Last evening I had my 2nd shower
in the 7 days we have been in Haiti. I am a pro at bucket baths by now and can
get really clean with very little water if I have soap and a washcloth. I do
not take showers for granted so I am thankful even for the cold ones. Last
evening the shower was really just cold water flowing out of a high faucet but
it felt so good.
As always when Steve and I come to Haiti
we are constantly problem-solving with our staff. Haiti is not an easy place to
work and probably the most difficult part is that we do not understand the many
ways Haitians think differently than we do. Things we take for granted that are
not ethical are not seen as unethical at all- “just the way we do things here
in Haiti”. We can knock our heads against it constantly or accept that we have
to have a lot of supervision and oversight over every detail. When we cannot
find the right persons to trust in a supervisory role or cannot afford them we
have to accept that frequently we will be “taken” financially and materially.
It is common for Haitians to recommend
someone for a job you want done and when they do, they always recommend a
relative or friend not necessarily the person who knows how to do the job best
or at the best price. So finding skilled workers is really hard. Added to the
finding of a friend or relative to do your job, you can bet the price will
include a kickback to the person who got them the job. We have some regulations
and laws against this in the U.S. but here it is an accepted way of life.
It is easy to slip into a skeptical mode
where you trust no one and that can be hard on one’s morale after a time. I
think that is why so many NGO’s and overseas relief workers burn out. They just
cannot get used to being “taken” and they feel their good will and generosity
begin to make the people they came to help develop “entitlement” and
“dependency” attitudes.
The problem is that administration and
oversight take money and no one wants to see a large portion of a budget going
to our administration and less to the actual work of saving lives. And yet all
larger and successful organizations have learned that oversight and data collection
and evaluation are necessary in order to use the rest of the funds responsibly.
Midwives For Haiti grew really fast in the direction of providing a lot of
direct care to patients in mobile clinics and the hospital in addition to our
training program. We know we have made the difference between life and death
for many. But we also hope our donors understand that administration of the
programs is necessary also. With the right administrative staff we can teach by
rewarding honesty and hard work and put in steps methods of terminating
employees that do not do their job or use funds wisely.
Mary Francis is just one of our
employees that takes very little supervision. She lives in Cabestor next to our
birth center. She fixes the best coffee in the world with a mixture she gets at
the market of star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon. And her plantain soup is so
delicious. I do not want to know how much sugar she puts in it. With her we
know where our money goes. She buys our food at the market and she cooks it.
And her life is so much better because we need to eat when we are visiting the
birth center. I wish managing all of our employees was as simple as Mary
Francis. But it is not that simple with most of them. Most of them we have to
trust to do their work when we are not around and to use our money wisely.
Cold showers are the least of my worries
while here in Haiti. I would take a bucket bath every day the rest of my life
if I could know we will be able to expand our work, change more lives, and
solve the problem of maternal mortality in Haiti.
