Sylvia's Journal

I woke up with a brilliant title for today’s entry, at about 5:00 AM, but I wasn’t fast enough with my pen and it popped like a soap bubble. It had something to do with Liga, a vitamin-packed baby biscuit that was popular in my childhood and a school bus that wasn’t moving.

The night was interrupted several times when I woke up in a sweat. I could not tell whether this was caused by the old airco that wasn’t working as well or my body. The crash, now nearly a year ago, stopped the hot flashes. It was as if my body put that physiological transition on hold while it was busy with repairs. Breaking out in a cold sweat is actually not that surprising given how unprepared I feel for the assignment here because everything is turning out so very different from what I expected.

Last night at 8 PM I was ready to go to bed. I had not quite realized how tired I still was from the trip. But I could not, as the planned program for today had to be changed because of all sorts of last minute surprises, people not being where I thought they would be; a message from the DG of the health ministry for an appointment today. The appointment had been proposed for a more convenient time but then confirmed for a time that required missing most of the morning session which is where everything gets introduced. Not something I can give to newbies. A dilemma; does one take what one gets? And then, after having scrambled to re-arrange the program and instruct others to replace me I am told the visit can be made without me. That was good news but still, some key people will be missing. Improvisation is still the order of the day.

My room number is not a number. It is, quite appropriately, labeled ‘D.’ In the French-African world the capital letter D stands for ‘debrouillage’ as in ‘système D’ which is how citizens of countries like the Congo and Haiti survive; they manage (somehow) in a place that is entirely not managed. Yesterday was all about ‘système D’. It feels like laying the tracks in front of a moving train.

Most of the 20 or so participants (out of 40 invited) who showed up were from our project and a few from partner organizations and the ministry of health. We don’t have the senior folks from the ministry here but the three lower level chiefs who did show up get to be part of the facilitation team. I had not expected the two people from WHO and I don’t think they had expected what I put in front of them, being part of the creation of a project vision. As they left I discovered that one of them was Flemish and I quickly ran to my room and handed her the 650 page Dutch book I had just finished. This means I have about 4 pounds less to carry back in my defective suitcase. The Ghana chocolates I am leaving behind are good for another 2 pounds less. Six pounds makes a difference. Of course I risk putting on 6 pounds myself with the abundant foods offered several times a day. They have the best French toast here for breakfast which is called ‘pain perdu’ or lost bread. I am also catching up on the fruits and vegetables I craved so much during my 48 hour airport ordeal; and then there is Haiti’s famous rum.

I was last in Haiti one week after reverend Tutu managed to calm down an upset crowd on the grounds of the Montana hotel. That was about two and a half years ago I believe. Things have erupted occasionally since then, as they tend to do in Haiti. Some things have changed and some have not. The hotel I am staying in, the Villa Creole, has not changed much; this includes the menu. The fish is still imported, even though we are on a Caribbean island. Happy and healthy fish swimming in a clean ocean was part of the vision imagery that the group developed yesterday morning. One might say it has little to do with the focus of this project (HIV/AIDS) but because it has everything to do with good nutrition and economic progress it is, in the end, about management and leadership. As the current rector of GIMPA, Stephen Adei, says in his Ofori Atta Memorial Lectures on leadership and nation building, “Leadership is cause, everything else is effect.” Our project is about getting people to get that basic principle.

Villa Creole was founded in the 1940s by Haiti’s first radiologist and his wife, and art collector, by the name of Assad; maybe distant relatives of the Syrian presidential dynasty. The art collection is impressive and displayed all over the hotel; some of it wonderful and some of it not to my taste. I love the metal work, something Haiti is famous for. A magnificent piece adorns the dining area. It depicts a mermaid riding a rooster – I suspect some local legend – and is about 5 feet tall. The oddest piece of art is a painting of an owl with a measuring tape in its talons: wisdom and measurable results; it could have been the logo of our leadership program.

The indoors of this hotel is seamlessly connected to the outdoors; you just walk out, there are no walls. It is that kind of climate. Similarly, there are no walls between my bathroom and my sleeping area, the shower is right in the corner behind some curly metalwork and a shower curtain; not the kind of place where you could have visitors and use the bathroom. Having visitors in one’s room is actually not allowed, for security reasons. This notion of a seamless transition is appealing to me because it seems like such a great metaphor for what I am doing here – creating seamless transitions in a team, between teams, and from me being so very organized and prepared to someone who’s just winging it.