19065: Petersen: Just out of Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Ingegerd Nissen Petersen <inp.ry@ci.kk.dk>

My husband and I just returned from Haiti yesterday, didn't go to
Gonaives, but stayed at the Oloffson long enough to meet a lot of
interesting people and hear a lot of tales.... In spite of all the
terror, pictures from the warzone often remind me of Graham Greene's The
Comedians.... some of these guys really seem like players, and it IS
carnival time...just look at the way the cannibals dress.... Saw a small
group of students running in Rara pace down the rue Capois to Place
Jeremie, chanting Aba Aristide, laughing, unarmed, totally harmless.
What do they have to fire teargas at them for??

A gas station was shot at and set ablaze in the night in the avenue
Christophe. The next morning everything was cleaned up though one of the
pumps stood out, black. In the afternoon we were round the corner from
the gas station, which is a clash-point between chimè and students from
the nearby faculty. Two groups were facing each other, exchanging
slogans, not really agitated. We were sitting in a car waiting for a
friend when teargas was fired and people started running, students,
people who happened to be there, marchandes, coughing their hearts out,
tears running down their faces. We had enough sense to close the
windows, but our friend came out from his school in a bad condition. He
said that gas was fired all the time in that spot and that it settled in
the yards of the neighbouring houses. Tear gass is very popular with the
police.

We went to Jacmel for the national carnival, which was smaller than
usual but still nice and inventive, the giraffes were violent, banging
their long necks into bystanders. Some of the characters were missing,
people from Port-au-Prince stayed at home. While in Jacmel we hiked up
to a village near Bassin Bleu with a peace corps whe had met a few days
earlier and spent the day talking to farmers, sipping coconut milk,
admiring konbits and enjoying the incredible peace. Going back down from
the mountain soon became a complicated affair and we had to ask our way
at every fork. Then an old woman passed us with a load on her head and
waved us along. She took us down, fast, but after ten minutes suddenly
stopped, and turned to offer us an orange from her bundle, apologizing
for not having a knife. She waited while we ate, then reached inside the
bundle again and came out with a plastic bottle. She then rinsed our
hands. With a little satisfied nod she turned and sped on down the
mountain. Almost down she made signs that she was going to leave us, and
showed us which way to go. Then she turned and waived a short goodbye.
We had followed her for an hour, and all she had said was that she was
sorry she didn't have a knife. As she took off, I wondered how old she
was, impossible to determine. We had hardly started up again before a
younger woman took the lead and left us in town. It was a beautiful day,
and a stark contrast to the news of the violent situation in the north.
Two different Haitis. Two days later we met the peace corps again at the
Oloffson, she was being sent home with the other three hundred. I asked
how they were able to get information to all those isolated places that
they were to pack up and go immediately and learned that they have
"communication trees" - an effective substitute for the tambours of
other times. (Thank you to all on the list who sent us contact
information to farmers- we keep it preciously for our next trip!)

We left Haiti on Friday, spent nine hours at the airport, electricity
came and went, planes piled up and couldn't take off, more and more
people crammed into that little place and absolute calm reigned all the
time, while international news agencies like CNN spurted around asking
people why they were leaving.... All check-in had to be done manually
because the computers were down, then when electricity came back on they
had to feed all the manual registration info into the machines before
they could resume checking in. Other blackouts toppled the process again
and everybody just waited. Then came the rumours that these would be the
last planes to leave, but people still remained calm. I do admire the
Haitian people for their patience... The only slightly chaotic moment
came when the AA personnel started boarding to flights at the same time,
and kids and several people in wheelchairs got stuck in the pushing to
get to the gates. But everything went well.

Slightly jetlagged,
Ingegerd Nissen Petersen