Someone from the Petionville Mairie (roughly, the office of the mayor) shot and killed a merchant on Rue Geffrard about 3 blocks from my apartment this morning. This section of street is usually completely blocked with small merchants (mostly women) who come every morning and sell their stuff in the middle of the street. This is technically illegal, but most of the merchants have been coming to the same square of pavement in this informal market for years, and the Mairie comes at most every few months to make them move for a few days and then normalcy resumes.
This morning, apparently a stubborn merchant held her ground, got into an argument with whoever was working for the Mairie and was shot dead. This is exactly the kind of arbitrary violence that human-rights activists are worried about. Haiti could use a bit more order, but not at the expense of rule-of-law.
About an hour later, some merchants came back and started a small fire and started protesting her death. The UDMO (Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order) came and shot off some tear gas canisters and then left. The photos don’t really do it justice. I was trying to get the police shooting off some canisters, but I also wanted to stay safely away from them too.
The rule of law is fresh in my mind this week. Only a few days ago Martelly (the president) ordered a député (comparable to a member of the House of Representatives in the US) arrested. According to Article 115 of the constitution, it is illegal to arrest a sitting député or sénateur. They have to be censured by a majority of the senate first. The story gets even more bizarre. The député was arrested for breaking out of jail immediately after the earthquake. The guy then went about his business for several months and ran for député of Delmas and Tabarre (a huge district that makes up the bulk of the population of Port-au-Prince arrondissement) and won. Apparently the député was in jail while waiting for a verdict. He was cleared of whatever he was originally charged with. So, his arrest is for being out of prison for a crime he was found innocent of committing. The prison itself was destroyed in the earthquake, so it is hard to imagine him standing around outside the prison asking to be taken to another prison. He was eventually released after a resolution from the senate condemning the arrest and protests outside the (same, now rebuilt) prison by loyal constituents.
Alex, Mom and I went whale watching in the San Juan Islands. I think the pictures speak for themselves. While we saw members of all three resident pods (J, K, and L), I got the best pictures of K-pod.
This is K21 “Cappucino”. He was born in 1986.
Below is K40 “Raggedy” (check out her dorsal fin) with her calf. She was born sometime around 1963. Calves aren’t named until they are a year old because so many of them die due to all the accumulated toxins passed in utero and via breast milk. It’s hard being at the top of the food chain in the chemical age.
Some “head shots”.
Yesterday (January 11, 2011), I was very fortunate to be invited to the opening of the Iron Market in downtown Port-au-Prince. Over half the structure was destroyed during the quake and a fire in 2008. It was meticulously restored to its original glory and design. The owner of Digicel (the biggest cell provider here) donated $12 million of his own money to rebuild it. I guess money doesn’t stop you doing the right thing when you are worth $3.5 billion.
The center portion of the Iron Market (Marché Hyppolite) in all her glory.
Decorations for the event. Note the use of cane sugar, chadeque (similar to grapefruit), carrot, and eggplant in the decorations.
The inside of the market (there are two sides).
There are high powered fans, potable water, and even recycling and composting in the market
The market looking so fine, temporarily makes you forget what still needs to be done in the immediate neighborhood.
People gathered all over, even on roofs, to see the event.
some of the speakers were more photogenic than others.
This was during an especially emotional part of the opening speech. The mayor of Port-au-Prince was talking about the memory of those who died in the earthquake. I didn’t even frame this shot, I just got really lucky shooting at waist height.
cutting the ribbon
Leaving the market as the sun starts to set.
Photos from election results protests outside my house:
Housemates watching protesters burn a Jude Célestin sign about 100m from the house between Pelerin 4 and Pelerin 5
Burning the sign:
Further down the road almost to Pelerin 2, two cars are in the road. Police are slowly moving them off the road.
The crowd is mostly calm. They are playing football or talking or just watching. They seem to be fine with people walking. They get upset with people driving motos by. They would definitely not be OK with driving a car through.
Yesterday I got up early to go on a scouting trip to Hinche, in the Central Plateau. It is seriously beautiful up there.
We drove by this really nice lake.
Arrived in Hinche. This is the old cathedral.
The new cathedral. Sorry about the windshield glare.
“Destinée” Morgue Privé Infini (“Destiny” Private Morgue Infinite) in Hinche.
Our target: Morne Baycite, immediately South of Hinche with a clear view of Hinche and the mountaintops behind PaP
On the way up
This kid walked up with us and joined me for a sandwich at the summit. Note the bare feet.
My what a pretty new tower you are…
The guard and a friend. Just like in Benin he was smiling about 10 seconds before I took the picture. Wait, wait, I need to get serious first!
Xavier was a bit tired after the hike up:
Hi Horsey!
The rainy season makes everything green and gorgeous
The road down the mountain
This a grain storage house on stilts to keep out the critters.
Today I helped Inveneo bring decent Internet access to NGOs in Leogane by climbing up a 60m tower to adjust an antenna. Mark and I setup the matching antenna in Leogane at the Hands-On Disaster Response base there.
About to head up the tower. Nice view! I am happy that it is foggy because it is cooler. The bottom antennas are 2m terrestrial microwave antennas.
If you look carefully, you can see me up there…
Close up:
I am staying the night at Hands On tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be getting connections up to Save the Children and the Canadian Red Cross. A lot of very happy volunteers wanted to buy me a beer tonight, but I stopped at 3.
In Port-au-Prince there are several canals that carry storm runoff to the sea. This is one of the bigger ones and drains the whole Ravine Bois de Chêne. After a big rain, any garbage lying in the roads or in the ravine gets swept downstream. The heavy stuff usually stops somewhere along the way, but the plastic floats and usually stops right here when it hits the bridge.
Two days ago, I rode by and saw that a portion of the ravine was on fire. This photo was taken yesterday. You can’t see it, but the blackened part is still steaming.
I can’t help but wonder how much less plastic there would be somebody offered a bounty of even 1 gourde for 20 bottles (800 bottles for a US dollar). The other major components of this mess are clamshell styrofoam and refrigerator insulation. Sadly, the fledgling recycling industry in Haiti doesn’t have the capacity to do much of anything with the waste produced even in the capital.
At this point I am pretty used to finding and removing critters (cockroaches, mice, rats, lizards, even birds). However last night was a bit exceptional. I came home last night and put down my bag. I saw something move in the dim light and thought, “this can only be one thing”. I told Eugene he probably wanted to put his feet up!
close up for scale
Anyway, the tarantula was very sensible and took my gentle encouragement to get out. We joked briefly of keeping it as a pet to eat our cockroaches.
Below is a photo taken a few weeks ago inside the main office of the (fixed line) telephone company in Leogane. Note the date on the calendar. There are roughly 60,000 land lines for a country of almost 10 million people. No wonder everyone has a cell phone.
The dominant form of transport in Haiti is the tap-tap. It is a shared, usually crowded, truck or bus that runs a regular route and will pickup and drop off anywhere along the way (space permitting). Many of them are decorated in bright colors. The larger ones in Port-au-Prince are especially well decorated. On some tap-taps there is space to ride on the roof, which is much more comfortable, but a bit more dangerous if the tap-tap flips over. During the day, they are frequent and convenient, but they stop running pretty early. I usually need to catch one by 4pm from Port-au-Prince to get back to Tomgato and I almost got stuck in Jacmel once.
Our market is on Wednesday and Saturday. A lot of vendors come from nearby even smaller villages with donkeys and horses with their produce. I especially like this photo of the market “parking lot” starting to fill up.
But what do these horses and donkeys carry? All sorts of things. But I thought the idea of carrying a few banana trees on horseback was especially amusing:
