#community2community

by Jami Kelmenson

The lights go up. A short siren sounds intermittently. Still, the action continues. Waiting for word, we sit, quiet and rapt, looking at the stage. Finally, we get word to evacuate and the audience is calmly ushered outside. Once outside, the winds pick up. The sirens are louder, this time from trucks. The hydrant is opened. Water flows freely, rusted brown at first, but then clear.  Water. With just a few turns of a cap.

Are we in the mountain village of Piton Vallue, In Petit Goâve Haiti, where local villagers work with a dedicated U.S.-based team to restore the deforested mountainside, pave roads, build a school and ensure water flows freely from a captage built by the community? Yes. And no. We are at the sixth annual “Hope and a Future (HAAF): A Celebration of Haiti,” the annual fundraiser launched by Community2Community (C2C) to raise funds for these four initiatives. 

In the auditorium of BRIC Arts Media House in Brooklyn, we are in the midst of watching a staged presentation of a video that is masterfully integrated into a performance of “Men Anpil” (Many Hands) – in which the C2C team at home is communicating via technology to the team on the ground in Haiti after Hurricane Erika destroyed the temporary school built by the community. Together they decide that the best course of action is to not rebuild the temporary structure, which will surely get blown away again by the next hurricane, but to construct a new school, sturdy enough to withstand the natural disasters that have sadly become a way of life in Haiti, while serving multi purposes in a town desperately in need of infrastructure.

Men Anpil’s depiction of the temporary school structure before Hurricane Erika... 

...and after.

Were the internal sirens and flashing lights part of the performance -- a new take on its evolved multi-media capabilities­? A possibility. But no. It was not a drill. The alarm system was triggered during the performance. At first, no one in the audience (or on stage) knew what to do. We watched the devastation taking place in Haiti on the screen on the stage, while silently wondering if something was more imminent in our own futures. Outside, the winds picked up in eerie symbiosis with how our Haitian Neighbors must have felt before Erika blew through their lives. But unlike in Haiti, our firefighters arrived in minutes to take action. The hydrant spewed gallons of water into the street before a hose was attached in preparation for what might be found inside.

Minutes later, all clear. The alarm had been triggered by a sensitive electrical connection. Everyone went back inside, orderly, in control. The play resumed with the start of the video, which took on new meaning now that we had some time to think about what we take for granted in this country – the services our government provides to protect, and even rescue us, if need be. The sophisticated technology that can track imminent danger in the form of weather conditions, and the rapid fire media that can inform us and tell us how to prepare. The water that is accessible at the turn of a cap. The feeling that we are not alone.

Waiting outside BRIC Arts during the unplanned show intermission...

...and re-entering the auditorium to pick up where we left off in Haiti. 

But soon we were back on top of the mountain with Ketlee, Seydou, and the regular cast of characters who update us on the team’s progress each year through the vehicle of entertainment, anchored musically by the passionate Haitian artist BélO whose uplifting vocals (sung in Kreyol) show love for his homeland and its people. 

BélO  reaffiming “Ou se wozo ...ou mèt tande'w pliye, ou pap kase." (We will bend but we will not break) before reaching out to the audience...

Thanks to BélO and C2C and all of their Neighbor supporters, the people of Haiti know they are not alone either. 

Find out how you can become a C2C Neighbor and be part of the community working on the ground with our Haitian Neighbors in Petit Goâve.

Here are some more scenes from HAAF 2016 at the BRIC Arts House:

Jami Kelly, present and ready to engage! 

Our informative partners and talented artisans on display in the Marché:

The faces of peace, love, and hope at HAAF 2016:

Always a joy to see C2C Project Manager Jean Anousse Napolean and “Engineer Trancy”  - our dynamic Duo for ground operations in Haiti:

And our Founder/Firestarter Marie-Yolaine Eusebe lets the Community shine as she works tirelessly to tell Haiti’s story through C2C:

Community2Community (C2C)’s annual “Hope and A Future” celebration – now in its fourth year of commemorating the strength and resiliency of the Haїtian people after the 2010 earthquake claimed 300,000 lives and left more than one million homeless – is a work in progress. Starting last year the celebration was held at the Christian Cultural Center (CCC) in Brooklyn  to align with Haїtian Flag day in May. It included a multi-media theatrical presentation depicting the daily circumstances of Kitlee (Roselyn Sylvain), a 13-year old girl who lives on top of a mountain in Haїti, and how she forever changes the lives of those who come into her path – literally, the path that leads to the only place to get water for her village, miles away at the foot of the mountain.

The “progress” part is evident one year later in this year’s production, “The Story of the Trees,” which included artistic interpretations by Haitian guitarist BelO, jazz quintet Mozayik and the CCC Performing Arts Ministry. Kitlee is still walking miles to get water, but she would rather be a teenager enjoying life! While the community is getting closer to realizing a water distribution system, this year’s production highlighted a different aspect equally as important for the land and community to thrive – reforestation. A good deal of the plant life in Haїti was lost due in part to the crumbling of the mountainside post-earthquake. Of the greenery that remained, most of it has been cut away as a dire resort for income, as the short-term benefits of selling the valuable bounty can outweigh the long-term benefits of a reforested mountainside when you are desperate.

So in “The Story of the Trees,” we pick up one year later as Kitlee, and her community, is visited by “T,” short for Toussaint (Lee Marvin Sebastiany), a guy you’ve no doubt seen on the subway if you live in NYC. T is a lovably snarky workin’ dude from Brooklyn looking to have a little fun on his vacation with his buddy Pascal (Ashley Toussaint) – in Haїti. Like our visiting reporter in last year’s production, he got so much more. By the end of “The Story of the Trees,” T goes from looking for the tiki bar to offering to help Kitlee fetch the water and, symbolically and literally, plant a seed.

The point of this year’s production was to demonstrate the intersection and integration of water and trees, how both are equally important for the community to thrive as the water feeds the trees and the trees give root to the land, making it strong and sustaining, a force that can stand up to foul weather or acts of nature.

Haїti is currently only 2% forested. If this keeps up, the once vibrant country will become a desert instead of a lush, tropical, green island. Kitlee closed “The Story of the Trees” by saying “the seeds we plant today are important for everyone tomorrow, even I won’t be here.” T got it, and the hundreds of Haїtian-Americans and supporters in the audience got it too.

This blogger understands T. I look for adventure, fun, food and tropical drinks on my Caribbean vacations, too. But I went to Haїti in October, 2012 and while I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation, I would call it a life experience that reverberates still, especially when I am reminded of the mountain village – Kitlee’s mountain village – where I slept in a wooden hut with no running water or electricity and broke bread with the locals of Piton Vallue who extended their “home,” and their Haїtian hospitality, to me.

Where will Kitlee be next year?

That’s the question Marie-Yolaine Eusebe, Founder and Fire-starter of C2C asked immediately following last year’s show. She was talking about water. We wondered then: Will Kitlee still be walking down a mountain with pots on her head to get water, only to climb back up to deliver it to her family for sustenance, hygienic purposes and life-saving nourishment?

It’s the question Marie asked again immediately following“The Story of the Trees.”

Where will Kitlee be next year?

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Marie said, “but it will happen.” By “it” she means the completion of the water distribution system, which will bring the water to the people instead of bringing the people to the water. “It” is also the sprouting of 14,000 seedlings into trees that will anchor the earth and combine with the water to create much needed food and commerce, which will bring income. The C2C Water Initiative has accomplished 50% of its ultimate goal, but support is still needed in order to see it to fruition. Until these and other projects are completed, Marie and the team at C2C see it as both a commitment and a calling to tell the story each year.

Where will Kitlee be next year?

Since it won't happen overnight, C2C has implemented a Neighbor Campaign to encourage ongoing financial support. “As a C2C Neighbor,” Marie says, “your monthly commitment will help us continue our work with the people of Petit Goâve, Haiti, to create sustenance in the form of water and trees, infrastructure in the form of accessible roads, and education for our children, with the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency.“

In October of 2012, I visited Haïti. On May 10, 2013, Haïti visited me.

The third annual “Hope and A Future” celebration of music, dance and spoken word, presented by Community2Community (C2C), brought Haïti home to hundreds of Brooklyn residents who sang their country’s songs dressed in native garb, feasted on pikliz and other delicacies, and browsed painted tapestries, hand-crafted sandals and colorful jewelry from their homeland in a new addition to the event this year— the Ayiti Marché (Haïtian marketplace).

The women of Petit Goâve, Haïti…

brought to life at the Ayiti Marché

The location of this year’s event, the Christian Cultural Center (CCC), had special meaning for me, having been born and raised just blocks away in Canarsie, Brooklyn. My own nostalgia felt akin to what many in the room must have experienced as they saw their country come alive in a tent on Flatlands Avenue. In his opening remarks, Councilman Jumaane Williams thanked Haïti for “doubling the size of America” and offered this thought-provoking question “What would Brooklyn be like without the Haïtian community?”

The other defining aspect of this year’s event was the production itself. Originally presented as a benefit concert produced by Elona Dotson of Psalmist Productions in January 2011 and 2012  to commemorate the January 2010 earthquake in Haïti, this year's event was moved to May, now launched by C2C as Haïtian Heritage Month. A new vision was cast by C2C and with it, a new name to reflect it. The 2013 “Hope and A Future” A Celebration of Haïti, is a collaborative effort between the C2C events and CCC performing arts and production teams. “The goal this year,” said C2C CEO + FireStarter Marie-Yolaine Eusebe, “was to offer the audience an opportunity to be a part of something greater than themselves by moving from being spectators to being participants with C2C in work of  projects on the ground.” How to bring the work of a joint team of Haïtian and American visionaries to a stage 1,500 miles away?  This year, there was a storyline…

An American reporter finds himself in Haïti to “get a story” but what he uncovers while there rips far beyond any headline he could write and changes his view of the world and himself forever. A bit lofty? Not at all, and I speak from experience.

I wasn’t working for a magazine when I traveled to Haïti with C2C in October 2012 but I saw what our reporter saw first-hand— in the faces of the women I met carrying tubs of water and household goods on their head to bring back to their families, climbing miles each way, every day in the process. Like our reporter, I thought it would make for a good “story.” And at this year’s “Hope and A Future” celebration, I was reminded of just how much that trip had changed me. 

A familiar site in Haiti…

recreated at “Hope and a Future” 

Our reporter, David West, played with understated elegance by Mischa Field, a CCC minister, thinks it’s just another day’s work for him until he comes upon a young Haïtian girl named Ketlee, played by Roslyn Sylvain, who shows him the lay of the land. In the end, she shows him much more about himself and what’s really important in life.

What the reporter learns is most important, is water. Water brings life. He learns this when he travels with Ketlee on her daily hike up and over and down the mountains to find water to bring back to her sick mother. Along the way, they encounter Thirsty Man, played by Pascal Pierre, who begs for the water in tattered clothes. Our reporter feels compelled to oblige, but Ketlee pulls back, saying her mama needs it more.

 “Thirsty Man” 

As their travels continue, we find that the one who needs it the most is a little girl named Solèy (Kreyòl for sunlight), but our heroes don’t reach her in time. Solèy’s mother, played by vocalist Melanie Charles, cries over the lifeless body of her child. In a song composed especially for the production, "Artibonite" (the location of the first reported incident of cholera in Haiti), she laments, “When I arrived I found Solèy had died” in Kreyòl; her words translated to English on three screens, ensuring both English and Kreyòl-speaking guests could take in the potent message.

Solèy’s plight is made even more profound by the dance number choreographed by Jessica Lynch of Francine Ott’s The Walk dance troupe, in which six dancers move and strive in an effort to cling to life, the haunting sounds of the saxophone from the jazz band Mozayik rising with each grasp to symbolize how many needless deaths from cholera this country has endured. Words, music and movement converged to surround Solèy’s body and comfort her family and community while our reporter, and the audience, looked on helplessly.

Melanie Charles sings “Artibonite”

Experiences like this caused our reporter to empathize with Ketlee and her plight. Seeing the magnificent beauty of the country for the first time, he told her, “To look at it, I would never imagine the problems people have here,” and, upon seeing how adept she is at traipsing up and down the mountains in the heat, he huffs and puffs through the line, “If I had a million dollars, I would give it to Haïti.”  Ketlee is unfazed as she tells him, “Today is only 90 degrees!”

Another memorable line, greeted with much applause, was spoken by one of Ketlee’s neighbors Gislaine, played by With Lacroix: “We should not pay people to come here to do the work that we can do.” One line that encapsulates the mission of C2C—working with the community to help the community.

Mr. Field’s performance as the reporter took a startling turn when he unexpectedly broke into a solo rap/spoken-word piece in which he doubts his own reasons for being there— “the hypocrisy of the press covering” the earthquake. The reality, he agonizes, is that “every day they get up and search for life” and it hits him how petty his own desires are compared to Ketlee’s.  “The neglect to hydrate the dreams of a reporter mean nothing compared to real dreams.” He is humbled by his “coffee-fueled schedule” compared to the life of a young girl in Haïti who walks miles each day for water. By the end of his piece, he is “transformed, awakened” and “can’t erase what he’s seen.” For him, it’s no longer about the story. 

Mischa Fields as American reporter, David West

His sentiments mirror my own having experienced the real Haïti in October, then seeing it again on the CCC stage Friday night. Watching the video footage that played during the show, much of it filmed during our trip, only served to bridge the gap between here and there even more. Seeing places I had walked through in Haïti in the video at the same time replicated on the stage made me stop taking hurried notes for this article.

It should not come as a surprise that the production’s charm, wit, angst and outrage could hold up to any Broadway production, since it was written by C2C in collaboration with award-winning playwright, Joyce Sylvester, based on real-world events with musical numbers and performances by the show-stopping Emeline Michel and Caribbean-fusion guitarist Belo. Their music seamlessly folded into the action to enliven us and remind us we’re here to celebrate!  They sang of freedom and joy, and like the simplicity of water, these terms took on new and deep meaning for the audience.

Emeline Michel sings of Hope and A Future

At the end of his journey, our reporter asks Ketlee what she would say if she could speak to the world, and we get the feeling this is not so he can “get a good scoop” but that perhaps, somehow, her words could travel across the water to a place and a people that could actually do something to help. She says, in the same unaffected but heartfelt tone she maintained throughout, “We still need support from the outside…but the kind that is filled with love and courage that understands that we need to build forward together for Haïti to become self-sufficient.  Now that will surely give us hope and a future!” Marie-Yolaine Eusebe wants to give her that future. In her closing remarks she asked, “When we return next year, will Ketlee be in the same position again or will we have made a difference with the completion of our water system?”

I may not know what our reporter’s story looked like once he reunited with his laptop to put it all down, but I’m sure he’d want Ketlee’s words out there. Maybe the words, and the stories, are important after all.

This weekend I went with a team from Community2Community (the group I went to Haiti with) who partnered with the Christian Cultural Center (CCC) of Brooklyn to clean up a house in Far Rockaway that had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The prep list said to bring surgical masks, workboots and crowbars. With good reason. Our team, led by Mike Murphy who was equal parts construction site captain and spiritual advisor, pretty much demolished most of the house to rid it of potential mold growth which would be a health hazard beyond the sludge and bacteria already lingering in the swamp-like ruins of what used to be a home. The water level reached up to the raised dining area in this split-level dwelling belonging to a lovely couple who had been living there for eight years—the G’s. With pieces of wall and furniture went a steady stream of garbage bags containing about 80% of their “stuff”–from the house to the sidewalk–anything that was wet had to go.

A pail of, oh I don't know...sludge?

The scene of the destruction was described to Mrs. G by a neighbor as a tsunami barreling through the gutter carrying items as large as trucks in its midst. (The G’s had evacuated to Brooklyn during the storm, where they are still staying with a friend while they figure out the rest of their lives.) When I first walked into the house I was struck my so many things, mostly the stench of dirty seawater. I really couldn’t start working in earnest for a good 30 minutes, I was mostly just looking around at the devastation; my mouth agape under my surgical mask. For some reason, I focused on the range of items on the kitchen table. It looked like they made a mad dash to take everything out of the cabinets, and a jar of tomato sauce was lying on its side – it probably had been that way for the two weeks since the hurricane. Just lying there waiting for someone to turn it upright.

Not to be sexist, but the men pretty much handled the crowbars and hammers, literally knocking holes into the drywall with all their might–it was loud–while we women swept the rubble of sheet rock and insulation that fell from the walls as the men tore at them. Double the footage of the water line, in this case, meant about eight feet, so the men reached as high as they could to knock the holes and then tear downward from there.

Mr. G looks on as his kitchen comes apart

Mike Murphy leads a team of demolition volunteers

When I asked “the lady of the house,” Mrs. G, who is originally from Guyana , how many years of stuff we were clearing out, she answered, “8 years of living, 20 years of life.” Her words haunted me as I found myself rummaging through her personal effects–it really wasn’t a matter of privacy at this point, it was a matter of survival and salvaging what little she could of her life here with her husband. Her demeanor was inspiring. She kept reminding us (as well as herself) “thank God for life” since she had lost one neighbor on her block as a result of the storm, and several others in the neighborhood. More easily said than done when you are the one looking around at the shell of what used to be the home you created, a home filled with memories and identity-forming artifacts. She reiterated to me, “these things are for enjoyment, not to be idolized.” In other words, they’re just things, let them go. I can’t imagine being that cavalier about having a group of strangers go through my stuff and tossing it, but then again my fourth floor apartment was not under four feet of water.

She seemed most concerned about her professional text books – many heavy volumes about the nursing profession soaked with contaminated water. I took pictures of the titles for her, so she could replace them I’m guessing, or to hold on to a piece of who she is, at least professionally. I can’t imagine an accountant caring as much for his or her textbooks in this situation.

She also became solemn at the thought of packing up her saxophone for the dump truck...  

  ...as did Mr. G upon throwing his golf clubs onto the truck.

I made myself a promise to take extra special care of the items I was placing in the “keep” pile–those that were stored high enough in closets so they could be salvaged. This complete stranger trusted me with some of her most treasured items–made more so by the fact that they’re all she had left. Like the newspaper from the day President Obama was inaugurated in 2009, framed pictures, and a pile of greeting cards (some romantic!) I tried not to look, really, but when I noticed they were loose in a binder without a rubber band, I placed them in a small plastic bag before putting them in the large carton of things that were to be saved. I could only hope someone would be as careful with my love letters if the roles were reversed.

In the dump bag, I reluctantly placed a Bible that had been eye level in her wall unit and quietly apologized to Mrs. G for needing to do so. Then I opened a low cabinet of her wall unit to find 14 or so more Bibles, arranged like encyclopedias– ok, those I just tossed in a mad heap, it was ground level!

Where do you begin when your home is gone? I didn’t ask them about their future plans; I sensed they’d be ok. They had each other, and an attitude of… not quite acceptance… but not fighting that which they could not control. In fact, when I asked Mrs. G for her email so I could send her this blog, I was struck by an address that was not shorthand for her first or last name, or profession, or any one of a number of identifiable characteristics people usually use for their email addresses. No, the word Mrs. G had in her email address was “integrity.” Thank God for life.

Read more of my posts about Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath here. 

Me and Mrs. G

"Stuff" being hauled out by CCC volunteers

C2C volunteers Elona Dotson and Keith Forest smile through their surgical masks

Not even the bathroom was spared as C2C volunteer Eveline Dominique tackles the shower curtain

            A street in Port-au-Prince                         The view from Auxcaye            

A Tale of Two Haiti's

Join Community2Community(C2C) for an evening of good food, good wine, great photos for a great cause at our "Up From the Rubble" a Photo Gallery and Auction Event on Thursday, May 31st at 6pm, at Brooklyn's Bed-Vyne Wine.  The benefit auction will showcase photos taken by Haitian Photographer, Ocean Morisset and the C2C team highlighting the people, the culture, the land, the work, and the overall strength and beauty that is Petit Goâve, Haïti. Proceeds from photo sales will go to our Haïti Restoration and Transformation Pilot Project Water System Initiative to complete the building of the water system to provide clean, potable water for over 16,000 people.