The timetable looks daunting – our first morning we rise at 5.30am and finish at .4.30pm, in 42 degree heat! All this after the strain of shedding 6kgs of baggage at the airport - dispersing it in three carry-ons and hiding the evidence from the overworked and unamused check in staff, who don’t seem prepared for the extraordinarily benign and patient 300-strong queue of quiet enthusiasts heading to Haiti, I must admit I haven’t seen such a patient mile-long queue before either. It’s not several wardrobe changes a day that’s causing the excess, the men are all weighing their bags with trepidation too – we have all brought clothes and gifts for the local community and warned of the exorbitant excess charges, we are all conscious of the irony of wastage at this point.
The day just got hotter and hotter, but we are notching up a record number of houses in our painting team and with breaks and goodies provided by the catering team it’s not so bad. We might be the least technical bunch but our labour is in gleaming evidence hour by hour and we are nurtured constantly by the water bullies and minded by our team leader, Trish. The promise of a tour that evening to Cap Haitien and a creole restaurant seems to shorten my day. I am joining the plumbing and electrical team for this as my room-mate is their team leader and they’re rather a large group to manage all by herself - to say the least! Getting ready here is a no-nonsense affair, no mirrors, no chairs, no tables, no hangers. A bed and mosquito net are our best companions now. Showering involves considerable speed and adroit negotiating of the distance between our front door and the shower, as our house is in the high visibility zone of security, deliveries, basically everybody has to pass it.
We set off on the gratifyingly air-conditioned bus and first call is to Jatrofa Pepinye,(plant nursery) nearby. This is a humanitarian enterprise set up by a U.S. non profit organisation Partner for People and Place. Here they grow the native jatropha plant that thrives in this dry area and the seed of which produces an efficient biodiesel, and by-products of glycerine for soap. Haiti imports 65 million dollars worth of diesel, if it could grow enough of this crop, through socially co-operative means it would be obviously transformative. We learn that Ireland’s Ernst and Young entrepreneurs of the year award-winners have been coming out to Haiti as part of a social entrepreneur programme, looking at projects like this and providing not just financial aid, but knowledge transfer. Seeing acres of this crop and the simple workshop where the seed is processed makes sense of the impact and value of the entrepreneur awards and it slowly dawns on our group that we are part of a greater Irish extended hand across the ocean.
On to Cap Haitien, which I expected to be like a small Havana, though sadly not, as it has been destroyed four times in the last two hundred years. The ravages to its buildings are evident as indeed is the poverty of the street life, what is most striking though is the physical beauty of Haitian people, they each possess an extraordinarily elegant demeanour and poverty does not prevent them taking pride in their dress. Because of our numbers, security is high whenever we leave the building site, and it isn’t possible to wander around the busy and dark streets.
In the restaurant, which faces the Atlantic Ocean and must be one of the very few in this area I am sitting with one of last year’s entrepreneur of the year award winners, Stephen Grant from Birr, who tells me about another charity initiative (Soul of Haiti) he is working on in the south of the country, restoring an orphanage on Ile a Vache. He has brought an 11-strong group to Haven and is clearly no stranger to Haiti – and hard work – at this stage.
Our evening of creole food and local beers will no doubt be remembered well by the P&E team and their hard-working team leader.
More soon.....
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