Posts Tagged ‘haiti’

It has been about 10 days since we left Haiti.  My dad reminded me that I haven’t blogged in a little while (I have created a monster) so here is a catch-up entry to keep everyone in the loop.

The last day in Haiti (9/21) we did a quick drop-by at CAFT for one last interview.  Then it was off to the airport where we checked in for our flight.

This whole time we had been traveling on non-revenue passes either through my father or Ruhi’s uncle, but fortunately the listings were for business class.  Of course, if there were no seats available in Business class we could easily get bumped down to economy, or even not get on the plane at all.  A few of the flights were close, but we managed to not only get on all the flights between Haiti and Hong Kong, but got to fly Business Class the whole way too.  I can’t tell you how awesome it is to fly business class across the Pacific.

From Haiti we flew to JFK in New York for a small layover.  Then another leg from JFK to LAX where we were going to stay with Trina, Ruhi’s sister.  Originally it was going to be for just a day, but due to the nature of Ruhi’s film project she needed more time to spend with her editor.  We rescheduled our departing flight for Saturday the 26th.

This meant that I had a couple more days to take care of some things.  I ran a bunch of errands to Ross and other stores for supplies, and even got to meet up with Tam and Faye, who were both still in L.A., but will be moving to Beijing in December.  Here is a picture of me trying on a jacket at Ross.

Our flight out was great, of course.  (Business Class, remember?)  We hung out at Narita for a few hours while waiting for our Hong Kong flight and when we arrived in HKG we were greeted by Jack and Joanne.  We’d be staying in Jack’s spare room out in Tin Shui Wai for the next day or so.

Due to the October holiday a train ticket was close to impossible to secure, so we decided to spend a few more days in Macau with Gordon and Maureen.  A week, to be precise.  After a day of packing up my 5 huge suitcases into some post office boxes for shipping to Xi’an, we headed to Wan Chai to get some supplies (I got a lens cleaning cloth for my camera), watched “Surrogates” at Pacific Place, and then caught a ferry from Shun Tak to Taipa.

While in Macau Ruhi will be working with Gordon on their film project.  This is a different project than the one she is doing for the Mona Foundation, in case you weren’t clear on that.  Our plan is to stay here until around the 7th or 8th and then head to Hong Kong.  Spend one night there and arrange shipment of our boxes and then go to Shenzhen to catch the train to Shandong where we will attend the All China Games in BinZhou.  A lot of our plans depend on what day we can get a ticket, of course, so we’re playing it a bit by ear.

After Shandong we’ll head to Beijing for a day or so to meet with clients and project-related peoples.  Then it is off to Xi’an around the 19th, just in time for Ruhi’s birthday on the 20th of October.

I can’t wait to finally settle down for a while.  I need to rest after this year of constant traveling!

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 7, September 18, 2009

I stayed home again as Ruhi went to film a CAFT teacher training seminar.  I spent the time organizing my photos from the trip and writing up some more blogs and notes.  In the afternoon when she got back, she worked with Christophe to translate and review footage while I did some work with my computer organizing files.

Day 8, September 19, 2009

In the mountains behind Port-Au-Prince, near a town called Kenscoff, there is an ecological sustainability project where CAFT will sometimes bring teachers to help them develop potential educational programs for their students related to the environment and preservation.  It is at a place called Wynne Farm.  They demonstrate solar cookers, paper making (which is actually much easier than you would think), the making of cooking briskets from used paper and composting and other similar activities.  They are also working on developing various crops for Haiti such as Chinese bamboo and Sweet Passion Fruit from Mexico, that would be able to help the Haitian economy and ecology.

It was a nice chance to see the mountain areas of Haiti, having already seen the rice fields and beaches (if only for a moment).  There is certainly an amazing amount of ecological diversity in Haiti.  I was lucky enough to snap a few nature-type photos too …

After visiting Wynne Farm we drove to Linda’s for lunch and then headed to Sue’s home to try and catch some of the students painting the new school as they prepare for their first day of class on Monday.  One thing that Ruhi mentioned is that you can see quite a difference in the behavior between the kids who have been living on the streets and have not yet received an education, from those who have lived on the streets but have been going to school for a while.  Those with some education are more focused, disciplined and deliberate in what they do, even when away from school.  It speaks to the power of education, not just in helping someone learn facts and figures, but with the development of virtues such as patience or humility.

This occasion also marked the final bit of footage that Ruhi had to collect for this 6-country global documentary project.  She’s been to Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Brazil and Panama, documenting, interviewing and filming educational initiatives just like those here in Haiti.  It has been an amazing opportunity to see a part of the world I might never have known about and it has certainly changed my perspective on a few things.

Looking forward to the day when I can come back and visit Haiti again.

But hopefully next time it will be in the winter.

You can view all of my photos from Haiti here

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 5, September 16, 2009

My ankle was acting up this day so I stayed home to rest it.  Ruhi went to visit Bernard Martinod’s school in Titanyin, just outside Port Au Prince.  I spent the day organizing and preparing some of the Haiti photos I’ve taken so far.

Day 6, September 17, 2009

Today was the road trip up north to the George Marcellus school in Guerot, a rice farming valley about 3 hours north of Port-Au-Prince.  We drove up the main highway (such as it is) which connects the north to the south in Haiti.  We left home around 5:45 and made it to the school around 9:00 a.m.

The school is really located in a remote area.  Admist rice fields along side an irrigation canal, sits a small, modest building with 4 small rooms, each housing children who are eager to learn.  We spent most of the day there, watching their classes, interviewing teachers and administrators, interacting with the students and seeing what life is like in the countryside of Haiti.  Ruhi filmed a lot of footage and I shot over 500 photos, the best of which you can see here.  In fact, during this whole trip I’ve shot almost 2,000 pictures, but of course only about 10% of them are what I would consider being any good.  But that means there is still 200 photos, so not too bad.

On our way back home we stopped by a small food stand near a beach and got some chicken and rice.  It was quite good and the ocean is beautiful.  Well, of course it is.  This is the Caribbean.

You can view all of my photos from Haiti here

Continuation of highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 4, September 15, 2009

We left Petion-Ville, around 6:30 AM so that we could make it to Anis Zunuzi by the time classes started at 7:30.  A bumpy road as usual, but we made it in time so that Ruhi could film their morning song and flag ceremony.  Then we went through every classroom, filming their studies as well as interviewing a few specific students.  Of course, Ruhi did all the camera work, but I was there to take photos and help out as needed.

It sounds cliche to talk about the glowing faces of children learning and such, but I have to say that I was very touched by what I saw.  A genuine love and appreciation for learning.  In the U.S. you get used to people being jaded or unappreciative of the opportunities that are presented to them, and while most people I know are, on some level, grateful for their lives of abundance, I really think that you never learn to appreciate what it means until you are in an environment where that sort of thing has some real substance.  These kids don’t just appreciate their education, they actually LOVE the fact that they have this opportunity to learn in this school.  A real, heart-felt love for learning that you just don’t see in the U.S., or a lot of developed countries.  At least not among the younger generation.

What seeing this leaves me with is not just an appreciation for my life, but a realization that what the children in Haiti (and other similar locations) need isn’t our pity or charity.  They don’t need to be looked down on, because they don’t look down on themselves at all.  They have a wonderful culture and a rich heritage and are justifiably proud of it.  All they are lacking is the opportunity to prove themselves and what they can do.  Educational resources being key among them.  And thanks to programs like Anis Zunuzi or George Marcellus, they are allowed to grow and develop as human beings — which is really all that anyone can ask for.

I’m a big proponent of the “teach a man to fish” school of thought.  People don’t learn anything from being given things.  They learn from being taught things.  And if you provide them opportunities for education and development, then they will not need your charity. They will create their own lives of meaning and substance.

Anyway, enough soap-boxing for now.

After Anis Zunuzi we went with Sue to her home where she has been setting up some educational opportunities for the street children in her neighborhood.  There were a group of orphaned children who were sleeping and living in the park down the street from her home.  Actually, there is a fair population of street children in Port-Au-Prince, but instead of just giving them money or throwing some food at them, she and her husband rented a home nearby to use as a place for them to live.  There are some adults living there who help take care of the children, teaching them to cook food and learn life skills.  Then, realizing that they weren’t able to go to school, she is setting up an anex of the Anus Zunuzi school in a building at the back of her home where the children can get an education.

We were able to interview of a few of the children in her home and will be returning on Saturday to film them as they paint and prepare their new school building.

The other thing that has struck me about this trip is realizing, while it has been challenging for me (mosquitos, living conditions, heat, humidity, almost zero pavement on the roads, etc) I am amazed that Ruhi has been working on this project for the past 7 months, visiting countries much worse off than Haiti, in much worse conditions than these.  She certainly has a strength about her that I admire and hopefully some of that will rub off on me.  Even though we are challenged, she is able to maintain a positive outlook and cheerful disposition, knowing that her work on this film is ultimately going to help everyone and every place she is visiting, disregarding her own discomfort for the greater good.

I definitely married up the ladder.

You can view all of my photos from Haiti here

Day 4, September 15, 2009

We left Petton Ville around 6:30 AM so that we could make it to Anis Zunuzi by the time classes started at 7:30.  A bumpy road as usual, but we made it in time so that Ruhi could film their morning song and flag ceremony.  Then we went through every classroom, filming their studies as well as interviewing a few specific students.  Of course, Ruhi did all the camera work, but I was there to take photos and help out as needed.

It sounds cliche to talk about the glowing faces of children learning and such, but I have to say that I was very touched by what I saw.  A genuine love and appreciation for learning.  In the U.S. you get used to people being jaded or unappreciative of the opportunities that are presented to them, and while most people I know are, on some level, grateful for their lives of abundance, I really think that you never learn to appreciate what it means until you are in an environment where that sort of thing has some real substance.  These kids don’t just appreciate their education, they actually LOVE the fact that they have this opportunity to learn in this school.  A real, heart-felt love for learning that you just don’t see in the U.S., or a lot of developed countries.  At least not among the younger generation.

What seeing this leaves me with is not just an appreciation for my life, but a realization that what the children in Haiti (and other similar locations) need isn’t our pity or charity.  They don’t need to be looked down on, because they don’t look down on themselves at all.  They have a wonderful culture and a rich heritage and are proud of it, as they should be.  All they are lacking is the opportunity to prove themselves and what they can do.  Educational resources being key among them.  And thanks to programs like Anis Zunuzi or George Marcelles, they are allowed to grow and develop as human beings — which is really all that anyone can ask for.

I’m a big proponent of the “teach a man to fish” school of thought.  People don’t learn anything from being given things.  They learn from being taught things.  And if you provide them opportunities for education and development, then they will not need your charity. They will create their own lives of meaning and substance.

Anyway, enough soap-boxing for now.  After Anis Zunuzi we went with Sue to her home where she has been setting up some educational opportunities for the street children where she lives.  There were a group of orphaned children who were sleeping and living in the park down the street from her home.  Actually, there is a fair population of street children in Port-Au-Prince, but instead of just giving them money or throwing some food at them, she and her husband rented a home nearby to use as a place for them to live.  There are some adults living there who help take care of the children, teaching them to cook food and learn life skills.  Then, realizing that they weren’t able to go to school, she is setting up an anex of the Anus Zunuzi school in a building at the back of her home where the children can get an education.

We were able to interview of a few of the children in her home and will be returning on Saturday to film them as they paint and prepare their new school building.

The other thing that has struck me about this trip is realizing, while it has been challenging for me (mosquitos, living conditions, heat, humidity, almost zero pavement on the roads, etc) I am amazed that Ruhi has been working on this project for the past 7 months, visiting countries much worse off that Haiti, in much worse conditions than these.  She certainly has a strength about her that I admire and hopefully some of that will rub off on me.  Even though we are challenged, she is able to maintain a positive outlook and cheerful disposition, knowing that her work on this film is ultimately going to help everyone and every place she is visiting, disregarding her own discomfort for the greater good.  I definitely married up the ladder.

Day 5, September 16, 2009

My ankle was acting up this day so I stayed home to rest it.  Ruhi went to visit a school just outside Port Au Prince.  I spent the day organizing and preparing some of the Haiti photos I’ve taken so far.

Day 6, September 17, 2009

Today was the road trip up north to the George Marcelles school.  It was about a 3 hour drive through the main highway that connects the north to the south in Haiti.  We left home around 5:45 and made it to the school, after much bumpiness and the occasional smooth pavement, around 9:00 a.m.

The school is really located in a remote area.  Admist rice fields sits a small, modest building with 4 small rooms, each housing children who are eager to learn.  We spent most of the day there, watching their classes, interviewing teachers and administrators, interacting with the students and seeing what life is like in the countryside of Haiti.  Ruhi filmed a lot of footage and I shot over 500 photos, the best of which you can see here.  In fact, during this whole trip I’ve shot almost 2,000 pictures, but of course only about 20% of them are what I would consider being any good.  But that is still 400 photos, so not too bad.

On our way back home we stopped by a small food stand near a beach and got some chicken and rice.  It was quite good and the ocean is beautiful.  Well, of course it is.  This is the caribbean.

Day 7, September 18, 2009

I stayed home again as Ruhi went to film a CAFT teacher training seminar.  I spent the time organizing my photos from the trip and writing up some more blogs and notes.  In the afternoon when she got back, she worked with Christophe to translate and review footage while I did some work with my computer organizing files.

Day 8, September 19, 2009

Day 9, September 20, 2009

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.  I already blogged about the first 2 days which were settling in and getting ready for our work.  So we’ll start with …

Day 3: Monday, September 14, 2009

First, we visited CAFT, a teacher-training program in Haiti that helps develop teachers’ capacities and techniques as educators.  Ruhi did a bunch of interviews with some of the administrators of the program and I took photos and a few behind-the-scene videos in support.

After CAFT we took a drive to the Anis Zunuzi School located in Lilavois.  It is a K-10 education facility set up for the poorest of children in one of the poorest countries on the planet.  However, I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of the word “poor” being used to describe these kids or this country.  They truly are rich in ways that aren’t reflected in the metrics of materialism.  Hundreds of kids attend this school in one of the rougher parts of the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince and are provided an education that they would otherwise not receive.

Yes, I’m married now.  I’ll post up photos and stuff about that later.  But first I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve been up to since the wedding.

As some of you know, Ruhi is a film maker.  She has been working since January on a documentary project for the Mona Foundation (monafoundation.org), visiting some of the grassroots education initiatives they support in Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Brazil and Panama.  Haiti is the last leg of her journey so we were able to join in on this together, her filming and me in support taking photos and some behind-the-scenes videos.

So, the day after the wedding (which was on the 9th) we flew from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Seattle, Washington, my old stompings grounds.  We met up with Mahnaz Javid, the President of the Board for the Mona Foundation (and an old friend from back when I was a youth), who had just flowin in from Europe at the same time.  We would be staying at her home in Bellevue, but first I had a little training to do.

Li Tian Yuan

As Ruhi and Mahnaz went to Bellevue to settle in, I took a bus up to the International District to take part in an open workout at Li Tian Yuan’s wushu school, Northwest Wushu.  I hadn’t trained in 2 and a half weeks, so it was good that it was an open workout.  I got to train a bit without killing myself, which is just what I needed.

For those of you saying “You went to wushu class the day after you got married???” I should mention that Ruhi suggested that I go as she is very supportive of my interest in wushu.  In fact, I guess that is one of the things she likes about me (and no, that is not the only thing — don’t be cheeky).  So, I went with her full support and encouragement to get some training in.

But it worked out well, as it turned out my sister was in Seattle too (she was also at the wedding in Idaho the day before) and she came down to pick me up.  We drove to Bellevue and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Belleue Square and then she dropped me off at Mahnaz’s building.  Unfortunately I left my cell phone in her car, but fortunately I don’t really need it in Haiti.

The next day Ruhi and I ran a couple errands and had a couple meetings with Mahnaz regarding the Mona Foundation.  They are also one of my clients so I discussed web stuff with them as well.  For our errands we ran to Bellevue Square to pick up a few last minute things we would need for our trip.  I also dropped by the Exofficio store where I got a pair of travel slacks and t-shirts.  Honestly some of the best things I’ve ever bought.  They might be my favorite brand in the world.

After dinner we caught a cab to the airport and then checked in for our flights.  As we are on Delta Buddy Passes it can be hit or miss when you fly stand-by.  But we managed to luck-out and our red-eye to JFK and our continuation to Port-Au-Prince were both in Business Class.  Very nice indeed!

On the flight I snapped a few pictures of a few islands in the Carribean.  Coincidentally, just one year earlier I was living in the Carribean Coast apartment complex in Tung Chung, Hong Kong, but I think that the coasts of these Carribean islands are a bit nicer looking.

When we landed we went through customs.  The airport reminded me of the one in Wenzhou, with just the one building and a few stair cars to help people leave their planes.  Immigration and customs were quick and easy and before we knew it we were outside in the heat waiting for our ride and talking with a few of the guys who try to give people rides outside the airport (again, sort of like China). I got to start practicing my budding Haitian Creole language skills as well, which was fun.  Yay for Pimsleur.

Our ride arrived, a nice man and his son, Badi, as well as another young man from Belgium named Christof.  They drove us to the Baha’i Center in Port-Au-Prince where we were lucky enough to meet with the National Spiritual Assembly.  For those of you who are not Baha’i’s it is a pretty big honor to get to meet face-to-face with the NSA of a country.  Sort of like meeting with an Arch Bishop for Catholics, I guess.  Or maybe with a high ranking Lama for Buddhists.  Not an exact comparison, but it is still pretty neat.

After the meeting we were driven to the home of one of the NSA members, Linda, with whom we would stay with for the next few days.  We settled in to the home, had a late lunch of delicious food cooked by Lily (extended family meets house-keeper, I guess) and after that I did some work on the laptop.

Then a tropical storm came by and really got things moving.  Again, this reminded me of China, especially Hong Kong, where it is also Taiphoon seaon there.   Just glad we landed and got settled before the rain, lightning and thunder started.

With the red-eye flight we had only about 3 hours of sleep the night before so we hit the sack pretty hard around 7 PM or so, not waking up until 7 AM in the morning.

And so here we are, Sunday morning in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  A tropical paradise that has seen its share of political upheavals, coups and a depressed economy.  But it doesn’t seem to affect the people on a daily basis too much, as there are lots of smiles and joy to be seen as you drive down the street.  I’m looking forward to seeing a bit more of this country as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.