24977: News - Wharram - Billings photographer returns from humanitarian mission in troubled Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

 Billings photographer returns from humanitarian mission in troubled Haiti

By ED KEMMICK
Of The Gazette Staff

Returning from 12 days in Haiti last month, Billings photographer Ronnie
James was frustrated by how ill-informed people seemed to be about that
Caribbean nation. Most people, when they heard he'd been in Haiti, asked him
how the beaches were.

"I don't know if they're thinking Tahiti or what," James said. "There are
beaches, but they're full of trash. I didn't see one tourist."

The only foreigners in Haiti these days, James said, are missionaries,
journalists and U.N. troops. James was there on what he calls a humanitarian
photo-documentary mission, and though it was a harrowing experience,
physically and mentally draining, he can't wait to go back.

His trip was arranged by an acquaintance from Texas, a photographer who had
put together several previous trips to Haiti. It was a simple arrangement:
photographers paid their own way, took photos of humanitarian projects and
turned their film over to the organizations involved in the projects to use
as they see fit, in promotions, fund-raising, Web sites, etc.

James, the manager of the photo lab at Costco Wholesale in Billings, was
drawn to the idea of being able to use his skills to help organizations that
were helping people in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Haiti occupies the western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, about 50
miles from the eastern tip of Cuba. There are 8 million people in Haiti's
27,750 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Maryland. According to
the CIA's World Factbook, 80 percent of Haitians live in "abject poverty."

James, 35, got a taste of what was to come in the Miami airport, from which
he flew to Haiti on March 21. His area of the terminal was crowded with
Haitians, many of them flying standby. When the boarding call came, there
was a stampede for the gate. James was pushed up against a wall, unable to
move. Security personnel had to come in to restore order.

"So I knew right away it was going to be quite a trip," he said.

Even in the best of times, Haiti can be dangerous and chaotic. This past
year hasn't been the best of times. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled
the country in the midst of a rebellion in February 2004, leading to
fighting among political factions and general rioting. Then, last September,
Haiti was mauled by Hurricane Jeanne, which killed thousands and caused
widespread flooding.

Though there were some scenes of great beauty, James was struck by Haiti's
bleakness. Most of the island's trees have been cut down, and the only grass
James remembers seeing was in front of the presidential palace in the
capital of Port-au-Prince. He saw people living on top of huge trash piles.
Even the animals - chickens, pigs, goats and cows - looked desperately
hungry.

"It was just unbelievable," James said.

PhotoGallery
Ronnie James photos from Hati

There were armies of beggars everywhere. James learned the hard way never to
reach into a pocket if people are asking you for money. If you do, you'll be
mobbed by beggars, as he was on one occasion.

"I got swarmed," James said. "Our driver, Ronald, had to come rescue me."

Ronald, whom they referred to as their "fixer," was paid $150 a day to drive
them where they wanted to go and to conduct any transactions for food and
drink, which he ordinarily did through his partially open car window. For
the most part, their group consisted of James, Ronald the driver, the trip
organizer from Texas and another photographer.

During their stay, James shot hundreds of photographs of four humanitarian
groups at work - the Art Creation Foundation for Children, Pazapa, Eternal
Hope in Haiti, and CARE. The first two are based in the town of Jacmel on
the southern coast of Haiti.

The Art Creation Foundation was the first group photographed by James, and
he was touched by how enthusiastic and grateful the children were. They were
used to photographers with digital cameras, however, and they couldn't
understand why James, who still shoots film, couldn't immediately show them
images of his work. The foundation helps keeps children off the street by
getting them involved in arts projects.

Pazapa, which means "step by step" in Haitian Creole, was founded in 1987
and is dedicated to helping children with disabilities, providing them with
orthopedics, health care, education and rehabilitation.

In Gonaives, James took photos of volunteers working with CARE, an
organization that fights poverty around the world. They were mostly involved
in efforts to undo some of the physical damage wrought by Hurricane Jeanne.

James was most impressed by the work of a group of doctors from the state of
Georgia who had organized the Eternal Hope in Haiti program. At their free
clinic in the town of Cap Haitien, the doctors treated children for a host
of ailments, one of the most common being scabies. James was heartened by
the gratitude of the children and their parents, and moved by the
selflessness of the doctors.

"I really liked being with them," he said. He is hoping to go back to Haiti,
as early as this fall, to work more closely with Eternal Hope in Haiti.

On the trip to Gonaives, James' visit coincided with the largest voodoo
festival of the year, which begins on the night before Easter Sunday and
lasts for a week. The festival took place in the village of Souvenance,
outside Gonaives, home to the largest voodoo temple in Haiti.

About 80 percent of the population in Haiti is Roman Catholic, but roughly
half the population still practices voodoo, an ancient African religion that
came to the West Indies with African slaves.

James said the festival was fairly tame - except for the sacrifice of goats,
cows and chickens, which were ritualistically slaughtered before being fed
to festival-goers. People taking part in the rituals were dressed all in
white, and they daubed the scarves swaddling their heads with the blood of
the slain animals.

The voodoo festival was less disconcerting than the town of Gonaives itself,
which James said "reminded me a little of the Wild West." It was home to the
rebels who sparked the revolt that drove Aristide from power, and it is
still a center of violence and rioting.

As James described it, there are U.N. troops on either end of Gonaives but
very little law enforcement in between. There are currently about 8,000 U.N.
troops in Haiti.

The most dangerous incident on the trip involved a contingent of U.N.
troops. The leader of James' group had arranged a meeting with the rebel
leader known as Ti Will in Raboteau, a notorious slum in Gonaives. Formerly
a supporter of Aristide, Ti Will turned against him during the rebellion,
and Ti Will was wanted by the authorities on various charges.

Ronald, their driver, took them into the heart of the slum, where they were
introduced to Ti Will. James wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he was
surprised to find that the rebel leader was in his late 20s or early 30s,
dressed in basketball shirt, a baseball cap and a gold chain - "just some
hip-hop kid," James said.

As they were speaking with Ti Will, a U.N. truck loaded with troops rumbled
past. Nobody seemed too concerned at the time, but it was unsettling. James
and his group returned the next day, accompanied by several photojournalists
who heard how they'd gotten access to the rebel leader.

As they neared the house where they'd met with Ti Will, the atmosphere was
highly charged and hundreds of people were milling around the street. People
gathered around the car, looking agitated and shouting in Creole.

"That was the first time I saw Ronald get nervous," James said.

He looked even more nervous after getting out of the car to talk to some of
the people in the street. What had happened, Ronald told James and the
others, was that the U.N. troops had returned the night before, apparently
looking for Ti Will. He got away, but 30 other men were arrested in the
raid, and people were blaming the Americans for the incident. Ronald never
did tell them exactly what was said, but threats were made against James and
the other photographers.

"We decided to get out of there quick," he said.

After that, James went to the northern city of Cap Haitien, and he was so
rattled at the prospect of having to go through Gonaives again on the way
back to the capital of Port-au-Prince that he almost flew to Miami from Cap
Haitien.

As it turned out, there were no incidents in Gonaives on the way back, but
Port-au-Prince itself was in turmoil. In the days before their return, there
had been widespread fighting between government troops and pro-Aristide
rebels. Eight police officers and one U.N. soldier had been killed.

As James and his group approached Port-au-Prince, they could hear gunfire
and they could see smoke curling up from the city.

Of the U.N. troops, James said, "Oh, yeah, they're everywhere. But not
enough of them to make you feel safe."

On their last day in Haiti, James and his compatriots were scheduled to meet
with another rebel leader, a highly respected man James was eager to meet.
But by then his nerves were shot and he had a bad stomach ache, partly from
the food and partly from stress, and he stayed in the hotel.

He got back to Billings on April 2, picked up at the airport at 4 a.m. by
his girlfriend, Amy Lambeth, an emergency room nurse at Deaconess Billings
Clinic. It was nice to be home - they live on the 1500 block of Burlington
Avenue - but James saw home with new eyes.

"I remember getting up the next morning and looking out this window," he
said, standing in his living room. "It was just so calm and green and quiet.
It was surreal."


Ed Kemmick can be reached at 657-1293 or ekemmick@billingsgazette.com


Details

On his trip to Haiti, photographer Ronnie James used two Nikon F-100
cameras. He had a variety of lenses, but he used mainly two, a 20-35
millimeter zoom and an 85mm.

He shot film on this trip, but if he goes back to Haiti, he said, he'd like
to bring digital cameras. That would make it possible to show his subjects
what he just shot and would also allow him to do editing at night, in the
hotel.