Goalie Emerson Pierre positions himself to block an attempt by Justimé Anderson while defender Bosquet Williams tries to assist. MCC/Ted Oswald

What’s the best way to teach peace and nonviolence? For youth in Cité Soleil, one of Haiti’s most underdeveloped areas, the answer is soccer.

SAKALA, a partner of MCC’s for six years, has scored a goal with this concept. Gangs have broken Cité Soleil into competing turf and plunged the community into cyclical fighting. To the rest of Haiti, people from Cité Soleil’s 34 neighborhoods are stigmatized, dogged by assumptions of banditry and violence. SAKALA is working to change that perception and teach peace.

Coach Karls Jodler Fils-Aimé

On this humid Monday afternoon, two teams – the 13 and 15 year olds – come together for practice just as the sun is beginning to set. They are coached by Karls Jodler Fils-Aimé, a 28-year-old born in Cité Soleil who is equally passionate about soccer and SAKALA’s peacebuilding mission. He fell in love with the sport when he was twelve and took the goalkeeper position, eventually playing at SAKALA when the program established itself in 2006. He loves giving back to the kids on his teams and seeing the progress they make on and off the field.



SAKALA’s name is actually three words – sa ka la – which in Haitian Creole translate loosely to “this can be here.” The program is meant as a reference point, offering a different vision for what Cité Soleil can be. After ten years of existence, the SAKALA center is a safe space that boasts Haiti’s largest urban gardens, a computer lab, art classes, and space for a diverse sports program – the centerpiece of which is its soccer teams.

Soccer is a proven winner with the youth. Over 150 boys and girls who range from 9 to 24 years old participate in the program annually. It attracts kids from sections all over Cité Soleil and mixes players to break down harmful stereotypes about rival neighborhoods while teaching conflict resolution and peacemaking principles during practice and play. Players circle up every practice and before every match, and coaches remind them to treat their teammates and opponents well and remember that peace is the ultimate goal. The SAKALA teams are part of a division that holds matches all over Port-au-Prince and even in the countryside, and SAKALA’s players are community ambassadors who compete with groups from other disadvantaged communities as well as some of Haiti’s most elite private schools.

“When teams from outside Cité Soleil encounter us, they assume we’ll play dirty because of where we come from,” Coach Fils-Aimé shares, “but they are shocked to find we’re the most respectful players. Whether we win or lose, our players play fairly.”

 “Though we’ve yet to win a championship, we’ve been awarded the fair play cup,” an award for best sportsmanship, Karls offers proudly. For youth from Cité Soleil, and SAKALA, this is an achievement worth celebrating.

Both teams pose at the end of practice with Coach Fils-Aimé and Felder Jean Paul (at center), one of the members of SAKALA's leadership

This post was originally published on the MCC Haiti blog.

An Advocacy Learning Tour

Last week, MCC Haiti hosted its third Advocacy Learning Tour in recent history. What is an Advocacy Learning Tour? It is an opportunity for representatives from MCC's advocacy offices (in Ottawa, New York, Washington DC) and the regional policy analyst to deepen their knowledge of Haitian culture and the political landscape.

This year, participants enjoyed the beauty of Haiti's countryside and met with local experts on issues ranging from food sovereignty, migration crises at the border, reforestation, and Haiti's ongoing electoral process. Here is a photographic tour of our week:

Downtown Port-au-Prince. Anna Vogt.

We took a brief tour of downtown Port-au-Prince on our first afternoon together. This was a perfect treat after we had spent a few hours learning about Haitian history and recent social movements in Haiti from the educator Nixon Boumba. The streets of Haiti are popping with color, as evidenced by the public bus above, and the downtown plaza of Champ Mars boasts several statues and monuments to Haiti's heroes. The towering grey structure above was built by former President Aristide to commemorate Haiti's bicentennial in 2004. Interestingly, the torch on top of the monument was never lit.

Meeting with CODDEMIR and Pedro of Centro Bono in Malpasse. Ted Oswald.

A Saturday trip took us to Haiti’s nearest border crossing with the Dominican Republic, Malpasse, where we met with two civil society groups who are engaged in monitoring the ongoing migration crisis between the two countries. CODDEMIR (left and fourth from right) partnered with MCC to distribute material aid to a camp along the border. Pedro Cano (center) of Centro Bono monitors Dominican migration policy and educates migrants on their fundamental rights. Over lunch, our group learned how we can effectively advocate for Dominicans and Haitian migrants who are suffering from unjust immigration policies.

Community tree nursery in Kristan. Anna Vogt.

No learning tour is complete without paying a visit to MCC’s countryside office in Dezam, where we have partnered with local communities for thirty years to implement a multi-faceted reforestation program. Our group was greeted with songs and then led to the outskirts of Dezam where we witnessed the success of one of many MCC-supported tree nurseries. The tree saplings above are just a handful of 35,000 saplings at this one nursery site. This month, nursery committee members will distribute all 35,000 trees in one morning, so that community members can replant them in their own gardens, improving their family’s income and food security for the future.

Buillon. Anna Vogt.

Every cross-cultural experience comes with new flavors and aromas. One highlight of a learning tour is the immersion in Haitian cuisine. Over the week we sampled Haitian meatballs, fried chicken with carrots and string beans, fresh fish, Haiti's famous squash soup, and pikliz. Fresh lime, papaya, grapefruit, and mango juices greeted us at lunchtimes. Above is the typical dinner dish buillon made by Lucilia, the cook at our Dezam office. Made with dumplings, potatoes, boiled plantains, optional beef, bell peppers and spices, it's a great way to unwind and top off a fulfilling day.

 

Kabay. Anna Vogt.

On a misty morning we hiked to the farming community of Kabay, where MCC has worked with 160 farmers to distribute seeds and develop personal gardens, bringing much needed life to this drought-affected area. Sixty-seven farmers came together for their regular meeting and for peanut seed distribution. We spent part of our week discussing the USDA’s recent decision to ship 500 metric tons of peanuts to Haiti for school feeding programs. National and international groups have since expressed concern about this shipment undermining Haiti's local peanut market. Seeing firsthand how this news unsettled the farmers in Kabay, who rely on peanuts as one of their most valuable crops, gave us fresh ideas on how we could advocate further on behalf of Haitian farmers.

Times of Tranzisyon*

I'd like to tell you a little bit about this picture. It was taken in February during the Carnival holiday weekend in a seaside town called Au Cayes on Haiti's south coast. Au Cayes has an iconic boardwalk in Gelée - where dozens of stalls offer delicious grilled seafood.

Popping colors, ocean breeze, and buttery fish and lobster - what's not to like? This was day 3 of our 5-day Haiti beach excursion, which included uncovering faraway beaches of Jeremie and dipping in the blue and sunset-purple waters of Port Salut, exploring caves, and swimming near cool waterfalls. But I digress...

My sharing this photo isn't really about the setting, or the auspicious weekend it recalls, but about the people it features: Kurt and Wilda Hildebrand (and yes that's me too; "hi, me!") Kurt and Wilda have been MCC Haiti's co-representatives since 2011, and Kurt's service with MCC Haiti goes back to 2006. This week, however, marks the end of their terms.

In the span of Kurt's 10-year and Wilda's 5-year service with MCC, my and Ted's year-and-9 month overlap with them could be seen as fairly brief and inconsequential. However, the truth remains that we are losing two key figures that have shaped so much of our service with MCC in Haiti thus far.

Kurt and Wilda have been our primary guides and interpreters of Haitian culture; they have provided much insight into community development and partner relationships in Haiti: endless stories, anecdotes, and good humor that have softened many-a-bewildering moment for us here. Their daughter, Akila, has been a joy to watch as she grows; she loves her world, and she loves to dance.

I'm starting to see that transition is a large part of serving with MCC. Service workers generally come in on a 3-year term. As people rarely start their terms at the same time, each year has the potential for some coming-and-going of team members. In our less-than-two years here, we have said good-bye to 3 service workers (after this week, 5), and two national staff. The frequency of the transitions, however, does not make them "easy," but I don't suppose transitions are ever supposed to be "easy."

Maybe transition is felt harder here because, as a service worker, your social networks are so much smaller than those you have back home. Or maybe it's just a good sign that you generally like the people you are working with. These experiences abroad are so formative, can be so challenging, that you hate to bid your fellow-journeyers farewell. 

Yet, Ted and I were part of a transition when we arrived here, and we will initiate another one when we leave. C'est la vie as Haitians would say. It's hard for me to imagine the numbers of international volunteers that some of our national staff have seen come-and-go over the years.

Yet Kurt's long service with MCC Haiti is a rarity in the development field, and the appreciation felt for he and Wilda's combined dedication and passion was duly expressed at a farewell party for them today (though, they did make us curb the sentimental speeches and offerings of gratitude.)

Great things come in transitions, but the need to acknowledge and grieve the loss is there all the same. 

A beautiful portrait done by our pastor, Corrigan, at MCC's request,
 as a parting gift to the Hildebrands.

* Looking at this post title, you probably think I made some goofy spelling errors, but this is actually Haitian Creole for "transition." Read it out loud - tranzisyon - the exact way it is spelled, and you will be speaking Haiti's native tongue! (Also, you are pretty close to speaking French for the same word.)

Prayers of compassion

During our regular staff devotions this morning, our time of communal prayer turned into wider prayers for the country of Haiti: for good leadership to emerge, for wisdom; prayers for all the people who are suffering and frustrated with how their country does or doesn't work.

Staff also had personal pains to share; children who are ill. I'm recovering from some unknown sickness that's had be down for the past couple of days. 

But after that prayer time ended, we had prepared a time of prayer for Haiti's cholera victims, who are ever growing in number. This week marks five years since cholera was introduced to Haiti by UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The UN will still not acknowledge its role in creating this epidemic which has infected close to 800,000 people.

Now, if I were in the shoes of some of my colleagues at that moment, I think my wells of compassion may have already been spent. With thoughts of poor governance in my country, and personal woes weighing heavily on me, I'd be tempted to think, ''oh, more people to pray for? What about the pain I'm already feeling?"

Instead, the prayers came forth. Prayers for victims like Renette, Olivia, and Cadet, who we are sharing about in a cholera campaign that will be launched this week. It seemed the wells of compassion from our team had not run dry at all; instead, they spread to cover all those who are suffering, everyone who has experienced loss.

It's true that our blog hasn't been very centered on personal Oswald updates of late. It's been a bit more about ''pray for this! learn about this issue!" And we love receiving those prayers. Last week, the connection between Sabbath rest and reflection and writing was made apparent to me. The fact that I haven't written in my journal or blogged much of late is one indicator that this past season hasn't included much Sabbath rest. (And by 'Sabbath rest,' I don't just mean not working on Sundays. I'm referring to good, soul-centering, control-relinquishing rest where you feel God doing what He wants to do in your spirit.) As we enter into a new season (Fall) and closer to Advent, my hope is that we will make more time for this rest.  

A funny 'tie story' for the books

We posted this to Facebook a couple days ago, and people have been getting a big kick out of it. So here is our brief recount of Mennonite resourcefulness, and two very relieved travelers.

At Mennonite World Conference, each of the 7,000 attendees received registration materials in this very nifty, handmade bag. 10,000 of these bags were sewn by MCC volunteers this past year, using donated ties as the strap. Very clever! At the end of conference, I decided to keep mine as a souvenir. (The colors were pretty snazzy, after all.)

Fast forward to two days later, in New York City, while Ted and I are getting ready for our first day of meetings at the UN. Ted - all suited up and starting to look pretty sharp - realizes that his ties have gone missing! Sure he packed them in Port-au-Prince, they are now nowhere to be found. The anxiety level starts rising. At first, we consider the 'no tie' option. The UN can handle something less formal, right? Well, that thought did not put Ted at ease. First impressions can mean a lot, after all. By some miracle, we snatched my quirky souvenir bag out of my suitcase and inspected its strap, appreciating that its former use and original purpose in life could still suit Ted's need quite well!

Some scissors, snip, snip, and we found our solution.

Sure, lime green and blue are not Ted's colors of choice, but I think they served him quite well! Just look at that fine chap, mugging alongside me in front of the famous UN statue after our morning meeting.

Thankful to not be worrying about our clothes during our first UN advocacy meeting, we were able to put our minds towards more substantive things. :) Thanks to resourcefulness; thanks to the Mennonites!

Elections update, and more prayer.

A voting center at a school in Fond-Parisien. This is a commune near the border with the D.R., where MCC is now providing relief to families living in tent camps (read a little further.)

Election results have been posted.

Though the results did not come on the same evening I wrote our previous post, they did come the following day. And miraculously, the streets of Port-au-Prince saw no major disruptions, none of the usual post-election protests and road blockades.

The runners-up for senators and deputies were announced, and, partly because there are 100+ political parties represented in these legislative elections, it seems there weren’t any "losers" with enough pull and influence to cause the oft-anticipated mayhem.

Another positive aspect of the results: the electoral council announced that the first-round elections will have to be redone in 25 constituencies due to enough recorded instances of fraud and violence. That's right; this means that the electoral council responded to the vast accounts of irregularities seen with elections, instead of writing them off as the international community did by saying elections went "well enough.'' (The majority of Haitians disagreed.) Since voting day, a slew of candidates have also been disqualified for being involved in the election-day violence. Several more have been ''sanctioned,'' but not disqualified. 

The same concerns about the irregularities with elections remain. The electoral council continues to release its plans for how to improve the next round. On October 25, not only will second-round legislative seats be voted on, but local elections for mayors, kaseks and aseks will take place, in addition to first-round presidential elections!

Thank you for your concerns, interest, and prayers for Haiti.

Days of Prayer for the Displaced campaign via MCC

And speaking of prayer. Another issue that is just as relevant and pressing in Haiti today is the unfolding migration crises within and between Haiti and its neighboring country, the Dominican Republic. In other posts, we have discussed some of the recent policies in the D.R. that have stripped hundreds of thousands of people of their Dominican citizenship, an act that is illegal by international standards. In addition, migrant workers in the D.R. are facing uncertainty and deportations are becoming more frequent due to shifting immigration policies. Because of a major outflow of people from the D.R. to Haiti over the past two months - 66,000 people at least - tent camps are sprouting up along the Haitian side of the Haiti and D.R. border.

MCC is responding with material aid for vulnerable families. For the past few weeks, Ted and I have put a lot of time into planning for the Days of Prayer for the Displaced campaign. Through this campaign, we hope to encourage individuals and churches in the U.S. and Canada to spend time each day, for one week, lifting up a different aspect of this crisis in prayer.

It starts this Monday, August 31. If you are interested, please sign up through the links above, or look for our posts on social media starting on Monday. We are confident that prayer makes a difference, and we are excited to be sharing these materials with you guys.

Look for future posts on our recent trip to the border to visit a tent camp, or find photos and stories from our trip in the prayer guide.

Going up the mountain in Dezam!

June 5 is World Environment Day, and every year the MCC program in Dezam, Haiti mobilizes hundreds of people in the community to celebrate in the most fitting way I can imagine...

We traveled to Dezam for the event, along with three of our Port-au-Prince co-workers, and we hope this short narrative, along with the music and photos attached with paint a picture of our day!

At 6am, a crowd met at the MCC Haiti Dezam office for a sip of water, energizing music, and words of instruction for the full morning ahead. Shortly afterwards, we set off, all 300 of us! The whole crowd, in two single file lines, marching up the dirt road that leads to the base of a chain of mountains. And what do we do next? We CLIMB. High, high up, steep paths, we made our way to the top of a bleak mountain, one that - like most mountains in Haiti - has been stripped bare over the centuries, leading to so much erosion and environmental degradation that plagues Haitians' livelihoods.

What was our mission, once we reached the top of this mountain? Why, to plant trees of course! Together, we planted 5,000 little saplings. It was a blast; I was so thoroughly exhausted and sweaty, but the event was fantastic.

As we climbed the mountain, we could see the seedlings of years' past, growing into strong young trees. After the long morning hike, we enjoyed a 3-hour program at another small village outside of Dezam, where participants shared an amazing meal and learned more about caring for the environment in skits, dance and song. We wrote before about the meaning of konbit. This was our first true konbit experience!

We'll let the pictures speak for themselves now. Enjoy the show! And press PLAY here first, to get a taste of the sounds of the day, as you browse through Ted's beautiful pictures.

(This music represents a traditional style of Haitian music called troubadou, and the lyrics speak of planting trees together: Hey, it's time to plant trees for the environment; Let's go! Let's go! )

This tap-tap carried the speakers that kept people energized as we 

marched towards the foot of the mountain

I can't tell you how good this water felt after our descent from the mountain!

A pause on top of the mountain, as the planting finishes up

One of thousands

Our MCC shirts have this Kreyòl proverb on back: Many hands makes the load light. 
This was definitely shown to be true today!

The program afterwards: a little girl looks on

Other sounds from the day: during our descent from the mountain, the sounds of the village and our co-worker Eclan singing sweetly along the path.

Some information about Haiti's environment:

Haiti, before its soil was touched by Europeans, used to be almost entirely forested. Today, for a variety of factors from colonialism to peasants'continued practice of chopping down trees for charcoal, is now less than 3 percent forested. 

MCC Haiti's reforestation work, which is centered near Dezam in Haiti's Artibonite Valley, has been working for over 30 years to find creative, sustainable solutions to Haiti's continued environmental degradation.

MCC Haiti has twelve national staff in Dezam who run a variety of reforestation programs. An activity like the one we participated in last Friday is just one of many projects, which includes 22 community-run tree nurseries that produce over 500,000 trees per year.

Though our work is based in Port-au-Prince, it's always a pleasure to check out MCC's work in the Artibonite Valley. To read a story that gives you a sample of MCC Haiti's reforestation work, go here.

Our week in D.C., 2015 edition

I haven't yet had a chance to share about our most recent trip to Washington D.C.

In a previous post, I shared how two of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences since we started with MCC Haiti have been during week-long work assignments in the U.S. capitol.

During both trips, I found myself thinking both this is so hard and this is so cool at nearly the same time.

In mid April, Ted and I took a somewhat unexpected opportunity to travel to MCC's Washington D.C. office to collaborate with partner organization Church World Service on a conference presentation on Haiti's justice system, share at First Mennonite Church Richmond about MCC Haiti's programs, and to participate in several advocacy visits with USAID, the World Bank, and the US State Department.

There were a lot of firsts during this trip!

I will share about our time in the form of several highlights.

1) Time to be back in the States

The hot water, the grandly decorated airbnb room we booked, and the yogurt, cream cheese and berries that awaited us for breakfast each morning - each of these things held a major 'WOW' factor for us that is probably hard to understand if you haven't gone without these things for a certain stretch of time.

The neighborhood where we stayed reminded us of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia, the last neighborhood we lived in before moving to Haiti. The low stone walls demarcating people's beautiful gardens, the sporadic cherry blossoms, and the large, early 20th century mansions were an appealing treat for our eyes.

2) Chance to be a tourist

During a few small pockets of time, we got to appreciate some new sites in D.C. For the first time, I got to go inside the Library of Congress. We also sought out some delicious eats such as the homemade pop tarts at Ted's Bulletin and a Cuban restaurant in our neighborhood. We also got a lot more savvy with the D.C. metro system, enjoyed some of the familiar monuments with friends on our final day, and discovered new hip spots such as the Eastern Market district.

3) Learning from the older and much wiser

The first part of our work trip was spent with participants at the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days event. The main sessions and smaller breakout groups were filled with seasoned advocates - who are also ordinary citizens - from all across the U.S. The topic chosen by EAD coordinators for this year was Mass Incarceration in the U.S. They chose this topic several months before the blow ups in Ferguson and in other cities across the U.S.  I will just say that the coordinators and participants put on such a display of faith, commitment, and severe passion for justice that were super encouraging and amazing to us. There were over 1,000 participants in total.

On Day 2 of the conference, Ted shared alongside a Church World Service colleague about the woes of Haiti's criminal justice system. He relayed in detail how the redundancies and corruption within the criminal justice system leaves 70% of inmates without even a proper trial. They sit in overcrowded prisons, often without food provisions, until fate, a bribe, or special circumstances allow them to see a judge and receive proper sentencing. Even though EAD has a primary focus on domestic issues, they create space every year for participants to attend a variety of workshops that expose them to difficult realities around the world.

4) Getting our 'advocacy' on

It's still a new experience for us to prepare strategic talking points, research the opinions of powerful decision makers, and enter into a private meeting with them, ready to share a very specific, clear message on behalf of others. This is the thrust behind an advocacy meeting in our role with MCC.

Our great colleague Charissa set up multiple meetings for us in the days after the conference. We sat with the Haiti Special Coordinator at the U.S. State Department, two members of the Haiti team at the World Bank, and the housing specialists at USAID. It was very interesting for us to gauge each organizations' level of interest in what we had to share, and also to learn about their current approaches towards development in Haiti.

Advocacy towards government bodies is a really fascinating thing. Being in D.C. - and Port-au-Prince for that matter - it's easy to sense the hugeness of government structures, and their immobility. Yet at the same time, as we did our own advocacy visits concerning Haiti issues, we could see the dozens of other EAD participants walking to their representatives' offices to share their views on certain legislation that could help stem excessive sentencing and the swelling prison population in the U.S. There is a history of citizen engagement with government in the U.S., and it was very eye-opening and impressive to see this.

This was especially noteworthy to me after being in a context like Haiti's for the past 11 months, where government bodies are notorious for being deaf to the majority of peoples' voices.

5) A little time to pause

This time was short. Yet who can deny the great opportunity we had to take a little bit of a breather each evening, enjoy some creature comforts, and - top of the list - see some great friends. Two friends from Maryland drove in for a Monday night dinner, where we had a couple hours to unload our news on them and share a delicious meal. A good Philly friend was attending the same EAD conference as us, and two special Philly friends bused down for our final day, to enjoy the sites together (in the cold rain no less!)

In addition, a long Sunday drive to Richmond, VA gave Ted and I a chance to take in the greenery, worship with a sweet congregation, and order that unnecessary egg sandwich and chai latte from Starbucks while on the road. It was just one year ago that we started our road trip adventure from Philadelphia out to San Diego, packing up all our earthly belongings on the long trek that eventually landed us in Haiti.

Farewell, D.C.! Thanks for the great times!