Trash Talk Mail

8/2/2019 Trash Talk Mail

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Trash Talk is touring NOW!


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Riding home from the airport in

Port-au-Prince, Haiti felt familiar. Irecognized the stench of

underdevelopment from my trips to

Guatemala.

The picture on the right depicts the

negligence with which so many

people treat their environments. It

also represents the government that

fails to promote its care.


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Party buses are a more expensive form of

public transportation than the tap-tap on

the right. Nobody in Haiti seems to have

been warned to keep their hands and feet

inside while the vehicle is in motion.


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I lived in the guesthouse at the Partners in

Development site in Blanchard, a suburban

district of Port-au-Prince. Another American

intern Sandra slept in the bunk across from mine.

The American field director Lizzy sleeps in a singleroom. Haitian employees do laundry and cleaning

daily. The floor is concrete, so Rosemary throws

buckets of soapy water around to wash it. There

should be gutters to collect rain water for such

tasks. There are always many things to be done.


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Behind the corn field is the old cholera tent, now used for

diabetes and hypertension clinics. I created record booklets

for all participants.


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Pouchon, PIDs driver in every sense, lives in this house right on

PID grounds.


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The above right shows the area to the right of the clinic where PID plans to

eventually finish building an office extension for the Child Sponsorship

Program.

Medical Center

Partners in Development


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I spent many hours reading, stretching, and stargazing on the clinic roof.


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Blanchard, Haiti


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Sandra is from Virginia. She teaches English to prepare PIDs most

motivated employees to attend university in the US. Shes also

become the group leader for visiting American teams.


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Lizzy is the field

director. She

speaks perfect

Kreyol and has

a year-long

contract with

PID. In the

picture on the

left she is

serving Tom

Tom, a favoriteHaitian dish

made from

lam, or

breadfruit. It

has theconsistency of

raw dough and

is served with a

salty crab

sauce.


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This is Nickenson, my best Haitian friend.

He helps keep the yard neat. Before PID,

he was an outcast because of a slight

physical handicap. This is also why he

never went to school. He is veryintelligent.


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On the left is my recycling

partner, Rilbert. When I

first arrived the furnace

was full so we burned

trash next to it as well asinside. On the right is

Rilberts son, Mikayel,

playing in my shoes.


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Three medical teams of varying fields of

expertise visited while I was at PID. We always

did at least one mobile clinic in nearby tent

cities. I helped with translating and crowd

control.

hi i l i i i f b f h


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This particular tent city, Damien, was a pig farm before the

earthquake of 2010. The Haitian government recently built a wall

around the small city to hinder its expansion. PID is building

homes for seventy-six of these families in the nearby village

Canaan.


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The other triage nurse is Suez. I gave Suez

English lessons on lighter clinic days.

Marceline, one of two triage nurses, was another one of

my best Haitian friends. She took lessons with Sandra and

loved to practice her English with me.

This video is of Suez saying, Tomorrow, I will

bring my notebook.

S d i il ti hild hi b


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Sandra is piloting a child sponsorship sub-

program for children in particularly difficult

situations. Charisemene (in the tub) comes

around three times a week for baths and

love.

Frandeline (right) is the child that my

mother now sponsors. A basic sponsorshipis $30 a month and helps cover the cost of

education. Many Haitians start school at

age three. I imitated Sandras program

with Frandeline. This picture was taken at

our second meeting. She was terrified ofme until I covered her in stickers.


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M Genoi is the director of the Child

Sponsorship Program. He knowseveryone in town and decides who can

most benefit from PIDs programs. Mme

Genois business is making reusable

grocery bags (shown on the right) out of

old sugar sacs from the DominicanRepublic. I purchased two dozen to bring

home with me. I sold them all one

Sunday at church. The proceeds go to

the Emergency Medical Fund I created to

help patients reach beyond the limits of

PID resources.


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Partners are of all ages and areas of expertis


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In Haiti, trash is burned.

Alternatives are few.

PID buries all noncombustible,

nonrecyclable cans, needles,

etc. However, this is not a

common practice.

Smokey the Bear has no presence

here.

One beings trash is another


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One being s trash is another

beings treasure.

To Haitians, dogs bite and

dont deserve to eat our trash.

Most of what we burn in

the founo (furnace) is

plastic. The city air is

nauseating.


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We bag

recyclable

bottles and

bring them

to a weighstation in

downtown

Port-au-

Prince. We

sell themfor 4

Goudes a

pound, or

the

equivalentof

$0.10US.I painted recycling barrels to remind

staff and patients of what to put in

them.


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There are several schools withinwalking distance of PID.


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The facilities are basic.


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PID holds monthly mobile clinics in this tent city, Canaan. They are now

building their third house in the area. The goal is to eventually provide

homes for the entire village.


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Vehicles in Haiti are in a constant state of repair or anpann, literally in

pain. Is there an easier way to induce a state of despair in a group leader

than a tap-tap that doesnt start?


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I visited the Saint Rock Haiti

Foundation for a week with my

godfather and his fellow directors.


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Houses grow sparse as you

ascended the mountain.


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At the Foundation clinic, I helped take blood pressuresand note complaints to distinguish critical conditions

from the average complaint (aka triage). The most

common complaints are headaches and dizziness,

heartburn, and stomachaches. The people here in the

countryside speak slower. Great practice for my Kreyol.


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We brought goody bags with beading kits

to the girls in an orphanage up the street.


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The directors allowed me to sit in on meetings, the

primary purpose oftheirtrip. Haitians on the left are

reporting the success of the Foundations microfinanceprogram to the new directors. Ralph (left) is the

founder and former director of the Foundation. He has

recently passed on these responsibilities to a number

of friends, including my godfather, Tom. Of the 68

micro-borrowers, six are men, and only two have

defaulted.


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Trash and wreckage all the wayhome. The pollution makes you sick

when you hit the city of Karfour at

the bottom of the mountain.


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Big city streets are lined with open

sewers.

Real rivers are in a similar state.


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Despite (or because of, depending on how you look at it) the dailystruggles of the Haitian people, their faith in God is interminable.


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My Trash Talk is the most significant product so far of my two months in Haiti. The

idea came one night while Sandra and I were discussing on the roof after dark. We

were often frustrated by our never-ending privileges as Americans. Almost every

night on the clinic roof in Haiti, I trash talked America. An amazing country in manyways, America could do so much more if greed wasnt such a prevalent mindset. Haiti

looks up to America, a celebrity who is pretty to look at but often thoughtless and

addicted to decadence.

The purpose of my Trash Talk is to inspire everyday Americans to make a difference.

People living in extreme poverty have so little that every dollar can make anenormous difference. With PIDs support, I established the Emergency Medical Fund

for our clinic in Haiti. The EMF covers transporting desperate patients to better-

equipped facilities and paying for their treatments. PID receives about 20-30

emergency cases each week. Most are referred to a hospital, which charges fifty

percent of the costs of treatment. Without the financial support of others, death is

imminent.

If you would like to make a donation to the EMF, please mail checks made out to PID

or Partners in Development to:

55 Market Street, Suite 201

Ipswich, MA 01938


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Thank you.

Trash Talk Mail

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