Arcade Fire visits PIH sites in Haiti
Posted on Apr 6, 2011
Guest blog post by Arcade Fire violinist Marika Shaw. Marika and the rest of the band recently spent four days in Haiti visiting various PIH sites.
I am writing to you, our friends and supporters who signed up to Stand with Haiti at an Arcade Fire show within the last year. We recently returned from a trip to Haiti, my first, and I learned so much and was so moved by the experience that I want to share some of it with you.
As we flew into Port-au-Prince, and while I tried to prepare myself for a city in ruins, devastated by the January 12th 2010 earthquake, I looked out my window, surprised and totally overwhelmed by beauty. On one side, a sprawling mountain range surrounding the city and on the other, quintessential crystal blue Caribbean waters. This view was the first example of something we found each day in Haiti: that struggle and vitality go hand in hand.
In Port-au-Prince, the suffering we saw was incomprehensible. People are living in, at most, real tents, but often under only a clothing line with a tarp drawn over it, on top of or around semi-fallen abandoned buildings, on what might have been the sidewalk only a couple of years ago. There are people living in ditches and drains. Garbage is everywhere.
Arcade Fire performs outside PIH's hospital in Cange, Haiti.
The city is also made up of “spontaneous settlement camps” which, 15 months after the earthquake, seem far more “settlement” than “spontaneous”, as over 1 million Haitians are still homeless. Dr. Louise Ivers, Head of Mission for PIH in Haiti, shared with us her experiences of working in these camps. There are over 80,000 people living in the largest camp (there are MANY of these camps throughout the city and beyond) who share 200 latrines and 10 showers.
Down the road, in another camp, I spoke with a Zanmi Lasante nurse, Genevieve Joubert. [link] She lost everything in the earthquake, and lives in the settlement camp while providing care for her patients, patients who are also her neighbours, sometimes living with up to 15 people per tent.
But, no-one we visited—not the Haitian doctors, nurses, midwives, or community health workers, many of whom, like Genevieve, had also lost everything in the quake and were also living in the camps - were defeated. Quite the opposite. What was most poignant and lasting about our time in Port-au-Prince was that despite all the devastation, sorrow, and sickness, the teams of people working together are undeterred; approaching every challenge with commitment, positivity, and tenacity.
After Port-au-Prince, our PIH hosts brought us to several communities in the central plateau, where PIH started its work 25 years ago. Due to the road conditions (MASSIVE jagged rocks jutting out onto one-lane/half-lane trail traversing over mountain tops and through rivers), we piled into separate 4x4s to visit Bay Tourib, a village area of about 5,000 people. Our ride was 2 hours long, but put into stark perspective when we were told that the residents of Bay Tourib must walk 5-6 hours to the nearest health center; often carrying family on their backs or make-shift stretchers from old doors. During the height of the cholera epidemic, this walk proved too long for many who passed away before ever arriving at the clinic. When we arrived, it appeared that the entire village had come out to greet us. The schoolchildren sang for us. (The echo of this song still resonates in my ears …I don't know if it's possible to convey the magic of that sound, the thunder in their voices...) The entire village walked us through a tour of their community: a church, a two-room school house, and an empty building. We were told that this building was erected to be a health clinic, but the organization that had come in to build it abandoned it before the money for services and equipment could be raised. This village is where KANPE, in partnership with Partners In Health, will begin its work.
Our trip ended at the PIH/ZL flagship hospital in Cange, a place which 25 years ago, like Bay Tourib today, was a squatter settlement, not even on the map. The people were living on land that had been completely deforested, with no agriculture, and no access to healthcare or education. They had been displaced, had “settled” and were barely surviving. And in just one generation, Cange is a vibrant community of Haitians, running arguably the best hospital in the country, with an educated, tri-lingual, healthy generation of youth. There are trees and agricultural programs. There is even a marching band.
That night, with the Haitian band, RAM, we played music. It felt like the entire community came out to celebrate; to celebrate Haiti. The marching band welcomed our set with proud versions of both the Canadian and Haitian National anthems, then we played and sang for the community, the patients, and our hosts. As RAM’s set started, and as more dust was kicked into the air by the hundreds of dancing feet, the exuberance was a powerful reminder of what is possible. Our final night in this Haitian village which had transformed so beautifully, turned into one of the best musical experience of our lives.
While I still find it challenging to fully process and digest what this extraordinary country and its people have gone through, and what they continue to face, it's the resilience, perseverance and commitment of PIH and their Haitian colleagues in ZL who continue to do "whatever it takes" that re-affirms the commitment I made to Stand With Haiti. It is a long and challenging road ahead as Haiti rebuilds itself, but there is also incredible potential and there is work to be done.
Thank you to all the incredible people we met in Haiti who shared their country and their lives with us. I would especially like to thank Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante for hosting us: Ali, Jon, Joan, Cate, Louise, Bec, Kathryn, Robinson, Domec, Dr. Almazor, Dmitri, Genevieve, Joel, John, Marie-Flore, the amazing cooks, the doctors and the nurses who met with us, and everyone else. We are truly inspired by the important work you do and the generosity of heart with which you do it.
And thank you to you—our fans and supporters who also made the commitment to, and who continue to, Stand With Haiti.
Love,
Marika
Arcade Fire
Guest blog post by Arcade Fire violinist Marika Shaw. Marika and the rest of the band recently spent four days in Haiti visiting various PIH sites.
