S is for Starbucks, no really…

Last Tuesday I was in Leogane Haiti, a small town about 2 hours outside Port au Prince, two hours on a good day; It can take up to four hours or more depending on the rain, traffic, protests and what-have-you.  Actually it can take up to two hours just to get from one point to another within Port au Prince. Our first meeting in the city was at 8:00 am so I had to leave the guest house at around 5:00. The electricity went off the night before in the guest house so no fan and extremely hot sleeping…well, really no sleeping. 4:30 am rolled around and all I wanted, needed was a cup of coffee…not to be had!  No Starbucks along the route to Leogane.

The sun was coming up as we got in the car and with the sun came many of the people along the way. One of the things that struck me on this trip versus the last was the commerce; everyone seemed to be selling something. My last trip I was much further away from the capital and people had nothing, literally nothing.  But all the way to PaP people were selling something…mangos, bananas, beans, corn soap, combs, sunglasses, bags of water and juice, and even some books.  Most of the non-perishables come from the Dominican Republic and many of those things come from the US. Some of the stuff includes clothes that those of us in the States throw into those donation boxes around our towns. Companies sell that stuff either for rags or in bulk for re-sale to the developing world…so tons and tons of old clothes are cleaned and made ready for re-sale in Haiti. Everyone was busy selling something but of course no one was selling coffee. It was kind of amazing.

Only a few items are sold each day by these vendors so despite the constant commerce only a very little income is generated. But this is the only job in town.  Everyone is busy borrowing some money to buy stuff so they can sell it…All along the way were small huts, wheelbarrows, or baskets-on-heads serving as shops.  The closer we got to PaP the more clogged the streets became with these individual “shopkeepers.”    Unfortunately, this vast system of commerce exists outside any formal infrastructure. Understandably there will be no taxes, no rents, no real way of using this system to help rebuild the country.  It will keep families alive but do little more than that.

Here in NY you can’t swing a short stick without hitting a coffee shop (be it Starbucks, a diner, or deli). Just across the border in the Dominican coffee is grown and sold.  But “just across the border” is an entirely different world; while of course there is poverty there is also wealth, a middle class, lots of baseball, and great coffee. So I was forced to travel in the early morning hours without my trusty to-go-cup.  But what I was missing was made up for by the rich views of Haitian and Creole culture. In some respects my cup did in fact “runeth over” with some humility for all I had including constant access to quite a variety of drinks such as clean water (which makes good coffee).

All along the way was evidence of the earthquake: piles of rubble, houses missing walls, small tent communities.  The closer we got to PaP you would see more and more people missing a limb or in a wheelchair—victims of the quake. And dust and mud was everywhere…dust was constant and the evening rains turned the dust into mud making travel even more challenging.  We had a number of meetings so lots of in and out of the car…by the time I returned to the guest house that night I was pretty much covered in a film of Haiti’s brown dirt. 

Answers to rebuilding Haiti are complex and well beyond my ken. But I do believe that education will key if not the key. Unfortunately, few Haitians complete even primary school as the school fees are too costly for most families. At best, many families are able to afford the fees for one their children to complete high school.  Despite the challenges or maybe because of them, Haitians revere education.  All primary school students and even some high school students wear uniforms. As I was driving around I got to see a couple hundred kids heading off to and coming back from school. For the little ones, their uniforms included a white blouse and white sox.  And boy were they WHITE!  Amidst the dirt and poverty, no electricity, little water…somehow mothers made sure those uniforms sparkled. This is not out of vanity but out of pride in sending off their kids to school….I don’t really know how the clothes stayed so white, I felt it would be really condescending to ask…but all those kids in their uniforms…that is the hope of Haiti. 

I was in Haiti in part to help support a nursing school.  All of those students were also in uniforms.  This is a country where nurses still wear white at the hospital including their white caps.  There are about 100 students at the nursing school…all are the first in their families to attend college…for many, probably the first to compete high school.  When I was there they were preparing for the “capping” ceremony. At the end of their first year, they would get their caps and be able to wear them when they started their clinical experiences in the local hospitals.  Parents and grand-parents from around the country would attend this ceremony; it would be almost as important as their graduation. 

When employed these nurses would probably make around $650 annually. With that they will be expected to help support their families and extended families as many of these family members chipped in to send them to school.  But these students would also help create a middle class in Haiti…a key sign that a country is stabilizing.  A large middle class anchors a country…turns out it really is all about the 99%!!

I am not sure Haiti will be stabilized in my life time, sorry to say. But individual families will be better off because of these nursing students. They will provide amazing healthcare and they will be able to support their families…it’s a multiplier effect. These nursing students will probably never get the credit they deserve for really helping to transition their country, but I believe that is the case and now you know it too.

(oh by the way, our first meeting was at the US Embassy. As I passed through security and entered the main building…what was that lovely aroma? Ah yes, coffee… I headed to the vendor and bought a large cup of Dominican coffee and NOW I was ready to face the rest of the day…)