"It looks like you'll be spending the next couple of weeks with me," he said.
Considering I got on the bus with no idea of what was in store for me on the other side, that sounded okay to me.
The next couple of weeks, which have led me up to today, have brought me a good way up part of the steepest learning curve I've ever tried to climb.
First of all, Port-au-Prince. It's been over five months since the earthquake, but its effects are still very (too much so) apparent. Tent cities are everywhere (everywhere). Across the street from where I'm staying, surrounding the office where I work, everywhere. The office is about a five minute walk from the remains of the Presidential Palace, which looks about the same as I remember it from the picture coming out of the capital in mid-January. Things are somewhat back to normal, I suppose, but in an eerily inappropriate way. It should not be normal to live in tent cities, and that's what has happened. It's exasperating, really, and I don't even want to get into it because I don't know the first thing to do about it. I guess we all thought the bigger organizations that supposedly know better would have done something by now.
My living situation, on the other hand, is very nice. The house is very comfortable and safe, and I just bought a car. It's harder here than in the Dominican Republic, because it's difficult to live below a certain level of wealth. There aren't taxis and there isn't really much in the way of middle-level affordable housing. The public transportation is certainly manageable, but that only gets you around until a certain hour of the evening. It's an adjustment, to be sure.
Not like I'm suffering, of course. Especially not in comparison to people who have been living in tents for the last five months. But it's an adjustment to change from living in a small community with my Dominican neighbors to moving up into the hills above Port-au-Prince with the Haitians who have money and other foreigners. It's an easy living situation for now, though, and I'm happy to not have to stress about getting my feet under me when I have so many other things to be learning.
Like Kreyòl, for example, which is a challenge. It's supposedly an easy language to learn because you don't have do things like conjugate verbs (to give one example). Gramatically it has a much looser structure than Spanish or English, say. My speaking is coming along, slowly, but my understanding of what's happening around me really depends on the context and who is speaking. Sometimes I'm up around 80-85% comprehension. Sometimes I feel like a one-year-old. I've done this before, though, and I'm not too worried about it. It'll come with time. Pitit, pitit, zwazo fe nich. Little by little, the bird makes its nest. Kreyòl is a language of proverbs, and that one is pretty applicable to me at this moment.
The first week that I was here Kaveh was co-running a training with another one of my future co-workers. The training was for future credit agents who will be out in the field helping our clients by disbursing small loans and giving them training. Day one, all Kreyòl, all the time. And repeat for five more days. It was very helpful, though, because I will one day soon be giving those same trainings. A lot of the techniques that we use in Peace Corps are applicable in this context, too, which is comforting. I ended up participating in the training like the other Haitian trainees, learning a ton about the organization and the particular program that I'll be working with.
The second week we flew up north, to Cap Haitien. We have a few branches up there in surrounding communities, and we went to check out how our credit agents were doing and see a few graduations (I'll explain below). The days were long, as we traveled on motorcycles and in pickups and buses to get all over the northern part of the country. The roads are awful, dusty, and generally exhausting. And, contrary to what I was trying to convince myself of before my move, Haiti is also hot in June. One day we got stuck up at the top of a mountain for two hours because it started raining on the way down and the at one point easily crossable river had turned into Mississippi, Jr. Reminded me of the good ol' days back on top of my mountain in the D.R.
The trip was worth it, though, for everything I saw and learned. Seeing the day-to-day operations of the credit agents whom I'll be working with was eye-opening. They've got a tough job, traveling to all sorts of small, distant communities to meet with groups of clients every day. It was remarkable, though, to see them interacting with clients. The best ones have a relationship with their communities not dissimilar to some of the best Peace Corps volunteers I knew from the D.R. Many of our agents (although Haitian) are not from the communities they are working in, and they need to integrate and earn the respect of their clients just as I did.
The personal relationship our agents have with the clients was manifested best during the graduations that we went up there to celebrate. In total, we saw four groups of between 50-100 women graduate from our program, TiKredi (little loans). To give some background, TiKredi is a program for women who do not qualify to receive our core loans, which start out at $75 to be paid back over three months. In development terms, TiKredi clients fall into the category of "extreme poverty."
Although the program only lasts a little over six months, the change is remarkable. Most of these women live in tiny houses made of mud or wood slabs with a thatched roof. They have many children, and can't afford to send most of them to school. If they have a business (i.e. selling fruit on the side of the road) at all, it barely makes any money. They don't have enough food to feed themselves or their families. They live day to day.
After six months, they aren't millionaires. In fact, the first loan that they qualify after TiKredi is only for $75. However, they have moved forward, and they want to continue to move forward, which is the most important part. They have hope for a better future, and they know that they themselves have the capacity to build it. During the graduation ceremonies, at least five women stood up at each one to giver their testimonies about what the program had done for them. They thanked a lot of people, but it was obvious to me how important the relationship was between them and the credit agents.
So, I got to see almsot the whole process, from training the credit agents to participating in a graduation for our clients. All in two weeks. Now, I just have to actually nail down my Kreyòl and I'll be good to go. That process starts tomorrow, when I'll head up north to spend a few weeks with some of our agents and clients. I'll be there until the middle of July, when I'm heading back to Minnesota for a few days (July 18-28). I'm looking forward to the break after what I'm sure will be a challenging few weeks. In the mean time, though, it's time to hit the books and get settled in.
I realize that this post was a little all over the place, so I appreciate your patience. I'm sure as the weeks and months go by I'll be able to fill in the blanks with my job and everything else going on here. And, as always, you've got a place to stay in Haiti.
Kenbe la, pa lage! (Hang in there, don't let go!)
PS - Wednesday is going to look like this: USA 3, Algeria 0.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, the battery for my camera was low and I ran out of juice before I could get some better shots. I'll try to do better in the future.
This is Kaveh and I pretending not to be scared on the tiny airplane from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien.
This is a weekly "center meeting" where the women get their small loans (this one was for about $65) and also receive training on things ranging from basic business skills to reproductive health to childrens' rights.
Here is one of 41 (going on 42) branches the organization has outside of Port-au-Prince.
Some pictures of clients graduating from our program to the next one (bigger loans!). Singing, dancing, speeches (including one by yours truly in my terribly broken kreyòl) and an all around good time.
And, finally, a few pictures from my last few days in the D.R. with Steph.
0 comments:
Post a Comment