Bino

Bino is a neighbourhood in the second section of Leogane. It is very poor but the people are kind. There are local women who bake bread, grow and sell vegetables and even a place to watch Spanish football games. Bino is on a floodplain between the sea and the Leogane river and the area is filled with a beautiful canopy of forest producing mangoes, breadfruit and coconuts. Indeed, there are surprisingly few savage creatures, save the mosquitoes and the odd tarantula. Bino is also our home.

Living in the comfort of our beautiful house is at times disturbing. We have intermittent electricity, piped water and an abundance of space, comfort and many of the modern conveniences that sweeten life. What we do not have, however, is a project for the neighbourhood.

I have attempted to understand the likely impact that establishing a project would bring – the impasse I reach is, understandably, where to begin. Looking through the lens of security, a community project might contribute to lifting the physical and mental barriers of ignorance that inevitably exist between us and our neighbours. Moreover, the questions that might emerge on assessing the impact of a project are difficult and many.

First, in establishing a project, we would try to develop a number of basic facilities and skills that are sorely lacking; however, will we create a dependency if the project meets a need but does so in a wholly unsustainable fashion. Secondly, we must find premises to house our community work; are we putting at risk our security if we produce a project that opens our home and our resources to the neighbourhood. Third, assuming we begin working, are we interfering in the natural course of community life if we try and establish a project in the first place?

The first step in establishing a project is to look at need. Some of our volunteers have already approached our neighbours. There are children in the neighbourhood that do not attend school nor have access to basic necessities. Moreover, there are few, if any, fun activities such as art classes, sport, or even first-level sanitation and healthcare.  A number of the older children work and the younger ones just hang around with nothing to do most of the day. Unemployment levels are high.

With a bit of good fortune and enterprise, even on a shoestring, many important results can be achieved. Doubtless, our presence in Bino has not been wholly negative; for we have begun to give ad hoc art classes, observe at voodoo ceremonies and provide out of hours medical attention to our neighbours. Much of the hard work, therefore, has already been achieved, progressing towards meaningful social interaction with the Bino community.

Our task is clearly simpler as the most important ingredient exists in abundance – desire. Our walk to the main road from our home is punctuated by smiling faces and what have now become dozens of pictures deposited at number 13 with our names and good wishes. Therefore, it is important that we continue to cultivate that.

Reflection

Forgive me for the tardiness in my posts and the time-lag between reality and posting. This was something I wrote immediately after the first raindrops of trouble in the election.

I have just heard that at the closing event of Michel ‘Sweet Mickey’ Martelly’s presidential campaign gunmen opened fire killing at least one person. Cholera is sweeping through the country and The Dominican Republic has closed its border to Haiti to prevent the spread of disease. With all that has ensued since my arrival, flooding, cholera, political instability, against the backdrop of the earthquake, it is hard not to feel unmoved by another event which will further destabilize an already difficult country.

I cannot begin to comprehend, nor, accordingly, convey the hardships that each day brings for the average Haitian. In defiance of non-existent government, poor governance, ignorant NGOs, meek international institutions, poverty, decrepit infrastructure, deceit, violence, helplessness and worst of all indifference the people of this small island attempt to build families and live a good life. The list would go on, though I fear that I am erring too far away from my desire to remain apolitical and, by some measure, evaluative.
I observe that at the macro-level the reasons for continued decay, economic stagnation and insecurity are myriad and dauntingly complex. However, at the individual level, the pieces of the puzzle conspire to tie each person in a yoke that renders even the most fundamental of tasks an effort. Now is not the time to try and unpick the knots, save to remark that a recovery of sorts would take generations and I am not sure that our continued presence here as NGOs will solve anything. Merely, all the efforts and energies expended thus far seem to pull in the opposite direction away from independence and against what I value most - personal autonomy.