Admittedly, this is a belated entry. I returned back to the states early Friday morning after a roughly 24-hour travel day with flight delays, etc. Ironically, the Haitian flights ran like clockwork -- it was the U.S. flights and customs that caused all the delays.
Since returning home, I've been catching up on sleep and adjusting to the busy schedule of commercial photography work here. As I mentioned before, transitioning from the lifestyle of working in the developing world to working in the First World always seems to take a little time.
On the whole, it was a very productive couple of weeks in Haiti, and I'm so thankful for the types of images that were able to be made. I look forward to watching how Northwest Haiti Christian mission is able to use these photos to better the lives of the Haitian people.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Patients and Orphans
For John’s first full day in Haiti and my (nearly) last day, it was a full one.
We spent the morning wandering the mission’s clinic – John gathered some audio while I photographed. The clinic is spartan by most any American standard, dimly lit and so crowded that patients must push and shove just to get down the main hallway to see a nurse or doctor. But by Haitian standards it is more than adequate and, most attractive to many, it is free. This is not to make excuses for setting poor standards of care when there’s a good chance you’ll get away with it. Excellent health care, after all, should be available to everyone no matter their economic status. But in Haiti, health and relief organizations have to do the best with what limited resources they have.
There is a group of American surgeons here for a week, performing hysteractomies and other gynecological procedures. I passed a couple of hours in the operating room while surgeons removed a uterus full of tumors, a common condition among Haitian women.
After lunch, we went with some of the mission’s sponsorship staff to deliver presents to the special-needs orphanage. Finally, we took an hour-long tap-tap ride to the neighboring city Port-a-Paix to visit the mission’s primary orphanage. It houses more than 150 children and can be more than a little anarchic. But again, by Haitian standards, it is quite a respected orphanage.
It was rewarding to get to work alongside John and discuss his impressions with him as he sees Haiti. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be my last day here, and I regret not being able to spend more time together. But perhaps I’ll be able to convince him to come down again in the near future…
Tomorrow we’ll make the requisite visit to the market (a must for your first time in the developing world), and I’ll interview an American couple in the afternoon for an upcoming story. Time to wind down, to head back to my own country and my beautiful wife, who I miss greatly each time I travel.
Above: Women await their prenatal checkups at a clinic in Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti; Me photographing surgery in the surgical ward; Children bathe at the Chalet Children’s Orphanage in Port-a-Paix – after bathing, the children quickly return to playing in the dirt.
We spent the morning wandering the mission’s clinic – John gathered some audio while I photographed. The clinic is spartan by most any American standard, dimly lit and so crowded that patients must push and shove just to get down the main hallway to see a nurse or doctor. But by Haitian standards it is more than adequate and, most attractive to many, it is free. This is not to make excuses for setting poor standards of care when there’s a good chance you’ll get away with it. Excellent health care, after all, should be available to everyone no matter their economic status. But in Haiti, health and relief organizations have to do the best with what limited resources they have.
There is a group of American surgeons here for a week, performing hysteractomies and other gynecological procedures. I passed a couple of hours in the operating room while surgeons removed a uterus full of tumors, a common condition among Haitian women.
After lunch, we went with some of the mission’s sponsorship staff to deliver presents to the special-needs orphanage. Finally, we took an hour-long tap-tap ride to the neighboring city Port-a-Paix to visit the mission’s primary orphanage. It houses more than 150 children and can be more than a little anarchic. But again, by Haitian standards, it is quite a respected orphanage.
It was rewarding to get to work alongside John and discuss his impressions with him as he sees Haiti. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be my last day here, and I regret not being able to spend more time together. But perhaps I’ll be able to convince him to come down again in the near future…
Tomorrow we’ll make the requisite visit to the market (a must for your first time in the developing world), and I’ll interview an American couple in the afternoon for an upcoming story. Time to wind down, to head back to my own country and my beautiful wife, who I miss greatly each time I travel.
Above: Women await their prenatal checkups at a clinic in Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti; Me photographing surgery in the surgical ward; Children bathe at the Chalet Children’s Orphanage in Port-a-Paix – after bathing, the children quickly return to playing in the dirt.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Easter Contrasts
In the community of Saint-Louis du Nord, where the mission is located, Easter is arguably the largest religious holiday of the year. The mission holds a sunrise service at 5:30 am, followed by another church service later in the morning. I awoke at around 2am to the sounds of shouting and singing from the street below my window. Thousands of children and their parents were lined up at the mission gates, waiting to come in for the service.
Of course, there are other motives besides worship that bring many to the gates. Each Easter, the mission prepares thousands of peanut-butter sandwiches and cups of hot chocolate to give away to anyone who comes to the sunrise service. It is an opportunity for hungry people not enrolled in the mission’s feeding programs to come and eat.
It can also be chaotic. Well intentioned women slipping an extra sandwich to just one person can incite panic, as happened this morning. No one was in much danger, to be sure, but the melee was enough to make one or two visiting Americans cry – perhaps not so much at the clamor, but at the overwhelming neediness that drives desperate people to fight over a piece of bread.
When the confusion settled and I’d eaten a modest breakfast myself, I went to a beautiful morning church service, where a Haitian choir sang painstakingly rehearsed songs and someone preached a passionate message about life and death. And many of the very Haitians who were fighting for food just two hours earlier stood waving their hands in worship. It was an apt illustration of Haiti: A people who struggle every day just to survive, and when church starts, they find in it an opportunity to release all the weight and tension of that existence.
In Haiti, most people worship quite fervently at church. With some, it is genuine God worship. With others, it is an eagerly awaited chance to free themselves, if only temporarily. And yet, if you do find a Haitian who truly grasps the power of Easter, you will find someone who really knows that his or her circumstances on this Earth are not of much importance in the eyes of eternity.
I was blessed to be here for Easter. Tomorrow, I’m blessed that my brother, John, will be arriving here to spend a few days with me in what will be his first trip out of the United States. I’m looking forward to sharing some experiences with him and hearing his first impressions of the developing world.
Above: A crowd fights for bread at a feeding center in Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti, on Easter morning. Andy Olsen photo
Of course, there are other motives besides worship that bring many to the gates. Each Easter, the mission prepares thousands of peanut-butter sandwiches and cups of hot chocolate to give away to anyone who comes to the sunrise service. It is an opportunity for hungry people not enrolled in the mission’s feeding programs to come and eat.
It can also be chaotic. Well intentioned women slipping an extra sandwich to just one person can incite panic, as happened this morning. No one was in much danger, to be sure, but the melee was enough to make one or two visiting Americans cry – perhaps not so much at the clamor, but at the overwhelming neediness that drives desperate people to fight over a piece of bread.
When the confusion settled and I’d eaten a modest breakfast myself, I went to a beautiful morning church service, where a Haitian choir sang painstakingly rehearsed songs and someone preached a passionate message about life and death. And many of the very Haitians who were fighting for food just two hours earlier stood waving their hands in worship. It was an apt illustration of Haiti: A people who struggle every day just to survive, and when church starts, they find in it an opportunity to release all the weight and tension of that existence.
In Haiti, most people worship quite fervently at church. With some, it is genuine God worship. With others, it is an eagerly awaited chance to free themselves, if only temporarily. And yet, if you do find a Haitian who truly grasps the power of Easter, you will find someone who really knows that his or her circumstances on this Earth are not of much importance in the eyes of eternity.
I was blessed to be here for Easter. Tomorrow, I’m blessed that my brother, John, will be arriving here to spend a few days with me in what will be his first trip out of the United States. I’m looking forward to sharing some experiences with him and hearing his first impressions of the developing world.
Above: A crowd fights for bread at a feeding center in Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti, on Easter morning. Andy Olsen photo
Friday, March 21, 2008
Spirituality in Haiti
I arrived back today from another short trip to the Far West of Haiti – this time to Saline Maillette, one of the most remote areas the mission serves. We camped for a cool night in a field next to a church made from thatched palm leaves, a very typical building method for country churches in Haiti. The church held a Last Supper service, which kicks off a series of worship services leading up to Easter Sunday. The congregants sang long after sunset under the wash of a Coleman lantern.
During the service, a RaRa band passed by on the dirt road outside the church. RaRa bands have deep roots in so-called voodoo practices and they roam Haiti freely during Easter week, drumming and blowing into makeshift horns. They are often rowdy and occasionally violent, clashing if two bands meet on the street. For a price, some bands will march while one member whips another with a long bullwhip.
There is an uneasy coexistence here between Christianity and so-called voodoo. Haiti is a predominantly Christian (Catholic and Protestant) nation, though a vast majority of Haitians also claim to hold some form of voodoo beliefs. Just recently, I heard of one Haitian man who said he plans to convert to Christianity just as soon as he could buy some goats to complete a voodoo ritual to heal his daughter. He believed fully in a Christian God, but also in the importance of following the religious prescriptions of a “boko,” or witch doctor. Such stories are very common.
Voodoo, a conglomerate of African beliefs brought to the island by slaves, is highly misunderstood by most American Christians. Paul Farmer, a prominent tuberculosis expert who has work for years in Haiti, once said that every Haitian believes in voodoo in the sense that it is a set of superstitions. Only some practice it seriously as a form of spirit worship. In my limited experience, it seems that most Haitians will at least tip their hat to the practices but are not necessarily guided by it.
Like any religion, voodoo is also subject to manipulation by its leaders who would use it to abuse women and fatten their wallets. It is often sensationalized by American media and culture, and is demonized by the Church. Though voodoo is certainly mysterious, I have come to view it as just another false religion – it is neither better nor worse than any other religion that does not acknowledge Christ. Haitians are a beautiful but struggling people who need hope, like most of the world.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I think I’ll take it easy, sticking around the mission’s main campus. Easter Sunday will be a busy day for photography. Fatigue is a real danger when working here, and it’s important to rest when the opportunity comes.
Above: A RaRa band in Saint-Louis du Nord; A country church in Saline Maillette; A revival service in La Baie des Moustiques. Andy Olsen photos
During the service, a RaRa band passed by on the dirt road outside the church. RaRa bands have deep roots in so-called voodoo practices and they roam Haiti freely during Easter week, drumming and blowing into makeshift horns. They are often rowdy and occasionally violent, clashing if two bands meet on the street. For a price, some bands will march while one member whips another with a long bullwhip.
There is an uneasy coexistence here between Christianity and so-called voodoo. Haiti is a predominantly Christian (Catholic and Protestant) nation, though a vast majority of Haitians also claim to hold some form of voodoo beliefs. Just recently, I heard of one Haitian man who said he plans to convert to Christianity just as soon as he could buy some goats to complete a voodoo ritual to heal his daughter. He believed fully in a Christian God, but also in the importance of following the religious prescriptions of a “boko,” or witch doctor. Such stories are very common.
Voodoo, a conglomerate of African beliefs brought to the island by slaves, is highly misunderstood by most American Christians. Paul Farmer, a prominent tuberculosis expert who has work for years in Haiti, once said that every Haitian believes in voodoo in the sense that it is a set of superstitions. Only some practice it seriously as a form of spirit worship. In my limited experience, it seems that most Haitians will at least tip their hat to the practices but are not necessarily guided by it.
Like any religion, voodoo is also subject to manipulation by its leaders who would use it to abuse women and fatten their wallets. It is often sensationalized by American media and culture, and is demonized by the Church. Though voodoo is certainly mysterious, I have come to view it as just another false religion – it is neither better nor worse than any other religion that does not acknowledge Christ. Haitians are a beautiful but struggling people who need hope, like most of the world.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I think I’ll take it easy, sticking around the mission’s main campus. Easter Sunday will be a busy day for photography. Fatigue is a real danger when working here, and it’s important to rest when the opportunity comes.
Above: A RaRa band in Saint-Louis du Nord; A country church in Saline Maillette; A revival service in La Baie des Moustiques. Andy Olsen photos
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Haiti’s Wild West
This evening I arrived back at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s main campus in Saint-Louis du Nord, after a four-day journey in Haiti’s Far West zone. I stayed most of the time in La Baie des Moustiques, “Bay of the Mosquitos,” an aptly named cove about a two-hour drive from Saint-Louis. The small town there runs up the side of a mountain overlooking the blue water of the Caribbean. It would be a perfect vacation spot with electricity and a national road system that could carry tourists there. The town’s water comes from a spring-fed basin atop a mountain and is safe to drink.
I stayed with a spry old missionary known as Miss Pat, who has a house nextdoor to the church. This will be the last of her more than 20 years in Haiti. From her very modest home, Miss Pat oversees a two-room clinic and a feeding program for children and elders.
Most mornings, I woke early and rolled off my cot on the front porch to wander the town at sunrise. I found it important – indeed, essential – to walk around and greet the many women and children leaving their homes to fetch water, or to untie some goats or sheep. Often it was my greeting them that “broke the ice” and allowed me to return later to a particular street or path to photograph. Haitians do not like to be photographed by strangers, as with most people in the world, I suppose. So it’s best not to be a stranger.
A highlight of my time here was following Claud, a local farmer, for a couple of days. He sharecrops his garden of mostly plaintains, some of which his small family eats. What’s left is sold, and the income put toward a tin roof for the house he’s building his family atop the hill. If someone asked what he does for a living, one might say he doesn’t have a job – he just survives. His routine is incredibly simple, his posessions incredibly few, and his lifestyle unremarkably common in Haiti.
Tomorrow I’ll return west again to visit another town where the mission is working. I’ll camp there for the night and will head back to Saint Louis Friday, just in time for Easter activities to get underway.
Above: Motorcycle taxi to La Baie des Moustiques; the town; in the fields with Claud; children playing on rocks along the shore at La Baie. Andy Olsen photos
I stayed with a spry old missionary known as Miss Pat, who has a house nextdoor to the church. This will be the last of her more than 20 years in Haiti. From her very modest home, Miss Pat oversees a two-room clinic and a feeding program for children and elders.
Most mornings, I woke early and rolled off my cot on the front porch to wander the town at sunrise. I found it important – indeed, essential – to walk around and greet the many women and children leaving their homes to fetch water, or to untie some goats or sheep. Often it was my greeting them that “broke the ice” and allowed me to return later to a particular street or path to photograph. Haitians do not like to be photographed by strangers, as with most people in the world, I suppose. So it’s best not to be a stranger.
A highlight of my time here was following Claud, a local farmer, for a couple of days. He sharecrops his garden of mostly plaintains, some of which his small family eats. What’s left is sold, and the income put toward a tin roof for the house he’s building his family atop the hill. If someone asked what he does for a living, one might say he doesn’t have a job – he just survives. His routine is incredibly simple, his posessions incredibly few, and his lifestyle unremarkably common in Haiti.
Tomorrow I’ll return west again to visit another town where the mission is working. I’ll camp there for the night and will head back to Saint Louis Friday, just in time for Easter activities to get underway.
Above: Motorcycle taxi to La Baie des Moustiques; the town; in the fields with Claud; children playing on rocks along the shore at La Baie. Andy Olsen photos
Friday, March 14, 2008
Dirt Cookies and the Beach
I awoke this morning after a good night’s sleep that just didn’t seem long enough to make up for all the sleep I’ve missed in the past few (long) travel days. Thankfully, we arrived without incident and it’s not as hot as it will soon be.
When shooting in Haiti, there is simply no formula to follow as there often is in a place like the United States, where you’re familiar with the culture and most people have an understanding of the media and how it works. Here, you have to trust that God will show you the way, step by step, as you stumble along in the dark. It’s always an adjustment that takes me a few days to make, this trip included.
My guide and I rode motorcycles into downtown Port-a-Paix (neighboring city) today to visit the market. I was searching for street vendors with “dirt cookies,” a sort of plastic-hard bread made from oil, a bit of flour and a certain type of dirt that’s believed to have nutritional value. That claim is dubious, but there have been a lot of reports of Haitians eating these in greater quantities because of recent food shortages.
After the market, we headed to a large orphanage in the city that’s run by Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. A group of visiting Americans took the kids for a swim at the beach. Most Haitian’s don’t like swimming in the ocean, but these kids have an unusual fondness for it. It was a joy to watch them walk along a shallow reef near the shore and dive into the deep blue water just off the reef’s edge.
Tomorrow I’ll make the overland treck to the Far West, a desert-like region of Haiti where the mission is expanding its services. The area is quite rural and very poor. I’ll trade my comfortable room at the main campus for sleeping on a concrete roof. There won’t be Internet access there, but I will update about the journey when I return.
Above: “Mud cookies” are sold in the market for pennies each, and have increasingly become a staple of some Haitian diets as food shortages continue.
Below: Orphans swimming at the beach in Port-a-Paix.
When shooting in Haiti, there is simply no formula to follow as there often is in a place like the United States, where you’re familiar with the culture and most people have an understanding of the media and how it works. Here, you have to trust that God will show you the way, step by step, as you stumble along in the dark. It’s always an adjustment that takes me a few days to make, this trip included.
My guide and I rode motorcycles into downtown Port-a-Paix (neighboring city) today to visit the market. I was searching for street vendors with “dirt cookies,” a sort of plastic-hard bread made from oil, a bit of flour and a certain type of dirt that’s believed to have nutritional value. That claim is dubious, but there have been a lot of reports of Haitians eating these in greater quantities because of recent food shortages.
After the market, we headed to a large orphanage in the city that’s run by Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. A group of visiting Americans took the kids for a swim at the beach. Most Haitian’s don’t like swimming in the ocean, but these kids have an unusual fondness for it. It was a joy to watch them walk along a shallow reef near the shore and dive into the deep blue water just off the reef’s edge.
Tomorrow I’ll make the overland treck to the Far West, a desert-like region of Haiti where the mission is expanding its services. The area is quite rural and very poor. I’ll trade my comfortable room at the main campus for sleeping on a concrete roof. There won’t be Internet access there, but I will update about the journey when I return.
Above: “Mud cookies” are sold in the market for pennies each, and have increasingly become a staple of some Haitian diets as food shortages continue.
Below: Orphans swimming at the beach in Port-a-Paix.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
New Toys and Haitians
It’s been too long since I last wrote, so here goes a little catch-up:
Canon Makes Me Happy, Again
Next to getting a great image, few material things please the soul like a big new camera. Or two.
We gladly traded in some of our older Canon digital cameras last month for a new 1D Mk III and 40D. If those glyphs mean nothing to you, I’ll simply say these are two of the best digital SLRs in existence. So together with our Canon 5D, Erika and I are looking forward to using them as tools to continue pushing our photographs to the next level. I’ve already used them on a number of commercial assignments, but I’m most excited to see how they’ll make weddings even better. Thanks to Canon for continuing to make the greatest (digital) photographic equipment in the world, and for its dedication to serious professionals.
Keep your eyes here for the results as they start rolling in…
Back in Haiti
Last summer, I spent two weeks in Haiti documenting the life of a disabled boy who grew up in Haiti before being adopted by an American couple and brought to the U.S.
Today, I’m on a plane returning there. This time, I’m documenting the work of the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission and the region it serves. The mission is a super organization in the midst of a growth spurt of sorts. It runs clinics, schools, feeding programs and orphanages – to name just a few things – across the northwest region of Haiti, one of the poorest and most rural areas of the country. You can learn a little about them here: www.nwhcm.org.
After meeting its director during my first trip, NWHCM contracted me at the beginning of this year to freelance some media projects for them on an ongoing basis. It’s an exciting blessing to be able to share in their work with them and, hopefully, to help spread the word about their ministry. Such work has been a sincere fulfillment of our deep desire to use the gifts and opportunities we’ve been given in meaningful ways.
I’ll be in Haiti for two weeks and will try to post entries about my work as I’m able. Thank you for your thoughts, encouragements and prayers.
Above: Dozens of people wait in line in the early morning to visit the clinic at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s campus in Sait-Louis du Nord, Haiti (July, 2007). Andy Olsen photo
Canon Makes Me Happy, Again
Next to getting a great image, few material things please the soul like a big new camera. Or two.
We gladly traded in some of our older Canon digital cameras last month for a new 1D Mk III and 40D. If those glyphs mean nothing to you, I’ll simply say these are two of the best digital SLRs in existence. So together with our Canon 5D, Erika and I are looking forward to using them as tools to continue pushing our photographs to the next level. I’ve already used them on a number of commercial assignments, but I’m most excited to see how they’ll make weddings even better. Thanks to Canon for continuing to make the greatest (digital) photographic equipment in the world, and for its dedication to serious professionals.
Keep your eyes here for the results as they start rolling in…
Back in Haiti
Last summer, I spent two weeks in Haiti documenting the life of a disabled boy who grew up in Haiti before being adopted by an American couple and brought to the U.S.
Today, I’m on a plane returning there. This time, I’m documenting the work of the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission and the region it serves. The mission is a super organization in the midst of a growth spurt of sorts. It runs clinics, schools, feeding programs and orphanages – to name just a few things – across the northwest region of Haiti, one of the poorest and most rural areas of the country. You can learn a little about them here: www.nwhcm.org.
After meeting its director during my first trip, NWHCM contracted me at the beginning of this year to freelance some media projects for them on an ongoing basis. It’s an exciting blessing to be able to share in their work with them and, hopefully, to help spread the word about their ministry. Such work has been a sincere fulfillment of our deep desire to use the gifts and opportunities we’ve been given in meaningful ways.
I’ll be in Haiti for two weeks and will try to post entries about my work as I’m able. Thank you for your thoughts, encouragements and prayers.
Above: Dozens of people wait in line in the early morning to visit the clinic at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s campus in Sait-Louis du Nord, Haiti (July, 2007). Andy Olsen photo
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