Notes From Leogane No. 10

Part 1: The Trinity Murals

Dear Family and Friends:

During the past two days, I have been overwhelmed with Haitian beauty.  I have just completed a "web tour", so to speak, of works by some of the many Haitian artists who have painted since the founding of the l'Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince in the early 1940s.

I remember little from my freshman year Art History class at Arizona State in the fall of 1965. I do recall, however, the thought expressed then, and repeated many times since, that a painting is to be seen and that extraneous banter can at times interfere with appreciation of a work of art. For that reason, the written part of this note should be, and is, dominated by the photographs attached to three parts of Note No. 10.

On many occasions since I arrived in Haiti, I have heard people describe the irreparable loss on January 12, 2010 of thousands of Haitian art treasures, not the least of which the murals at the
Episcopal Trinity Cathedral, and so this note starts there. Part 2 will focus on the "Naive" school of Haitian painting. Part 3 discusses some of the more "modern" Haitian artists.

THE MURALS OF THE EPISCOPAL TRINITY CATHEDRAL
This from a 28 February 2011 newsletter by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.:

"More than a year after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, the famed murals at St. Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince are coming down.  A team of Americans and Haitians, led by conservators Viviana Dominguez and Rosa Lowinger, and working under the auspices of the Smithsonian's Haiti Cathedral Recovery Project, is carefully removing the three surviving murals from the ruined walls of the destroyed Episcopal Church in order to preserve them for the future.

Fourteen life-sized murals depicting scenes from the New Testament were painted on the interior walls of the cathedral in the late 1940s and early 1950s by eight of Haiti's most celebrated artists associated with the Centre d'Art and its characteristic vernacular style.  The murals were controversial at the time because they depicted Haitians in biblical roles, but many saw them as representing the way Haitians adapted Christianity.

Only three murals survived the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake - “The Last Supper" by Philome Obin, "Native Procession" by Prefete Duffant and "The Baptism of Christ" by Castera Bazile – and all were severely damaged.

Once the mural fragments are safely stored, the conservators will help design ways to reassemble the murals so that they can be installed onsite once a new cathedral is rebuilt by the Episcopal Church…."

The attached photographs of the Trinity Cathedral Murals, before and after the earthquake speak for themselves.

David

22 May 2011 - Part 1

Part 2: l’Centre d’Art and Its Artists and the Naïve Move

Dear Family and Friends:

The attached photographs are labeled with the name of the artist, surname first, and the title of the painting.

The following discuss the founding of l'Centre d'Art, the development of its artists, and the Naive movement of Haitian painting:

"The notion of making a living by creating and selling art first came to Haiti in the 1940s, when an American watercolorist named DeWitt Peters moved to Port-au-Prince.  Peters, a conscientious objector to the world war then underway, took a job teaching English and was struck by the raw artistic expression he found at every turn - even on the local buses known as tap-taps.

He founded Centre d'Art in 1944 to organize and promote untrained artists, and within a few years, word had gone out that something special was happening in Haiti.  During a visit to the center in 1945, Andre Breton, the French writer, poet and leader of the cultural movement known as Surrealism, swooned over the work of a self-described houngan (voodoo priest) and womanizer Hector Hyppolite, who often painted with chicken feathers.  Hyppolite's creations, on subjects ranging from still life to voodoo spirits to scantily clad women (presumed to be his mistresses), sold for a few dollars each. But, Breton wrote, 'all carried the stamp of total authenticity.'

Hyppolite died of a heart attack in 1948, three years after joining Centre d'Art and one year after his work was displayed at a triumphant (for Haiti as well as him) United Nations- sponsored exhibition in Paris.

Although some nicely done Haitian paintings could be bought for a few hundred dollars, the best works by early masters such as Hyppolite and Philome Obin (a devout Protestant who painted scenes from Haitian history, the Bible and his family's life) eventually commanded tens of thousands of dollars.  The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Hirschhorn in Washington, D.C. added Haitian primitives to their collections…."

(In Haiti, the Art of Resilience, by Bill Brubaker, Smithsonian Magazine September 2010)

"The Naive Art movement and the Centre d'Art In the 1940s, Dewitt Peters, an American school teacher arrived in Haiti.  Almost immediately he was stricken by the raw talent displayed by many untrained and in many cases uneducated painters he would encounter.  Those were people who never went to art school, workers of all trades, who would come home and produce marvels of indigenous art work.  In 1944, he founded the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince.  The Centre d'Art became the champion of the art form that would be called "Naive Art", or better called "intuitive art."  Intuitive painting is characterized by vivid, raw colors, a spatial composition and use of proportions that did not abide by any laws of modern aesthetics, but rather revealed spontaneity, freedom of expression and freshness. That art form would attain notoriety on the world scale, especially with the arrival of co-director Selden Rodman.  Selden Rodman rejected modernism, the leading art movement of the time, as being too post-war, too vanguard and therefore too socially inclined. Contrary to what many manuals wrote, neither the Centre d'Art nor DeWitt Peters invented Naive art.  Nevertheless, they are credited for their efforts in having brought it to the attention of the Western World.

The primitives of the first generation received worldwide acclaim. Critics and collectors received that movement as 'authentic' and 'unspoiled'.  The main heroes of that movement were otherwise common, non-artistically trained folk who had great talent. They were Andre Pierre, Hector Hyppolite (1894 - 1948), Castera Bazile (1923 - 66), Wilson Bigaud (b. 1931) and Rigaud Benoit (b. 1911).  Vaudou was prominently featured in the works of those artists.  Andre Pierre and Hyppolite themselves were vaudou priests.

The cornerstone piece of the Primitive Art School has to be the mural project of the Cathedral of Sainte Trinite (Holy Trinity).  For that mural, Bazile and Bigaud placed traditional religious motifs like the Ascension of Christ in a very Haitian context. Characters were painted with black faces, while drums and sacrificial animals were featured in a few of the paintings.  The Primitive Movement  was accompanied by great controversy.  Many other Haitian artists, the intelligentsia and the elite alike resented the seal of authenticity attached to Naive Art….

There are many offshoots to the Naive Movement.  Philome Obin would create the School of Cap-Haitian that included artists such as Seneque Obin (1893 - 1977), his younger brother.

Second generation intuitive painters include Gerard Vacin (1925 - 88), Wilmino Domond, Seymour Bottex, Gabriel Alix, Gesner Armand and Prefete Duffaunt (b. 1923).  The second generation is characterized by a certain departure from the style of the original masters of the 40s.  Many of these artists like Armand would through their travels learn other techniques and would use them to enrich and solidify their original style…. "

(Haitian Art, Brikouri Forums, Brikouir.com)

David

22 May 2011 - Part 2

Part 3: Contemporary Haitian Artists

Dear Family and Friends:

My "web gallery" tour brought forth an abundance of contemporary Haitian paintings, though little in the way of commentary about modern or contemporary Haitian artists.  I did find the following though:

"The tale of contemporary Haitian art speaks to humanity's innate drive for self-expression and how this passion has never been constrained by something as trivial as poverty.  . . . More than simply idiosyncratic styles of painting and sculpture, contemporary Haitian art is powerful and plentiful enough to be classified as a category unto itself.  Even though Haiti is often touted as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the very title "Voudou Riche" frames this exhibition with a view that is rife with the spiritual abundance at the core of Haiti's vibrant people…."

(Review of the "Vodou Riche : Contemporary Haitian Art" exhibition at College Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, August 27 - October 16, 2007)

"At the Centre d'Art, Andre Pierre and other primitive artists had enhanced the reputation of Haitian art, while Gesner Armand joined the ranks of the sophisticated artists.

Founded in the early '60s, Calfou was the last great association of Haitian artists.  With Bernard Wah, painting took a decisive turn toward l'Esthetique de la Beaute.  This school, which is more formal and less socially engaged, made a definitive break with l'Indigenisme.  It found its more forceful expression in the works of Bernard Sejurne, Jean-Rene Jerome, Simil, Jean-Pierre Theard, Carol Theard, Jean-Claude Legagneur, and Philippe Dodard.  A the margin of l'Ecole de la Beaute, one should mention such artists as Ronald Mews, Fravrange Valcin, Celestin Faustin, and Jean-Claude Garoute (known as Tiga).

Today the vitality of Haitian art, both in Haiti and abroad is an astonishing reality.  Today's promising artists are numerous, such as Lyonel St. Eloi, Marithou Latortue Dupoux, Fritzodt Antoine, Pascal Moin, Joselus Joseph, Pascal Smarth, Engels, Odille Latortue, Albert Desmangles, Elie Lescot Jr., Essud Fungcap, Marilene Phipps [now Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell], Patrick Wah and Jean Marcel Wah, Jr.  And more than ever, its future is assured.”

(From "Brief History of Haitian Art", by Michel-Philippe Lerebours, Curator of the Musee d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre, 30 November 2009)

I close with a more detailed discussion of Haitian contemporary artist Frantz Zephirin, who had one of his paintings chosen, after the earthquake, as the cover for the January 25, 2010 cover of New Yorker magazine.  In addition to the attached photographs of various of the contemporary artists listed by Michel-Philippe Lerebours, the two Zephirin paintings discussed here are attached:

"The cover of this week's New Yorker is titled "The Resurrection of the Dead."  It was painted by the Haitian artist Frantz Zephirin.

'The Resurrection of the Dead' is not a direct response to the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th; Zephirin painted it in 2007.  But Bill Bollendorf, who runs the Galerie Macondo, in Pittsburgh, explained that the three skeletal figures in the doorway are "guede", members of a family of spirits who guard the frontier between life and death.  The woman in the wedding dress is Gran' Brigete, and the man in the blue uniform is her husband, Baron Samedi.

Elizabeth McAlister, an associate professor of religion at Wesleyan University who specializes in Haiti . . . offered additional interpretation of the symbolism in the cover image.  She understood the wall surrounding the doorway to be filled with the unblinking faces of the spirits of the recently dead.  Just crossed over, they still have eyes, which are the blue and red of the Haitian
flag.

She went on:

Below them are the waters, the waters under which lies the country without hats, where the sun rises facing backwards.  This is where the dead spend a year and a day.  "An badlo."  Under the water.  Resting. Floating.  After that when it is time, they will be lifted out, drawn out, by their living.  If they are lucky to have children living and walking on the earth.

The dead are still with us, in the unseen world.  They have space. They have time.  They have company.  They are not alone.  They will be received.  They will hear prayers.  They look at us.

In his paintings, Zephirin will refer to, and comment upon, history, politics, and Christianity and voodoo. . . ."

(The New Yorker, Cover Story, by Blake Eskin)

Frantz Zephirin has already incorporated the earthquake into a painting, which Zepirin describes:

"I wanted to show Haitians in a sea of blood.", but then said that amid the hands in the sea of blood "Haiti will be reborn."

(The New Yorker, Cover Story)

I hope this note provides you with some sense of the vibrancy of the works of some of Haiti's better known painters, and the promise of the new generation.

I also hope this note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

David

22 May 2011 - Part 3

Notes From Leogane No. 9: Flag Day, Tet Kale and Pumpkin Kettle

Dear Family and Friends:

In the course of five days, Haiti will have celebrated two important events in its political history.  On Saturday, May 14, 2011, Michel Martelly was sworn in as Haiti's newly elected President.  He followed in the steps of Rene Preval, who served as President from May 14, 2006, to May 14, 2011.  For the first time in Haiti's history, a democratically elected President succeeded another democratically elected President. And, tomorrow is Flag Day, which is celebrated in Haiti each year on May 18.  We will be displaying the Haitian flag all day tomorrow in the kitchen / dining room area.

FLAG DAY

I knew nothing of the tradition of Flag Day when I arrived here seven weeks ago, so I offer the following from a Haiti-related website:

"On August 21, 1791, the Haitian Revolution began its struggle against the French occupation.  From 1791 to about 1793, the revolt became more widespread and gave rise to a number of large groups still fighting independently.  In those times, each main leader would use any piece of cloth as a flag.  Slowly the slave movement found some synergy and came to follow the leadership [of] one main person: Toussaint Louverture. (See l'Ouverture look alike! - from 14 May 11 inauguration.)  He had led his whole war with the French tricolor: blue, white and red flag.  After the capture of Toussaint, Jean-Jacques Dessalines had taken up the torch in 1802 with the same color flag, but with a slight difference: the general had simply removed the French rooster and the initials RF ‘Republique de France,’ which at that time were found on the white band of the flag of the French Republic."

According to the website's history of the flag, eventually in 1803, "[t]he white stripe was eliminated while the remaining red and blue bands were attached together. The removal of the white stripe symbolizes the abolition of the White Man's control and the union of blacks and mulattoes in Haiti.  The arms are composed of a palm tree surmounted by the Phygian cap of liberty and ornamented with trophies with a banner across the bottom "L'Union Fait La Force" (through Unity there is strength.)"

(Quoting from "Haitian Treasures: May 18 Haitian Flag Day"): Haiti's Betsy Ross is Catherine Flon.  She sewed the first official Haitian flag on May 18, 1803, during a congress of Haitian revolutionary groups held May 14- 8, 1803. The principal leaders at that time were Dessalines and Alexandre Petion.  The congress primarily addressed the unification of military command under the authority of Dessalines and the adoption of a flag by the army.

The French later were defeated on November 18, 1803, at Vertieres. Haiti's proclamation of independence followed on January 1, 1804, and thus Haitian Independence Day is celebrated on January 1st.  In the western Hemisphere, Haiti is only second to the United States as the
oldest country to have become independent of a former European colonial power.

More than two hundred years later, many of the people I have spoken to in Leogane scoff at the suggestion that there is unity of interest and control between the poorer and darker skinned African descendents in Haiti and the lighter skinned mulattoes of the upper classes, as was symbolized in 1803 by the removal of the white stripe from the Haitian flag.  In a bit of a twist of irony, a main enclave for the upper class members of Haitian society is Petionville, named for Alexandre Petion.  Since January 12, 2010, however, there have been some changes in the demographics of Petionville.  Before the earthquake, the only the golf course / golf club in Haiti was in Petionville.  It now serves as a tent city.

TET KALE

When I drove from the Port-au-Prince airport to Leogane on March 30th, "Tet Kale" was ubiquitous. As in the United States, unfortunately, even though the run-off Haitian Presidential election had been held on March 20, the political signs of the candidates, Michel Martelly and Mirland Manigat, still were posted throughout the city. While I know of course that it is an exaggeration, it seemed as though Martelly's "Tet Kale” posters were plastered on every wall, pole and building along the route we traveled through Port-au-Prince. (In this photograph of the run-off candidates, "N'ap Vote is Creole for "We're Voting" or You're (plural) Voting.")

Martelly's "Tet Kale" campaign slogan has an interesting use of what might be called a double entendre without the common risqué aspect. As you can see from the attached Tet Kale #8 poster, Michel Martelly has a shaved head.  In Creole, "tet kale" means "smooth head" or that your head has no hair whatsoever. But, "tet kale" also can mean "heart and soul," "exclusively" or "thoroughly from head to toe," causing one Haitian political commentator to remark:

"A new movement, led by the newly elected President of Haiti Michel Martelly, is also called Tet Kale. This movement may stand for thoroughness and conclusiveness."

Though not promoted in any of his posters, during the initial and later run-off elections many commentators in and outside Haiti reported on Michel Martelly's previous entertainment persona, the somewhat risqué "Sweet Micky." As recently as April 2, 2010, Sweet Micky and his band were performing "Haiti" at Sob's in New York City. (Google the YouTube live performance video of Martelly at Sob's if interested.)  Should you be a Fugees fan, as I am, you might be interested in knowing, perhaps not, that hip hop producer and singer Wyclef Jean is among the new President's friends. (Lauryn Hill's cover of "Killing Me Softly" on the Fugee's SCORE Album is the bomb – well at least in my humble opinion.) See Wyclef Jean photograph from the May 14, 2011 inauguration ceremony at right. 

As a guest in Haiti, I've tried to avoid engaging in any type of political discussions while here - whether about Haiti or the United State's previous or present role in Haiti.  My primary interest has been to assist, in a non-medical capacity, and in quite a small way, in the delivery of medical care through l'hopital Sainte Croix and mobile clinics.  But people in Haiti and members of the Haitian diaspora who are focused on improving the delivery of such care well understand the definite link between a successful Martelly presidency and improving the lot of the poor.

Whether the newly elected President of Haiti will be able to promote confidence in the world community, that meaningful reform is possible under his leadership, will have a direct effect upon the delivery of a multitude of government services funded by international donors, including medical care.  I'm sure many of you have read about the billions in international funds that have been pledged for Haitian Reconstruction.  But here many are wondering when the lion's share of those funds will be released for use in Haiti. But, on that issue, international donor countries and organizations are quite mindful of the millions moved out of Haiti during previous corrupt governments.

These concerns have been met in part by the structure of the Temporary Commission for Haiti's Reconstruction ("CIRH").  Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is Co-Chair of the CIRH.  The other Co-Chair is Jean-Max Bellerive, who until a few weeks ago was Haiti's Prime Minister. Bellevire has said that, with the formation of CIRH, for the "first time we can have clear data on the amount of money that the international donators are giving to invest in different regions of Haiti."  Governance of CIRH is equally shared by twelve voting Haitian representatives and twelve international voting members, including representation of the Unites States, Canada, Spain, France, the United Nations and the European Union.

On March 1, 2011, it was reported by English.news.cn, from Santa Domingo, that "[t]he Temporary Commission for Haiti's Reconstruction (CIRH) on Tuesday approved 13 developing projects for some 200 million in U.S. dollars, local press said.  According to the information reaching here from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, the programs will be for the health sector and housing of thousands of homeless due to the earthquake of last year."

We all have heard from many sources that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.  A lengthy Working Paper by the Rand Corporation adds flesh to that general description:

"More than half of Haiti's population lives on less than $1 [U.S.] per day.  More than three-quarters live on less than $2 per day.  Haiti's exports are small: only 10 percent of GDP.  Remittances are important, constituting some 9 percent of GDP.  Remittances are an indicator of the strength of Haiti's large expatriate community in Canada and the United States - a community that, in theory at least, could also be a source of expertise and human capital.

The vast majority of the rural population is severely impoverished, and hunger is widespread.  Children in remote parts of Haiti sometimes die from malnutrition.  Although infant mortality dropped from 152 per 1,000 in 1989 to 76 per 1,000 in 2007, Haiti still ranks 46th from the bottom in global rankings, in a range with Yemen, Pakistan and India. This is a slight improvement since 1989, when it ranked 30th worst.         

Fortunately, Haiti is not divided along ethnic or tribal lines. However, Haitian society is highly stratified, with a small economic elite and a large number of very poor.  Despite the fall in per capita GDP during the past several decades, a small number of Haitians live relatively well; in 2001, almost half the country's income went to the wealthiest 10 percent of society.  Income inequality is among the widest in the world.  The lack of a middle class is a problem not only because it weakens the economy but also because the middle class could provide a much-needed source of talent for government bureaucracies and businesses. Income inequality results in very different interests among the different classes.  Because of these different interests, these groups often have difficulty finding common ground."

When I first saw the attached May 14, 2001 inauguration photograph (see right), I thought it somewhat captured the sense of good will brought about by the pomp and circumstance of the inauguration as framed that afternoon by the reality of the earthquake's aftermath. In the forefront of the photograph is one of the hundreds of tent cities that are just in Port-au-Prince.  In the rear of the photograph is the collapsed Presidential Palace and National Assembly Building. Squeezed in between these troubling images is a temporary Dais where Michel Markelly is taking the oath of office. Observing the investiture of the new Haitian President are many international leaders, including former President Clinton, Special Envoy to the U.N., who is seated next to the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Michael H. Merten.  On this day, do these leaders sincerely believe that meaningful reform is on the horizon in Haiti?  As they listen to President Martelly's remarks after he has been sworn in, what are they thinking are realistic goals for the development of infrastructure and the Haitian economy during the next five to ten years?  The answers to these questions, and more, whenever they can be given in a meaningful fashion, will go a long way toward whether some people will decide in their own minds that the extreme poverty in Haiti is a challenge too difficult to meet.

My rather informal poll during the last month of the ten or so Haitians who talked me about Michel Martelly's election suggested a sense of cautious optimism with a healthy dose of "let's wait and see if he is any different than the others."

Some commentators here and elsewhere have observed that in just 12 months a carnival singer named Sweet Micky became President Michel Martell. They have raised the question of whether he has the experience and sophistication to lead his country out of a big hole made even deeper after the earthquake. Others, however, have pointed to the fact that the new President received 67.6% of the votes in the run-off election, and that his popularity reflected a rejection of the past and hope in a future that Haitians are committed to working for in order to bring significant changes in civil administration, the judicial system and the economy. Which portrayal will in the end prove the more prescient awaits the direction and pace of the march forward of the Haitian people - all of them.

I leave the discussion of the inauguration ceremony with the following excerpt from an interview by Neil Conan on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Garry Pierre-Pierre, the editor and publisher of The Haitian Times, headquartered in Brooklyn:

"CONAN:  You were at the inauguration.  Could you describe it for us?  What was the scene like?
PIERRE-PIERRE:  It was extremely hot first of all. But it was positive in the sense that, you know, Haiti hasn't had much pomp and circumstance in the last several years. And it was a moment where people felt good. You know, my friends and sources describe the atmosphere as Christmas Eve. It was joyful. There was a lot of optimism in the air. You know, people want Martelly to succeed not just for Martelly to succeed but for Haiti to succeed. The country, my beloved homeland, has been through a lot. And now we hope that we can turn the corner and essentially attract investment. And we need to do all these things simultaneously hence my reservations, my sort of guarded optimism."

What Mr. Pierre-Pierre didn't mention was that just minutes before the swearing in ceremony electricity to the inauguration tent was cut off.  The ceremony moved forward with the aid of lighting from cameras and other battery powered sources. I heard someone remark here, "That
says it all," a few hours after word of the shortage was being passed around. When someone else said that there was a report that the electrical transmission line into the tent had been cut with a machete, someone else said pretty much the same thing, though the finger of this "that says it all" remark was pointed in a different direction.

PUMPKIN KETTLE

I'm pleased to close this Note with a report on how one of my favorite Haitian foods, Soup Joumou (Haitian Pumpkin Soup), "may" also have a place in the history of Haitian independence beyond its culinary reputation here and among the Haitian diaspora in Canada and the U.S. Though customarily recipes for Soup Joumou call for inclusion of ground beef, stew beef, corned beef or steak in the cooking kettle, the Haitian Pumpkin Soup usually served here at the Guesthouse is meatless.  In addition to the mashed up pumpkin and water based broth, our Joumou has carrot, turnips, celery, onions and potatoes. It knocks my socks off.

I've promised myself to cook up a batch or two when I'm back in Arizona. So, if you and I are going to the same pot luck meal this coming August or September, save some room for the meatless version of Soup Joumou. If you can't wait that long, Google the recipe.  I like the recipe "by little turtle on April 17, 2005, recipe #117705," which I found with a Google search of "Haitian Pumpkin Soup." In addition to there being some similarity with the contents of the Soup Joumou kettle here, this recipe included the following tidbit:

"The dish was created in 1804 and represents Haitian defiance of the French colonial powers, who had declared that slaves could not eat soup."

Nice recipe, nice story, and maybe bad history. Haiti's independence from France was declared on January 1, 1804. Perhaps the culinary artist / amateur historian meant to say that the dish was formally created in 1804 in homage to Haitian's earlier soup concoctions in defiance of one of the silly, or worse, French colonial directives.

I hope this note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

David

May 17, 2011

Notes From Leogane No. 8: Good people doing good things for good people

Dear Family and Friends: 

In this note, I'd like to share with you some information about the contributions to the people of Leogane by diverse groups of volunteers.  Their work may be somewhat representative of the many religious, humanitarian and non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") that have come to Haiti since January 12, 2010.  While these individuals and their organizations have quite different missions, they share a deep and abiding commitment to their brothers and sisters in Haiti.

HAITI DOCUMENTARY
I first met David Barnhart and Scott Ippolito when they stayed for three days at the HSC Guesthouse in early April.  They were just beginning to film a new documentary about the impact of the January 12, 2010, earthquake on every aspects of life in Haiti.  David Barnhart is a documentary producer and director.  One of his award winning documentaries is "Coming Home: Hurricane Katrina 5 Years Later," which was broadcast on NBC in September 2010.  David also received film making awards for his documentary about the Indonesia tsunami, "Kepulihan: Stories from the Tsunami," shown on ABC in November 2010.  An ABC website for the Indonesia tsunami film states that David Barnhart "has developed story and documentary film initiatives with children living in the streets in Buenos Aires, Argentina; communities displaced by war and natural disasters in Latin America and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; with survivors in South Korea of systematic rape and torture by the Japanese military during WW II; and with survivors from the Hurricane Katrina and Ike disasters."

Scott Ippolito is the cameraman/videographer for the new Haiti earthquake documentary.  He was the Director of Photography for a documentary, "Coexist," about women who survived the genocide in Rwanda.  The film focuses on the survivors' feelings after confronting the killers of their family members, who the women have to interact with daily in Rwanda.  As observed at the film's website, "Coexist asks what can you learn from the experience of victims of horrific crimes trying to rehumanize their loved ones' killers?"   Scott also spent considerable time in Nepal filming the documentary, "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army."

Over dinner, David and Scott explained the approach they were taking in the Haiti documentary, which is quite similar to that described at the website for the Katrina documentary:

"Barnhart's signature process - allowing the film's subjects to be actually engaged in the filming process - was employed with this film.  Barnhart interviewed his subjects on camera and allowed them to watch that footage, later asking them to further comment on their own reaction.  He also talked to them off camera at length to gain deeper perspective and allow them to build confidence and understanding about the documentary."

Because Leogane was only 10 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, it makes sense that the interview process would start here. David and Scott have been interviewing people of diverse backgrounds, education and experiences before and after the earthquake; and people who were impacted in quite different ways after January 12, 2010.

David and Scott are returning to Leogane in late May to meet again with many of the people they spoke to in April.  But on this next trip they also will be filming in areas of Haiti where there was no physical impact from the earthquake. They plan on traveling to more rural areas away from Port-au-Prince to explore the impact on village inhabitants from the dramatic influx of extended family members after the earthquake.  This migration has been the topic of discussion in several publications.  A New York Times writer, Deborah Sontag, has written:

"Life has come full circle for many Haitians who originally migrated to escape the grinding poverty of the countryside.  Since the early 1980s, rural Haitians have moved at a steady clip to Port-au-Prince in search of schools, jobs and government services.  After the earthquake, more than 600,000 returned to the countryside, according to the government, putting a serious strain on the desperately poor communities that have received little emergency assistance.

'There has been a mass exodus to places like Fond-des-Blancs', said Briel Leveille, a former mayor and founder of the leading peasant cooperative in this region, which includes Nan Roc. 'But the misery of the countryside is compounding the effects of the disaster.  I've heard people say it would be better to risk another earthquake in Port-au-Prince than to stay in this rural poverty without any help from the government.' "

I had a few beers at Joe's with David and Scott the night before they flew back to Atlanta, where they both live.  I mentioned that in the rural areas they probably would see villagers making mud or sand cakes.  They both had heard about this "food".  I first saw this food of sorts being made in April 1991 when I traveled to Jean Rabel, which is in the northwest part of Haiti. During the drive in a Land Rover from Gonaives to Jean Rabel, I saw people making mud and sand cakes along rural streams.  Body was given to the cakes by adding straw.

I didn't realize until recently that mud cakes have not just been part of the diet of some Haitians in rural areas.  When I was in Haiti in April 1991, I visited Cite Soleil.   Back then, I was told that
150,000 people were crammed into a 15 square miles area.  To my knowledge, there were no sanitary sewers in most of this slum.  This is a place of extreme poverty.  I didn't notice anyone eating mud cakes when I was there.  But seventeen years later, a British newspaper, The Guardian, reported on the making of mud cakes in Cite Soleil:

"At first sight the business resembles a thriving pottery.  In a dusty courtyard women mould clay and water into hundreds of little platters and lay them out to harden under the Caribbean sun. The craftsmanship is rough and the finished products are uneven.  But customers do not object.  This is Cite Soleil, Haiti's most notorious slum, and these platters are not to hold food.  They are food. It is not for the taste and nutrition - smidgens of salt and margarine do not disguise what is essentially dirt, and The Guardian can testify that the aftertaste lingers - but because they are the cheapest and increasingly only way to fill bellies."

("Haiti: Mud cakes become staple diet as cost of food soars beyond a family's reach," by Rory Carroll, The Guardian, 29 July 2008.) (The caption for the attached photograph from this article states:  "In Cite Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's worst slums, making the clay-based food is a major income earner.  Mud cakes are the only inflation proof food available to Haiti's poor.")

It is obvious from their film making experiences that David and Scott have witnessed the after effects of many natural disasters.  During our last visit, they both allowed that time and time again they walked away from an interview in Leogane with great admiration for the determination and perseverance of those who had lost so much but sixteen months ago.

David and Scott are not helping to build a new shelter or school, or sink a new water well.  But for me, they are serving an important role for Haitians and those of us not living in Haiti.  For the Haitians they have interviewed, and will later be interviewing, David and Scott are letting it be known that people care what happened here and care how the good people of Haiti are putting the past behind them and toughening it out to build for the future.  For those of us outside of Haiti, the new documentary will remind us that great loss and grief comes with a major natural disaster, but also that for many good people the human spirit endures and love for family, friends and neighbors, and complete strangers, knows no boundaries.

As with some of his previous documentaries, David's production of the current Haiti documentary is being sponsored by an affiliate of the Presbyterian Church USA, Presbyterian Disaster Relief ("PDR").  PDR provides disaster relief throughout the world.  Those relief efforts include the building of temporary and permanent shelters and the delivery of medical services.

CRWRC
I met Willys Geffrard for the first time in early April when he and his wife, Suzette, came to the HSC Guesthouse to visit with Pix Wexler, a Presbyterian Church Relief coordinator, who accompanied David and Scott on their first visit to Leogane.  Willys' and Suzette's permanent residence is in an Atlanta suburb, but they have been living in Leogane for quite some time since the earthquake. Willys currently is Manager in Haiti for the Disaster Response Program of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee ("CRWRC"), which is a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church.  As with most church related relief organizations in Haiti, CRWRC serves the needs of all Haitians regardless of whether they are members of the organization's church.

Willys has been involved in CRWRC relief efforts in other parts of the world, including Mali and Sudan.  Haiti is his place of birth. In the Leogane Region, CRWRC has made important strides in putting people into permanent housing after the earthquake.  As reported on its website, by February 2011, "CRWRC ha[d] reached its initial target of providing 1,200 homes for survivors of the 12 January 2010 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 and displaced 1.5 million.  .  .  CRWRC is one of the few organizations in the Leogane area providing more permanent, wooden structures as opposed to traditional wooden and tarp transitional shelters.  These core houses provide the initial structure upon which families are adding additional rooms and verandas as, according to their means and needs, they make their houses homes.  Many have already begun adding additions to their homes to customize their homes and add rooms for other purposes."

This approach is consistent with the goal of having Haiti rebuilt primarily by Haitians, of course with meaningful assistance from outside relief organizations.  Haiti cannot eventually get up and walk on its own if someone else is always carrying the load.  But that doesn't mean that we can't respond to the challenges of others that cry for a helping hand.

CRWRC's interest in Haitian self reliance is underscored in part by the organization's goal of developing local community leaders.  The CRWRC website has an inspiring story about one such community leader, in an article entitled, "Servant Leadership in Leogane."  It notes in part:

"Who would have thought owning a cow could be the catalyst for a life-changing experience.  The idea certainly did not cross Marie Marthe Console's mind.

'One day I was in the field with one of my cows.  They asked me who the cow belonged to and I told them it was mine.  I thought people would make fun of me for being in a field taking care of a cow,' she said.

In Haiti, raising and breeding cows is considered a man's job, and watching over one for someone else a servant's job.  CRWRC immediately saw the innate and unique quality of a servant-leader in Console.

'When they heard that I had had the cow for a while, they said, "If you can raise a cow like this on your own, it means you are a strong woman.  People in your community must respect you."  And then they invited me to be part of their team,' recalls Console.  'I felt proud when they asked me to be part of the committee.  I felt respected and valued.'

 'Haiti needs more leaders, leaders who put their communities' needs above their own,' shared Willys Geffrard, CRWRC's Earthquake Response Program Manager about the value he's seen in the CACs [Community Advisory Committees].
Console is on the list to get a new home from CRWRC, yet she keeps putting off having the work started. 'When you are a leader in your community, you cannot be the first person to receive the benefits,' she explained.  'There are others in my community who are waiting for homes, so they need to get their homes first.  And then I should get mine.

 y dream is that my community will be beautiful and healthy,' she explained.  'I want for everyone to be healthy.  I like talking to people about health - not just physical but also psychological health.  For me, this is not extra work.  It is about collaboration, for the benefit of my community.  After a long day of working with the community, even if I am tired, I don't really feel it.  It is an honour for me to fill this role.'

And it is an honour for CRWRC to have her as a part of the larger Leogane team."

The CRWRC website has other interesting Haiti Earthquake Response stories, on video, about its post-Quake efforts in the Leogane Region.  My favorites are "Twenty Wells", about a CRWRC clean water delivery project, and "Making a CRWRC House a Home," about the initial construction and customizing of houses into homes.

 A SURGICAL TEAM FROM NEW ENGLAND
Locals have told me that the rainy season has started early in Leogane.  This past weekend, and again on Monday and Tuesday, floodwaters poured into the Leogane city centre and found their way into all of the operational parts of l'hopital Sainte Croix.  (More on flood waters and deforestation in Haiti in a later Note.)

Whether you were the hospital director, Dr. Gladys Memnon, another doctor, a nurse, non-medical staff, and some of us from the Guesthouse, the clean-up was truly a cooperative effort.  Even a gentlemen living across the street pitched in on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, the consistency of the muddy water that covered all of the hallways, the inpatient clinic, the emergency room, and other offices was more like diluted chocolate syrup than clear liquid.

Brooms of various sizes were the main weapons of attack on the milk chocolate colored sludge.

No one worked harder on Monday and Tuesday than the indefatigable Madame Bellevue; the housekeeper of the Guesthouse who will always have a special place in my heart.  After others took an extended break (my polite way of saying they wandered off), the 5' 4'' 85 pound Madame Bellevue worked until the last remnant of flood water was cast out the front entrance of the hospital.

(Please do not confuse the most proper Madame Bellevue with Madame Carmen - who I have previously mentioned - who lives across the street.  Last week, there were three consecutive days when Madame Carmen - who I'm now advised is 80 years old - sat in front of her lime green house very naked - as if there is more than one way to be totally naked.)

On Monday mid-day, a volunteer surgical team from New England came to the hospital expecting to begin performing surgeries the next day. The surgeries had been scheduled with this visiting medical group through a Haitian community health administrator.  But no scalpels were used on Tuesday.  On that day, three surgical nurses, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist all rolled up their sleeves, and hitched up their scrubs, and joined the syrupy sludge brigade.

Two surgeries were performed on Wednesday by two surgical teams, three on Thursday, and three more yesterday.  The New England group left Leogane on Saturday.  Even though they were only working at the hospital for four days - and one was not a surgery day - the medical volunteers from New England made an immediate impact on those who received the surgical interventions. The two patients who had their surgeries on Tuesday spent Tuesday night and most of Wednesday recovering in rooms up here in the Guesthouse.  They were monitored on the Guesthouse floor by an around the clock team of Haitian nurses. After discharge from the hospital, all of the surgery patients will be followed by a doctor in residence at the hospital.  All of the permanent medical and nursing staff at l'hopital Sainte Croix is Haitian.

The surgical group from New England is but one example of the collaborative effort fostered in Leogane by volunteer doctors and nurses, and dental professionals,  who spend a week or more in Haiti, working in concert with Haitian professionals; with the common goal of improving a patient's health and quality of life.



ALL HANDS AND RUBBLING
All Hands is a volunteer movement primarily for twenty and thirty year olds.  I cannot do justice here to the innovative things All Hands is doing in the Leogane Region; a visit to the group's website is necessary.

Here I will report on a new word I learned in early April - "rubbling".  (I can't remember the last time I even thought about that English grammar question: "What is a gerund?"  It probably was in Mr. Vance's class at Clarendon Grade School, located across the street from where I grew up in west Phoenix.)

Rubbling is best described on the All Hands website by Chris Turner, one of the Project Coordinators on Project Leogane, in a posting dated March 9, 2011:

"WHY IS REMOVING RUBBLE IMPORTANT IN LEOGANE?

The major problem with rubble is that it's an impediment to any rebuilding efforts.  Before you can even consider rebuilding on a family's property, whether it's a transitional shelter or something more permanent, you need to open up that space.  Soon after the earthquake, a lot of that space was filled with rubble.  So until that's out of the way, rubbling is basically the first step in the process.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR CHOOSING HOMES TO RUBBLE?
When we first got to Leogane, people didn't know what we were up to yet, so we had to actively search for rubble jobs.  We started with the IDP [internal displacement] camp that was in our front yard, and we went from family to family to assess needs.  The camp was 90 families in total, so we started by clearing their rubble, so they could get back to their properties.  Of those 90, I don't know the exact number, in the fifties, were the ones that we could help with clearing rubble.  So those were the first ones we did.  Word quickly got out that we were clearing rubble and because there was such a need, we were flooded with requests.  Since then we've worked on a request basis.  A family will come and give us their information and tell us if they need rubble cleared.  And we will go through that list on a first come, first serve basis.  We also make our decision based on a technical assessment, to see if it's a job we can do.  And we also assess the need of the family.

WHAT'S OUR PROGRESS SO FAR WITH RUBBLE?
We've cleared 194 sites, which is in total 230 families or 1,260 people.  We contributed 57,000 hours of volunteer manpower.  The result has been an estimated 14,000 cubic meters (494,405 cubic feet) cleared."

I've learned that a sledge hammer is one of the primary tools of rubbling.  It is an equal opportunity tool.  If you want to see some buff women pounding away at rubble with a sledge hammer, do a "Leogane rubbling" search on You Tube. All Hands in Leogane also is in the school building volunteer business.  As of a April 15, 2011 posting on their website, All Hands had almost completed their 9th school building in the Leogane Region.  Twenty-three schools is their realistic target.

The All Hands website also has a report on the "Biosand Filter Program", which involves the placement of filters in water systems to promote the use of clean drinking water, which serves to prevent various water borne illnesses, including cholera.

All Hands volunteers pay their own way to Haiti.  Their compensation in Haiti is a place to pitch a tent and meals.  Having a Prestige after a day of rubbling also comes out of your own pocket.

Anyone who has any doubts about whether a devotion to giving, not taking, is in good stead in the United States will be heartened by the 20 - 30 years old living in tents at the All Hands base camp in Leogane.  So great has been the volunteer applications for the Leogane Project, All Hands will not be sending new volunteers to Leogane until after June of this year.

JOE'S, JACKSON'S AND VENICE
When David, Scott, Willys, Suzette and I were talking over beers at Joe's on Monday, April 11, a number of All Hands rubblers rolled into Joe's after dark.  They looked beat.  Joe's is a convenient place for All Hands folks to wind down a bit, because their tents are no more than 200 yards away.  Joe's is not as I described it to you in Note #4.  There I said: "I hear that now that a table (a piece of plywood supported by two building blocks) has joined the eight chairs for patrons, there has been a noticeable increase in clientele."

I wasn't describing Joe's, but Jackson's, except that I'm now informed that Jackson's has two tables.  Joe's on the other hand is quite spacious.  There are at least five tables; two of which will seat 6 - 8 patrons.   When I was at Joe's, we did have to prop up one side of our four person table with a chair, because it was missing one of its three legs.  Most of the seating is on a large open air patio.  David mentioned that he and Scott had been at Joe's when there was a three piece band playing.  When I was there, one of the songs playing was "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.  (I can't ever hear that song without seeing Michael Jackson moon walking in the video that was played over and over again on MTV when it first was released.)

Carleigh, who came to Leogane as an All Hands volunteer, and who now works in the hospital as an assistant to Dr. Memnon the Director, told me last night that as soon as the tables were added at Jackson's people stuck around to play cards, and that Jackson's is a new "hot spot" bar. Carleigh also told me that another bar is called "Venice", because it is next to a canal.  No gondolas here though, and Creole not Italian is spoken by most of the customers.

Filmmakers, an International Relief organization, a U. S. surgical team, and a lot of 20-30 year olds.  Diverse groups of people who care about Haiti, as confirmed by their having come here.

But to my way of thinking, in the end the most important group of good people doing good things for good people will be here long after any group returns to their daily lives in the United States, Canada or another "first world country" - people like Dr. Memnon, Hilda Alcindor, the Dean of the Nursing College in Leogane, Pere Delicat at the Episcopal church next door, Marie Marthe Console, the newly elected President of Haiti, and, to my way of thinking, Madame Bellevue.

Haitians of course need our help in so many ways. This was true when I was here twenty years ago, and it is even more so after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010.  But the Haitian leaders I heard speak last November at a two day convention in Miami, devoted to Haiti reconstruction efforts by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, emphasized the importance of Haitians not just being partners with churches, NGOs, charitable and humanitarian organizations coming to Haiti, but the core adhesive for long term change in this country.  In the end, there is only so much non-Haitians can do to turn the devastation of the earthquake into a springboard for profound change in Haiti.

Before I left for Haiti, a number of people back in Arizona told me that they thought that the situation in Haiti before the earthquake was dire, and that after January 12, 2010 it was hopeless.  I think that I have been here long enough to now express my belief that there are too many here that feel otherwise, and are committed to making sure that such a sentiment doesn't take hold in Haiti without a serious fight.

I hope this Note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

David

May 7, 2011