Patrick's Musings #6

1) Tuesday December 9th is World Human Rights Day. Today I was reflecting on the idea of human rights, “dwa moun” in Kreyol, as I took a walk through the streets of Port-au-Prince. Specifically what captured my attention were a mother and her two sons. One child was around 4 years old and the other was probably about a year old as he was grasping onto to the small stand that the mother was selling oil from in order to hold himself up. The two boys were playing hide and seek just like brothers living anywhere in the world might do, but they were not hiding behind a tree or on the other side of a couch within the comfort of their home. Instead, they were about three feet away from a busy city street on a sidewalk that can only be described as filthy. Garbage filled the edge of the sidewalk as traffic raced by pouring black fumes into the air the children were breathing in. The youngest child wore only a t-shirt and neither of the boys had shoes. If their mother was like most Haitians, which seems likely in this case, then the three of them would be restricted to living off of less than $2 a day. I asked myself what do human rights mean to this family? Certainly it is only an idea and not a reality that they have experienced. In light of World Humans Rights Day I want to invite any of you who may be reading this to reflect on this question and to share your answers on our blog. Perhaps within the confines of a community discussion we can uncover a better sense of what human rights are and how we can create a world in which they are manifested more fully?

2) From what Kim and I have observed, there are usually at least 2-5 kids sleeping during any given class in the school at CONASPEH. I do not believe this is a reflection on the lack motivation on the part of the students or teachers. It probably reflects the fact that most of the kids in the school have not eaten much, if anything, before showing up for class in the morning. Anyways, during one my recent English lessons a student that almost always sleeps during our time together suddenly awoke from his afternoon nap and interrupted the lesson to ask an extremely important question. He asked me what the English translation of the Kreyol term “neg mon” was. Fortunately I had stumbled across this word in my English-Kreyol dictionary during the previous week. The literal translation of “neg mon” is “mountain man,” but the dictionary claimed it translated into English as “hillbilly.” I can only speculate as to why this question might have been pressing enough to bring my prize pupil out of his deep sleep. However, it serves as a nice illustration of what life in Haiti is like: bizarre, fascinating, and always entertaining.

3) Kim never ceases to amaze me. Everyday she, along with the majority of women in Haiti, gets referred to almost exclusively not by her first name, but as “Madamn Patrick,” or “Patrick’s wife.” This is customary in Haiti where the first names of women are rarely used, if known at all. Madamn mwen, I mean Kim, does not throw a fit about this social norm and in turn, make people here feel uncomfortable about something that they have been taught since childhood to say. Instead, she has gracefully challenged this practice by calling other women by their first name, if it is apparent that it doesn’t make them uncomfortable. Her commitment to empowering women while being culturally sensitive is impressive. I’m proud to have her carry my name so well in Haiti.

4) This afternoon I briefly conversed with some vendors who work out of the guesthouse we are staying at. They have come to know Kim and I and are cognizant of the fact that we are long termers in Haiti, so they don’t try to sell us anything. However, the other foreigners (blans) staying at the guesthouse are not so fortunate. As I was talking with one of the vendors today another vendor approached me and immediately went into her best sale pitch using the few sentences of English she knew. Apparently she did not recognize me because I was wearing a Minnesota Twins hat. However, in mid-sentence she realized who I was and said, “Oh Mr. Patrick it’s you.” She laughed and then informed me, “Tout blan sanble.” This roughly translates as, “All white people resemble each other.” This encounter reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where George told his African-American boss that he looked like Sugar Ray Leonard, which did not go over well. In a feeble attempt to demonstrate to his boss that he wasn’t racist, George invited Jerry’s exterminator, also an African-American, to dinner at a place he knew his boss would dining. Hopefully this situation won’t get that far.

5) The children at CONASPEH love to peek into Kim and I’s office window while we are working. Kim noted that it sometime feels like being in a zoo where the kids are given the opportunity to watch white people working in a controlled setting. One day last week several students were staring through the window at us. Since it was midday and we were hungry, I made a few elephant noises in hopes that maybe they would throw peanuts into office. It didn’t work.

6) An extremely heated argument broke out last week between two people outside of the CONASPEH building. There was lots of yelling and finger pointing with brief intermissions for receiving cell phone calls…Haitians will not refuse an incoming call under any circumstance. Anyways, the argument attracted several on-lookers who walked right up the two men fighting and watched them, sometimes from a distance of no more than a foot. Mothers brought their little toddlers to observe, women with large jugs of water on their heads stopped and listened in, and there were a couple of men who got of their bicycles so they could catch the action. However, my favorite pair of observers were two women wearing only bath towels who elected to stop their bathes and come out of their homes to watch the argument. Truly everything in Haiti is a social event.

7) The random shirt of the day goes to a man wearing a jersey that read “Lady Playa’z #3.” He was clearly a “playa” with sick skills with the ladies. I can only imagine what #1 and #2 are like.

8) The lack of access to food in Haiti pervades everything that happens here. The children in the school constantly come to Kim with headaches and stomach aches. The main reason they feel bad is that they haven’t eaten. When people get sick in Haiti they cannot get better quickly because they cannot afford to put calories into their bodies, nevertheless see a doctor or get medicine. They simply go on being sick. In addition, children struggle to focus at school and sometimes even to stay awake because they are not eating enough. Everything here is connected to the inability to eat properly. So for today’s quote of the day I turn to the exiled former president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide who provides some simple perspective on this atrocity. “We are all living under a system that is so corrupt that to ask for a plate of rice and beans everyday for every man, woman, and child is to preach a revolution.” How sad.