Haiti – A Retrospective

1. Haiti – A Retrospective July 11-18,, 2014 Chets Creek Church – Mission Group

5. Haiti and Population • Haiti and Population • Republic of Haiti - located on western third of the island of Hispanola. • Remainder of island occupied by the Dominican Republic. • Hispanola sits between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. • Population: just shy of 10 million people. • 95% of Haiti's people of Haiti are black • 5% registering as white • 2.1 million in Port au Prince • Extremely congested city.

6. Haiti Language and Religion • Haiti Language • Haiti has two official languages: French and Haitian Creole. • French is language of the government and most businesses. • Many of Haiti's poorer residents speak only Creole. • Haiti Religion • Haiti's population is about 80% Roman Catholic, 16% Protestant (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), 1% of the population registers no religion, and 3% categorize their religion as “other”. • About half of Haiti's population also practices some form of voodoo.

7. Haiti Poverty • Poverty: • Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere • 80% of Haiti's population below international poverty line of $2 a day • 54% are defined as living in abject poverty surviving on just $1.25 • Poverty levels reflected in a very high infant mortality rate • Poverty levels are also reflected in literacystatistics • Over 47% of Haiti's population is illiterate • Not enough public schools to accommodate Haiti's children • Most of Haiti's kids are forced to attend private schools which charge between $100 and $200 a year per student

8. Observations and Facts Offered to Me** • 60% unemployment rate; 95% of people have 5% of wealth and conversely. • Power: • At Christian Light School: commercial power is turned off around 3:30 – 4pm • NOpower until around 9pm, (totally dark) at which time the CLT turns on its inverters. • 9pm: inverter power is turned on - fans and some plugs available. • Power cut off around 3:30-4am; • Commercial power resumes around 6am, at which time one could get up and take a cold shower. • ** I do not know if all this is true, but generally, I heard these facts repeatedly.

9. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Water: • No hot water. Showers consisted of a ¾” pvc pipe extending from the wall. • Get wet, turn off water, soap up/down, turn on water, and quickly rinse. • A/C: • There is no air conditioning in much of Haiti except for the wealthy who live up in the mountain. • Could see lights and power in mountains; knew there was air conditioning. • No A/C or anything closely resembling any kind of paved roads at/near CLS. • When power cut around 3:30am, one would best simply lie still on bed, as it was dark, quite humid. • Sounds of the night were pervasive: (Roosters, dogs, occasional screams, and voodoo drums.)

10. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Water (revisited). • Nearly daily, water was delivered into a cistern, at which time most was pumped up onto large holding tanks. • Some water for showering; some for cooking and consumption. • Drinking water had a terrible taste in it – much calcium. • Used Mia to flavor the water so it was drinkable. • Ice was a scarce commodity, and was closely rationed. • Used to chill drinks, when available. Otherwise, the water was tepid.

11. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Sanitation. • This is a difficult subject to convey. Toilets (but there were western toilets, thank God) were (at least at CLS) available. • Emphatically told to not flush the toilets. • ‘If it is yellow, let it mellow; if it is brown, flush it down.’ • As unsettling as this is, much more unsettling was the fact that toilet tissue could not be flushed down the toilet; rather, upon use, it was put into a small bucket along side the toilet to gather during the day. • Once a day (we were told), a house attendant would gather up the contents of these buckets and ‘take care’ of them, only to restart the next day.

12. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Poverty: • Poverty was as bad as I have seen it, and I have seen some. • Living facilities consisted of some lean tos, tarps, corrugated materials, sheets, and similar materials constituted ‘walls’ on huts in the ‘baby-feeding’ area, called the ravine or tent city. • Pictures shout volumes. • Will show pictures of CLS and surrounding area.

13. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Education. • Most feel that this is the key to the future – at least those who care. • CLS feeds the very small five days a week with peanut butter and baby formula mixture brought to the ravine by CLS volunteers. (Pix coming) • Babies weighed one a week and tracked. • Goal: enable learning biologically; • Children so dramatically undernourished no learning could take place. • For the last several years, CLS has been making a real difference, and the small kids we saw were not too bad, although there were major exceptions. (see website)

14. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Womenare discriminated upon in countless ways, ranging from their place to raise children and serve the man and little encouragement for education. Expectations for women are nearly non-existent these regions. • They live to have babies and serve the man. Period. • Women have little / no recourse to complain should they be beaten or otherwise mistreated. • The police are very corrupt as is the government, and the woman has no place to go – although I have heard that this is changing very slowly. • If a man beats a woman, then it is clearly deserved. • Similarly, if the woman fails to bear a child within a year of marriage, the man may annul the marriage and the woman is persona-no-grata and has little (no) chance to remarry, since she is barren. • These often turn to prostitution for survival.

15. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • VooDooI am told that when the French colonized Haiti, they essentially exterminated the indigenous Indians and then brought slaves over from French Africa. • These were exploited savagely. • I am told (needs to be verified…) that the black made a pact with the devil that if he, Satan, delivered them from the French, that they would serve him. He did and they do. • Every night the very distinctive drums of voodoo are clearly heard, especially when power is turned off during the wee early hours of the morning. • I am told that many are Christian on Sundays but practice vudo during the rest of the week…

16. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • People. • The individual people we met were wonderful and cheerful. • Children and mothers (saw few fathers) in the tent city were so grateful that we brought them food, nourishment, vitamins, soup, etc.. • They smiled and were a delight. • The little children are also precious. It is very easy to see how one could become so involved in trying to help their plight. • This may be attributable to their not knowing any other kind of existence and realizing that there are some who wish to help.

17. Observations and Facts Offered to Me • Missions. • Many groups sending individuals many places in Haiti to assist in many ways. • Port Au Prince, I am told, was one of the more advanced areas, and that there were other missions in the mountains that were much more desolate and deprived than we saw. • The population density in Port Au Prince was high. • Several other mission locations and schools in Haiti. • See website for more information.