*Editors Sylvie Barak and Marc Speir are in Haiti this week, filming a documentary about the rebuilding of the impoverished country’s telecom infrastructure over a year after the quake. Barak and Speir are exploring how mobile helped those in the wake of the disaster and how NGOs and non profits on the ground are continuing to work relentlessly to train, maintain and rebuild. The following thoughts are not necessarily telecom based, but give our readers a glimpse into a day in the life of our reporters*
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – We needed to change some money and buy some Gummi bears – though not necessarily in that order of importance. So we headed to the supermarket and upon emerging, realized that the car had died once again. “Can you help me push it?” asked Nixon. We got out and threw our weight against the massive Mitsubishi. It didn’t really budge. We tried again. A little crowd formed and some added their shoulders to the effort. Eventually, the car started rolling, but still it couldn’t start. “Keep pushing,” Nixon yelled from out of the window. “Er, Nixon, where do you want us to push it? There’s a busy intersection with oncoming traffic in front of you.”
“Yes, yes, I know, just push it!”
Giving each other looks of confusion, Marc and I heaved the car out onto the busy street. Cars swerved, horns honked, hilarity ensued. Not.
“It started, jump in!” Nixon said as we huffed and puffed, wiping our grimy hands on our shorts. The kids who had helped us push were now demanding their wages in Gummi bears, and Marc generously obliged – perhaps too generously. He’s a touch soft like that.
Hotel Coconut was our lunch stop for the day, and we ordered chicken sandwiches, which came complete with everyone’s favorite condiment here in Haiti … mustard! Must be the French influence.
Marc stripped off and jumped in the pool, while I – jealously looking on – did my best to remember a voodoo curse to throw at him. Swim trunk expelleramus!
Leaving the hotel we began to hear a familiar but highly irritating tune. “What is that, is that an ice cream van?” Marc asked. “I think it’s a ringtone version of the Titanic theme music,” I replied. “Yep,” said Nixon, adding “it’s a water delivery truck.” – how apropos.
Speaking of water, the clean water here is sold in little plastic bags, equivalent to about one glass of water’s worth. Some houses we go into have dozens of these stacked up on shelves, or lying casually around for people to step on and explode. Coming from Israel, it reminded me a lot of the “Choko be sakit” (chocolate milk in a bag) we used to get on the bus in the army.
I discovered another odd Israeli/Haitian link today too, though not a particularly savory one. As we drove through the countryside, blaring local Kopa music from Nixon’s car, we approached a huge mansion by the side of the road. “That’s Baby Doc’s house,” said Nixon, referring to the much loathed ex dictator. “Rrm … Nixon, why does it say ‘Israeli consulate’ on it then?” I asked. “Oh, yeah, it’s that too.”
Random, but hopefully my government’s consulate has seen fit to move on from the building now that Baby Doc is back in town.
Since it was a Sunday and most people were either at church or enjoying a much needed day of recovery, we had some time before our next interview of the day. “Take us somewhere nice … somewhere pleasant.” We told Nixon. He smiled and said “Ok!”
Twenty minutes later, after a stunning journey through undulating verdant hills, dotted with tiny cabins and goats grazing by the side of the road, we arrived at … a petting zoo.
“I used to come here a lot as a kid,” explained Nixon sheepishly as Marc and I exchanged bemused looks. “You said ‘take us somewhere nice,’” he added, shrugging his shoulders.
It was kind of nice, actually, if a little random. The petting zoo boasted a few peacocks, some doves, a variety of rabbits, two goats and chickens – in cages rather than pecking about at our feet as they do in Port-Au-Prince. There was also a monkey with a lollipop, surrounded by a group of giggling, fascinated children. Kids the world over have a thing for monkeys, it seems.
On the way back, we detoured to get an awesome panoramic view of Port-Au-Prince, PetionVille and quite a lot more, sharing the view spot with a busload of American tourists and a dozen or so large cell towers. Seeing as we’re here to talk about mobile and cell towers, it was all very convenient.
Speaking of cell towers, I have to say that the coverage here is unbelievably good. Far better than any cell reception I get back in the United States. I had rather expected to be struggling to find signal here, but no matter where we drive to, how far up, or down a hill we are, our phones are always on full bars. Perhaps the United States should learn a thing or two from the carriers here.
All those towers can leave one feeling rather parched, so next stop was one of Nixon’s favorite bars, where we introduced him to the wonderful world of fussball. He’d apparently never played it before and asked if we could teach him. So I did what any good teacher should do, and kicked his ass. He then teamed up with Marc for a two against one match. I kicked both their asses.
When the two men had been beaten enough for one day, we closed our tab, relinquished the fussball table and made our way to Hotel Caribe, Wyclef Jean’s temporary residence, hoping to catch a sneak peak of the star – and more importantly, to interview Keith from World Vision.
World Vision is an awesome organization (I invite you all to check it out), which amongst other things runs a “Cash for Work” program, as well as food and charity distribution to those in need. What makes it really special from our point of view, though, is the fact the organization has pioneered a really quick and painless way of registering people quickly and efficiently on handheld wireless PDAs. This means that rather than make Haitians queue up in food lines from 4 a.m. for five or six hours, the process now takes a matter of minutes. We have it all on film, including the distribution, so you can really see how quick and easy it is.
What’s also great about WorldVision is that it works with companies like Haitian operator Voila (for mobile payments) and the NetHope academy, training young Haitians to take over once the aid workers pull out. It’s a truly amazing organization.
Exhausted, we stumbled back into the house just in time for a carb rich Caribbean feast of rice with potatoes, bread, pasta and spicy meat sauce, all washed down with an ice cold local Prestige beer as we listened to our housemates from Architects for Humanity have a typical dinner discussion:
“I’ll swap you a geotech guy for a surveyor,”
“My surveyor is awesome, and really cheap too. How expensive is your geotech guy?”
“I can even get you a dodgy geotech guy if you want.”
Good stuff. Haiti may be many things, but boring it certainly is not.
