ratCATcher Cruises: Haiti

Shouts of 'Land Ahoy' after our 12 hour sail from Great Inagua heralded a totally different landscape to the flat sandy islands we have become accustomed to in the Bahamas. Mountains green with lush vegetation were silhouetted above the horizon! Haiti!!

This was the destination with the disaster relief supplies we had onboard. Haiti was decimated by the last two Hurricanes and abject poverty, a result of past governing parties ineptitude and political instability did not help the people already struggling an everyday existence. Haiti is the poorest of all Caribbean countries. Brought over on slave ships from West Africa mainly Togo and Benin the Haitians have a very distinct West African appearance. Eighty percent of Haitians are of West African descent the rest being mulattoes. The women are beautiful, unlike the sun darkened skin of the hard working men, the women are more milky coffee colored with finer features. Most of the islanders speak Creole. Most of the people living out of the cities rent and farm small plots of land to be able to feed themselves. Sadly due to the instability crime in the cities is rife and demotes what could be a bucket list sailing Mecca to only a few small ports safe to venture into.

Thiago draws that children!

The people are polite, gentle, laughing and smiling as they row their dugout canoes to the boat begging for work of any kind. It is somewhat overwhelming as, one after another, they beg for your attention to describe what they offer. It is mind boggling to say the least and I found it dreadfully depressing to not be able to offer each and every one of them some sort of labor to earn some income. The average Haitian earns about US$400 a year. That's US$1.10 a day or US33.34 a month! So their quotes prices of US$15 or US$20 for a day's work to polish the hulls or the stainless steel or to do a large load of laundry is cheap for cruisers but changes the dynamics of an entire family!

The Pastor , teacher and fisherman beg for supplies

Our first stop at Cap du Mole was a gentle introduction to what was to come. We were only approached by the local pastor with the local teacher and a fisherman providing transport begging for school supplies for the children. Sadly we had none to give and they soon moved on. Our next visitor horrified me by offering us Lobster and when we declined he scratched under the seat in his boat and dragged out a pure white blue eyed bedraggled salt water saturated young cat, probably a few months old. She looked into my eyes mewing pitifully as he held her up. Tied by the neck with a string she was attached to the wet boat. I wasn't sure if he was offering her as dinner instead of the lobster we refused or as a pet. I shudder to admit it was probably the former. With the risk of Lulu catching some feline virus I just could not take her aboard. I radioed and begged all the other boats in the anchorage to save her with no luck. The sad blue eyes and pleading mewing will haunt me forever!

This fisherman offerer Lobster or Cat!

We left early the next morning 0400 towards Ile a Vache, this was a passage to end all passages! This stretch of sea between Cuba and Haiti is known as the Windward Passage and the entry to the Caribbean. Approaching along the North shore to Western tip of Haiti we had the worst seas we have ever had on any voyage. We had 25 knots of wind gusting 30 from behind with following seas with a very steep swell of about three meters and a 2 to 3 second period. Traveling faster than we were the waves were running up the sugar scoop and breaking into the cockpit. For the first time since we set sail from Cape Town the cockpit was awash with breaking waves. At one time the water was right to the level of the tabletop. It was also the first time in our history of sailing together Andre did not allowed to take my watch but did it for me! Must be love!

Here in Ile a Vache we ran the gauntlet of local's begging for work and where we offloaded our cargo to the IRG boat Tandameer.

Workers I didn't have bread so they
got Chocolate chip muffins for lunch

Ens watching the workers drooling, yep he got muffins too.

Day one was spent supervising the workers we had hired to clean and polish the boat. The next day we set off for the weekly local market at Madam Bernard, four miles east of our anchorage. It may have been only four miles but we were transported into third world Africa at its best! Dusty streets with stagnant pools of water to negotiate, assuming from the last rains. Shouts of the traders offering their wares, mangy dogs seeking scraps very surprisingly hardly any flies.

En route to Madam Bernard

In Madam Bernard we were able to visit the orphanage, Johanna, who is also on a yacht in the same anchorage as us has become involved in trying to secure donations for the children and she offered to show us around. About 60% of the children are mentally and or physically disabled. There seems to be a large percentage of Cerebral Palsy or birth injury children lying wet and dirty, drooling on themselves. On little boy throwing Grand Mal (epileptic seizures) lasting about 60 seconds every 30 seconds. Our requests for medication for him didn't help; they just don't have any! At least we got him removed from his wheelchair where he had slid down and had his chin pressing on his chest

The Orphanage

unable to breathe properly and laid on the floor where he could continue to fit 'more comfortably'. Their carer is an uneducated man with no medical background. The staff volunteers also with no medical knowledge! What chance to these children have? Ostracized by the community and no support form government their only hope is donations. They need wedges to support them, wheelchairs for the spastic ridged children hanging precariously over the arm of their inefficient chairs rubbing pressure sores on exposed skin. Nappies (diapers) medicine, school supplies for those not disabled, Physiotherapy for those that are. The list could go on forever! How can we help them?

Johanna also introduced me to Ryan and asked if I could see what was wrong with him. He is a year old but the size of a tiny six month old and the muscle tone and the mile stones of an even younger child with recurring fevers and infections. He had been to the hospital and Johanna was told they didn't know what was wrong with him but she managed to get him into physiotherapy to improve his muscle strength! I wasn't sure what to expect but a thorough examination showed him to be a

Ryan and his Mummy

textbook case of Marasmus. This is a malnutrition disease of the very young. The poor mum, who is a little slow herself, was obviously long out of breast milk and valiantly trying to keep feeding her poor, tiny, sickly crying baby who was born two months early to begin with! His reddish hair, thin bowed legs and arms with no muscle strength at all, his distended round tummy, his disinterest and apathy in the world around him, dull eyes are all signed of extreme malnutrition. I wanted to take him home! Instead Johanna will now help the mum to plan a diet rich in protein and carbohydrates that will hopefully get him on the road to health!

You can't visit Haiti without leaving a little of your heart there for the people trying so hard to overcome political, financial, environmental and social adversity!