The title of Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Dr. Paul Farmer’s public health crusade in Haiti, is based on the Haitian proverb, “Beyond mountains, there are mountains.” That tells you most of what you need to know about the extent of this Caribbean nation’s challenges, not to mention the stoicism with which its residents meet them.
But it doesn’t tell you everything.
When I heard about the earthquake that devastated Haiti, Jan. 12, I thought first about the choir members of L’école de Sainte Trinité in Port-au-Prince. I became familiar with them through fellow Oak Parker Marty Swisher, who traveled to Haiti for several weeks in the summers of 2006 and 2007 to teach voice lessons and conduct Les Petits Chanteurs (The Little Singers) at a hospital complex in Léogane, about 40 miles west of the capital, near the quake’s epicenter.
This was Marty’s first visit to a country like Haiti – and a level of poverty that few Americans have experienced. Driving the 40 miles from the airport to Léogane took three hours, such were the terrain and the condition of the roads, most of which are unpaved, even in Port-au-Prince. There are only a few intersections with traffic signals in the city (none at night), and when you stop at a red light, your vehicle is quickly surrounded by people asking for help.
Food, water and electricity are limited. Spaghetti at breakfast was the day’s culinary highlight, Marty recalls. Meat was rare. The postal system is active only intermittently, and the public transportation system is spotty at best. Access to the rest of the world is likewise limited.
And that’s during normal times.
The shacks and hovels the poor live in contrast sharply with the mansions that dot surrounding hillsides.
“The economic disparity is extreme,” she says.
It rains routinely about two hours every afternoon in the summer. And when it rains there, it pours. She worries that people on stretchers with uncared-for surface wounds are getting soaked.
The summer choral program at Léogane is sponsored by the Episcopal Church. The kids in the choir are a remarkable bunch, Marty says. The older ones recruit younger ones just to get them off the street.
“There’s a very high sense of responsibility for each other,” Marty says. “The older kids instruct the younger kids and keep them in line.” The age range is 6-27.
They are invariably polite and hungry to improve. When she opened the door each morning at 6:30, several would be sitting on the steps hoping for extra lessons. Marty ended up teaching from 6:30 a.m. till 10 p.m. most days, as did many of the other teachers. Students memorized up to seven songs a week, which included operatic arias and French, German and Italian art songs.
In spite of a cauldron climate and the many other “mountains” they face, the kids showed up each day with clean, perfectly pressed shirts and blouses.
“They’re worried the outside world will view them as undignified and unsophisticated,” Marty says. “In spite of the conditions, they’re proud of their country, celebrate its natural beauty and have genuine regard for one another.”
“The grace is astounding,” she adds, “and their ability to rise above their surroundings. They are not defined by their socio-economic conditions.”
Once a week they performed concerts in an open-air courtyard inside the complex. People came from all over to listen, packing the square.
“Everyone in Haiti loves music and dancing,” Marty notes.
One day at a dress rehearsal, she was conducting her crew in a spiritual featuring the repeated refrain, “The storm is passing over … the storm is passing over,” just as the heavens poured forth. Instead of running for cover, she said, they continued singing through the downpour, so she continued conducting. The kids came alive, she recalled, gesturing to the skies and dancing as they sang despite the rain rolling off their faces and drenching their clothes. Pure joy.
In the two years since, Marty has stayed in touch. She continues to send repertoire for the group to work on, and she helped one of the girls, Nirva, prepare for the auditions that led to her acceptance at Loyola of New Orleans, where she is pursuing a music degree. Christopher, 21, whom Marty describes as “the patriarch of the group,” corresponds via e-mail in English. Tiercy, 19, writes in French. Prevellon, 12, e-mailed her the day before the earthquake asking for assistance.
She hasn’t heard from anyone since.
If you’re looking to donate to a legitimate organization to help the Haitians, you can’t do better than Dr. Paul Farmer’s Partners In Health, which has been doing amazing work there for 20 years and will continue long after this crisis has passed. Just go to standwithhaiti.org. Another worthy organization is Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, which survived the quake and has a full staff assisting victims. Their Web site is www.has
haiti.org. The link to the Episcopal Haiti Relief Fund is www.er-d.org.
When I think of Haiti, I think of mountains beyond mountains, but thanks to Les Petits Chanteurs, I also think of something else:
Have courage my soul and let us journey on
Though the night is dark and I’m still far from home
The storm is passing over.
The storm is passing over …