Mizik andeyo ti legliz sou tet mon

  Be present and win!

Road to Gran Dodo' s House: Under construction!I

No, no one ever fell or tripped - it was just a matter of watching everywhere you'd think you need to put your foot.  Finally, www.ifpigscouldflyhaiti.org  could do something about this, making it easier to scale the heights of Mon Bouton's veritable Everest - where Gran Dodo, Marie-Ange, Mesye Reymon, their 4 little girls and the household of Madame Karolus is located - including Ti Eli's hopeful cleared plot of land...

It's a daunting climb for me, at least, though Gran and neighbors have weathered it all these years. 

Our If  Pigs Could Fly Haiti crew paves the way...and earns their way!

No, you would NOT waste a good pair of shoes doing work like this.

I wonder if this path has survived the rains...Perhaps Toma will send me recent photos. I can't wait to return and test the, uh, waters...

I wonder:  has

Vremen - Annou koupe tèt enjistis

Annou koupe tèt enjistis

Cut off the head of injustice

End injustice, put an end to poverty

Pictures tell the tale in less than 1000 words.  No earthquake, no hurricanes, just life as usual in the mountains of rural Haiti.  Vremen.

Melianis: Mèsi pou rele m lè kafe pare

Melianis

She arrives every morning at the same time - you could set a clock, if you wished - but there are no clocks here and and no need for clocks.

But, I have a great, great need for some very hot, very strong, very sweet, real Haitian coffee fresh off the manche ak pilon,  ground this morning and fixed with first caramelizing the sik, sucre, sugar in one of those cauldrons that must have come over with pirates of the Caribbean...

It was past seven, that much I knew, and I still groggy in my bed.  There'd be a calling out, "Madame Randy, kafe rive!"  - Coffee is here!

Actually, people call me "Madame Wendy," as they struggle with initial r's.  And they always ask where is Mesye Randy...

That's how it goes with names here.

Names and time.  Concepts are different.

When I am with my neighbors here on Mon Bouton, my mishpuchah - that's Yiddish - not Kreyol! - for community, or extended family, or simply, my peeps.

I'm on the inside, way in.

"You're not a visitor, Madame Randy, you are one of us!" chirps my young colleague Toma.

Hmmm.  I squirm.

I'm the anthropologist, on my lofty perch - right? Objective.  Away from it all. Not of this world, not of their world, and, as Claude Levi-Strauss put it in Tristes Tropiques, out of my own world as well. An outsider everywhere…

But Toma has his own opinions.  Always.

Here, my need for hot coffee is legend.  I keep it in a thermos and drink it, gulp it, throughout the day, not like the Haitians do.  In the mountains, having coffee - serving coffee - is a big deal, rather like a Japanese tea ceremony.  A very big deal, as coffee is precious and sugar is...well, extremely expensive. Neither commodity grows on trees...so to speak.

But, in this one area, I diverge from local custom and splurge, extravagantly, having coffee every morning, and then some.  It's a paying job, for Meli's grandmother, and also for Meli, whom I tip for the errand - not too generously, for it would raise jealousies and clamorings from others here, many others, for their turn, for paid work too.

Melianiece follows my hand movements through countlessAmerican children's songs: "B-I-N-G-O," "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," and "Twinkle Twinkle."

I think, finally, we got it just right.

Then, the girls teach me a thing or two…Nap danse!

Melianiece was one of the first to test the waters, so to speak, when the water project was completed.  Her uncle's home, where she lives and works and gets to go to school, is one of the closest to the spigot.


She lives here to help out, as her aunt is recovering from one of many frequent maladies in a Port au Prince hospital.

The family lost a 5 month old infant in the same hospital, died of unknown causes.

Mali's aunt was one of the most emaciated, under-nourished mothers in the entire region. A few summers ago, she had once confided in me that she felt that she had no skills, couldn't do much of anything, was useless in the fields, and too weak to carry a load - literally and metaphorically.

Somehow, she birthed a sturdy boy, and then a girl.  And then lost one.

Now Melianiece cares for those cousins.

And me.

Let's shake our sillies out!

Crazy Eights!

Wow, what a hit this was! A simple box of cards, with categories and colors for children to learn and match. We learned English and Kreyol together. Tip for visitors: Don't leave home with these!

Suddenly last summer

Some illustrations of the work in Haiti, summer 2014.

The water project - finished! Solar powered pumps get the water up from 500 feet down and closer to settlements.  Here, Samwel shows California how to do it.  Note he has shampooed his har - and now he gets water one ti godet ala fwa --- one cup at a time! - to rinse... 

 Dads and daughters learn to read.

 Gran Dodo with Martina

Ti Gideon, called Djonny...Born at the start of Gaza conflict and named for the first fallen Israeli soldier.

 Gran Maman Nelis takes a turn

 Fresh pounded grounds!

 Me? I'm taking it easy perched on our reservoir.

Measure for measure.  Learning.

 Marie-Anje and Martina Gabrielle get it done.

 Astounding, for Minooche and her audience.

 After hopscotch, the smiling winner

 Young Haitian people of the book

 A game of war!  And counting practice...

Melianis pounds coffee under Gran Manman Nelis'watchful eyes.

 The road to the mountain top!

 Toma and son Ti Jordy

 Toma explains

                                                                                                                               

 The Dads get into the game too.

One of our Early Childhood programs, Crazy Eights, was a huge success!

Explanations in Creole, and an English lesson, piggy-backed on a game

 The new bathing place, established by the water project,

Early childhood education:  Lesson 1, If you want to eat, you must work

 This family has plenty of food for the new babies, as recently married daughters' have responsible husbands.

Gran Dodo and Martina share snack

Measure for measure

Putting school lessons to use!

            So, after this summer, Zanda wants to be an engineer. She is tops in her class, highest exam score in the region.

 Getting data for IEEE Global Humanitarian Conference - we presented in October, 2014

How filled with awe is this place!

"Days pass, and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles.  

God, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing: 

Let there be moments when Your presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. 

Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed.  

And we, clay, touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim: 

How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it!