A Four Day Hiking Trip in the Mountains of Haiti

The first day of the hike! We started in Furcy which is at about 3000 ft above sea level and we hiked up to Seguin which is at 6000 ft above sea level. The picture above shows the beginning of our trail. It took us about 6 hours to hike up to Seguin. We were all huffing and puffing while climbing the hills while Haitian women were carrying baskets of vegetables on their hands and climbing barefoot. But to give us some credit, we did have to hike with all the stuff we needed for the 4 day trip. The hike was absolutely beautiful though and it was really nice to see the rural communities of Haiti.

Some of the rural houses we saw on our hike!

At the cottage we stayed in for two nights. It was a very lovely little cottage surrounded by apricot trees and fields of all different kinds of plants. There were horses, dogs, chickens, and more around. In Seguin it was pretty cold because it is so high up so the best part was that we were served steaming hot mint tea several times during the day...it was so relaxing sitting in the cottage, listening to the rain, and sipping the tea!

The cascades in Seguin. We stayed near this beautiful national park in Seguin. Winnie, the owner of the cottage we stayed at, is responsible for preserving a lot of the biodiversity in Seguin. In Seguin, it felt as if we were on a tropical island.

Genevieve with Simba! The two dogs at the cottage we stayed at were sooo friendly! They were enormous but acted like little babies. I think they were the first dogs I truly wasn't scared of :)

The 5 hour hike down the mountain from Seguin (6000 feet) to Jacmel (sea level). The views were beautiful but the hike was really tough because it was all downhill on uneven rocks that were slippery from recent rains. I was way more sore after the downhill hike compared to the uphill hike!

Summer Camp

This week was really fun...we taught at a summer camp in Petit Village. The camp lasts 8 weeks I think and this week we were the leaders of the camp. There were about 75 kids total at the camp ranging from age 5 to 20.

So each day at camp began with singing. I've learned some really catchy Haitian songs and now as we walk we sing these songs :) Then the kids usually were put into three groups and Julie, Julia, and I would each lead a different group. Julia taught the kids English and played games like Simon says with them. Julie taught ballet and played different dancing games with the kids. I kind of did a mixture of different things throughout the week...it wasn't exactly organized, but it sure was exciting!

On the first two days, I taught the kids a little bit of Indian dance. I thought they would like learning a little bit of Raas so some of us at clinic found about 40 sticks total that resembled dandiya. We gathered fallen tree branches, plant stems, and any random sticks we would find while walking. After taking off the thorns I'd say we had pretty sturdy dandiya...they weren't colorful or anything but they served their purpose. It was fun teaching the kids Raas and they got the basic steps of it. The main problem though was moving to the next partner...that didn't work so well and we didn't have any music to keep the beat. But it was still really cute to watch them :)

Teaching the kids Raas!

The third day I had a plan to play different games with the kids such as "red light, green light" but my group ended up having all boys ages 15-20. I don't really think they would have enjoyed "red light, green light" so we ended up deciding to play soccer. However, there were two problems. First of all, there was a ball but no field or goals. The boys fixed that easily...we used a large half dirt/half grass open area for the field and used two concrete blocks as the two goals. I actually think the blocks were from a house nearby that had fallen during the earthquake. To score a goal the ball had to hit the block. Thats how most people in Haiti play soccer...you have to hit a block instead of making the ball go between two posts...it makes it much harder when you have to hit the block! So the second problem was that all of the boys were dressed in pretty nice pants and collared shirts. I was wondering how they were going to play in those clothes. But as soon as we got onto the field all of them took off their pants and shirts and guess what? Underneath they were all wearing soccer clothes! I think they are always prepared to play soccer :) Unlike the boys, I wasn't really prepared to play with my skirt and shirt, but at least I had shoes on! As we started playing soccer though, we ran into another problem...I couldnt tell my teammates apart from the other team! I passed it to the other team twice thinking they were on my team. They fixed that problem too by making it shirts versus shirtless. It was really fun playing soccer...I havent played in so long! The boys were all really good...watch, Haiti is gonna make it to the World Cup soon!

Me with two of the kids from the camp :)

Day 4 I taught a little English because Julia wasn't feeling well, but soon I was getting bored and I could tell the kids would much rather be running around. So we played "red light, green light". This time I had 6-8 year olds in my group so they loved "red light, green light". In Creole its called "limaye wouj, limaye ve". Eunide, our translator, was the policeman, I was the traffic light, and all the kids were the drivers. They were all quite reckless drivers...each round almost all of them were caught by Eunide for moving on a red light!

The last day the kids did a little talent show and there were games like musical chairs and tug-o-war. They played latin music and first the older kids danced salsa and kompa and then all the 5 and 6 year olds were paired up to dance kompa! I am going to miss the kids...I had a lot of fun with them. What I really admired about this summer camp was how little supplies there were...2 chalkboards, a covered area, and a couple of balls...and yet how much the camp leaders and eventually we could come up with to do!

All the kids at the camp on our last day. Standing up in the back row we are with some of the teachers from the camp and Robinson, one of our translators.

GPS Mapping Project

Julia and Shilpa eating (or more like attempting to eat) sugarcane. Photo courtesy of Julia.

Julia and Delshana making no-bake cookies! Picture courtesy of Genevieve.

Knips! They are delicious...they grow in bunches on trees. They taste a little like grapes but are sweeter. They are orange on the inside and have a giant seed.

Our Maternal Mortality Project is still going well! We are almost at our goal of 50 verbal autopsies…we have done 47 so far! So let me introduce the second project we are working on this summer - follow-up of the GPS Mapping Project that students last year did. The students last year went to the different health clinics, schools, churches, and community wells in Leogane to collect data about these places and create a GPS map of the area. After the earthquake, much of this information has changed. We are following up on the research by re-visiting the health clinics to see how they have changed after the earthquake. Some of the changes we have seen so far are that clinics that were destroyed in the earthquake are now functioning under tents, some doctors are now seeing patients from their private homes, nurses and doctors are volunteering their time to provide free care, and private Haitian doctors are seeing less and less patients because people are going to Doctors without Borders where they will get free care. We are also planning on mapping out the different NGOs, finding out what services they offer, and how long they are planning to stay. All this information will hopefully provide a better idea of the medical infrastructure of Leogane, help Family Health Ministries in designing their new hospital for children and women, and will assess the effects of the earthquake on the health resources of Leogane.

So on one of these GPS mapping excursion days, we were exhausted after having visited several clinics. We decided to end our day by quickly visiting the Sri Lanka UN military camp that is literally ½ mile from our clinic. We were in for quite a surprise! Well first was a failure. I attempted to speak in Hindi with the people at the camp and they didn’t really understand me…so we ended up having a conversation in a mix of Hindi, Tamil, Creole, and English. Soon we realized that sticking to English would be best. The Sri Lankan soldiers gave us a tour of their medical facilities which treat the general population of Leogane during any emergencies that arrive. And then they insisted on us joining them for tea. We agreed, but much to our surprise, they served us an entire Sri Lankan lunch! We had rice and 5 different Sri Lankan dishes. The dishes were very similar to Indian food…using many of the same spices…it made me remember home and it was wonderful to eat something close to Indian food! Then for dessert we had papaya and vanilla ice cream…one of the things I miss the most here is ice cream so it was a real treat!

A Walk Through Leogane

We walk everywhere we need to go. The main mode of transportation here, motorcycles, are kind of dangerous because there is so much traffic on the roads so we stick to walking. What do we encounter on our daily walks through Leogane to the tent cities where we perform the verbal autopsies?

Well once we step out of the clinic we hear our neighbors shouting our names and running towards us to say hi. I don't think I have ever left the clinic without them knowing! As we walk down towards the center of town, the main thing we have to be careful of are all the motos and tap taps zipping by. The motos like scaring foreigners by coming really near them as they drive by and they honk way too loud for their size! The motos are the main mode of transportation in Haiti - they are like taxis in the US or rickshaws in India. They are mostly used to travel short distances like to the store or hospital. Tap taps are the other mode of transportation...although these are used more for transportation between places further apart such as between two cities. They are basically big trucks painted with bright colors and usually filled to the brim with people. They are called tap taps because you basically "tap" when you want to get off.

An unfilled tap tap...a rare sight...usually they are overflowing!

As we get to the center of town we usually see school children coming back from school. They have really beautiful uniforms that are very neat. All the girls have socks with beautiful lace on them. A funny thing about the school children is that we see so many boys, even older boys, carrying around pink, american princess backpacks...I don't quite understand why? Oh, and a lot of times people will wear shirts from US but I dont really think they know what the shirts say. For example Missy was telling us that she saw a relatively large man in his thirties wearing a shirt that said "Daddy's little girl". I have seen several older women wearing shirts that say stuff like "In need of a boyfriend" of "Top reasons you should date me". Once we even saw someone wearing a Duke jersey...I dont think they knew that what they were wearing sold for so much in the states!

Throughout the streets the women are usually selling various items...from food to clothing to medicine. Little kids try to sell us bags of water...they are these little bags the size of a typical ice pack which are used like we use water bottles in the states. Also on the streets we usually run into dogs every 10 or so steps we take and goats every now and then. The dogs avoid the humans for the most part, which means I don't have to worry about them!

On a more somber note, its hard to notice the lack of buildings on our walks. Sometimes we pass through areas that are literally ghost towns. What once used to be a neighborhood is just rubble with only door frames still standing. Then we enter the tent cities where the people are now living and you can't help but think what is going to happen when the rainy season really hits. Some of the tent cities we go to have nice camping tents donated by AID agencies such as USAID, but then there are other where literally its a dirt floor and 4 sticks connecting 5 pieces of cloth.

Usually around 12 or 1 pm when we head back the clinic, it starts pouring on us, which I don't mind because it finally cools down! But the walk gets a little slippery. Once I made the mistake of wearing flip flops after it had just rained and I kept sliding out of my flip flops right into mud. As we approach the clinic we are, of course, greeted by our neighbors and all the children running up to say hi :) Its a nice way to be welcomed home!

A Haitian Vacation

I didn't even realize I was calling the clinic "home" until Julie pointed it out to me one day. After a month of being here, the clinic really feels like home. We are relieved to come "home" from a day of work in the hot sun. We help Dr. Merisier prepare "home" for visitors like the 17 person medical team that came last week. We went on a mini-vacation to Jacmel this weekend and as we approached familiar streets I was excited to be "home" again.


So about this Haitian vacation...it was incredible! At times I forgot I was in Haiti...Jacmel is a beautiful oasis hidden in the mountains of Haiti. We let ourselved indulge a little...okay maybe more than a little...for 2 days. On Saturday we checked into the Cyvadier Hotel in Jacmel and were greeted with delicious fruit punches. From the hotel we had a beautiful view of the ocean!That afternoon we went to the public beach where we had fresh fish and plantains, which were both very delicious! Swimming at the beach was amazing cuz the water was soo warm...I wish California beaches had such warm water. When we came back to the hotel we had hot showers, AC, and a buffet...it literally felt like the most luxurious place ever just because of these three things.


The next day was quite an adventure. We went to Bassin Bleu, which is basically a series of gorgeous waterfalls pouring into basins. Getting there was the adventure - it involved riding motorcycles up mountainous terrain, crossing a river on foot, and using a rope to climb down rocks. So the motorcycles picked us up near the hotel and took us through moutainous terrain until we reached a flowing river. We got off the motorcyles, held hands, and waddled our way through the river keeping our legs wide apart so as to not be thrown off our feet by the current. The motorcycle took us up the moutain some more and at points we were too heavy for the motorcycle so we had to get off and hike up. As we got higher we saw beautiful views of the ocean and mountains!


Missy and Kathy along with some of our Haitian friends crossing the river!


Finally we got to a point where motos could go no further so from there we hiked. Thats when we reached the rocks that needed a rope to climb down. We crossed several streams, passed several waterfalls, and with the help of the Haitians we were with reached the topmost waterfall. It was so nice. We jumped into the water from near the waterfall and it truly felt like a paradise. Our lunch consisted of fresh avocados and coconuts...yuuum :) The whole trip showed how much potential Haiti has to be a tourist destination and the hidden beauty that the beaches and mountains of Haiti possess. Jacmel used to be a popular tourist area before the hurricanes and earthquake. I really hope one day it can flourish again...its such a cute, picturesque little town surrounded by beautiful beaches and mountains.

The girls by the waterfall. Top row from left to right: Genevieve, Hannah, and Missy. Bottom row from left to right: Kathy, Julie, Julia, and Shilpa

Maternal Health in Leogane

This week we started our maternal health project! A few months ago, the women’s group in Leogane had identified maternal mortality as one of the greatest concerns of the community. Therefore, Family Health Ministries has started a Safe Motherhood Initiative to make pregnancies safer in Leogane. This summer, Julie, Julia, and I, are looking to identify the most common causes of death of mothers during or right after pregnancy. Family Health Ministries can then use this information to work with the community in designing programs that will make pregnancies safer. The way we are identifying the most common causes of maternal mortality is through the World Health Organization’s verbal autopsy surveys. We are surveying family members of women who have died during pregnancy. These verbal autopsy surveys ask a series of questions about the death such as “Did the woman have a headache?” and “Did the woman have swelling?” The answers to the questions are then analyzed to determine what the cause of death of each woman was.

The way we are finding families of women who have died is basically by word of mouth. We are going around Leogane telling people about our project and asking whether they know anyone who died during pregnancy. At first it was frustrating because we would find family members willing to talk to us and we would tell them to come to the clinic the next day and then they would never show up. We soon realized that we have to be the ones to go to them and not expect them to come to us. So now we go around a tent city identifying people who are willing to talk with us and the tell them we will be back the next day to do the verbal autopsy. Another reason that our project has been making progress, which is really sad, is that maternal mortality is a much greater problem here than I imagined. I’d say about ¾ of the people we talk to have a relative who died during pregnancy. Its difficult to see grandmothers taking care of 4 or 5 children whose mother died during pregnancy.

This week we did 6 verbal autopsies, which is much more than I expected for the first week. Several things have surprised me so far. First is the willingness of people to tell the stories of women who have died. I think part of this reason is the desire to make known the frustration that many people have with the current state of healthcare in Leogane. Another part is the desire of the community to support a project that will make pregnancy safer for other women. Another thing that has really surprised me is the coexistence of belief in Voodoo and medicine. Many Haitians practice Voodoo, a religion that combines West African beliefs and practices and Catholicism. When we ask family members what they think caused the deceased to die, we often get the response of magic or a curse. According to Voodoo beliefs, sickness can be sent to someone by another. What is interesting though is that many Haitians have these beliefs and at the same time take Western medications for their illnesses. I am only starting to realize this coexistence and I am finding it fascinating.

Everthing else is good here. We have been eating a lot, but also doing some intense exercising in our down time thanks to Hannah’s exercise videos! Some of my favorite meals here have been tiaka…it’s a pumpkin soup with like 10 other ingredients and its delicious, mayi moule…a cornmeal dish eaten with legumes, beet and potato salad, and this really yummy type of scrambled eggs they make here with like onions and peppers and some kind of meat. Also, fruits here are delicious! Dr. Merisier showed me a couple days ago how to eat a mango Haitian-style. It involved no utensils, just ur mouth and hands. It was a mango from his tree and it was delicious! I also love the bananas, papayas, cherries, and coconuts we get here. Oh and almost every meal we get either passion fruit or lime juice!

Eating coconuts that McKenzie got for us after climbing the coconut tree.

One of the kids in the neighboring tent city with her coloring sheet :)

Nail polish, Soccer, the Beach, and Salsa

These past few days have been so much fun! (I promise we are going to start our projects this week). On Thursday we went to visit the mountain community of Fondwa. In Fondwa, FHM sponsors an orphanage and school. I have to admit the hike to the orphanage was pretty strenuous…I am still sore! It was about 2 miles steep downhill going to the orphanage, which means steep uphill on the way back. But it was very well worth it! Playing with the kids at the orphanage was a lot of fun! I took out nail polish to paint their nails and all of them swarmed around me wanting to get their toenails painted.

Painting the nails of a girl at the Fondwa orphanage! Photo courtesy of Julie Rivo.

Friday was a very soccer-filled day. In Haiti, world cup fever is everywhere! In Fondwa, kids were humming “wave your flag” as we walked by. There are signs everywhere advertising places where the world cup games are being shown – “5 goudes per game” many of the signs display. All of the commercials during the world cup are so much more creative and lively here in Haiti than back in the States. In all the commercials, there is dancing, singing, and some product, whether it is a milk carton or coffee bag, playing soccer. In addition to watching soccer, we have been playing soccer with the kids around the community. Most of our games turn into keep-away instead of an actual game, but they are still very fun!

On one of our many walks. The roads are so rocky and rough that my teevas have already come apart! Here we are probably moving aside for a moto that may run us over if we dont move. Photo courtesy of Vivide Chang.

So on Saturday we took a trip to a beach in Leogane. I have to admit, I had very low expectations after living in California all my life. But the beach was pretty impressive! The water was very warm and relatively clear. We took a handmade canoe to an island…the “driver” of the canoe told us that it took 3 years to make the canoe and it would last for 12 years. Nitin, the canoe reminded me of your solar boat! On the island we went swimming for a while, ate coconuts, and ate conch until we got rained out.

Then, that night, we went salsa dancing! Julia is an amazing salsa dancer and she gave us all lessons before we went to this little salsa club. I was, of course, pretty shy to dance at first but Frandy and Vivide finally convinced me to and I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Oh, I don’t think I have introduced Frandy and Vivide! Actually I don’t think I have introduced anyone…so let me do that so you aren’t confused. So Julie, Julia, and I are the Duke Engage students here for the summer. Our project coordinator is Hannah. We are staying at Dr. Merisier’s clinic. Dr. Merisier lives here with his wife Diane and their son Junior. Junior is adorable, likes to scare me and watch me pretend cry afterwards, and use my contacts case as his race car and my ear plugs case as microphone to sing. Vivide and Genevieve are graduate students also living here for the summer and doing research. Missy is a FHM volunteer who is like our Haitian mother. She speaks Creole very, very well and has really helped us to get to know Haitian culture. Frandy is Dr. Merisier’s half brother. He is awesome because he helps us with our Creole but he is not so awesome because he is rooting for the Celtics! Yeah, its crazy, I get to sometimes watch Lakers games here! Its amazing how universal things like sports are.

Today we are meeting with the women’s group of Leogane to introduce our project and ask for their input. I am excited to start the project!