There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

All | Ashley | Natalie | David | Sheila | Jonathan | James | Abi | Fiona | Community_Action_International | Project Mongolia | Sarah | Emily | Dana | Selina | Lucy | Hannah | Sally | Lucille | Martyn

« Previous month (Apr 2011) | Main | Next month (Jun 2011) »

Tuesday May 31, 2011

Personal Reflections: Religion

About 85% of the population claim Christian beliefs, the majority of whom are Catholic. Interestingly however, it is also reported that 50% of Haitians practice Voodoo, a religion deep rooted in Haitian tradition and culture.

Attending church is always a wonderful experience. No matter how little money people have, everyone is immaculately dressed for church. All the little girls wear beautiful, brightly coloured dresses with matching ribbons and ties in their hair. The choirs sing wonderfully, and they all wear gowns and hats that they make themselves. The churches are also very welcoming and will always introduce us to the congregation. The pastor at my regular church even translates the whole service into English just for me.

Although I normally attend one church in particular, I have had the opportunity to visit a few services across the region for different occasions. When I first arrived in Haiti I went to a very modest wedding in a school classroom. The room had been decorated with paper decorations of white doves and pink hearts. After the service they gave out juice and a sandwich to all the guests before leaving. Normally associating weddings with expense, it was a very humbling experience to see a wedding stripped down to highlight that the true importance is in the love, values and beliefs that the couple share.

Many people who are not Christian believe in Voodoo. In fact, it is so deep rooted in Haitian culture and tradition that many people who believe in God and choose not to "believe" in voodoo still regard it as a very real and powerful force. The practicing of voodoo has been a challenging cultural belief to understand. Friends have reported to me that their family members have been turned into zombies or cows as punishment for wrong-doings in their lives. This means they are effectively turned into immortal slaves for the person who requested the curse and are tasked to work the land. When people buy beef at the market they check carefully to see if it is actually human meat, killed as a cow. While this is a very laughable and distant concept to those of us brought up in Western Countries, these are very real concerns for many Haitians.

I attended a voodoo ceremony after the death of my friend's father. Because he had once been a grave digger, it was important for the family to have the ceremony so that he could rest in peace and other spirits from the graveyard would not haunt the family. The main part of the ceremony happened at midnight. A song was sung to voodoo drumming, and everyone had to stamp their feet to send the spirits away. After about fifteen minutes of this, the men lifted up the corpse and everyone walked with it in silence to the graveyard where the body was left. On our way out of the cemetery I was told not to look behind me, to make sure my spirit was not taken by the Lord, or 'Bahon' of the cemetery.

Learning more about voodoo and its influence on people's beliefs is also giving me better understanding of my patients and my work. Voodoo is blamed by many people for their illnesses or disabilities so it can be a big barrier for patients' engagement with rehab. For example, we were informed of a patient at the government hospital who had been stabbed in the neck and sustained a spinal cord injury. He discharged himself after a couple of days, with the help of his family, as he believed the only way he could get better was to go to a 'juju', (voodoo expert). Unfortunately after tracking him down and discussing the option of rehab he still declined to come to the rehab unit. Knowing that refusing all treatment will pose a severe risk to his health and life span, it was difficult to accept his choice. I have, however, witnessed some patients, initially very cynical about the benefits of rehab because of their 'juju' history, become very motivated with rehab after seeing the progress made by other patients at the unit.

Improving my understanding of these cultural and religious beliefs has been crucial for me when working as a healthcare professional in Haiti. Witnessing a heartbreaking case like I described above makes me advocate even more for Haitian-led educational and rehabilitation programs such as Community Based Rehab, which I described in a previous entry. This will be key in helping to bridge the gap in the understanding of what disability is, and how it is approached, so those that can really benefit from rehab have access to it.

Posted by Hannah ( 12:22 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Friday May 20, 2011

Personal reflections: basic needs

Many people ask me what it's like living in Haiti, and I always find it difficult to answer in a simple way. I thought I would take some time to reflect on my personal perspectives of life in Haiti, and my understanding of the influences that make life how it is.

Food, shelter and water. Arguably the three most basic needs of humans, all of which the majority of people struggle to find on a daily basis in Haiti. 80% of Haitians live below the poverty line and live in unsanitary conditions. 42% lack access to clean water.

As a relatively wealthy resident of Cap Haitien, I will always have access to clean water. Bottles and sachets are sold all over the streets and shops, and for 20 goudes (about 30p) I can refill our 5 gallon container. Then of course there's the transportation. Walking that 50 metres from the water shop through the busy market streets with a 5 gallon container is awkward, and I haven't learnt to balance it on my head. The options are to catch a moto, or, pay a man with a wheelbarrow to push it home. Quite a process when all you want to do is brush your teeth, but at least I have access. The majority of people living in the slum districts will never have the means to buy water, and those living in rural areas don't have access to bought water at all, so they are forced to drink the likely contaminated natural water. No wonder so many people are diagnosed as chronically dehydrated or have water borne infections when they come to see the visiting doctors.

Water for cooking, cleaning and bathing is also relatively accessible to me, although miles away from what I'm used to. The house I'm staying in used to have a pump connected to the well. Since it broke three months ago, we're obliged to physically carry the water straight from the well up one, two, or three flights of stairs. Fetching the water is an experience in itself: Squeezing through the gap between the stairs and the wall of the house with my phone as the only source of light, I fumble to unlock the padlock on the back door. Again, squeezing through the door which just fits the width of the bucket, I eventually reach the outside communal area of the house, shared with two other homes, with an historic French colonial-built water well dividing the land.

Retrieving the water from the well is pretty straight forward, although often the neighbours will take over to help me out. Carrying the water back through the dark and narrow hallway and up the stairs is the worst part, but normally shortly followed by a refreshing icy cold bucket shower to make up for it. Not as satisfying if all you wanted to do is flush the toilet. But this is normal life for most Haitians. Wells are not hard to come by in town, but in the country, people may have to walk a couple of miles just to get access to any water source. It's common to see people doing their laundry and bathing in rivers, in order to conserve the water they carry home.

Cooking is taken very seriously by Haitian women. Those who are better-off love to host guests. A fest of rice, beans, plantains, meat and legumes is typically served, sitting round the table. Those less well-off will still cook more than necessary, just in case a guest drops by, and left overs are eaten for tomorrow's breakfast. 

Preparing dinner is an all-day affair. Since I've been living with a Haitian family, I now see how much effort goes into just one meal. Food is bought fresh from the market each day. The meat is thoroughly cleaned, using oranges to disinfect chicken and seasoning is prepared using a pestle and mortar. Once the charcoal stove is ready, it takes several hours for the food to cook. Impressively, street sellers go to exactly the same lengths for people to buy 'fast food'. They spend all day cooking and selling food, and many sleep overnight in the streets so they can keep their vendor's spot.

Although the majority of people have a roof over their head, commonly it is not much more than that. Families and extended families may live in one home, with three or four people sharing a bed and others sleeping on the ground. Those in the slum district or in the country have just one tiny room to accommodate a whole family. Walls of old buildings are used for several homes, with ply wood dividing the properties.

Electricity is unpredictable, and scattered throughout town. Many people connect up to the electricity by physically climbing up the pole and connecting a cable themselves, thereby accessing the governmental electricity for free. Normally, in the centre of town we have electricity in the evenings but not throughout the day.

Another massive problem is waste disposal. With no land fill or way of recycling, people are forced to dump their rubbish which, ironically, is a criminal offence. Litter accumulates in massive piles, eventually collected by the council and dumped on the boulevard. Living in the middle of the food market, we get used to the daily routine of market traders collecting the rubbish in small piles and burning it every evening. Every so often residents will have to clean out the gutters of rubbish to allow the sewage to drain into the system properly. Last week, I saw a guy immerse himself into the sewage system and extract all the rubbish and dump it on the street.

To think of hot or drinkable water coming out of a tap, making a quick bacon sarnie or not have the incessant smell of sewage or burning plastic all sounds unreal, even to me now. I am really grateful to be working in the position I am, to help improve access to water and healthcare. However, Haiti has a very long road ahead of her to make sustainable improvements in the standard of living for everyone.

Posted by Hannah ( 11:14 AM )
Link to this post Comments[0]

Sunday May 15, 2011

50 miles walking? Not for me thanks...

I've got a bad left knee. I've got problems with both my ankles and my left foot. For style purposes it's capped off with shoulders that have been known to pop out of their sockets at their own convenience.

 

All of these things made me fairly happy about 4 weeks ago.

 

Weird? Yeah, sure. The reason is though that yesterday (Sat 14^th May) Dave Coles walked from London to Brighton in a day to raise funds for Dave Squared. He suggested I join him, which was greeted with the response: "Ah, Dave, I'd love to, really I would. But my foots not going to hold up walking just under 50 miles in one day, you'll have to find someone else I'm afraid."

 

50 miles in one day. Somehow, I didn't feel I was missing out. Dave managed to find a companion (Matt Ridley) to complete the walk with him, and their challenge is an example of the kind of fundraising we've been looking into since we gained our registered charity status. We have several people who have volunteered to raise money for us which will provide a valuable source of income to help support our projects going forward. We've had somebody do a bungee jump, somebody will be completing the Great South Run and even a brave Triathlon entrant.

 

The bungee jump I could handle, probably even enjoy. But a long distance run, triathlon or any other kind of long distance/endurance event will lead to me playing my injury based 'Get out of Jail Free' card.

 

The funds from the bungee jump (undertaken by former volunteer Leila Malone) will be used to buy and install a water tank for a local children's home in Ho. Water supply is intermittent and can be cut off at any time leaving the children and staff with a real need for clean water for drinking and washing. Without fundraising this kind of item would be much more difficult for us to finance.

 

Like Leila our fundraisers so far have mostly been former volunteers. This offers a nice way for people to continue to make a contribution even though they cannot spend more time in Ghana due to commitments back home like jobs and family. However, we do also have people get involved who have not worked with us before.

 

For our fundraising we work with Charity Giving, a website run by registered charity the Dove Trust. Charity Giving is in the mould of the well used/publicised Just Giving Website. However, the website takes just 3-4% of any money claimed on the Gift Aid Scheme, a much reduced payment than is required by other similar systems. If it is not a gift aid donation then no percentage is taken at all. This kind of setup is perfect for a small charity like us who need to make the absolute most of the donations we receive.

 

If you've read this and want to get involved with helping to fundraise for us then send us an email (info-AT-davesquared-DOT-org) and we can have a chat about how we can work together.

 

Next Monday I leave for Ghana and will be sending my next post in the next few weeks as we start to set out our plans for the summer. In the meantime though, if anyone has any ideas on activities with high fundraising potential/low physical impact, feel free to let me know...     

Posted by David ( 9:04 PM )
Link to this post Comments[1]