Trip to Leogane

          The trip to Leogane began Sunday morning with the car being late. We were supposed to meet at 9am at Epi D’or, a bakery on Rue Delma, about half-way up the hill from downtown Port au Prince toward Petionville. We usually meet there because it is a convenient place between where I live and where the other people were coming from, and Epi D’or makes great sandwiches which we buy to eat on whatever journey we have planned.

As we walked out to get into the car, Myrtha said “It isn’t Bernardo’s car. That has a problem.” So, what we had instead was a rented “Tap-Tap” the usual form of transportation for most Haitians. It is a converted pick-up with wooden benches and a metal roof in the back. You “tap” the roof when you want to get off.

          Normally, these are very crowded and can be hot and uncomfortable. But today, there were just three of us in the back and some large buckets of rice and beans, an ice chest, cases of soda and small bags of “DLO” – water. It turned out to be a wonderful way for me to travel. There was a constant breeze (although it usually carried exhaust fumes from diesel trucks and cars badly in need of maintenance, and road dust.) and there was a great view out the back of everything we passed by.

          At first, as we descended to the coast road, we came through crowded streets with Marchands, motocycles weaving in and out, large water trucks blocking the way, and tap-taps like our own (we’d have to wave off people who wanted to board our truck), and we passed shops of every sort. One shop had a sign that read “Swimming Pools –Exterminator” which left me wondering.

          The main road used to be filled with tents that got set up right after the quake. The 6 foot wide strip down the middle of the street had been “home” to thousands. But now it was clean and there were even some flowering shrubbery. The route got closer to the bay and I could see the blue water of Port au Prince harbor and occasional hotels with “plag” meaning beaches.

          Occasionally there would be a speed bump, for reasons I couldn’t discover, which made us slow down and which made us targets for people selling food and sodas to the somewhat captive audience. I began to wonder whether the speed bumps were there to force people to be available for the sellers. And sometimes there were police checks – again I never figured out why. There is a sense that it is police, with not much else to do, exercising authority.

          As we worked (and “worked” is the operative word) our way past the oil storage tanks and into the suburbs of Carrefour and beyond, the sights became more rural. Ram-shackled homes, vying for space with tiny shops – “JESUS MERCY COUFITEUR”, – and large churches like “EBEN-EZER TEMPLE”, from which singing and loud shouts of “ALLELUIA” could be heard. There were fields of sugar cane, some barren fields with a few tethered cows and goats, and coconut and banana palms.

          We turned off the main road onto a bumpy side road along a deep ditch with wooden bridges (two tree trunks with smaller branches nailed to them), and, on the other side, small houses, maybe 10 feet by 20 feet, made of cinderblock with corrugated steel roofs, sheltered beneath numerous trees. Some of these were the homes of the children we were visiting at the School in Leogane.

          GracePeople is a program developed to help children in Leogane and Montrouis. Leogane is south and west of Port au Prince and, though it was the epicenter of the 2012 earthquake, has received little of the attention and aid since. We provide yearly tuition for 22 children in Leogane (about 40 more in Montrouis), and bring food, school supplies, and clothing.

          After we arrived and unpacked, the children assembled and sang a song to welcome us. They had also drawn pictures of flowers and boats for me, even though I am just a part of the team. They are very happy to be in school AND they are getting very good grades. Today we had brought rice and beans, chicken, tomatoes and lettuce and soda and water. Even though there are only 22 children in our programs, other children from the school were there so we fed about 45.

          The school consists of 6-8 20X30 foot cinderblock rooms with small windows and a corrugated roof. There is no electricity, although I noticed two solar panels near the entrance and several young men using laptops. I brought a solar powered speaker system and my Kindle. I planned to play some varieties of music, including “Peter and the Wolf” in French. But my trial run at the orphanage the day before nixed “Pierre e La Lou”. Even the music I did put together left them more or less un-impressed. My friend Jonathan reported later that he heard them say in Kreyol; “Where did he get this Granmoun music” Fortunately he had some Konpas, Rah Rah, and other pop music which pleased them – Ah the generation gap!

        For amusement, the boys kick around a soccer ball (called football there)

with some great skill. Myrtha and I are looking to set up a real football field with goals and also get a volleyball net that could be used in the same space for the girls. And we want to use another area for a small but functional basket-ball court

          We began our departure, but before we pulled away, about 10 boys and girls climbed into our TapTap to get a ride to their various homes. And then the director loaded his bicycle in and climbed in himself. Oh well, the motto is: How many people can you fit in a TapTap? – Just one more.

 When we stopped at one girls home we noticed her brother climbing a coconut palm to retrieve some of the coconuts, which the family proceeded to hack with a machete to provide coconut juice for us. So we drank that and ate the coconut “meat”. Eventually we worked our way back into the city and up to Petionville and home. After a brief rest  and a shower to remove the dust, it was time to get dressed for the first night of Carnival. More about that another time. Carnival is another adventure entirely.