In memory of Julia and Reneilwe

Two years ago a member of the SAIS community died after being hit by a drunk driver in the streets of Washington DC. Julia had been with us in Bologna during they year before. and she was just starting the second year of her program.

Last month the Red Cross Nordic UWC lost a beloved member of our community also in a drunk driving accident. On the other side of the world, Reneilwe was training for a marathon in Johannesburg. She died with four other members of her running team.

Just like many SAISers then, and many UWCers now, I am at a loss for words. Instead, I have copied below the kind words that one of our friends posted on his facebook wall:


"Like everyone else I still cannot quite believed that Reneilwe Lesenyeho has left us. I did not know you that well when we were at the RCNUWC. Nevertheless, seeing you at the reunion in August and talking about your long-distance running project made me think that I would start practicing more. This way maybe I could stand a chance that you wouldn't outrun me completely on the Flekke trot of our 20th year reunion. Sadly I will never know... But I can bet that now I will be thinking of you every time I'll go running in the coming years.

Trying to remind myself of the fragility of life, I often tell myself that the world we live in is not as safe as we wish it were and that we could die every time we take our car or we cross the road. How I wish I were wrong !

Once again I feel like picking up the phone and calling all these people I haven't seen in so long and lost touch with.

Reneilwe, you, your joyfulness and your smile, a smile that could warm your friends' spirits even in the cold of the harshest Norwegian winter, all of these will be sorely missed " Remi Gau

Home again

Last time I came back to Haiti without Graham I felt absolutely awful, empty, lost. This time I expected to feel the same way but it was actually very nice to come back. My Slovakian colleague had brought a lot of delicious food from her R&R and she had kindly waited to cook it all until I got back. We had a fantastic dinner on my patio that Sunday evening.

Back at the office the next day, as expected, there was lots of work accumulated, and the days just flew by. Unfortunately, 4 days later I got a call from home to tell me that my grandmother had passed away that morning. My supervisor was kind enough to offer some days off so I could leave again. 6 hours later I was at the Port-au-Prince airport on my way to Miami, and then to Bogota again.

While it was incredibly sad, I was so glad I could be there. For the first time in years, I was able to help my parents through a very difficult time.

Grandma was a very lovely and happy 90 year-old. I will miss her smile and very kind words. Here is a photo from a couple of years ago.


Graham and I took part in a tomato-war at a local festival

We went for a walk - in pictures

Home

(Apologies for the font/format issues...one slow internet connection + one impatient Colombian do not a pretty blog make!)

After a long 8 weeks I got to see Graham again in September. School year on full swing, he was busy running from class to class while I helped pick up cutlery, and new pillows. It was bittersweet helping him set up his new student/ bachelor place in DC knowing that I won’t be to enjoy with him. He chose to live in a very-multicultural neighbourhood where every second person speaks Spanish ( or accented English!). He has a lovely farmers market every Saturday, and a full range of “ethnic” restaurants to choose from when he doesn’t have time to cook (or has forgotten to eat all day or buy groceries all week!).

We met up with friends, went for a walk, argued about the best colour for a set of plates, had coffee close to “The Mall” and then talked about life in front of the White House, as you do…

Soon after that it was time to go to another home. This time, my parents’ place in Bogota. It was my stepdad’s 70^th birthday and the celebration went on and on. It was great to be home. I met with a few friends, had coffee at my favourite shop, ate, ate, and ate, went to the movies with my cousins, and hung out with all my aunts and uncles, and danced all night at my stepdad’s party, and even found some time to look at wedding dresses!

A few days later I had to leave again to see Mr. Day again, this time in New York. Having that to look forward to made it so much easier to pack and leave. It was a ver very short visit but it felt so normal to walk down the street, look for a cafe, have a 2 hour brunch, just like being home again, . I guess it is cliché but true, home is where your heart is!

We went for a walk...

Twice this year, I have miraculously been allowed to go on the best (and only?) known hiking path for foreigners in Haiti. The first time Graham was still here and he made sure our packs were well-packed, waterproof and had all the right things. The second time I was on my own... and my bag was heavier and only had half the things I took the first time... (Amore, I miss you!)

Google tells me the route is about 96.9 km long but of course we drive at least half of it (from petionville to Kenscoff, the "trail head" and then from Marigot to our lunch spot in Jacmel. In the map below, we walked the "101 route" and drove back through the road in purple.

View Larger Map

You have to drive for about an hour to get to the head start, and then you walk, and walk, anywhere between 5 and 9 hours to get to a beautiful lodge right in the heart of one of the few national parks in Haiti.

This is one of the few times during our time here that we were fully immersed in the Haitian environment, and it was absolutely fantastic to try our Creole, buy food from the markets, and walk freely without security escorts, or rush of any type.

Seeing the pine trees after going up a dry, and sandy road was the happiest of moment of the day for me. The smell of the forest and having to wear a sweater feel like heaven.

You’re welcomed with a hearty meal, and then you promptly fall asleep. This time around we spent an extra day up at the park which was spent mushroom picking! Chanterelle mushroom picking! In Haiti! One of my best memories from Canada is walking in the West Coast forests with the McKerracher family on Thanksgiving weekend looking for mushrooms. I couldn’t believe that we were doing the same thing here. Both dinner that day and breakfast the next day were sprinkled with fresh mushrooms…hhhmmm…

The walk down is not as beautiful but it is physically exhausting. The only thing that keeps you going is the wonderful lobster lunch that we had reserved at a beautiful hotel in Jacmel. Here are some photos taken by one of my friends. As soon as I find the cable to download the pictures I took, I will add a few more.

Enjoy!

I

Autumn

For someone who didn't grow up with seasons, I am strangely attached to the Autumn. The cooler weather and colourful leaves remind me of the first time I left Colombia, new faces, the beginning of a school year, Thanksgiving, falling in love in Montreal, Valentine’s Day in Colombia, pumpkin ravioli, and finding a job in 4 different countries !
There aren’t noticeable changes in the weather here in Haiti, but after a long vacation abroad, it definitely feels like the autumn is here. My resolution for this new “school year’ is to write more often here.
Thanks to all of you that are still reading…

The 100 Mile Hyatt

A quick recap – I have now moved temporarily home to Sidney, BC to enjoy some time with family and friends before I head to Washington DC in mid-August to complete the second year of my Masters. Tania will stay in Haiti for the remainder of my program.

Wild sage dots the view looking towards the Fraser river valley

It’s not often that close friends and I are all in the same country, let alone the same city, so it’s important to take of advantage of it when it happens. A couple of weeks ago, I went up to 100 Mile House with three of my closest friends as a mini-UBC reunion. Mylan, who had just flown in from China, was hosting us at his parents’ ranch in central British Columbia (about 6 hours from Vancouver). Neil, Paul and I were treated to four days of fantastic food, activities and sightseeing while we stayed at Mylan's ever welcoming homestead - hereby named The 100 Mile Hyatt.

The Social Landscape

If you were in Port-au-Prince on a Saturday night with us, these are the people you might end up hanging out with:

Los Diplomaticos: From Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico. They have usually just graduated from school and are on their first post as Diplomats. The “hardship” of this post will guarantee that their next job will be in a place with working traffic lights…like Paris or New York. We speak Portu-nol together, or mostly the Brazilians integrate into the dominating Spanish conversation. Incredibly welcoming, nothing is ever planned in advance, the food is always good, the music is always loud.

The Irish: From one island to another. There are several NGOs, one telecommunications company, a security company - if you’re in Haiti you just can’t escape the Irish. And thank goodness for that. But unbelievably, there’s still no Irish Pub in town (though one is planned!) They are always up for a good time, I do not always understand what they say, but the little I understand is very funny! Can’t keep up with their beer drinking, but have learned to appreciate a hot cup of tea in +35C weather…

UN police: Some of the best parties we have been lucky enough to attend, were organized by groups of men in tight shorts (because they are usually held at gigantic compounds, and the party is always near the pool—and men from developing countries love their tight shorts). The man-woman ratio is about 10-1, the directions to the location are always terrible but you can find where you’re going by the dozens of white UN cars parked outside blocking the main road. Special mention for a party thrown by the Spanish SWAT team…ahhhh, lobster BBQ, and sangria buckets J

Library-goers: The Colony Club deserves its own separate entry. It is thanks to this library though that we have met a group of wonderful Haitian-Canadian/American couples that have been in Haiti for a long time. As in for the past 30 years. Oh, the things they have seen and lived! We see them almost every Friday, or every second Friday when there’s wine at the library J

Las Colombianas: During most of the winter we would end up as the same parties as a group of Colombian girls working for different organizations. Some of them had arrived right after the earthquake and had had to live in camps with up to 300 soldiers (and only 1 shower!). Beautiful, smart, multilingual…and a disappointment to the young men around them as most of them are here with their boyfriends.

Canadians: in times of Hockey play offs, crazy Canadian elections, maple syrup scarcity, or just plain homesickness, how lucky we are to be able to work, go to the library, search for a new restaurant, or just hang out and watch hockey with other Canadians. We love the familiar slang, similar complaints, trouble finding cheap tickets to Vancouver… and the niceness of them all.

Quebeckers: If Montreal seems a bit emptier these days it’s because half of their highly educated, well-travelled, perfectly bilingual youth have moved to Port-au-Prince! They are, seriously, everywhere. NGOs, UN, International Organizations, Consultant firms, private sector, government jobs…everywhere you turn there’s a Quebecois running a meeting (here a separate category from the Canadians, just as my previous co-worker would have it… Mr. V- I miss working with you!)

Free-lance journalists: A South African friend once told me that in real life, aid workers don’t live adventure-filled lives and move around on the back of pick-up trucks, but reporters do. Only journalists live like aid workers are portrayed in the movies. And it is true. While we move around in SUVs, and live in nice places, these guys are on their own. Nobody picks them up at the airport, they don’t receive security warnings. When there is a crisis and you can see fire from your rooftop, the NGO workers stay in their compounds, and lock our doors as instructed. The journalists see the fire, smile, grab their cameras, put on a helmet (or a bandana) and off they go. On foot, a moto-taxi, on the back of a pick-up truck, looking for a story, hoping for a good picture.

Jaded “citizens of the world”: Last but not least, the most interesting and less interested group. They are veterans, been on the road for so long they can’t remember if they were in Afghanistan or Sudan before coming here. Big titles, big money. They speak that heavy accented-English that you just can’t place, wear khaki trousers, haven’t shaved in a while, always tell crazy stories. It doesn’t matter where they were born, they don’t identify with any nationality, they could pack and move to another crisis right then and there. Nothing faces them anymore…And they make you fall in love in development work and wish you never end up like them all at the same time.

Unfortunately some of these people have already left Haiti, gone home, off to their next mission, learning new acronyms, meeting new friends in a new place…. It was an honour and a pleasure to have met you! Hope to spend another weekend night with you again someday :)

A blind date with the Citadelle

We did not know much about Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, when we booked our tickets. We also didn’t think much about which hotel to stay at, or the quality of the nearby beach. The point of the trip was to see the Citadelle, a Unesco World Heritage site located about 40 minutes from downtown Cap.

Graham was excited to see the fortress, draw-bridges, the more than 150 cannons (and the 50,000 cannon balls that are stacked nearby!). I was looking forward to a quiet walk up the hill among trees and beautiful views. A few of our friends had visited a couple of weeks earlier, and they described it as a sweet escape from dusty and crowded Port-au-Prince. “Go early so you can have it all to yourself” they said.

Our visit was of course not what we expected it. We visited on Easter Saturday which happens to be the day every single Haitian in the vicinity goes to visit the Citadelle. And they not only visit, they bring along pots of food to share with their many friends (some of them also brought their alcoholic drinks, and their loud stereos). And once they get to the Citadelle they sit there and hang out for hours.

Needless to say, it was not the quiet visit to a historic site to a historic site we had in mind! There were people all over the place, and by everywhere we mean every single spot you can think of. People were sitting on the cannons (and the cannon balls), in the windows, on the handrails, in every passage, and every corner. It was loud, and people were pushing us, and there were beer bottles everywhere.

Despite it all, it was very impressive with fantastic views in all directions. The fortress took the Haitians 15 years to be completed (1805-1820), and it was supposed to hold over 5,000 troops. The walls are 4 meter thick and 40 meters high, and the location was chosen to be able to defend the whole area from invading European troops (who never ended up coming).

Even though it wasn’t what we expected, we are glad we went, and will be recommending it to all our friends here, just don’t go over Easter weekend!

Visitors!!!- Part III

Apologies for the loooong recess... I changed jobs, and then we moved apartments. And then we moved again. Then we were very busy for some weeks, and lazy for some more. Then Graham left Haiti (as expected) - but that's another blog entry.

I would like to dedicate this post to a wonderful and beautiful friend who came to visit us in April. Much like with our previous visitors, her visit coincided with election results announcements. She also happened to be traveling through the US at the time when tornadoes closed dozens of airports. Her flight was canceled, her time in Haiti was cut in half. And then I decided to change jobs the week she arrived. In any other setting, that would have translated into more free time or less time restrictions. In Haiti, it meant we did not have access to cars when Graham was not around. So we were restricted to walking, visiting, eating and shopping within a two block radius from our apartment. Eventually we escaped Port-au-Prince for a couple of nights though and went to visit Cap Haitien in the north of the country.

She did not complain about the dodgy car that picked her up from her airport, the lack of AC at our place, the fact that her very expensive vacation was cut in half, or the countless mosquito bites. Then again, she didn't complain about visiting me in Montreal in -38C degree weather to help me celebrate my birthday a few years ago...

Thank you for being such a great friend, for calling from every corner of the world you've made it to in the last 10 years, and for always always being there.

With all my love,
Tania