Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel

     I’m home for Christmas. Maybe you guessed that when my blog posts stopped last week. Thursday morning, Makendy drove Meer and I to the PAP airport for our flight to Miami. After clearing security, we walked to the gate and upstairs to the lounge where there is a bar and a fast food counter. Meer ordered a cheeseburger and water. I ordered fries and a Prestige. It was 9 am but one last Prestige before leaving Haiti is sort of a tradition. That, and buying Barbancourt rum at their duty-free window (seriously, the Barbancourt “store” is a little box-like booth, not unlike the ticket booth at your local high school football stadium; but the rum is excellent). Wi-Fi Internet access is free at the PAP airport. While we waited for our flight, I logged in to check my email and got some good news. A company that makes rapid diagnostic kits to detect Giardia, Cryptosporidium and Entamoeba histolytica, agreed to send us kits to help us detect these parasites in stool samples. We will set up a collaboration with them as part of the diarrheal disease surveillance project that Meer is directing. This will be a good way to expand our coverage and improve our detection capabilities.

     The flight home was uneventful, the plane, surprisingly, only half full. I got off the plane and went through immigration control figuring I’d meet Meer at baggage claim. I got my bag and waited. Forty five minutes later, still no Meer. I called UF to tell them that I was worried that it was taking too long for Meer to get through immigration control. They told me not to worry and that it was normal. I had a flight to catch to BWI so I headed for my gate.

     It was actually relatively warm when I arrived in Baltimore. Pierre drove out to pick me up at BWI. Cecile had just come back from UVA that afternoon for her winter break so she came along with Pierre. I was very happy to see them. Pierre loaded my mostly empty suitcase (nothing leaves Haiti) into the trunk, we got in the car and started talking about dinner. We finally decided on Panera Bread. I got an Italian combo sandwich. It had meat and some green lettuce. That’s all I needed right now. Time to start getting used to a different diet.

     Almost three months into my sabbatical and now I’m home for a short break.

Our Christmas tree

Time to relax, spend time with my kids, catch up with family and friends and meet with my lab group. I also have meetings and calls to make to move my projects in Haiti forward. So it is a working vacation. I went to work on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I actually had to get into my car and drive myself to work. Traffic. Different than Port-au-Prince traffic but in Silver Spring, I don’t have a driver. As I sat in traffic, I wondered how Makendy would drive in the DC area. I think he would do just fine but he might be labeled an aggressive driver, which is the normal driving mode in Haiti.

     In Bethesda, I caught up with my lab team. I also sent out emails to continue to update and monitor my projects in Haiti. When our Program Manager came in, I sat down with her and went over the administrative issues that still were not resolved on the USU end. I have been very relaxed and focused during my three months in Haiti. It only took four hours in my office in Bethesda to start getting stressed out again. Some things never change.

Presents in front of our shoes
(ignore the old TV)

     On Christmas Eve, we went to Mass. After Mass Cecile made soupe a l’oignon and we ate foie gras for dinner. We decorated the Christmas tree. I made overnight sticky buns for Christmas morning brunch. On Christmas morning, Pierre made a couple of trays of Pillsbury crescent rolls and biscuits and I baked the sticky buns. We snacked on the rolls and biscuits and sticky buns and pizzelles (that I had made Monday night) while we opened our presents. Later that day Cecile made bœuf bourguignon for Christmas dinner.

   

Odile, Cecile and Pierre, Christmas morning

     It’s Christmas. It is time for giving, time for traditions, time for remembering, time for family, and time to be together. I hope you have all of these and more and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

The Soundscape of Haiti

     Each morning at about 6, I get my wakeup call. Ken rides past my bedroom window on his motorcycle on the way from his house to the generator to start it up for the early morning cycle. If Ken’s motorcycle doesn’t wake me up, it’s the chickens. They start their cackling early. There must be hundreds of chickens in Christianville as part of the egg production plant. Maybe it’s the same sort of sounds you hear out by the chicken farms on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

     The sound of crows cawing in the morning is really annoying but not as annoying as the rooster who crows at all hours of the night, usually starting at 3 am. Rumor has it that Edsel once was so upset about the racket that a rooster was making that he put a $20.00 (US) bounty on the rooster. I don’t know if he ever paid. The dogs participate in the sounds of Haiti also. Smiley and Squirrely like to bark when trucks come into the compound. They bark at Haitians a lot, but not at blans. Many Haitians do not treat dogs very well. Maybe the dogs have unpleasant memories.

     Sometimes I hear cows. Sometimes I hear goats. Sometimes I hear a goat that got its head stuck in the fence. The grass is always greener on the other side and sometimes these goats forget they have horns. They stick their head through the opening in the fence to eat the grass on the other side and when they pull their head back, their horns get stuck on the fencing. Either they work themselves free or they keep bleating until someone comes to free them. So I hear goats.

  I hear birds all day long but I rarely see them. If you look closely, you can see birds in the trees or flying about. But I don’t remember ever seeing any birds on the ground at Christianville. I don’t know why.

  At night the crickets produce a constant background noise. When the air is still, you can hear the sounds of traffic on the National Route 2. Trucks and air horns. But no sounds of sirens, no fire trucks, ambulances, or police cars screaming down the road like I so often hear back in Silver Spring. I just hear the sounds of diesel trucks and their horns blaring as they lumber along the National Route 2. When the sounds of the trucks die down, you hear the crickets again.

  On weekend nights, as I lay in bed, I often hear music, dance music, Dominican music. I don’t know where the club is. I’ve been told it’s probably not even a club. Maybe it is just a crowd of people hanging out. The music generally dies down by midnight.

  When it is quiet again, I hear the noises of gravity, things falling out of the trees.

Palm frond waiting to fall

Things fall out of the trees here all the time. There is no autumn season where the leaves all turn colors and fall from the trees. Here the trees always have leaves and the leaves are always green. But they fall from the trees all the time. They don’t even need a wind to cause them to fall. And when they fall, some of these leaves make noise. A large palm frond tumbling down from the tree into the yard outside my window or thumping onto the metal roof over my head can keep you awake at night. But the worst is when the mangos fall on the metal roof. It is more than a thump. It is a bang and a roll and then a thump. But you get used to it, if you want to get any sleep.

We Drive to Baradères Pt. III – The Priest, the Porch, and The Nun

     We made it to Baradères and unloaded our stuff into rooms in Fr. Jacques’ house. “Le presbytère” or rectory, is more than just a house for the priest. It is also a guesthouse. The rectory is where I stayed before on my first trips to Baradères with my church in Silver Spring.

Fr. Jacques and Madsen

My favorite memories of those trips was sitting on the upstairs porch of the rectory after a long day of work, drinking a cold Prestige. and talking about the day. Now I was drinking a cold Prestige on the porch with the UF-Christianville team. Jacques and Madsen talked and the rest of us relaxed. They hit it off immediately. I thought to myself, with this pair, it is the start of a great partnership. After a while, Sr. Denise called. It was time to head over to the clinic for lunch.

Dale and me on the porch

     Sr. Denise greeted us and I introduced her to the team. We washed our hands and sat down to eat. Sr. Denise is a wonderful host. There was soup, chicken, salad, rice, even a bottle of wine. It was a working lunch. Each person explained their background and their role on the visit. Fr. Jacques and Sr. Denise fired questions at everyone, trying to

Hôpital Baradères

learn everything they could from us. That was my goal and one of the reasons each person was here. I wanted my UF-Christianville team to share their expertise with Baradères and see where and how we might be able to help them in their projects.

Sr. Denise

Both Sr. Denise and Fr. Jacques were in awe as Solomon described what he could do with foam core panel construction. It really is absolutely amazing and a lot less expensive than conventional concrete block construction (which is the typical construction material in Haiti). It is also more wind resistant and seismic resistant. I would really like to see Solomon bring foam core construction into Baradères. As Solomon spoke, I watched Denise and Jacques. I could see in their eyes that they were thinking about how they could use this remarkable building technique. Next, Madsen spoke of his work in Haiti (remember he is Haitian, went to medical school in PAP, and led the lymphatic filariasis elimination pilot program in Léogâne that went national a few years later). Then he talked about the lab in Gressier and let Meer talk about the on-going projects and recent results.

     After lunch (there was dessert also; a delicious cake), Lamothe went back to the rectory to do some re-training of the Baradères Water Technicians. Sr. Denise took us out on the landing of the steps that lead up to the dining room and showed Dale and Solomon a space on the roof that she hoped could be made into an apartment. Dale got out his tape measure and started measuring. Solomon explained to Sr. Denise, no problem, the addition could be done with foam core panels. Dale and Solomon will put together an estimate and we’ll let her know approximately what it would cost.

Dale on the roof

     Next, we walked across the courtyard to the building where we will build the new lab. Dale pulled out his tape measure again and began writing down numbers. Madsen, Meer and I talked with Sr. Denise about the room and what we could do. 

Sr. Denise on the roof

Madsen and Meer on the roof

Solomon on the roof

    Then Sr. Denise took us up on the roof. Here again was a space that Sr. Denise hoped to turn into an apartment. Dale pulled out his tape measure (I don’t think he even put it away after we left the lab space). Solomon spoke with Sr. Denise while Dale measured. Foam core panels, no problem. It can be built relatively easily. Dale laid his tape measure on the roof and showed us several possibilities on where the entry door could be, where he could put a common room, two bedrooms, bathroom, etc. I think Sr. Denise was pleased. Now we just need to get a budget and figure out how to make the apartment a reality. This apartment could be where we house the people (UF people, me?) who will work in UF-EPI Haiti Lab 2-Baradères.


     Madsen had also asked Sr. Denise to invite the three lab technicians she had recommended for a tech position in the new lab to come for an interview. We did that next, Madsen, Meer and myself.

Candidates waiting for their interview

The interviews went well. Neither candidate spoke English so Madsen translated for Meer and me as he conducted the interview in Kreyol. They also spoke French so I asked them some questions in French. When we asked about typical lab tests that they do, I was surprised to learn that they do test for trichomoniasis, one of the STIs that we will be testing for in our surveillance study. And both techs told us in their interview that they see “a lot” of trichomoniasis. This comment is interesting especially since they are probably only testing women. We have no idea how much trichomoniasis might be out there among the men and we need to get numbers on the “a lot” in the women. So much work to do.

     We were running late. Fr. Jacques had two candidates he wanted us to interview. They were waiting for us back at the rectory. Sr. Denise’s driver took us back and we interviewed the two candidates.

Lamothe and Madsen on the porch

Before dinner, the team met on the rectory porch and we had a debriefing on what had been done that day and what needed to be done the next day. We made a plan for the next morning’s activities and set a departure time of 1:00 pm for our return trip to Christianville. Soon dinner was on the table. Fr. Jacques led us in prayer and we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the women in the rectory kitchen. After dinner some of us watched an American disaster movie, Volcano (Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche; A volcano erupts in downtown L.A., threatening to destroy the city; very forgettable), on a Dominican TV station on the TV in the hallway. This was the same TV that I had watched the Super Bowl on back in February when I was here with my daughter, Odile, and my friends from St. John the Baptist in Silver Spring.

Me and Dale on the porch

     Time for bed. It was a long and tiring day but I was happy. We accomplished a lot.

It’s Haiti v11 – My Friend and Roommate, the Lizard

     Everyone who comes here seems to be amused by the lizards. They come in all sizes and they are everywhere. They scurry about in the grass, up the trees, across the road, up and down the walls, everywhere. People think they are so just cute, and they are. After a while, you get used to them and don’t even notice, except when they are in your house. The first time I found a lizard in the house, it was in my room. I had to get it out of there. I’m not sleeping in this room with a lizard running about. But lizards move quickly, too fast to catch it. I thought I could coax it to move toward the door and out of the house. No chance. It ran under the bed. So I moved the bed. It ran behind the backpack on the floor. So I moved the backpack. It jumped (yes, they jump, too) into my hiking boot. Got it! I placed my sandal over the boot and took the boot with the lizard inside, outside. Then I removed the sandal and shook out the boot. Out came the lizard and we were both happy.

     That was a month ago. Since then, one (maybe two) lizard has moved in with me. In the morning, it may be on the window screen when I get up and draw back the curtains. It slithers up the wall and freezes there. I shrug and go take my shower. I come back, and it’s gone. I think the lizard must come and go through the space between the walls and the sheet metal roof. In the evening, it may be on the wall when I turn on the lights. It stays there. I go to bed. This morning the lizard was in the corner of the shower. I took my shower and it just sat there and got wet and didn’t move. I gave up a long time ago trying to chase my lizard friend out. It’s no big deal.

So it seems that I’m sharing my room with a lizard. I’m fine with the arrangement as long as it eats the insects (please take the mosquitoes) and stays out of my bed. And so far my lizard friend has respected our arrangement.  I’m not sure I would tolerate a lizard in my bedroom in Silver Spring. But it’s Haiti.

A lizard on the sign outside the lab

All Politics are Local

     Last Thursday there was a “manifestation” (protest demonstration) in front of the gates of Christianville. A crowd gathered and slogans (in English, curiously enough) were spray-painted

Entrance to Administration Building

on the walls and gates. Parents of the Christianville School were protesting a variety of things. A partial list of their demands includes reducing the tuition increase; elimination of the health clinic fee; and firing the school director. There were also complaints about Christianville selling land to other organizations (I think not true) and a lack of transparency about Christianville’s activities. On this latter point, it seems like the community would just like to know what is happening here.

Timing is everything.

The morning was quiet but busy. A team from the University of Florida, including Dean Perry of the College of Public Health and Health Professions, had been here since Tuesday for a workshop with faculty from the medical school in Port-au-Prince. At about 9:30 am, we bid them goodbye and they all boarded the Christianville bus for the trip to the airport.  Two hours later, Dr. Boncy, the Director of the National Lab in Port-au-Prince made a surprise visit to our lab. We gave him a tour of the BSL3 lab, talked about ongoing projects and my STI surveillance plans, and showed him some examples of construction projects using foam core panels. Dr. Boncy was very impressed with everything. He left at 12:00 noon. Meer, Madsen and I left for PAP at 12:15 pm to go to customs (see 12-06-13 post) and also do some shopping. The manifestation happened shortly after we left Christianville. The crowd blocked the main gate. As I said, timing is everything.

Christianville vocational school tent

     In Haiti, things can get ugly fast. Crowds gather, tempers rise, and soon a group of people is an angry mob. Someone told me that Haitians are stubborn. If they are unhappy with the way you are running the (insert whatever you want here: school, clinic, company, country), they will tear it down. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

     The background to the parents’ discontent is complicated. But as it was explained to me later, they were mainly unhappy with the school director. He was to meet with the parents and then cancelled the meeting. After the demonstration on Thursday, he canceled school on Friday, probably to avoid meeting the parents. Instead, Friday morning Madsen and Pastor Herold (Director of Christianville) met at Herold’s house with some of the leaders of the demonstration to cool things down. It worked. Madsen left and Makendy drove him to the airport in time for his flight back to the U.S.

Christianville main gate

      But it was not over. The parents scheduled another demonstration for Monday. Things looked like they could get worse. Another meeting was called. This time Pastor Raymond (Christianville Campus Pastor) and John Carter (Christianville Foundation) joined Pastor Herold for the meeting. They listened to the parents’ complaints. The parents were particularly upset with the school director and wanted him to be fired. Pastor Herold and John Carter negotiated. The director would be put on administrative leave while they sort things out. Herold and John suggested that as a good will gesture, the leaders of the demonstration paint over the slogans that they had spray-painted on the walls and the gate. They were not willing at first but finally ceded. The paint job is not great but the gesture was symbolic.

     Pastor Herold gave the Christianville family an update during our dinner out at the Ocean Grille on Saturday night. It was interesting to hear how they had handled the situation. The parents had some legitimate grievances. They also want to be heard and to know what Christianville is doing and planning. I’m sure they see the new buildings going up and wonder what they are for, how they will benefit the community. There is the lab, a new cafeteria, the UF house, a new orphanage and the chicken processing building. Do our neighbors even know what is going on beyond the fence? It seems to me that Christianville has not been a very transparent neighbor. So Pastor Herold and John Carter agreed to form a community advisory group so that the community can be better informed of Christianville’s activities and plans.

     At Sunday morning services at the Christianville Christian Church (see 12-08-13 post), Pastor Fanel celebrated the “victory” over our “enemies” in his sermon. He congratulated everyone for coming together to resolve the issues. I just thought it was odd that he used the words “victory” and “enemies”. Weren’t some of the protesters members of his congregation? School opened as usual on Monday. Everything seems to be back to normal.

Sunday Morning Services at L’Eglise Chrétienne de Christianville

     I have been in Haiti a little over two months now. My philosophy has always been to say yes when someone asks me if I want to see something, try something, taste something, do something and go somewhere. I’m here to work and live the Haitian experience. The only thing I have declined so far is the religious experience.

L’Eglise Chrétienne de Christianville

Christianville, as the name implies, is a very Christian-oriented, faith-based organization and community. The people here are dedicated and very much Christian in their beliefs and the way they live their lives. We have a prayer before each meal. There are vespers on Monday evening. There is Bible Study on Thursday evening. And there is church on Sunday. The Christianville family, along with whatever mission group may be staying here at the time, goes to church every Sunday morning. They go to Pastor Herold’s church or Pastor Oden’s church or another church in the area. It is voluntary, of course. No one is obliged to go. And up to now, I have not gone. I have my own Sunday morning routine. I get up about 7 am and go for a run. Then I do some yoga and climb to the top of the new guesthouse under construction and reflect as I looked out over the Haitian countryside. It is my quiet time.

     Last night I decided that I needed to experience a Sunday morning in a Haitian Christian church. I am Catholic and I have been to Sunday morning Mass several times in Haiti at St. Pierre in Baradères during our mission visits there with my church from Silver Spring. But a Haitian Christian church is different. So I wanted to see what it was like.

     After my workout, I showered, put on a polo shirt, my khaki pants and dress shoes and walked over to the Christianville Church, Pastor Fanel’s church. It was 9 am. There were maybe two dozen people already in the church. I tried to discreetly sit near the back, but no chance. I was directed to sit up front and fill in the pews where some people were already seated. I looked around. I was the only blan, but not for long. The Christianville people came in later and there was a mission group as well. Pretty soon the church was packed.

     Our driver, Makendy, is a deacon in the Christianville Church and he also plays drums in the band (more on the band later). Shortly after I arrived, Makendy led the congregation in a prayer. When he was finished, Makendy saw me, gestured hello and proceeded to announce to the people that Dr. Tony was in attendance. Thanks, Makendy. Later when Pastor Fanel asked those who were attending Christianville Church for the first time to stand up and introduce themselves, I remained seated. No need to get up. I figured I had already been introduced.

     Throughout the entire two and three quarter hours of the service, there was music, a constant background of music, loud and electric.

The Church band

A four-piece band provided the music: rhythm guitar, bass guitar, organ and drums. Makendy shared the drumming with another guy. Today was the rhythm guitarist’s birthday so he sang a number. A young girl also had a birthday today. They invited her to come up and sing. Her song was in English though I did not recognize the melody (I would have used Shazam if I had an Internet connection). As I watched the guy who was leading the singing, I kept thinking of Marvin Gaye!

"Marvin" leading the singing

He looked a little like Marvin Gaye and gestured like him when he sang. And as I write this, I’m listening to Marvin singing “I heard it through the grapevine” on Radio France Bleu. There were lots of songs in French and in Kreyol. Someone handed me a song book. The woman next to me pointed out the correct page when I could not find the right song. The woman seated in front of me also made sure I was on the same page. I sang along. It was not so hard. The melodies are simple and easy to follow after the first verse and I could read the French lyrics. It seems like all Haitians can sing very well and everyone was singing so well and so loudly that I didn’t mind singing along. No one could hear me singing off key.

     In between the music, there was praying and preaching and the organ provided a steady stream of background music through it all.

Pastor Fanel (left) gives the sermon and
Pastor Raymond (right) translates

Out of consideration for the blans in attendance, Pastor Raymond, who is Haitian and the Christianville campus minister, translated Pastor Fanel’s sermon into English. There were more prayers and more songs and then the deacons passed around the serving plates for communion. In the Catholic Church, there would be hosts and wine. I was curious to see how communion was done in a Haitian Christian Church.

The "bread"

The plate arrived in my pew. There were pieces of crackers, sort of like Ritz crackers, on the silver plate. I took a small piece.

Next came the wine. It was in very small cups, with maybe about a tablespoon of wine in each. When everyone was served, Pastor Fanel spoke words that I recognized from the Liturgy of the Eucharist of the Catholic Mass. However, there was a major difference from the Catholic Mass. When Pastor Fanel pronounced (and Pastor Raymond translated) the words, ”This is my body” he ate his cracker and the congregation ate theirs along with him. In the same fashion, when he spoke “This is my blood”, we drank the wine. In the Catholic Mass, the Communion Rite is later in the Mass and that is when the congregation takes part of the bread (host) and wine which have become the Body and Blood of Christ.

The wine

     Before the services ended, Pastor Fanel introduced two young people who were going to be baptized.

Girl being baptized

Boy being baptized

An 18 year old girl

and a 13 year old boy

sat up front dressed in robes.

There were some more prayers, the candidates said their baptismal vows and then Pastor Fanel plunged each teenager into the baptismal waters. It was behind a waist high wall so we could not see them.


     Pastor Fanel led a final prayer and song and wished us all a wonderful day. Everyone shook hands and we wished each other well. I walked out of the church.

L’Eglise Chrétienne de Christianville

The sun was bright and the air was hot. I saw some people I knew and chatted with them. I found Makendy and he introduced me to his wife and 13 month old daughter. Another day in Haiti, another new experience. I think I might visit some other churches in the future to see what they are like. We will see.

Le Marché de Gressier – The Gressier Market

     I miss fresh green vegetables. So Meer and I decided to make a trip to the Gressier market to do some shopping. The market is open three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Meer and Makendy in the Gressier market

There is another, bigger market on alternate days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) in Léogâne. Gressier is closer. So Tuesday morning, Meer and I went with Makendy to the Gressier market. We climbed into the Everest about 7:45 and Makendy drove down to the main road, National Highway 2. The market is only about a five minute drive away. Christmas music was coming from the radio. Makendy had his favorite radio station on, Alleluia FM. Strange to hear Christmas music when the temperature is in the 80s and climbing up to 90F.

     Makendy parked the Everest in front of an abandoned Catholic Church and we carefully made our

Charcoal vendor

way across the busy highway (only two lanes wide but traffic is crazy here). The Gressier market extends up a narrow street. There are stands and vendors on both sides. There are people everywhere and motorcycle taxis driving up and down the street. It is noisy. The market seems to extend forever. The road turns and the market continues. People are carrying things and selling things as they walk down the street. In some sections, sellers appear to be clustered by the goods they are selling.

Dry goods for sale

There is a grouping of people selling charcoal; people selling clothes; sandals and shoes. There are stands with dry goods of all sorts.  There is bread, sacks of rice, beans laid out on the ground or on

Gressier market

burlap sacks. There are chicken parts spread out in the early morning sun, flies hovering around and hopping on and off the chicken.

Chicken parts for sale in the Gressier market

   

Gressier market

And in certain places, there were mounds of trash.

     We looked for vegetables and saw plenty of the same things. That is one of the problems here. Everyone grows the same things and tries to sell them to people who grow the same stuff.

Vegetables for sale, Gressier market

Potatoes and carrots, hot peppers, a sort of Haitian apricot, and garlic. There is little variety. However, we did find carrots, onions, eggplant, green beans, and green peppers. I also bought a sort of yellow squash. At least, I hope it is a squash. Maybe I’ll make a ratatouille this weekend.

     We wanted fresh fruits. I saw lots of bananas but not the little sweet ones we had in Baradères. What were they called? Tit malice, that’s it. Makendy asked the vendor. No, no tit malice today. Meer picked out some mandarins and negotiated a price through Makendy. Bargaining is part of the process of buying things in Haiti. The price for six mandarins is 50 goudes? Ask if they will take 30. If the price is 10 goudes, ask for 7. Something like that. Or ask for one or two more items for the price they asked.

Meer picking out some vegetables

     Last week, Meer bought a nine-pound red snapper at the fish market. It had been caught only hours before. He and Solomon had fish for dinner and froze the rest. Today, Meer thawed out the snapper and he will make a fish dinner for us tonight. We’ll have rice and vegetables with it. I can’t wait. Last night’s dinner in the dining hall was rice, polenta and red beans and gravy. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch this afternoon. I feel a little hungry right now. Looking forward to dinner. 

A Man with a Mission – Liberate a Centrifuge

     Shipping things into Haiti is a nightmare. It is slow and expensive. Containers sit in customs for weeks and months. Things don’t move. It can take months for a piece of paper to travel from one desk to another desk in the same room. When you finally manage to get your shipment out, the duty fees are outrageous. So one possible solution is to work with a non-governmental organization (NGO) which has a “franchise”, an exemption. This designation allows the NGO to obtain the shipment without any customs duties. However, it usually takes so long that whatever money you would have saved on customs duties is exceeded by the storage fees that you are charged while your shipment is sitting in customs waiting to be processed as a franchise shipment. You can’t win. We know.

     The University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute (UF-EPI) tried to use the franchise of the Haitian Ministry of Health and Population (Le Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population – MSPP). The reasoning was that since the UF-EPI Haiti Lab 1-Gressier is performing public health research that is shared with MSPP, we should be able to use their franchise to bring in equipment duty-free. A tabletop centrifuge for the lab was ordered in July and shipped to Haiti under the franchise of the MSPP. It arrived in Haiti in July and has sat in customs ever since while the paperwork moved slowly through the system. Every time Madsen came to Haiti to visit the lab, he made a stop at customs to try and move the paper work to yet another desk. Months went by and still the centrifuge sat in customs, racking up storage fees. And Madsen continued his pilgrimage to the customs office each time he came to Haiti.

     Yesterday afternoon, six months after the centrifuge arrived in Haiti, Meer, Madsen, and I got into the Everest and Makendy drove us to customs in Port-au-Prince to pick up our centrifuge. We picked up the guy who was handling the paperwork for MSPP and drove to the customs office. We drove along the airport and at the end of the runway, we turned down a long and dusty road. Makendy pulled into the lot of an unmarked building and we all got out. We were at customs. Our centrifuge was somewhere in that building. The sound of jet engines pierced the afternoon calm. The JetBlue flight from Ft. Lauderdale, FL passed low over our heads and landed on the PAP airport runway a few hundred meters away. We entered the air-conditioned building. The lobby was completely empty. No receptionist. We followed Madsen as he walked to an office off to the left. Madsen had been here before, many times.

     Three women sat at three desks in the large room. They offered us chairs. We politely declined. Madsen presented his paperwork to the woman at the first desk. Woman #1 went to get the centrifuge file and came back with the file and the bill. She sat down at her desk. Madsen took a chair opposite her. Woman #1 opened a folder and handed it to Madsen. It contained the final papers with the bill for storage. Madsen glanced at the bottom line: $7,500. Madsen was astounded and a bit angry. This is not possible. He told woman #1 that $7,500 is more than the cost of the equipment! “Is that in U.S. dollars?” Madsen asked. “Yes”, she replied, “U.S. dollars.” Madsen asked to speak to her supervisor. Woman #1 left the room to speak to woman #2 (the supervisor) in the office next to where Meer and I stood. I heard woman #2 tell woman #1, “No, pas dollars. 7,500 gourdes.” (not U.S. dollars, Haitian gourdes). I was somewhat relieved. The difference between the two amounts is 43.5X (43.5 gourdes to $1.00 U.S.). Woman #1 returned to her desk and sat opposite Madsen. “Excusez-moi, monsieur. C’est 7,500 dollars Haitian.” (Excuse me, sir, but the amount is actually 7,500 Haitian dollars). What??? That’s not what we heard woman #2 say! Woman #1 was dropping the cost but it was still outrageously high; the conversion from “Haitian dollars” (which do not exist; see 11-07-13 post) comes out to $1,500 U.S. Madsen sat back in his chair. He was not moving. He argued, he pleaded, he pointed out that we were helping Haitians, we were not out to make a profit for ourselves. Woman #1 returned to consult with woman #2.  She returned to her desk and sat across from Madsen. “7,500 gourdes,” she said. Madsen still pleaded and tried to get her to reduce the fees. It eventually got to about 7,000 gourdes, that is, $167 U.S. (Obama dollars, as Makendy calls them). We each reached into our pockets to pull out twenties and tens and came up with the money for woman #1. She stamped the precious customs papers. We thanked her and left the office to look for our centrifuge.

     In the back warehouse was a wooden crate from South Carolina marked “ThermoScientific”. There she was, our centrifuge. We opened the crate, verified that all the boxes were there and that there was no visible damage from shipping. Makendy backed the Everest up to the loading dock and a forklift gently positioned the centrifuge next to the truck. We placed the packing cushions in the Everest and three men lifted the centrifuge into the back of the Everest. We climbed back in and left customs. It was like leaving the final circle of Dante’s Inferno, or something like that.

     So what did we learn? Everything is negotiable. The $7,500 fee? If Madsen had not protested, woman #1 would have taken his money. End of story. What about the 7,500 Haitian dollars? Same thing. If Madsen had not persisted, woman #1 would have taken his money. What did the actual bill look like? Was the 7,500 written in $U.S. or in $HT or in gourdes? I’ll be home for Christmas. You can ask me then. Right now, I am happy to report that our centrifuge is in its home in the lab.

The centrifuge in the lab

The Dogs

     The dogs in Haiti all look alike. With the exception of the very large, drug-sniffing German shepherd at the PAP airport (and that poor dog had way too much fur for this climate), I have seen only one other dog of a recognizable breed. There are no breeds here. There is no variety. The dogs all look the same. They are almost uniformly light yellow/tan in color with short hair. As a geneticist, I imagine that the dogs of 21st century Haiti are the result of generations of crossbreeding with no human intervention to select for particular traits. Maybe these dogs look more like the modern dog’s ancestor than our dogs back home do. They are the product of natural selection. They are mutts, mongrels. The dogs have evolved to the common denominator of the canine species for the climate, the food, and the geography of Haiti. Or maybe there is something else. I read that in April 1963,“Papa Doc” Duvalier ordered all black dogs in Haiti killed. Clement Barbot, a former friend and aide who had become an enemy of Duvalier, planned to overthrow Duvalier by kidnapping his children and demanding Duvalier’s resignation and self-exile as ransom. The plot failed and Duvalier sought his revenge.  A manhunt for Barbot began. A popular superstition was that Barbot could transform himself into a black dog. Consequently, Duvalier ordered all black dogs shot. Barbot was eventually cornered and killed in a sugar cane field in July 1963. It is not reported how many black dogs were killed and one wonders how, and if, that human intervention contributed to the evolution of the Haitian dogs we see today.

     Haitian dogs that roam the streets of PAP or the villages in the rural areas are generally skinny, sometimes so skinny their rib cage is clearly visible. They are not well fed. They eat what they can find. You should stay away from the dogs in Haiti. There is a fairly high level of rabies in the wild dog population in Haiti. Those dogs are not vaccinated and therein lays the risk with wild dogs. We had our own encounter with a rabid dog in Christianville in October (see 10-26-13 post). I later spoke to a local doctor and he also remarked about the high incidence of rabid dogs (laboratory-confirmed) and dogs behaving strangely in the area.

     Dogs that belong to a family or group are better fed.

Smiley

The dogs of Christianville are in this category.

Squirrely

Smiley is old and slow and maybe a little overweight. The residents here call her the world’s laziest dog. Squirrely is smaller but not that much more active than Smiley. Stella is Sara’s dog. She is much more active, maybe because she is younger. Then there is Stella’s mother, Mama dog (I don’t know her name). All the Christianville dogs are spayed and vaccinated against rabies so there is no danger. They walk around (slowly) and sleep a lot all day. And they bark, sometimes for no apparent reason. Barking dogs is one of the nighttime sounds everywhere you go in Haiti. I like to think that Smiley and Squirrely chase the wild dogs away when they do get on the grounds. But I doubt it. They just wander around all day, sleeping in the shade
or rolling on their backs to scratch an itch (they have fleas). That explains why their fur is so dirty. The day after Squirrely got a bath, I thought she was a wild dog who had gotten in. She looked like a different dog.

     What about the cats?

A cat in Gressier market

I have not figured that out yet. I have seen fewer than half a dozen cats since I’ve been in Haiti and all of them have been in or close to houses. I guess Haiti is a dog’s world.

Stella