hills.

That evening, our hosts, some Americans whose hearts have turned Haitian and a few their local friends generously share with us the gift of hospitality and song: their belief in Haiti and their hope for its future.

Capacity Building & Sustainability

Right in line with broad-spectrum Portland values of sustainability and conservation is the ethos of BuildaBridge when it comes to their cross-cultural international work.

Our challenge as international workers is to teach skills that can be furthered without our presence. We plan to research what is locally availability so that people can continue to make art and produce projects that aren't reliant solely on imported goods.

People can be creative in ways that stuns the average Westerner.

I'm looking forward to this, so much, and yet I'm a little scared, too.

Storytelling Changes Lives!

Micro-Enterprise CHANGES LIVES!

I'm excited right now about the possible connections and things that can happen!
My friend, LeRoy Goertz invented this jewelry making tool he calls the Coiling Gizmo. Essentially it is a tool to wrap wire around itself into amazing beads and other forms of jewelry. People have done beautiful things with it as you can see from the Gallery page.
Now that I'm planning to go to Haiti, LeRoy remembered that he has some extras of these that could be used for Haitian women to begin some micro-enterprise much the same as Ugandan women have been able to do with making paper beads. The NEWSWORTHY organization BeadforLife has created a bridge for the creations of these women to a Western market. They conduct home jewelry sales parties much like the Tupperware model.

Could this be a viable way for Haitian women to earn incomes? It looks like it could be! The best part (to me) is that the curling gizmo requires no batteries or electricity, and the only limit is your imagination!

Stories of Hope

I'm currently gearing up for a trip to Haiti this summer to do digital Storytelling with children who have been the victims of Trauma there. Our plan is to work on several locations with other artists who have come to conduct therapeutic arts projects for these kids. Right now it looks like I'll be splitting my time between the orphanage and the elementary school.

Even under the best of circumstances life is hard in Haiti. Haiti's infrastructure has never been great and now after the devastating earthquake, things will probably not turn around quickly.
BuildaBridge International, the group that I'm going with endeavors to bring artists into situations like these to help people find hope and healing through the arts.

I'm hoping that by letting people tell their stories that they will express the small signs of hope that they see around them, and that as they change this Narrative in their lives that they will take another step on the path towards healing.