Mesay, Sharky, and Abu, and Hurricane Sandy

4 weeks old.

Rather than being thrown into the fiery furnace like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, our month-old orphan kittens Mesay, Sharky, and Abu survived their first hurricane safe in the third floor guest house.  Hurricane Sandy hit Jamaica earlier this week, and here in Cayes Haiti we have had heavy rain and winds for three straight days.  I haven’t left the building since Monday (today is Friday), but I heard that roads were flooded and power was out in town.  I was to take my two classes to the botanical garden this week.  Tuesday morning as it became apparent that the rain would not stop, that got changed to staying in and watching a movie (Medicine Man) during class.  It wasn’t until later in the day on Tuesday that we realized this was a major tropical storm and everyone needed to stay home.  But four ecology students showed up yesterday!  So we huddled around my netbook and watched the 1992 movie starring Sean Connery as a researcher on the brink of discovering the cure for cancer in a rain forest about to get bulldozed for a logging road.

A couple Haitians that I don’t really know texted me to see if I was ok during the storm.  One even asked if I was scared!  Which put into perspective how they must be viewing the storm verses how we are, all safe in our concrete building.  Watching movies, making pizza, snuggling the luckiest kittens in Haiti.

For more details about how Sandy has affected Haiti, visit this post by a friend who lives in Port au Prince.  http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/2012/10/sandy.html?m=1.

My favorite, Mesay, named after her mom Day-o.

At the pizza restaurant with Uncle Earl - 3 weeks.

2.5 weeks old.

The Audubon Center of Les Cayes Haiti

This past week, in addition to becoming the newest member of the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) Board, I am also in the process of resurrecting the Audubon Center which is housed at AUC.  Over the past 4 years I have developed an ecology program for schools and adult groups in Haiti, with no definitive home for it.  I started the program through United Christians International in Caiman.  In April I taught in a school in Merger, near Port au Prince.  In July I taught at HAFF back in the Central Plateau.  Basically, I have gone to whatever missionary group would have me.

But now I have found a home for the program!  The Audubon Center here at AUC.  The Audubon Center was started several years ago by people in the area who were interested in birding around Cayes.  And named after the world famous bird painter John James Audubon who was born here in Les Cayes in 1785.

The Center has a room at AUC where books, binoculars, and a GPS unit are housed for those interested in birding and the environment.  But the Center does not receive much attention.  So I have taken on task of reviving it and making an environmental education resource center for the area.  Here is the webpage of it and the activities we have going on.

Deye Switchbacks, Genyen Switchbacks – the Road to Macaya

A switchback in the road to Macaya.

There’s a Haitian proverb that says “Deye mon, genyen mon.”  Literally, behind mountains, there are mountains.  Meaning, if it’s not one thing, it another, which isn’t the point of this story.  The switchbacks were one after another though.  Today I went to Fomon (Fort Mon) on the outskirts of Macaya, one of Haiti’s three national parks.  A German group invited me to go with them to check out a water project there that has fallen into disarray.  So off I went with Marcus and Peguy (pronounced Peggy, a Haitian man) who I had never met before our 6am rendezvous which really was at 5:30am.

From Les Cayes, one travels Route 2 west and heads north at Torbeck on a fairly decent road for about an hour.  We stopped for coffee and bread right before a river crossing, which we were able to make despite the rain all night.  Shortly after the crossing, the road turns into rocks with switchbacks after switchbacks as we climb about 1000 ft.  And no guard rails.  Two people I mentioned this trip to said, woah, you are going by car?  Due to expert German driving, I thought the ride went fine.  Other than being jostled about for 2 hours is tiring (update the next morning – my back and shoulders are super sore, as if I had been working out).  Someone with physical health problems would not have been able to make the trip.

Training new bird guides.

Once we got to Fomon I went with Marcus as he checked the pvc pipes that carry water down the mountain to various faucets that were installed to make it easy for people to get water.  The hillside is eroding, rocks are up-lifting, and along with them the pvc pipes.  The plan was that it would take an hour to get to the water source, then I would go with our guide into the park for about an hour, then come back and meet up with the group.  Walking up a mountain on a rocky path after being at sea level for over a month turned out to be way harder than I expected.  Fortunately two kids had joined us and made me feel like an old lady as they helped me up the steep path.  We finally reached a point where I said I couldn’t go on.  Plus, I was watching my footing the entire time and not enjoying the scenery.  So the kids stayed with me while Marcus and the guide went on.

Turned out to be a great decision!  The kids knew I was there to see the birds and really got into the role of being bird guides.  I did see two I hadn’t seen before (Hispaniolan Spindalis and red-legged thrush), maybe 3 (one of the two todies), and a bunch of little yellow birds that I just couldn’t identify.  I paid them, so I might have been their first official ecotour customer!  Though it turned out to not be an intense birding trip, and we didn’t actually go into the park, I did get to mentor those two kids about birding, and that made it all worthwhile.  Well, actually just being up in the cool air among some pine trees made it worthwhile.

The river crossing.

A section of pipe exposed in extreme erosion.

Note the 5 lone trees at the top of the hill.

The rocky road to Macaya.

Checking the water system.

The Orphanage Part 3 – Return of the Bat TV

Watching a nature film on the Bat TV.

On Friday I went to the orphanage with Scott and Ashley (after a failed attempt to find the place where I’ll pick up my mail brought in by Agape Flights).  The previous week the kids kept asking about my Bat TV, the iPad on which I showed them videos of bats.  So this week I brought it and we sat and watched two 40 minute episodes of BBC Planet Earth, one about the ocean, and one about jungles.  And I found out I know very few words in Creole about ocean life.  My next goal is to get speakers for the iPad so we can hear the shows.  Too bad they aren’t subtitled so the kids can be learning English as well.

Jajebo Little Brown Bat Earrings

The kids also loved the bat earrings my mom gave me.  They are homemade from used cereal boxes by Jabebo Earrings.

Even Scott is watching the bat TV.

Scott taking a shift on the tiny chair.

Walking tour of Cayes (lots of pictures)

Map of Cayes.

Saturday morning Rhoda and I decided to explore a road that we could see on a map, to see if there was a path from it that went all the way to the ocean.  The road is called Route Wharf Masse, and it starts just on the other side of the Cayes gate (arch) that is just past our road to AUC.  The road runs past the agriculture organization SEED, which Rhoda had been to many times, so she was familiar with this end of the road.

We started out around 6:45am, and the walk on this road was very peaceful.  Not many people out on it, and I don’t remember seeing any motorcycles once we got a ways south from the highway.  The road runs past rice fields which had green herons and black-necked stilts.  A canal diverts water from a nearby river into the fields.

A mangrove tree and corn in the rice fields south of AUC

The neighborhood of Islet, where the river meets the sea.

Making lobster traps.

Me and Martelly.

Discussing the fish in the canal

After the road took a sharp right west toward town, we came to a ponded area of the canal in which there were at least 3 species of fish - bon boni with yellow tails, a fish called teta which is the Kreyol word for tadpole (but Rhoda was sure the man was using it for a fish) and a fish called kongo (fish post coming later).  The road was getting busier with all the people carrying their wares to the market.

Sorting charcoal (notice they are standing on charcoal)

The road came out on the main road that runs northwest-southeast through Cayes, Avenue Des Quatre Chemins.  Rather than staying on this busy road, we went east one road and ended up in an even busier market.  Not for those who don’t like crowded cultural experiences!  The road was a bit muddy, there were many places where you had to jump over water streaming across the road, it was VERY crowded with people selling food (raw meat, veggies, rice, spices, fruit) and clothing (I bought a blouse for 150 gd ($3.75), probably too much but I talked her down from 250 gd).  Finally the market ended and we ended up walking through a narrow little neighborhood called Islet that popped out where the river meets the ocean.  This was about 4km (2.5mi) from AUC.  People were bathing in the confluence, kids were playing (or bathing?), men were working on their boats and lobster traps.  It was quite the cultural experience you can’t get from driving.  And I learned that “I love you baby” sounds a lot like “Hello Debbie” (the guy who said it seemed pretty happy that I responded by shaking his hand).

Mangroves

Sail boat taxi.

Carrying the market lady from the sail boat.

From Islet we headed west and followed roads that hugged the ocean, detouring down them to see what was on the coast.  We came across public latrines that a Rotary club had built (and that were in great need of emptying), a trashy mangrove, a park built by Martelly, a pier where people were unloading wooden poles and charcoal, and finally a pier where cement was being unloaded from little wooden boats that brought it in from a large ship docked out in the bay.  Men were then bagging up the cement for transport into town.  There was a cute but trashy park at this pier, and a nice

salesman from NatCom who welcomed us and said thanks for not being afraid to visit Cayes (he also knew some Vietnamese, as NatCom is a Vietnamese cell phone company).

The ship of cement.  Notice the small wood boats along side it.

Unloading and packing up cement

At 10:30am we ended the trip by catching a moto for the 3.5km (2mi) back campus (2 of us on the same one!).  It was a great walk, and if anyone is brave enough to visit me in Haiti, I look forward to taking you walking to see rural, city, and ocean-side life in Haiti.

The moto ride home.

Fried bread is always good!  5 gds each.

Rhoda and the Rotary latrine.