Communication Disconnect

Our internet connection has lapsed the last few days of our stay, sorry to cut out on all you three faithful readers! It feels odd not to correspond with Nick, checking on the cats and garden, hearing about his crazy work load, as well as crazy play load. But, it was way opportune, it being the link that needed to be severed, giving us a chance to really live fully in another culture and land. When we first arrived, we were careful not to trip in the dark, for fear of getting injured and not having access to medical help. The last week, not only did we not stumble in the dark anymore, (well, not very often!) we felt less afraid, and more capable and confident that we could manage, without our rather imagined safety nets.

Before we left and enroute I felt rather panicked about not having a cell phone that would work in Haiti (FYI, Verizon does not offer international service). Nick, always so helpful, researched what could be done and had his World Edition Blackberry enabled for our trip. Unfortunately, it too did not work outside of Miami. For future reference our best bet would have been to purchase a phone in the Port au Prince airport and phone cards, while we were there, Voila and Digicel were working, albeit sporatically. There isn’t postal service within or to Haiti or any organized, public transport other than taptaps (taxi-like pickups) and the dangerously overcrowded buses, so people rely on the spotty cellular communication even in the remotest locations.

The so-called 11th department of the Haitian Government (there are officially ten departments) is the vast diaspora, Haitians living outside of Haiti. Their monetary contributions to remaining family, schools, villages accounts for the largest percentage of Haiti’s economy.

Along the roads and at every junction are small, well-built, colorful kiosk-like shacks with enticing names like Perseverance, Lott, Salvation, and the Solution Center. We thought, maybe we could exchange our US dollars here but found them only to be lottery/pay day loan type establishments. One can not exchange US dollars for Goudes (their monetary unit) in a bank in the US, at the Miami airport’s currency exchange, nor even the Port au Prince airport. Eventually, we would write a check or give dollars to the treasurer of Lekol Matenwa and he would drive a motorcycle into the town, where he could deposit it and withdraw goudes from the school’s account. (39 goudes to the US dollar)

The going rate for a full day of farm work was about 500 goudes a day, around 8 US bucks. Regular work like that was hard to come by.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Haiti