MINUSTAH KOLERA satute

At the entrance of Port Salut a very controverted statute can be seen which depict a Haitian holding Haiti's flag with his foot on a blue helmet representing the UN. On the helmet MINUSTAH KOLERA can be read and under the helmet a mountain of skulls. This symbolic statute is a response to cholera epidemic started in 2010 which is still on-going nowadays. Some scientists said that the epidemic has the same strain found in Nepal; in the vicinity where the outbreak occurred, a Nepalese peacekeepers were stationed, therefore the MINUSTAH was directly pointed out. The UN is now being sued for the outbreak which killed over eight thousands people so far and sent hundreds of thousands in hospital. For the time being, let's hope the outbreak will be stopped before more people die from it.

Few more pictures

Few more pictures to show you the beauty of Haiti.
It would be nice for Hati to develop tourism but once tourism will flourish here, it will be very difficult to enjoy this island the way we do it today. Big hotels, waves of noisy tourists and vendors harassing us on the beach like in the Dominican Republic will probably take over the serenity of the place. Let's hope at least that sex tourism will be avoided with strict laws; unfortunately poverty often leads to exploitation of all kind.

Vacation time in Haiti

As I say in the previous post, it is a shame that the security in Haiti is so unstable otherwise they could develop tourism on most of the island. Beautiful beaches, nice people to meet and good local food such as fresh fish, lobster, delicious fruits and vegetables. But Haiti has also mountains which would offer very nice trek opportunities for those like me who prefer the mountain to the sea.
Now, let's talk about my first few days of vacation in Haiti.
A morning walk along the beach in Port Salut (at 7 am), allowed me to meet some fishermen coming back from fishing on board of their hand made boats with some of their catches. They were happy to show me what they got and even told me to take pictures which is quite unusual for Haitian. Life here is fairly relax and people seem to live at the rhythm of the sea, one wave at the time. The sand is golden, the sea is turquoise and the palm trees are omnipresent, the perfect background for an exotic picture album from paradise.
After my little walk, I went to a French restaurant for breakfast. This place is right on the beach and the food is good. Veggie omelette, fresh fruits, nice dark coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice was my choice of menu for this morning. This nice meal and the early hour I got up to come here made me a little tired so I went to the beach under a huge tree and had a very pleasant nap for over an hour. Few locals are around listening "Kompa" music which is Haitian native music in Creole. Kompa music on one side and the sound of the waves on the other was the perfect way to deeply relax. I wish I could share that with my family other than pictures and stories but maybe one day when Haiti will be secure enough, we will be able to come together here and I'll be able to show them the beauty of this island and its people.
Voilà, that's all for now, my lobster has arrived and I really don't like to eat cold so bye for now.
Warm regards to all from Haiti chérie.

Spiny lobster on the beach

Fisherman just returning with his catch

New functions in the mission

After a busy month of January, I come to the end of it on vacation. I use these days off to visit some of my contingent mates at Les Cayes (South of Haiti). I took the opportunity to also visit Port Salut, a village right on the beach located approximately at 35 kms from Les Cayes).

Before I get to the vacation part I should quickly explain what my new functions are within the mission.
The MINUSTAH mission is scheduled to end up in 2016. To say that the UN will get out of the country completely would be a little presumptuous but at least the mission the way we know it know will end.
Since 2012 until 2016, the mission has a plan to fully professionalize the Haitian National Police (HNP) but to reach that goal a rather substantial amount of money is required from all donor countries such as Canada, USA, France to only name the largest contributing countries in Haiti. That's where I come into play. My role is to create the bridge between the HNP and all the contributing countries (11 so far) and to ensure these countries are still motivated to continue to help Haiti and specifically the HNP in order to secure the country and allow its development. Instability is the root of the problem here and the reasons why tourism is almost inexistent and why no companies are willing to invest here.
It's a very demanding job but I really like it; I feel that I'm contributing to the solution of the problem. Until my last day on the job, I was working on a big meeting (first of its kind in this mission) which will reunite the HNP and all contributing countries to exchange on what has been accomplished so far, what needs to be done still and try to get everyone committed to the realization on the plan including the Haitian government. It is nice to have the rest of the world involved to try to help Haiti, but Haiti has also the duty to show that she is actively participating into the solution. Hopefully, the outcome of the meeting will be positive and the realization of the plan will go on as scheduled. That will be discussed in an other post.