By Dr. Mukhles Rahman, DTM, edited by Jim Luce
Led by Jim Luce, we were eight Uni Haiti Global Advisers – me, originally from Bangladesh, was seeing Haiti for my first time. This was the group’s “Trip #25”- surveying five properties in anticipation of Labor Day groundbreaking for the International University Center Haiti in Léogâne. Evens Anozine and his family, owners of Belo Water, were our local hosts and they were particularly hospitable.
Our lunch at a hotel in Petite-Goâve with the mayor (blue cap) was very productive.
Our team was unified, professional but eclectic. Half held Doctorates. We were educators, anthologists, architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, as well as orphan care and human resources experts. There are now 100 Global Advisors to the project launched on January 12, 2010, the first year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.
On arrival from JFK we sped to Pétionville, above Port-au-Prince, where we shared a fabulous barbequed fish lunch with agronomist and rural development specialist Richard Bercy, president of Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) Haiti. Then, off to Léogâne about 1.5 hours' drive from the capital.
We toured many beautiful properties, including this ocean-view lot in Petite-Goâve.
We slept camp-style the first night in an unfinished new house just outside the city of Léogâne. Eating out, we found dinner to be just so-so in a new local restaurant across from the U.N. military headquarters. The menu offered the ubiquitous choices: chicken, goat, fish, and conch. After eating we returned to the house where mosquitoes were rampant in the evening air but smoky coils saved us.
The International University Center Haiti Global Advisory team with local supporters.
The next morning, Evens and his fine kitchen staff of Orphans International Worldwide Mentorship/Leadership Program alumni (story) served a most delicious breakfast of egg omelet with various condiments. After a visit to the properties of Uni Haiti that included an unfortunate dog-bite incident, we were once again delighted by a superb lunch by Evens’ team.
As we had expected, our dog-bitten team member was given excellent care at our partner institution, Hôpital St. Croix. Many meetings over many trips had made them a valuable asset. Much to our surprise, we found a brand new hotel with no name right across from what will soon be Uni Haiti’s main campus. It was not there on the last trip! We moved into this new air-conditioned hotel that evening.
Our group bonded meal after meal in various restaurants and homes across Haiti.
Later, we attempted dinner at another local restaurant. The choices again were fish, spicy abalone, or Conch meat and crunchy fried goat meat with potato fries. Service involved one or two dishes at a time and the supply was limited.
The next day we were to make a trip to Petite-Goâve, another hour southwest of Léogâne. Before leaving, I assisted Tim Bell, the architect travelling with us, carefully finish measuring each of our properties. The bridge to Petite-Goâve was out and we spent a good hour detouring down a muddy country road to ford the river before making our way back to the main “highway.”
The mayor of Petite-Goâve (blue hat) gave us a personal tour of the inland lake.
Joining us for lunch, the major of Petite-Goâve was soft-spoken but intense. Some even described him as charming. He took us to a beautiful lake at the end of a particularly muddy drive. As we fished-tailed down the rutted mud path, our three jeep caravan was put to the test. The road won, swallowing one of our jeeps – it took an hour and over twelve locals to extract the vehicle.
Our team of Advisers traveled in jeeps and pick-up trucks across southern Haiti.
Returning to our Léogâne, we were delighted by a most delicious dinner served by Evens’ team. The food was fabulously tasty with a Creole accent and servings were generous. The next morning his team continued their winning streak, serving a superb breakfast omelet in very generous servings along with sliced very sweet mangoes.
On Sunday morning we met with another mayor, this one of Léogâne. Our team has met the mayor several times over the years and it was good to revitalize the excellent supportive relationship between his office and Uni Haiti. Before the mayor, our team had moved tents and bunk beds out of storage and finished off the lot measurements – hard work in the hot sun even at 8am.
Our group had a seafood lunch at the beach outside Jacmel – one of Haiti’s best spots.
Finally the point in the trip arrived for our holiday – an afternoon at the beach – over the mountains outside Jacmel. Off our caravan roared, high up over the mountains and down the other side, with the blue oceans stretched out endlessly.
“January 12, 2010” notes the blackboard in a post-quake abandoned classroom.
Lunch on the beach consisted of lobster and fish and we ate seafood and drank beer and rum under stormy skies. The heat of the sand kept us warm, although eventually the skies opened and so we reluctantly headed back over the mountains to Léogâne.
We were delighted by another specialty Creole accent dinner with goat meat at the hotel by Evens’ team on Sunday night – our last night of the trip. Monday morning we left early for Port-au-Prince for our flight back to New York. We left one of our team, a professor from the University of Virginia, to do field work at our partner school, Ecole de la Redemption (story).
At the Ecole de la Redemption, partner of the International University Center Haiti.
I reflected at the end of the week on how fortunate the International University Center Haiti was to have partnered with so many local institutions, from Hôpital Ste. Croix to Ecole de la Redemption. The leg work that Jim had done in Haiti since trip #1 in 1999 allows Uni Haiti to rise from his vision.
It was a short flight but with immigration entry requirements. I heard the beautiful and sweetest words I had heard all week from the immigration officer as he stamped my passport: “Welcome Home!”
iPhone photos of Trip #25 to Haiti: Kazuko, Diane, Evens, Mike, Jim, Tim and myself.
True, I had felt like Boy Scout camping trip and most of us were looking forward to a speedy recovery from the fatigue of the trip.
That night I wrote my fellow travellers, “I am indeed very grateful to all of you for your sharing the last week for the cause and a vision of Jim Luce. Each one of you enriched my life uniquely in an amazing and most memorable way. You have each enlightened my understanding as to how we can sincerely and passionately cooperate and collaborate to make a better and beautiful world together.”
Mukhles U. Rahman, Ph.D. Innovative, results-oriented technical leader, program manager and project engineer with a U.S. patent, Mukhles has worked for PepsiCo, Owens-Illinois with Hewlett-Packard, Calmar (Mead Westvaco), and Eastman Kodak. Educated in three countries: University of Wisconsin (Madison), University of New Brunswick, University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan, Mukhles earned his Doctorate in in Engineering Mechanics and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He volunteers with the International Red Cross, Lions, and Rotary, and speaks English, Bengali, Urdu, and Hindi.