LETTER TO THE CONSTITUENTS
For MCC Ontario Annual Meeting, November 2007

Our favorite person to talk to Haiti is a man named Ari. He was (and still is) a pro-democracy activist that MCC helped hide during the devastating military coup from 1991 to 1994. Today, he works to connect North Americans with Haiti and Haitian culture. He is one of those people who exudes wisdom with each word he speaks. In Creole, they would say, he has anpil bet nan tet li, or many animals in is head. During one eye-opening conversation, he said his big wish for Haiti would be to have all North Americans to visit Haiti, but only to sit, and listen, and then leave. That is, many of the problems of the developing world could be solved if we in North America (and Europe) would simply listen to the strong voices of people living in these “poor” countries and share that voice with our family, friends, and neighbors. I have kind of adopted that as my motto for my time in Haiti with MCC: I will sit, listen, and eventually leave.

My wife Marylynn and I are nearing the one-year mark of our MCC assignment and it still feels like we just arrived yesterday. There is just so much sitting and listening to be done! Haiti is a country that is full of history- perhaps too much history for its own good. Haiti exists because of the slave trade. Forced labor made Haiti the richest colony in world in the late 1700s, riches that were sent back to France. In 1802, Haiti became the second republic in the Americas (after the United States), and the only example of a successful slave revolution in the world. However, having former slaves running their own country was a massive threat to the rest of the slave-owning world. For the past 200 years Haiti has demonized as a pariah state, which has resulted in a US military occupation, brutal dictators, unfair trade agreements, and prejudice immigration policies. All this has left Haiti with the oft quoted title of “Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere”- a title that continues to strip away the dignity and richness of the life that we witness in Haiti.

The poverty, which I would rather call economic poverty, is easily noticeable. Our white faces mean that one simple stroll down the street will attract at least three people asking for money. There were some boys close to our apartment who would ask for money everyday. Each day I responded, “Pa gen anyen,” or “I don’t have anything,” which of course was a lie. Then one day, one of the boys called for me from across the street. When I looked at him, he said, “Let me guess, you don’t have anything?!” I suddenly felt uneasy. I called him over and asked his name, and he asked for mine. I said one time every month, if he asks, I would give him a couple Haitian dollars, but any other time he should feel free to just come talk with me. Now there is rarely a day goes by that I don’t see Jean Eddy, and spend a few minutes chatting with him. Sometimes I think a good MCC job description title would be, “Sitting and Talking Technician.”

Meanwhile, our official job has been challenging. When people ask what we do here in Haiti, it always takes some time to gather my thoughts and remember what we are actually doing here. Our position is called Policy Analysts and Advocacy Workers (or something like that). Our days are often full of meetings, doing research, or responding to emails. Recently, we have helped to organize a campaign to block a free trade agreement being negotiated between the European Union and African, Pacific, and Caribbean countries. Also, we have started teaching a social justice course at a church leadership training school with one of our partner organizations, and we continue to host visitors to Haiti. I don’t know if this will make sense, but it kind of feels like we are always working, and, at the same time, never working. Perhaps that what working for MCC should feel like?

The work is often discouraging as Haiti’s problems are complex and overwhelming. Trying to communicate these problems back to our families, let alone our constituents, involves a lengthy monologue convoluted with an assortment of development clichés and marco-economic myths until we bore everyone, including ourselves, to death. Here, let me give you a brief example:

Over 50% of the Haitian population lives on less then a dollar a day. While starvation is currently not a grave concern, malnutrition is widespread and a lack of sufficient healthcare leaves the life expectancy of Haitians at 57 years. Our logical response to the problem, morally and biblically, is to send food and feed those who hungry, and send cloths to cloth the naked. Problems arise, however, when the food we send undercuts the selling price of the local farmer trying to make a living and the cloths we send suddenly take away the business of the local tailoring industry. Now having lost their jobs, the farmers and tailors will need food and cloths provided for them. On the international level these problems are magnified. We have talked to several Haitians who have said in the mid 1980s, rice was still a special meal, usually eaten for their Sunday dinner. Their eating habits were far more diversified relying more on vegetables, plantains, as well as locally raised pig, goat, and chicken. However, in order to receive international aid from the World Bank and International Monetary fund, Haiti was pressured to reduce their tariffs on imported products, particularly rice. Throughout the 1990s tariffs were reduced from 35% to 3%, the lowest in the region. Suddenly rice from the United States (produced with heavy machinery, acres upon acres of land, fertilizers, and government subsidies) began to pour into Haiti, undercutting the price of locally produced rice by as much as five times. No longer able to sustain themselves, farmers and their family move to the urban centers, only to amplify the population in the slums, and put more of a strain on the already poor quality of education and healthcare. In order to improve their education and healthcare, the Haitian government needs to rely on more international donors who make more demands… and the cycle continues.

Are you still with me? Trying to explain what we as North Americans can do to help remedy these problems is even more difficult. But I think I have found a simple answer: Remember to be Mennonites.

We have an expatriate friend here in Haiti who has spent over two decades in the country and has really become disillusioned with how his church and his government have interfered in the “development” of Haiti. One time, sitting on his rickety wooden balcony overlooking the Cul-de-Sac plains where Haitian slaves once produced unimaginable riches for their French colonists, he said, “You know, I think the Mennonites were on the right track.” He explained that there is something to be said for a group of people who want to be distinguished as Christians by separating themselves from the norms of society- people who follow the example of Jesus by living in this world, but not of this world. I don’t mean to restart theological debates concerning what kind of cloths we wear or what color of car we drive, but rather reconnect with the idea that living like Jesus means living against the grain of the world.

Let me give you an example: You can see fried chicken on just about any street in Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately all of it is imported from the United States. Chicken in the grocery stores is shrink-wrapped in the US or the Dominican Republic. The only chicken that appears to be Haitian is the chicken that is squawking in the street market. Therefore, we decided to reconnect with our Mennonite roots, and take a stand against this globalized food market. Marylynn went to the market, bought some live chickens, and we had a Haitian MCCer teach us the lost art of slaughtering a chicken. What kind of development workers are we, we thought, when we don’t even know how to prepare chicken? Canadian thanksgiving was wonderful.

Yet, on a day-to-day basis, it is not easy to disengage from the world system, or as biblical scholar Walter Wink would say, the Domination System. We have to think hard about the kind of lifestyle we are living, and constantly ask ourselves if we are following the norms of the world, or the path of Jesus. As Mennonites, this should be our strength. This should be what we can really offer the world, whether we are in Ontario or Haiti. We just need to keep on being Mennonites.

Peace and Blessings,

Joshua (and Marylynn) Steckley
MCC Haiti

Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere seeks to Change Image
AP
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

In the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, world leaders are gathering to talk about the impacts of being the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Rene Preval, President of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, will host the three day summit, which has been tentatively titled, “The Poorest of the Poor: Why Haiti is the Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere.” At a press conference yesterday, in the capital of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, President Preval stated, “We can no longer afford to be the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Haitian will work hard to shed this ‘poorest country in the Western hemisphere” image.” However, one labour activist later remarked, “It is hard to work at shedding the image of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere because when you live in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, there is no work.”

The activist continued to say that Haiti has been hit hard by its claim-to-fame of being the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. “In every newspaper article and every television broadcast, they tell us we are the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. This has an impact on the people who have to live in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. It takes away our dignity.”

Meanwhile, in the richest country in the world, the President of the United States suggested the label of the ‘poorest country in the Western hemisphere’ is not that bad.

“If you truly are the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, you’ll attract investors.” He continued to suggest that perhaps Haiti will not always be the poorest country in the Western hemisphere if they follow the lead of the United States, the richest country in the world.

“When I see Haiti, I see the poorest country in the Western hemisphere because they don’t value our individualism. Their families are too close and they rely too much on their local communities instead of the free market. They don’t value materialism and affluence to the same extent we do. They place too much emphasis on their ancestry and oral traditions without focusing on the instant gratification of efficient capitalism. Once they overcome these obstacles, perhaps they will be more like us, the richest country in the world.” Until then, however, it appears that Haiti will remain the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

The Standard MCC Homestay

When we accepted our position here in Haiti, we knew that we were also accepting the typical MCC home-stay. The obvious aim of a home-stay is to experience the life of local people, begin language learning and delve into the culture. When we arrived at our home-stay in the Haitian countryside, all the expected clichés of rural living were there: we bathed in a stream; read by a kerosene lamp; and ‘used’ a hole in the ground. The concrete structure was stained and cracked and the tin roof made our ears hurt when it rained.

This was all anticipated. Perhaps we were even looking forward to getting ‘back to the basics’. The night we arrived, we talked with the family with our limited Creole and sang Haitian hymns with my guitar. We fell asleep with our romanticized notions of rural living intact.

The next day, however, the realities of living in the Haitian countryside became apparent- We had absolutely nothing to do. The entire first day we sat on the concrete porch with some members of our host family, and literally did nothing. Steve, the fourteen year-old nephew of our host mother got his hair cut with soap, water, and a Bic razor. That’s all I remember from that day.

Naturally, we really looked forward to our daily afternoon Creole lessons or the times we visited MCC programs in reforestation. We also anticipated the days we had laundry to do, as it added a little ‘break’ in our otherwise empty day.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that Haitians were also living with “nothing to do.” Some worked in their family gardens to provide food for their families, other “lucky” ones were teachers in elementary schools (they were even luckier if they actually got paid at the end of the year). Otherwise, the day was just as long for them as it was for us.

In Haiti, formal unemployment is estimated to be upwards of 70%. The lack of work leads many Haitians from the countryside to migrate to the cities in hope for employment. Through reforestation and the import of cheaper, often US made foodstuffs, rural farmers cannot keep up productivity so come to the city looking for other means of employment, of which there is little. In Port-au-Prince, one Haitian explained that the mornings were the hardest because it was just the start of another day with nothing to do.

By the time our home-stay was complete, a month later, we were excited to start work and feel useful again. Living without running water or electricity was the easy part. Living without having something to do was unexpected and difficult. Unlike most Haitians, the difficult part for us only lasted a month.

Still, to focus solely on this one negative aspect of rural living does a disservice to Haiti and our time in the countryside. Like many other developing countries, the family unit is exceptionally close, and the reliance on one another is something we have definitely lost in North America. Below is a short video which hopefully represents the Haitian countryside in a joyful light. The singing is courtesy of a men’s choir from the village of Kristan, where we stayed. Originally it was heartbreaking to listen to their music and know that their talents will likely never break the borders of Kristan. However, upon further reflection, we found that God had given them a talent and they are using it to bless others. I have no idea what each of those men did for a living, but every time they practice, and every time they perform, they are using the gifts God has given them… and that is beautiful.

Selected Haitian Proverb: Sak vid, pa kanpe (An empty sack can’t stand up)

Intercultural Exchange Moment: “I know MCC. I think they are good people. They know how to have a good time with Haitians, but they also really like their own space sometimes.” Haitian woman in Dezarm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyqE3jiE_iE