Day 4, Monday Travel to Jacmel
First view of Jacmel
Day 4, To Jacmel
We left Port-au-Prince and traveled over the mountain to the south side of the Island to Jacmel. All along the way there were piles and piles of garbage EVERYWHERE-along the streets, in river washes, alleyways. There is no waste service so people just throw their garbage whereever they are. You will see pigs, goat, chickens tied up in the garbage piles to try and find something to eat. They are literally eating garbage. The whole time here I've not seen a bank or post office. I've been told they exist but letters do not usually arrive to residences. Most people don't have an actual address. They live in shacks made of anything they can find. Most of the children do not get an education. Parents have to pay to have their kids go to school. Oftentimes, they will try and pay for the kids to go to 1st or 2nd grade, just enough for them to learn to read and write, then have them come home and they send the next child. It is very common for fathers to have numerous families and children. Haiti is predominantly a Christian nation and they don't believe in birth control. The fathers are not a big presence in the family setting so it's up to the mother to care for the children. This is why almost 90% of the kids in the orphanages are not actually "orphans". The parents could not take care of them so have to send them somewhere else-either to an orphanage, or to relatives to become a Restavek (a child slave) or left to fend for themselves on the streets. It is estimated that almost 500,000 children are Restaveks in Haiti.
All of Haiti could fit within the state of Utah and in the capital, Port-au-Prince, there are over 3 million people. There are people everywhere!. Driving is like nothing you've ever seen. There aren't stop signs, or lights or lines on the road. It's like a very busy day at the ski resorts trying to get into a ski line. no lanes, no lines, no rules. It makes New York look civilized. Each care is inches from the next and pushing to get in front of the other. Because there are no lines, there's no passing-just pushing through. In between there are kids and people trying to sell stuff squeezing between the cars tapping on your windows. I have no idea how people don't get killed but I never saw an accident or an injury the entire time I was there.
We stayed at the home of a couple and their 2 children who were spending 3 years there on a mission for their church. They had set up 2 orphanages, and a medical clinic. The homes are nothing like here. There is no carpet and most often things are cement walls and floors. No air conditioning, and rationed water. We didn't have to sleep in mosquito nets here because they mosquito screens on the windows. We were able to have fans in the rooms when the electricity worked. It mostly just blew the hot air around. Nights were difficult. We often had to turn the lights off because there was no electricity and use candles for light. I found myself praying to get to sleep to have some reprieve from the heat.
The medical clinic employed doctors and nurses. Doctors get paid about 7$/hr in Haiti. They live not much better than their clients because there were no jobs. For the past 2 years the hospitals in Haiti have been shut down by the government. They just recently opened up. This clinic is a free clinic but the client has to pay for the medicines. Julie, the person from the States, is a nurse and said there is so many diseases from malnutrition and neglect as well as STD's from abuse, particularly young children. I wanted to just shut my eyes and forget I knew about it. It's like I wanted to help but didn't even know where to begin.
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