We Drive to Baradères, Part I – Two Haitians, Two Browns, and Two Blans

     I awoke at 4:00 am on Wednesday morning. I had one more hour to sleep. We were driving up to Baradères today to inspect the site for the forward lab, to meet with Fr. Jacques (the pastor of St. Pierre de Baradères Church) and Sr. Denise (the administrator of the Baradères Hospital), and to interview candidates for lab techs. I had been planning the trip for a month. I recruited the people I needed for the trip and picked a time when everyone would be available. Now all the pieces were in place. I had a schedule of what we would do in the 24 h we would spend in Baradères. I had our vehicle and a driver (Makendy). The team was ready. We were to leave at 5:45 am.

Madsen and Meer

     The Science Crew – Madsen, Meer, and myself comprised the science crew. You already know Meer. Dr. Madsen flew in from the University of Florida, Gainesville on Tuesday afternoon. Madsen is a Haitian physician who in on the faculty at the UF-EPI. He helped set up UF-EPI Haiti Lab 1-Gressier and made the connections with the local clinics and hospitals for the diarrheal disease study. I needed
Madsen to talk with Sr. Denise and explain in more detail our plans for the sexually transmitted infections and diarrheal disease studies as well as UF’s long-term plans for the lab we will build in Baradères at Sr. Denise’s hospital (the “hospital” is really a clinic; it has one full-time doctor and only three beds). On a previous visit, Madsen and I had a long discussion about a sustained and expanded presence of UF-EPI in Haiti. That was when I started numbering the UF-EPI labs. Gressier is the first. Baradères will be the second. We hope there will be others in the years to come.

Solomon, Tony, Dale, Madsen, and Lamothe

     The Construction Crew – Solomon and Dale work for Christianville. Solomon is the construction boss. He is currently supervising construction of three buildings in C’ville and he has built many other structures in PAP. Solomon is an expert on foam core construction. I wanted Solomon to come along for two reasons: to inspect the lab site and to determine how additional usable space could be made on the adjacent roof area; and to introduce Fr. Jacques and Sr. Denise to the concept of foam core building construction. Watch this YouTube video that explains the concept (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD5kqiDE53w). It is a remarkable technology that produces buildings that are highly wind and earthquake resistant (hurricane winds and earthquakes up to 9.5 on the Richter scale). It is also cheaper and faster than conventional concrete block construction which is very common in Haiti. I wanted Solomon to show Fr. Jacques and Sr. Denise what it was possible to do, especially in Baradères, with foam core modular panels. I asked Dale to come along because Dale is C’ville’s inside guy. He does the plumbing and fixtures. I needed Dale to measure the room that would become the lab and get me plans and a budget for how that empty room could be converted into a working microbiology lab.

     The Bonus – I asked my friend Lamothe Lormier to come along with us. Lamothe, who is Haitian, is the in-country liaison for Gift of Water (see post and GOW web site). Lamothe was already planning to visit Baradères to do some refresher training of the Water Technicians there and to deliver 50,000 Aquatabs for the Gift of Water units my church had distributed in the community last year. It would be a good opportunity to introduce Lamothe to Madsen and combine two tasks into one trip.

     The Truck – A Ford rented from Hertz. But that would change.

     The day before we left, I got a call from Sr. Denise. She wanted to confirm that we would have lunch with her when we arrived. More importantly, she warned me that the road from Cavaillon to Baradères was blocked and that we needed to take the road from Petit Trou de Nippes instead. I had never taken that road. It does not even appear on GoogleMaps. I asked Sr. Denise if that road was OK. She said yes. But be sure you have a four-wheel drive vehicle. It’s Haiti. Be flexible.

     Wednesday, 5:25 am, my cell phone is ringing. Damn, I slept later than I had wanted. I answered the phone. It was Lamothe. He was here already. I quickly washed up, grabbed my backpack, made sure Meer was awake, and walked over to the guesthouse where Lamothe was waiting. We talked while we waited for the rest of the team. At 5:37 am, I got a call from Fr. Jacques. He, too, warned me not to take the road from Cavaillon. The residents there were protesting something and had blocked the road. I mentioned this to Lamothe and asked if he was familiar with the road from Petit Trou de Nippes. Of course, he was. Lamothe has been everywhere in Haiti. In fact, Lamothe planned to take that route so that we could stop at the hospital in Petit Riverie de Nippes (more on that later). Lamothe offered to drive us in his truck to Baradères. He had a four-wheel drive Nissan Patrol, the best vehicle for the road.

Lamothe's Nissan Patrol

Lamothe at the wheel

We discussed this idea with Madsen who had rented a truck the day before in Port-au-Prince. It was decided. Makendy would take the rental truck back to PAP and return it. Lamothe was our driver, the Nissan was our truck. The last piece of the puzzle was in place.

     Dale and Solomon arrived. We loaded up Lamothe’s truck with our backpacks and climbed aboard: two Haitians (Madsen and Lamothe); two browns (Meer [Bangladeshi] and Solomon [Indian]) and two blans (me and Dale). We left at 6:25 am, about 45 minutes later than I had wanted, but it’s Haiti. We pulled out of C’ville and I knew we were in for a wild ride.

     The short road from C’ville to the main highway is unpaved, rocky, and rutted. Lamothe took it faster than any of our drivers. Lamothe pulled onto National Route 2, the coastal highway, and we were flying. Conversation in the Nissan was animated: Meer in the front seat talking with Lamothe. Me and Madsen and Dale in the second row, and Solomon napping on the bench seat in the third row cargo area. We passed Léogâne, Grand Goâve, and Petit Goâve and reached the outskirts of Miragoâne about 8:00 am. Route 2 turned south into the mountains but we continued along the coast on Departmentale 21. Miragoâne is the capital of the Nippes Department even though it is located at the extreme eastern edge of the department. Departmentale 21 took us around Miragoâne, the old port city. As we climbed up a hill and rounded a turn, the beauty of the Miragoâne Bay suddenly lay before us. And there was Reynolds Terminal.

Reynolds Terminal, Miragoâne

For about 20 years, Reynolds Aluminum operated a bauxite mine
and a port on the western shore of Miragoâne Bay a few miles outside of Miragoâne. Reynolds abandoned the operation in the 1980s during the “Baby Doc” Duvalier regime and left everything there. The terminal is the only operating port in Miragoâne, the docks in the city being blocked by sunken vessels. Meer and I had often discussed the possibility of shipping lab equipment and supplies into Reynolds instead of having everything come through Port-au-Prince. Customs is a nightmare in PAP. It takes months and costs lots of money to get things out of customs. The Reynolds Terminal looked like an attractive option. It is close (only about a 90 minute drive from Gressier) and the customs facility is small. The terminal accepts less than container size loads since big ships cannot come in. But Makendy bought a used Toyota Camry in the U.S. and had it shipped into Reynolds. He got it from customs in 10 days.

     Lamothe kept driving. The road ran right along the coast and the view in the early morning was beautiful. We passed Bezin, Charlier, and Madian where, the road ran practically on the beach. It was about 9:00 am and we were just outside Petite Rivière de Nippes. Lamothe turned left off the road and began climbing a steep, unpaved, rocky road that led to Klinik Vizitasyon (Visitation Clinic). The hospital is run by Visitation Hospital Foundation from Nashville, TN (http://www.visitationhospital.org/). Lamothe explained to us that Gift of Water had distributed 1500 units in Petite Rivière and had worked closely with the clinic. Gift of Water also stored their material in a warehouse on the clinic grounds and this was where Lamothe wanted to pick up the Aquatabs for Baradères. Lamothe also wanted to introduce us to Dr. Jean Francois who runs the clinic. We met Jean Francois in his house next to the clinic. Madsen and Jean Francois chatted in Kreyol and it started to become clear to me that they knew each other somehow. I interrupted and asked (in poor Kreyol) if they had already met. Yep. It turns out that they both attended medical school in PAP but a few years apart. Jean Francois recognized Madsen because he was in the same class as Madsen’s younger brother. Small world, again. It was like alumni weekend as Madsen and Jean Francois chatted about old times, former classmates, and teachers. Then Madsen explained what we were doing in Gressier and asked me to describe our plans for Baradères. Jean Francois was very excited. We will definitely work with him. We invited him to come visit Haiti Lab 1-Gressier the next time he drives to PAP. It was a very pleasant meeting and another very useful contact to add to my network. We picked up the Aquatabs for Baradères, piled back into the Nissan Patrol and headed back to the Departmentale 21. It was 9:45 am. I wanted to arrive in Baradères by noon. I was starting to wonder if we would make it by then.

The "road" ahead

     We drove through Petit Rivière de Nippes. On the right side of the road almost on the beach was a beautiful white edifice, St. Anthony of Padua Church. It was brilliant in the morning sunlight. We crossed Grande Rivière de Nippes. We drove through Anse-a-Veau. Then we pulled into Petit Trou de Nippes. Up to this point, the road was paved and we had made good time. But we still had the worst part of the road ahead of us.