Wedding donations

For those of you who are interested, particularly those of you who generously donated money to the Kenbe La Foundation in lieu of giving us wedding presents, we are now in Haiti teaching at the school where the money has been sent.

The Children of Haiti Project is a school that was set up after the 2010 earthquake. It provides a very high level of education to the most underprivileged children in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Most of the children are from  the local tent camp, which we drive through every day to get to work. It is like nothing we have ever seen before. The tents are cramped, the temperature is over 30 every day, and there is poor sanitation. Still, many of these tent camps (that have housed about a million people at it's worst) are being removed and little by little people are getting into more decent housing.

There are many children who have come from abusive environments, many children who have no parents and sometimes even no family left. They are being taught by very good teachers and there is a very high standard of education, food and medical care supplied at the COHP School.

If you wish to make a donation, you can do so through the Kenbe La Foundation, or through the Children of Haiti Project website.

Thanks.

Jono and Lou xx

Haiti: first impressions

There were very few Europeans on the flight to Haiti. It appeared to be either Haitians travelling home, or mission groups going to volunteer. We didn’t fit into either category. Port Au Prince was a sprawling city, encased by hills and sea. Flying in, it was grey looking, dusty and dry, but no initial evidence of the earthquake. As we taxied into the airport, the buildings themselves looked run down and a bit dire. Inside the terminal building we were enveloped into a steamy hotbed of African Haitians looking for bags and people. Eventually we gave up on our bag search, leaving our details with the American Airlines help desk, and went and met our driver.

On the way home we drove almost solely on jolty unpaved streets, through the city, past tent camps where people were trying to keep cool, and towards Jacqui’s house. We were a little surprised not to see much rubble about, but we did learn later from Jacqui that the area we drove through was not so badly hit by the quake. It was almost more devastating to realise that this is what Haiti looked like before the quake. We suddenly felt like our trip had taken a dramatic turn – we were completely off the tourist trail and were somewhere seriously intrepid. 

The other thing that stuck out from our ride home was the large number of NGO cars we saw – UN, Red Cross, UNICEF amongst others. There is a very strong NGO presence here, not always with good outcomes, and it was very interesting to be amongst it. 

We arrived at Jacqui’s house to a warm and enthusiastic greeting! Jacqui Labrom is from England but has been living on her own in Haiti for about 15 years. She runs a tourism business here, Voyages Lumiere, and is a friend of Emily Sanson-Rejouis from the Kenbe LaFoundation. Emily organised for us to stay with her, knowing we’d be safe and well looked after. Jacqui was so interesting, and despite battling tiredness, we listened to her stories and information with interest. She told us about her experience of the quake, about losing friends, about the NGOs working here.

We visited the COHP school the following day, our place of work for the next month. We arrived as the young children were eating lunch and the older ones were just arriving. Dominique, the school principal, immediately knew who we were and dropped everything to show us around then sit and chat to us. She is a remarkable woman, dedicated beyond anything we’d ever seen to the Children of Haiti Project. The children were absolutely beautiful – all African Haitian, and many with very very sad stories. One, Mackenley, had lost both parents in the earthquake, and 15  days later been hit by a car. He was injured so badly that his brain was exposed through the smashed skull. He now has learning difficulties, and is living temporarily with a carer. Another girl had been sexually abused by multiple carers. We were told about orphanages who sell children for work in the provinces, even family members who do the same. We sat with the children while they practiced their songs and dances for their upcoming concert. While we were sitting with them, some over them sidled over to us and sat next to us, holding our arms or hands, starting to trust us.

When we got home from COHP, we changed quickly and accompanied Jacqui to a function at the Petionville Club, a beautiful club for foreigners and wealthy Haitians. Every second week, people come to change books at the little library there and have a wine and nibbles. It was a lovely chance to meet some more people, mostly foreigners working for NGOs, some for a few years, and some who had made Haiti home. The people were lovely but it was a completely different side of Haiti, with large expensive Colonial buildings and European food and wine. We met people working for NGOs we’d never heard of, people working for UNICEF, the UN and other organisations. It is a little  hard to stomach so many NGOs here, all providing their staff with big houses, large four wheel drive vehicles with drivers, and often “staff” at their house. 

It is a very interesting experience to be living in an expat community for a month but to be working at a grassroots project where families still live in the tent camps. There are already many emotions associated with our time here and we have only just begun.

“You’re not in Guatemala now, Dr. Panckhurst”

Regrettably, we made the call while we were in Panama City to book a flight to Guatemala and miss a large part of Central America. This was a hard decision to make, but necessary due to our impending flight from Mexico to Haiti on June 20^th.

Unbeknownst to us, we managed to book ourselves on a business class flight between Panama City and Guatemala City, so we understandably applied the term “all you can eat” to our time in the business class lounge, and on the plane, much to the amusement of the “true” business class passengers.

Guatemala was a wonderful place to visit – beautiful and very easy to get around. We spent a week visiting the immaculate Colonial city of Antigua, the out of the way natural pools of Semuc Champay, and the jungle clad Mayan temples of Tikal.

 

From there we travelled to Belize, and spent a (mostly) wonderful week on the quintessentially Caribbean island of Caye Caulker. We truly “chilled out” in Belizan time for two days, then spent three exhausting days getting our dive certificate. Despite some initial reservations on my part, we loved diving and it was a real achievement to get through the high speed course! Unfortunately, our last few days on the island, and also on Ambergris Caye, were spent getting over “Belize Belly”. Still, our time in Belize was much more interesting than we thought it might be – we opted to go there as it was en route to Mexico and we needed a bit of a beach break, but the Afro Caribbean culture was a wonderful new experience, very different from Cuba, and a lot of fun!

 

We are now working our way up the Yucutan Peninsula in Mexico. We stopped off in Tulum to see the beachside Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza to see the grand and famous Mayan ruins and we have just arrived in the Colonial city of Merida (in time for the Gay Pride parade) before finishing our time in Mexico in glitzy Cancun.

Next desination… Haiti! 

Colombia, Caribbean + Cocaine: Part 3 Cocaine

While being offered drugs, cocaine among other things, was becoming normal when walking the streets in Colombia, our best experience with the infamous drug came in the Caribbean Islands. 

As we were preparing to leave our mooring in Holondaise (San Blas), the Coast Guard boat headed into the bay and over to another boat. We watched in interest as the heavily armed, balaclava clad men boarded the boat that belonged to Patrick, a friend of Federico’s (our captain) who had had dinner on the beach with us the night before. Of course we assumed they were doing a routine search. Federico obviously wanted to wait to see if they were going to search his boat before leaving (not a good look to be departing just as the coast guard arrives), but they were being so thorough with Patrick’s boat that we departed as scheduled for the next group of islands.

During the afternoon, the immigration boat came by to stamp our passports for Panama now that we were in their territory. After they left, Federico, looking shocked, whispered to Jono and me that the coast guard had found cocaine on Patrick’s boat in their search this morning, and he was being escorted to a Panamanain jail. We couldn’t believe it. In this Caribbean paradise there is a strong underbelly with the cocaine trade and the corrupt authorities. We knew about this, but we didn’t expect to be so close to it. It was no wonder they had taken so long to search his boat. 

The next day we discovered that Patrick had been set up – he wasn’t in fact carrying cocaine, but a yacht carrying a large amount of cocaine was discovered by the Coast Guard that same day in the bay we were in. All a little too close to home.

Colombia, Caribbean + Cocaine: Part 2 Caribbean

From Colombia, we sailed with a group of 9 others through high seas, to the idyllic San Blas Islands and on to Panama’s mainland. Our captain was a wonderful French Brazilian man called Federico who kept us entertained with his many stories. We began our voyage on a stunning, calm evening, leaving the marina in Cartagena as the sun was setting. We were all a little nervous as we had heard plenty of stories of the rough Caribbean sea, when land disappeared from sight, the boat lurched in 5m swells, and everyone on board spent two days “feeding the fish”.

Dosed up on meds, we sailed off into the sunset and experienced our first intoxicatingly hot, but fairly calm, night aboard the 45 ft Sacarnagem. The next morning the swell picked up slightly, as did the temperature, and we spent the first half of the day in virtual silence as we all coped as best we could with the extreme heat. In the afternoon, Federico saved us, by managing to keep the boat still enough for us to jump overboard into the intensely blue clear Caribbean water to cool off.

Our second night in “high seas” was equally hot and equally calm, and many of us emerged from our cabins during the night to sleep on the deck. We woke early the next morning to the tranquillity of being in an archipelago of the Caribbean islands, called Holondaise, part of the San Blas group. For the next two days we swam, snorkelled, explored, read and enjoyed being in these stunning Panamanian islands.

At Federico’s request, we spent several hours picking up rubbish from the beach of one of the islands. Rubbish, specifically plastics, are a real problem in this area – a combination of litter washing onto the islands from the coasts of Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, and the indigenous Kuna Yala people being indifferent to it and not seeing it as a problem. It is such a tragedy as this island group would be otherwise pristine, full of sea life and absolutely stunning.

One of the things that made Federico so good as a captain was his care for the environment and for the Kuna Yala people. His good relationship with the local people meant that we were able to wander through their villages, chat with them, and one woman even let me hold her 1 month old baby. We were so privileged to be able to meet them, still as tourists, but not feeling like such outsiders, and to chat to them about everyday things.

While in the islands we were subject to several tropical thunder storms. These were wonderfully dramatic and slightly terrifying alike, and the biggest one came on the morning we were due to leave the boat. The thunder and lightning came, and the rain poured as we departed the San Blas Islands for Panama’s mainland and the rest of Central America.

Colombia, Caribbean + Cocaine: Part 1 Colombia

Well, so much for keeping up to date with the blog posts! A combination of erratic internet connections, a lot of ground covered, and being at sea for a number of days has keep us from updating our progress here. 

Firstly, Colombia…

Dispel any thoughts of dirt highways – Colombia has finally created a booming tourist industry and is producing the infrastructure to match it. Gone are the days of Colombia only being known for its civil war and drug trade. The friendliness and hospitality of locals is moving, as they are desperate to share their country in a positive light. FARC rebels still make many areas of Colombia dangerous, but tourist spots are as safe as anywhere in South America. There is a strong army and police presence in this country, which makes you feel both safe as a tourist and ill at ease with these corrupt, heavily armed youths entrusted with your safety.

The scenes between major tourist spots were fascinating:  tribes of bare chested boys patrolling the village streets; languid locals lounging against crumbling pastel-coloured houses; tropical and fertile countryside growing coffee, unheard of fruits, and vegetables; and heavily clad army personnel posted to just about every small village and highway in between.

We began our Colombian experience in the large city of Cali. Cali is raw, shameless, streetwise, and uncaring about you until you care about it. The people are fanatical about salsa, and if this is part of the culture you want to experience (and of course we did), Cali is the place for it. Salsa is played everywhere and young and old seem to adore it. Cali does not have the beautiful town centre and plethora of museums that many South American cities are blessed with, however it has a sense of reality and disinterest in tourists which is harder to find in the regions cities.

Apart from the warm welcome we received by Carlos’ family in Cartago, the highlight of our time in Colombia was spending time in the most beautiful city in South America – Cartagena de Indias. It was everything we could have ever hoped for – hot and steamy, white sand beaches, wonderful Afro-Caribbean culture, beautiful restaurants, leafy plazas, colonial architecture, and of course amazing live salsa!

There is a strong sense of femininity here, and liberated women are not afraid to flaunt it. It was common to see “mutton dressed as lamb”, with fleshy bits spilling over tight jeans and exposed mid-drifts. But hey, this is Latin America where you can get away with it. I just can’t quite bring myself to dress as these women do, though I thoroughly admire their confidence, determination and sexuality. I am learning to cope with a whole new vocabulary of male endearment, which my conservative NZ upbringing does not find appealing.

Hasta Luego Las Motos

Delayed post only due to the fact that YouTube didn't want to upload because of the file length! Grab a coffee and enjoy!