Elevate Haiti: Accidental al fresco

Accidental al fresco...it seems to be the rule of Haiti.

We are sitting in a bar (Florita Hotel) in downtown Jacmel, and can look up to the hazy night sky to see the Haitian moon. There was once a roof there, but now it is a jagged opening where brick and corrugated steel have ceased to serve as ceiling. It make a former interior space feel like a courtyard. Even though this is a clear result of the earthquake that took down the vast majority of buildings here, it seems, in some ways, to fit right in with the Haitian lifestyle.

Disaster or no, Haitians spend incredible amounts of time outside in community. Family baths and hair braiding happen in yards as we walk down rubble-strewn hills and roads smiling our "Bonswa" (Good Evening) greetings that never cease to bring a smiling reply of "Bonswa" or "Ca Va" (How are you?); groups of teenagers laugh at us then with us when we, without fail, engage; the older women with improbable loads balanced on their heads bloom with smiles.

There is trash everywhere, the predominant items are deflated water bags (drinking water is regularly sold in bags, not bottles) but there is plenty of organic debris as well--which makes the free-roaming goats happy.

There is, also, bountiful music and laughter and kids who giggle and play soccer in the dusty road. Barefoot. Tent villages everywhere drive plenty outside into groups since the plastic tarps with giant UNICEF or USAID or other NGO logos are wickedly hot.

Even if their homes weren't destroyed...if there wasn't still, more than six months later, fear of sleeping indoors....the people of Jacmel would be outside. To greet us and make us feel welcome.

I am so glad they are not tucked away behind curtains and doors--this would not be the same if they were--and this is huge for us.

Andrew Mersmann