A Fool In Haiti

On March 18th 2010, whilst staying in a peristyle called Temp Chango Chawa in a town called Cayes Jacmel, we were visited by Manbo Mirielle AIN, A woman born in France who had worked at the foreign embassy in Haiti until she discovered Vodou. I had the fortunate pleasure of being able to interview her where we spoke very openly about Haiti, Vodou, the earthquake and her life as a Manbo (an initiated priestess of Vodou). Watch the interview and listen to her fascinating story.

If you are ever wondering who to make a donation to and how to help the situation in Haiti, look no further than Manbo Mirielle: an amazing community member who provides food, shelter, jobs and spiritual solace for many many Haitians. The website for the peristyle she started is here: Yagen Tanwe. Please contribute if you can

Updated to add: She speaks French from 19 minutes in, so if you are a French speaker you may want to skip straight to 19:00. The translation from the French is in the comments below

One of the many vids I took of some of the children who will live at the Danthor Foundation orphanage once it is ready… The kids loved the cameras! This is filmed in a small village called Oban, about 5 miles from Jacmel in Southern Haiti. Filmed in March 2010 about 6 weeks after the earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people… Myself and Manbo Paula were there and with our $US20/day each we were able to feed about 25 people…

Wow, I got some new photos off my broken phone and am happy to be finally able to share these…

Whilst I was in Haiti, on March 29th I made a trip out to Cite Lumiere De Peredo in Peredo.

Cite Lumiere is a school with about 400 students ranging in age from 5 to 25. The reason for students there being above the normal age we Westerners would normally go to school is that students cannot normally afford to go to school when they are younger, and so they get in whenever they are able to.

A week earlier Djony Pierre (the school principal) had heard there were some blanks (white people) in town who were trying to find ways to help Haiti and he came out to visit to see if we could help him and his school out. He was one of about fifty people who came to seek help from Westerners and now it is time to tell his story.

This is Djony Piere.

Cite Lumiere is a private school. When I first heard this, my instinct was much like it would be in the developed world – A private school must be rich and therefore they probably don’t really need my help. But I quickly learnt that this was wrong! It is private because it receives absolutely no money from the state and they have to raise all the money themselves. In Peredo, there is one state secondary school for boys and one state secondary girls’ school. Cite Lumiere has 400 students of both genders, it is the only school in Peredo that teaches primary classes. It has 16 teaching staff, 1 guard and a “housewife” who I believe does all the maintenance there.

There is no orphanage in Peredo but I didn’t get the figures for how many orphans were living in that town. I will email Djony and ask him to confirm all the figures on this page.

The school has been going since October 4th, 2004 and was set up by Djony in his attempt to better his country, help kids get an education and to teach. Running your own school is a great status symbol in Haiti and he does it really well. Fortunately, not a great deal of structural damage was done to the school during the earthquake, but it was affected immensely economically by the fallout of funds being sent elsewhere. And I should mention that the school is non-denominational accepting people of all faiths.

I was shown around the school, talked to the children of all ages. It was amazing how astute they were when it came to issues such as the criminal syphoning off of cash that is donated to Haiti. They all knew about that, even the youngsters. They made pleas for my help and I offered to do what I could by way of telling their story to the world. I was gutted when I thought I had lost the photos and videos of that school but am so relieved I can show the world this story.

One very thought-provoking thing happened at the end of the day as I was leaving. Djony told me that it was not a school day. It was actually a school holiday and he had arranged a special day in to coincide with my visit, so that the I could meet the kids and help them get their story out. This was really moving and I’m glad I’m finally able to share the story.

Please see the pictures of the school below. I’m going to sort out and upload the videos shortly.

If you have some spare cash, please please consider making a donation to Cite Lumiere. In the first instance, please send Djony an email at djonypierre1978(AT)yahoo.fr

Thank you! Ayibobo!!

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