Where He leads...: FAQs of this missionary/intern in Haiti

FAQs of this missionary/intern in Haiti

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I've been a full-time missionary since 2005 and after living in Haiti for 7 months prior, I began as an intern with CNP in January. People are always asking, "What's it like to live and serve in Haiti?" So without further adieu, here's a list of frequently asked questions and my responses. Thank you everyone who helped generate this great list of questions! My inbox is always open, so feel free to keep 'em coming. :)

Do you live in a house or is it more like an apartment?

I live in the CNP house which is also our office. It’s a big two story house with the office areas, kitchen, a dorm room, a room for interns, and a storage room downstairs. Upstairs has a large seating area, a dining area (though we mainly just put the food there to serve ourselves and eat outside or in the “living room”), another dorm room, two other bedrooms, and a balcony area in front and back. You can also climb up on the roof and watch the sunset or stargaze. I’ve got my own room for now which is lovely. :) This is my fourth and favorite house I’ve lived in so far in Haiti.

Do you walk to work when you are not out in villages?

I spend about half my time in the office and half my time in the field. When I’m out of the office I’ll go by company vehicle or by moto taxi (a hired driver on a regular motorcycle). If I’m working in the mountains, I’ll often go with a vehicle as far as it is able to go and then walk/hike the rest of the way. Sometimes you reach your destination in minutes, sometimes in hours.

What is your daily work routine like?

I typically wake up around 6:30am unless we have to leave early to get to the mountains. I’ll grab some breakfast and then be at my desk by 7:30am. The office is sometimes relatively quiet, sometimes quite bustling. I have to turn in my weekly calendar the Friday before the week begins. I’ll look at everything I’m in the process of working on, anything new I’ve been assigned, what the biggest needs are in the various programs, and plan my schedule accordingly for each day. Things are often added of course as the week progresses. A couple days each week may be mostly office days where I’m checking on our project reports, updating our followers/donors via our blog or Facebook, participating in continuing education courses, sorting through our photos and videos, writing reports, or planning for upcoming projects. If I’m in the field, I could be helping to oversee our fixed nutrition clinic, observing our hearth program (teaching mothers how to cook balanced meals and keep their children healthy), at a rally post (a monthly gathering in the various zones for children’s growth to be monitored and vaccinations received), up in the mountains overseeing a latrine or biosand filter project, out with a mobile clinic or other group showing them our programs, on a run to Port au Prince or in an exciting meeting :), or a host of other fun activities! A typical workday lasts until around 5:30pm. Depending on whatever energy I have left, I’ll hang out with the interns or my fella, watch a movie or TV show (on my computer), read, nap, or visit with other friends in the area. On the weekends I'll do the same and also try to spend as much time as I can at my favorite orphanage.

What is the food like there?

EXCELLENT! I LOVE the food here. And it doesn’t help that every work day I sit here and smell it cooking just a few feet away! Staple dishes are rice and beans with chicken or vegetables, a “grits” like corn mixture with bean sauce, and a flavorful though meatless spaghetti. On the street you can buy patay, a meat or vegetable filled pastry—sometimes perfectly flaky, sometimes deep fried. I also love the natural juices they make. My favorite is papaya juice made with condensed milk, ice, sugar, and almond extract. You can see more specific food items on this particular blog entry. I definitely don’t go hungry here. In fact, the opposite is probably true, especially with everything being so carb-heavy!

Do you play soccer there?

The only soccer I’ve played so far is a little bit at the orphanage. I need to do that more often! The kids love it. :) There are makeshift soccer fields all over, and you can see them occupied with everything from little kids kicking rocks, to casual kick-arounds, to organized practices or games (jerseys, cleats, shin guards and all). I’ve recently heard of some trainings that happen early every Saturday morning not a 5 minute walk from our house. I’ll have to go check that out soon! I heard we need to provide a ball if we want in on the action.

Did you have difficulty adjusting to cultural differences at first (or at all)? What are some of those differences?

Good question. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to be a newbie in a country like Haiti. Even though I’ve only lived here for 9 months and some people would still call me a newbie, I feel like the “new” has mostly transformed into the “normal”. I also found Haiti to be quite similar to other places I’ve lived, a similar community culture and hospitality as Mexico and similar in climate and traditions as countries in Africa, especially Ghana. I feel like I’ve had a fair share of cultural competency lessons over the years, so again, I forget what it’s like to really experience the new and different when it comes to cross-cultural situations. So I suppose to answer the first question, no, I didn’t have much difficulty adjusting. Haiti felt like a natural place to slide into. As for the differences, there are important things to keep in mind… such as the importance of greetings. For example, in the States if I needed to ask my co-worker something, I’d go over to their desk and even if it’s the first time I’ve spoken to them that day I would typically say, “Hey _______, would you be able to do this or that today?” In Haiti, you could be thought quite rude if you didn’t go up to the desk, first greet them with a “good morning” or “good afternoon”, followed by a “how are you? I’m fine thank you”, and then you could proceed with whatever you came to say or ask. Sometimes I have to slow down and remind myself to do all that. Even taking public transportation I notice that people will greet each other as they get in the group taxi. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing it myself sometimes.

On another note, and I don’t know that this would classify as a cultural difference, but I don’t know if I will ever fully adjust to all the attention I receive as a white person here. Even though there are tons of white people working in Haiti, sometimes it’s as if I’m the first one they’ve ever seen in their life. You’ll be walking down the road and kids will come up and try to touch you or hold your hand. Teenage girls will giggle and talk about you. Young men will whistle or kiss at you like you’re a dog, well, that’s how I call a dog anyway. So that’s a daily adjustment. I will never really understand what the fascination is. But I suppose I’m so used to being around people of different races and ethnicities and grew up around such a mixed pot of people in the States.

Also, one thing I quickly observed concerning many Haitians… they often have loud and seemingly heated discussions. Especially before I could speak the language, I assumed they were very angry with one another. But for many, that is just part of how they talk to each other. I’m more used to it now and can typically understand what they are talking about anyway to know how serious the discussion is. Even when you’re driving through the crazy traffic here, drivers will honk, fiercely yell, and throw their hands up at each other… but often by the time they physically pass each other, they’re both flashing their pearly whites as if they’re best buds.

Does CNP operate a health clinic?

CNP does not have a health clinic. From time to time we have medical teams come through who will put on various mobile clinics. Otherwise, we have our fixed nutrition clinic about five minutes from our office. At our nutrition clinic we run two programs… our Outpatient Therapeutic Program (PTA) and our Supplementary Food Program (PNS). The first is for severely malnourished children and the latter is for moderately malnourished children. You can read more about those programs here. We also have our mobile nutrition clinic that started last month. Every week our traveling nurse goes from one mountain zone to the next and operates the same PTA and PNS programs. This helps the families in the mountains who have trouble coming all the way down to Leogane.

Do mothers get referred to you from somewhere or do you go out looking?

The mothers are either referred to us or they hear about our program by word of mouth or through our other preventative programs. We have 40+ monitrices (community mothers) who are on staff for us. They are constantly monitoring the children who live within their own communities. They meet with families on a regular basis for nutrition lessons and rally posts. If they see a child who is not growing at a healthy rate, they will refer the child to our fixed nutrition clinic (or our mobile clinic if it’s coming to their area). The child will then be measured and examined to see if he or she meets criteria to enter our program. We actually follow a national protocol for malnutrition which makes it a simple method for determining who we are able to serve within our programs. If children are too sick or wasted, we send them immediately to a stabilization center about 40 minutes away.

What ages of children do you help? Is there an age limit?

The majority of the children we help are from 6 months to 5 years old. Our PTA and PNS programs are for children over the age of 6 months. If they are less than 6 months but in very poor health, we refer them to the stabilization center. Once they reach 6 months, we can put them in our program if they still meet criteria. We also urge mothers to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months after delivery, as often the issue children have of slow growth is because the mothers are not doing this. Our Supplementary Food Program for moderately malnourished children is only for those up to 5 years old. Our PTA program for severely malnourished children doesn’t necessarily have an age limit, but the criteria is much more stringent. An older child has to be very malnourished (hence the word severely) to meet criteria for PTA. I haven’t personally witnessed a child over 8 in our PTA program. A 16 year old girl was brought to us in early February. She was skin and bones. We sent her immediately to the hospital but sadly, she died just a few days later.

What do people need to know about Haitians?

Haitians are strong. They are resourceful. They are creative. They are resilient. They are survivors. Haitians are not poor. They are not helpless. They have dignity. They do not need more hand-outs. They do not even need your help. Though if your help comes in the form of empowering them… of truly coming along beside them and serving with them to better their nation… of more listening than speaking… more thinking than doing… more praying than acting… then yes, perhaps they would be appreciative of your support. Perhaps then your support could be sustainable. Perhaps it wouldn’t sit useless in a broken water filter or pump, or as a locked latrine that no one uses, or as empty water bottles clogging up the waterways… Perhaps, if we take time to listen, to understand the resources within an already resilient people and within an incredible and beautiful land, we can see true change and transformation. Not from anything we did, but a deep within kind of change. A movement of God kind of change. A transformation truly desired and respected by the people themselves who can look at the next generation and know and believe that they themselves had a hand in raising them up to be empowered and respected leaders for their country. And that’s just a start of what I think people should know about Haiti. If you haven't already, I highly recommend a visit!