Part 1 — On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 6:18 PM, Brad Humphrey <bradfordwilliamhumphrey@gmail.com > wrote:
Hey all,
I am fine. My phone does not work. I may not be in touch until I return to the US on the 7th or 8.
Quite an adventure. Some chaos and good stories to tell already but i am pretty safe now and I think I am in a good situation.
I hooked up with a young Haitian Minister and am traveling into the hinterland to visit an orphanage / boarding school for the deaf that he founded four hours of so from Port au Prince. Naturally I am trying to figure out how to help.
The situation on the ground... poor... and very, very third world. But the food is good, some of the scenery beautiful (outside the city) and the people for the most part friendly. I will leave behind my apple laptop computer for the school/ and minister when I leave ( actually a big shout out to Laticia for that because I inherited MacBook Pro from her - Thank you Laticia! It is going to a very good cause). Zero McDonalds and Walmart's in the country ... that's a first! And where in the hell Am I supposed to get my Diet Coke!?
UN troop presence from the influx of ten years ago is still very evident. The Haitians have mixed feelings about them..... they don't feel they need them any more but they are a significant source of income to the locals
The Haitians in general don't seem to care for the Domincan Republican side of the island. It cost 200 bucks to get a visa to go into the DR for a Haitian but the DR's can enter Haiti at will for nothing. Haiti exports next to nothing and the DR supplies them with most of their goods. Also some history of antagonism and take over from years ago when the French Haitian attempted to take over the DR... i.e. lots of spilled blood and long memories.
My Bikram Yoga experience in Miami. a couple of day ago ..90 minutes doing a 26 set routine of stretches and poses in 105 degree heated room was quite interesting and challenging. 35 people in the room all paying 22.00 bucks to be put through the paces. What a racket... probably a good racket but a pricey way to sweat your friggin ass off while trying to touch your toes. Lol
love, fish soup with onions and peppers, beans and rice and plantains too from Haiti,
Brad
Good Morning from Haiti, bradfordwilliamhumphrey@gmail.com
No hot water, no AC, sporadic internet , electricity 4 hours a day, dirt and dust and very dark in the area (no street lights), barb wire everywhere on houses built in compounds, misquitoes at sundown numerous enough to set fire to your body....
Great food, friendly people, lots of time to contemplate...
And to you Ms. Angel Lyles ... what an interesting thing you said the other day ... ie about wishing to not know and to have not experienced what we know exists intellectually all around the world. And of course when experience it in person it compels almost any human being with resources to want to help.
Poverty and hardship as an idea is something we can all live with but poverty with peoples names attached to it is another matter..
I mentioned donating a Macbook pro to the school, a little money, and and extra shoes (what I have with me) and have begun reaching out to colleagues at University, facebook etc to see what else I can do...
I am making another trip into the countryside today to visit a deaf school again. The roundtrip is seven hours on bumpy roads in vehicles but not that bad compared to some roads I have been on in other areas of the "3rd world."
The school was Started by a young man who had a deaf relative and nowhere to go for help.
This young man, Dadie Isreal, "dadzy" is how his name is pronounced, has done a huge amount with little help. And of course he adopted one of the children at his orphanage/school. It is quite something watching him deal with a thousand issues trying to support, feed and emotionally tend to 30 kids and the ten staff he has gathered around him with zero government support.
He and his very intelligent wife have resisted the temptation to move to Canada. Canada actively recruits the successful Haitians to come into their own country. The resulting brain drain is incredible (and resented a little by many of the more astute Haitians. Dadzi and his wife Mudley... (pronounced "Moodly") are trained accountants. She works for a large company and is increasingly successful and moving strongly into the middle class... even while she helps her husband support, staff, feed and clothe the school. The school struggles to even build bathrooms and spends hours trying to get drinking water and put food on the table... (Make that build latrines instead of bathrooms). Now trying to dig a well (almost done)... by hand of course because the cost at a thousand dollars or slightly more beats a well digging truck at about eight thousand dollars.
Anyway what a world! So sad and yet... in the midst of it a noble man and woman making a difference best they can....
Very humbling to see (oh yeah and poor me without access to Diet Coke) ;)
xo