A View From Above

I just got in this morning from Jacmel, a small city with a French colonial twist on the southern coast of Haiti. As you can tell by the pictures, I came by a 4-seater plane. So much fun! It only took 30 minutes to cover the 4 hr road trip that we would have had to take. 

Taking flight.

A view from above.

Can you see the tiny runway? About to land in Jacmel.

After spending a few days with Every Mother Counts' Founder, Christy Turlington Burns (http://www.everymothercounts.org/author/christy-turlington-burns), and her staff, Nadene, Steve, and I were off to Port-au-Prince for a ceremony at the Partners In Health Hospital (http://www.pih.org/media/the-road-to-mirebalais). There, we had a grand tour of the finished hospital led by PIH staff, including my long-time hero Dr. Paul Farmer. I was really close to actually shaking hands with him, but I did get to hear him speak. Ben Stiller, Senator Bill Frist, GE, the Dean of Harvard Medical School, et al. were among those in the audience as well.

Our artsy Hotel, La Florita. 

Having to go to Port-au-Prince to catch a flight the following morning, we left early afternoon for a meeting with a consultant before retiring at a hotel nearby the airport. Nadene told me that it was constructed with giant containers. Apparently, it's the first paraseismic steel construction in Haiti. I could care less about the structure, I was just happy to get of Hinche for a bit. It had been 2.5 months since my last away trip. 

Leading into my corner room at La Florita.

In town. Notice the French double doors?

Arriving in Jacmel, we found our sweet hotel La Florita to be full of character. Though a little rundown, it was nice to be able to access the internet and order a cheeseburger all in the same place! We were situated right in the middle of town, so our location made it easy for us to jump around from shop to shop. Oh! Our trip's mission! Our trip itinerary consisted of purchasing art for an art show this summer at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen. I will send out an official announcement later, but it's a great publicity and fundraising event for MFH, and so we would love your support. Not too mention there will be art from all over the world shown there. If you are interested in a piece now, let me know!

One of the all murals in town. 

So, we got around quite a bit picking out art, meeting some of the artists, and finding restaurants. Yes, meeting some of the artists. We actually visited them at their homes. They didn't seem to care. They were just happy to have business! We ended up purchasing 36 works all together. 

The beach needs some work, but the view is great.

Nadene trying to decide what will sell. We will see!

Wilbert Laurent at his house.

 As I am finishing up these last seven weeks (which are going to fly by), I am going to try to include some of my reflections on my experience. To start off, one of our Board members Dr. Alice Hirata offered that this year managing the program on-the-ground is a great base to have as I continue on with studies and career plans. I completely agree with her. Working with a huge variety of people as well as building professional relationships with the Haitian staff may come in handy in another aspect of my work-life down the road. More to come later!

The place has so much potential to become any tourist's dream vacation.
The lack of safety net, political stability, etc., however, keeps the area in poverty.