Appreciating What is Good
My short seven-day trip to Haiti is almost finished. While this marks my third trip back since my wife, Merline, and I left on February 24, it’s her first time back. Merline, who is Haitian, and I have been celebrating reconnecting with members of her family. And, we’re enjoying reconnecting with neighbors and our three dogs and the beautiful area called Mariaman, which is located in the mountains about 7 miles south of Port-au-Prince and where I’ve lived for the eight years before leaving Haiti. In Haiti, we stay with dear friends, Kent and Shelly, who built a house on our one-third-acre wooded plot in Mariaman.
I’ve come for work reasons as well. Board and staff meetings and meetings to explore opportunities with colleagues and partners are squeezed into this week. I organized a two-half-day informal seminar on a method called Appreciative Inquiry, which I’ve begun using in my work with US-based organizations. My Haitian colleagues will determine, now that they’ve been introduced to the method and have had a mini experience with it, if and how they might wish to continue to experiment with it in the work they do with their respective groups.
There were nine of us during the two days, mostly Haitian men between the age of 27 and 35, all of who come from extremely poor families. Their level of formal education ranges from some university to several who have Bachelors’ degrees and one who has a masters degree. Their monthly earnings range between US$50 and US$1,000 with the average being roughly US$450. With the exception of one, who lives in Darbonne, which is 25 miles away, all live in poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince or within 5 miles from city limits. Heguel, who is currently unemployed and who normally lives in Cite Soleil, the slum plagued by gang warfare, is sleeping in different homes of friends each night with the hope that things will eventually calm down and he’ll return home. Or better, he’ll find work and have the means to rent a house in another neighborhood.
Merline and I didn’t know what to expect on this trip and tried to prepare for the instability and lack of security with plans to have her accompanied by a colleague wherever she would go. We would also avoid travel that was not absolutely necessary, etc. We’ve been pleasantly surprised to see tens of thousands of people going about their normal lives. True, each day various friends and family share stories of how they or someone close to them was robbed or nearly robbed. And, Heguel, shared how he witnessed a grizzly killing on a recent return to Cite Soleil. According to his account, the assassin shot and killed a man and his child on their way to church and then beheaded the man and ran away with the head.
In light of the country’s continued turmoil and her citizens wondering when they will have a stable government and improved economy, my colleagues and I discovered there are things to be thankful for and that will not likely make it to headline news in Haiti nor in the U.S. Here’s the list we came up with during the conclusion of our Appreciative Inquiry seminar:
1. A number of famous Haitian artists are spending time with gangs and encouraging them to make peace.
2. While Port-au-Prince and Haiti don’t have a fraction of the numbers of police necessary for a population of 2 million and 8 million respectively, there are countless neighborhoods and villages untouched by political and gang violence.
3. There are Human Rights organizations actively and effectively engaged in monitoring, reporting and denouncing abuses.
4. There is more dialogue among political parties now than there was six months ago.
5. The current government is implementing measures to make it much harder for government officials to steal government property.
6. Haitians from around the country came to the aid of their compatriots in extraordinary ways in the Gonaive area, which was devastated by flooding.
7. With the exception of Cite Soleil and Gonaive area, schools are functioning regularly. The fact that parents are comfortable sending their children off to school is a significant sign of trust.
8. Our colleague who stays in the office during the weekends (houses and offices are normally occupied by someone, even off hours) had a dispute with someone who came to the office two hours before our seminar started. He called the police to have the person removed from the premises. The police arrived within ten minutes of his call and effectively dealt with the situation.
JohnEngle.info
TheExperiment.info
John@TheExperiment.info
My short seven-day trip to Haiti is almost finished. While this marks my third trip back since my wife, Merline, and I left on February 24, it’s her first time back. Merline, who is Haitian, and I have been celebrating reconnecting with members of her family. And, we’re enjoying reconnecting with neighbors and our three dogs and the beautiful area called Mariaman, which is located in the mountains about 7 miles south of Port-au-Prince and where I’ve lived for the eight years before leaving Haiti. In Haiti, we stay with dear friends, Kent and Shelly, who built a house on our one-third-acre wooded plot in Mariaman.
I’ve come for work reasons as well. Board and staff meetings and meetings to explore opportunities with colleagues and partners are squeezed into this week. I organized a two-half-day informal seminar on a method called Appreciative Inquiry, which I’ve begun using in my work with US-based organizations. My Haitian colleagues will determine, now that they’ve been introduced to the method and have had a mini experience with it, if and how they might wish to continue to experiment with it in the work they do with their respective groups.
There were nine of us during the two days, mostly Haitian men between the age of 27 and 35, all of who come from extremely poor families. Their level of formal education ranges from some university to several who have Bachelors’ degrees and one who has a masters degree. Their monthly earnings range between US$50 and US$1,000 with the average being roughly US$450. With the exception of one, who lives in Darbonne, which is 25 miles away, all live in poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince or within 5 miles from city limits. Heguel, who is currently unemployed and who normally lives in Cite Soleil, the slum plagued by gang warfare, is sleeping in different homes of friends each night with the hope that things will eventually calm down and he’ll return home. Or better, he’ll find work and have the means to rent a house in another neighborhood.
Merline and I didn’t know what to expect on this trip and tried to prepare for the instability and lack of security with plans to have her accompanied by a colleague wherever she would go. We would also avoid travel that was not absolutely necessary, etc. We’ve been pleasantly surprised to see tens of thousands of people going about their normal lives. True, each day various friends and family share stories of how they or someone close to them was robbed or nearly robbed. And, Heguel, shared how he witnessed a grizzly killing on a recent return to Cite Soleil. According to his account, the assassin shot and killed a man and his child on their way to church and then beheaded the man and ran away with the head.
In light of the country’s continued turmoil and her citizens wondering when they will have a stable government and improved economy, my colleagues and I discovered there are things to be thankful for and that will not likely make it to headline news in Haiti nor in the U.S. Here’s the list we came up with during the conclusion of our Appreciative Inquiry seminar:
1. A number of famous Haitian artists are spending time with gangs and encouraging them to make peace.
2. While Port-au-Prince and Haiti don’t have a fraction of the numbers of police necessary for a population of 2 million and 8 million respectively, there are countless neighborhoods and villages untouched by political and gang violence.
3. There are Human Rights organizations actively and effectively engaged in monitoring, reporting and denouncing abuses.
4. There is more dialogue among political parties now than there was six months ago.
5. The current government is implementing measures to make it much harder for government officials to steal government property.
6. Haitians from around the country came to the aid of their compatriots in extraordinary ways in the Gonaive area, which was devastated by flooding.
7. With the exception of Cite Soleil and Gonaive area, schools are functioning regularly. The fact that parents are comfortable sending their children off to school is a significant sign of trust.
8. Our colleague who stays in the office during the weekends (houses and offices are normally occupied by someone, even off hours) had a dispute with someone who came to the office two hours before our seminar started. He called the police to have the person removed from the premises. The police arrived within ten minutes of his call and effectively dealt with the situation.
JohnEngle.info
TheExperiment.info
John@TheExperiment.info
posted by John Engle at 11/14/2004 04:11:00 PM
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