Reflections on Returning to Petit Trou:  John Douglas 

It’s now been a month since I had the chance to return to Petit Trou de Nippes, my first trip there since an initial visit with friends from Church of the Ascension in Denver, in the fall of 2019 after which the COVID pandemic and growing gang violence in Port-au-Prince made travel there increasingly challenging. The trip has gotten longer since I last traveled to Petit Trou, about 2 days on each end, to avoid the dangers of Port-au-Prince, including stops in Cap Haitien in the north and Les Cayes in the south, but the memories are so sharp and poignant that it could have been yesterday.

First, it was fantastic to see first-hand the beautiful new hospital constructed by Locally Haiti for the Haitian Ministry of Health.  As the Board President, I had reviewed the initial drawings and watched the photos and aerial drone videos as the construction progressed (on time and under budget!) but if a picture is worth 1,000 words, a visit is worth 10,000 pictures.  The observation rooms for short-term overnight care, the emergency unit, the labor and delivery area, the under-construction water purification facility—all represent such giant steps forward from the original clinic in Petit Trou, even before the 2021 earthquake destroyed it. On the other hand, I also had a chance to see first-hand what the disastrous cuts to USAID last year have done to health infrastructure in Haiti--again, a visit being worth 10,000 pictures--with pharmacy shortages and some staff unpaid for extended periods of time, gaps that we hope Locally Haiti may be able to provide short-term help in filling. 

Second, the joy I felt visiting St. Paul’s School was even greater than on our last visit. Our group was greeted by the school administrator, Guillot Tibert, who had attended the school as a student 20 years before. He asked us to join the morning flag-raising when most of the 600+ students come together in the courtyard. Despite the simplicity of the school facilities, the exuberance was palpable, the welcoming cheers humbling, and the smiles heart-melting. It’s a beautiful campus, with St. Paul’s church in the foreground, the newly refurbished gardens in the back, and the grandeur of the green hills in the distance. More than ever, it made me see how important our planned improvements with the almost-completed new bathroom facilities and much-needed new classrooms will be to the inspiring kids who are educated there.

Third, we got a taste of what our growing program in food production and agronomy is starting to look like. One of my new heroes in Haiti is Pierrette Decime, an expert agronomist now working with Locally Haiti. Pierrette went with us from Les Cayes to Petit Trou, showed us the gorgeous hospital garden that she has developed, answered hundreds of questions about the flora of Haiti, led St. Pauls’ students through a pepper-picking event in the garden, and explained her vision of how we could use a new plot of land that is under consideration as a training site for agronomy students and a source of enhanced food production. To top it off, she shared with us her own brand of peanut butter, some flavored with hot peppers and others with coconut—truly gourmet!

But, as always, the people are the parts of memory that are etched the most vividly: my inspiring fellow visitors from the U.S., who have cared so deeply about Petit Trou going back decades; and especially our friends and colleagues in Petit Trou. It was wonderful to catch up with Joseph Alvyns whom I met as a young translator in 2019. Joseph has now developed a range of new skills and roles, including coach of the Girls Empowerment chess team, who convincingly whipped our visiting team from the U.S. in a “friendly” match. We also had a reunion with Captain Pierre Paul, who took us out in his fishing boat for a gorgeous trip down the coast to see the improvement in the mangrove forests. And I had a fun chance to reconnect with Mayor Wilnor, whom I’d last seen a few years ago at an Evening for Haiti event, who joined a boisterous crowd celebrating the birthday of Don Snyder, a longtime Board Chair of Locally Haiti and friend to what seemed like hundreds in Petit Trou.

All in all, it was a deep privilege to return to Haiti:  to represent in some ways the many supporters of Locally Haiti who have made possible our contributions to Petit Trou, but more basically to be inspired by the smiles, resilience, gratitude, and love of our Haitian friends and partners there. They have much to teach us.