HAITI: Les Cayes

Finally posting some of my thoughts from the latter half of our journey -- workshops and shows in Les Cayes. 

After ten days in the Grande Goave area, we traveled down to the south coast to the town of Les Cayes, where we worked with children in adults in the slum of Cite Delma.

This is an extremely poor area, where the people do not have enough to eat (or drink).  Outstretched hands greet us throughout our visits with accompanying pleadings of "M'gran gou, m'gran soif" (I'm hungry, I'm thirsty) and "What do you have for me, do you have something for me?"  It's difficult to know what to do.  We do bring something... but it's not food or clothing, it's not material goods.  We bring food for the spirit.  This is good, too, and something very much needed, but it's not enough.  It's something I grapple with.

We offer joy, play, laughter, inspiration... Through our creative and exploratory and playful workshops, the young adults, and the children have the opportunity to inspire and empower themselves to see new possibilities for themselves and to envision moving beyond their current circumstances.  But, still, they don't have the physical means....  They grapple with this as well.  In the end, through feedback, we learn that yes, they feel uplifted and inspired and more hopeful, but there is frustration and discouragement still at the feeling of lack of prospects.   Of course, in one week we are not going to change their entire world.  We hope to sow a seed...

My first impression, however, as we arrive is one of joy and curiosity.  I notice a marked difference in the spirit of the children.  These children may be poor and hungry, but they have not been traumatized by the earthquake, which did not affect this area too much.  As we drive through the narrow pathway between the houses and arrive at the community space, children are jumping up and down excitedly waving and reaching out there hands.  I do not get the sense they are reaching out their hands in this instant to beg, but rather to touch and greet and connect with these foreign newcomers who might be offering something exciting, whether it be food for the soul or food for the tummy.  As we play with the children, I notice there is definitely a need to connect, physically and emotionally.  One girl in particular clings to me a lot, taking my hands, slipping her arm through mine, hugging and holding.

Our show with these kids is a great success.  We decide, learning from our experience in Grande Goave, to include the adults we are working with more and we give them a chance to create and lead segments of the show.  That way everyone is more actively involved.  The 'formateurs' -- the trainers whom we are training and who will lead the ongoing play activities after we leave, together with adults from the neighborhood -- are so great!  Full of enthusiasm, spirit and vision, and very creative and expressive!









We travel with all the children to perform our show in a small village in a remote area about an hour and a half drive away.  A bus has been chartered to take us all there.  The bus can't get into the slum housing area where the kids live and where we've been doing our activities, so we all walk together for twenty minutes along the narrow dirt pathway through the community out to the main road.  The entire way the children and adults sing the camp song "Boom chicka boom" which we've taught them and which they really dig.  Non-stop the whole way.  There is such excitement!

After an hour or so drive, the bus stops and we all get off and take turns traveling in two pick-up trucks the rest of the way.  The road to the village is so rough and narrow, the bus can't get through.  And when I say it's a bumpy road, that's an understatement!  It takes the truck twenty minutes to negotiate this terrain, which can hardly be termed a road at all.

Finally, we have all arrived and it's time to do the show.  The community is all gathered under a roofed open-air community space, ready and waiting.  Afterward, a dance party ensues.  I note with interest that the villagers are continuing the party on their own, oblivious to our presence or departure.  Usually, in my experience, everyone follows us out with curiosity to see what else we might do or to see us off.  But, clearly, a dance party takes precedence over anything else!

I dance, too, for a bit and invite a girl standing by watching to join me.  An adult pushes her towards me and she runs away.  Of course, that's too scary, don't make her, let her take her time to get comfortable and connect with me, I'm thinking.  She comes back and moves closer to me, I take a step towards her, and she runs off again!  I see her again a little later as I stand somewhere else in the crowd; she approaches me, I look at her, and she immediately runs off... and then she sneaks back, and we start again, a back and forth dance of approach run away approach run away.  At this point, she's smiling and laughing.  This becomes a game between us, which goes on for the next half hour or hour! 

In meantime, Selena and some of the girls have started jumping rope out by the road, and a big crowd gathers.  As I look on, a group of elderly women approach me.  They ask me "what do you have for me, what do you have to give me?"  I say, "I have given it to you -- what I bring is joy and laughter!"  "Did you enjoy the show?"  Oh ok!  Yes, yes, thank you.  After a while, they ask again "do you have anything for us?"  One lady asks me for my dress that I am wearing (literally, the shirt off my back).  This is funny, but also sad.

On the way back, the children are so revved up, they sing the entire way.  For an hour and a half!  "I said a boom chicka boom!" And all kinds of songs of their own that they know: "Galloper galloper!  Pedaler pedaler!" and "Il etait un elephant..." etc.