Even Here I Can’t Get Away From IT

Reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, the biography of Paul Farmer and his groundbreaking medical work in Haiti’s Central Plateau region in the 80’s and 90’s, you get the sense of the area I’m in right now as hopelessly impoverished, backwards and primitive.  But seeing the region through the lens of the current day, it’s clear the selfless work of people like Farmer and Fr. Meaux (and, to be sure, vastly improved politics since the reign of Papa Doc and Baby Doc) have transformed this land.  Yes, in some ways the people here still live a primitive life with no electricity, no plumbing, outdoor charcoal cooking fires and (for the lucky 1%) outhouses.  But by contrast, in even the most remote hut you’ll find a cell phone and a solar panel.  They are still “backwards” with their façade in the international community being perpetually that of the “helped” rather than the “helper”. And yet in slum-ridden Port-au-Prince, a fledgling high tech community exists, exemplified by tablet computer manufacturer Surtab.  And while this is still a land of almost no safety nets for those who lack income, food sources and rudimentary health care and where the word “doctor” is still often preceded with the word “voodoo”, the
starvation, infant mortality, and lack of clean water – in sum, the poverty – appears incredibly improved from 30 years ago.

Yes, things are much, much, better in Haiti’s Central Plateau region in many, many ways. But the worst of all demons, if it ever existed at all, has been completely eliminated as far as I can tell.  That demon is hopelessness.  For any number of reasons, and in a large part for the reasons above, I’ve encountered absolutely no hopelessness here.  People who may participate in the entirety of their human experience within a 20 square mile patch of rocky, hot, largely treeless earth do so with an overabundant supply of faith and hope.  In my two weeks in the Central Plateau region, I’ve seen the faith and hope in the Sisters and Charity and in those sick and dying that they care for.  I’ve seen them in goat herders, farmers, cooks, construction crews and in families of 11 living in tiny mud huts.  Nobody I’ve met has exhibited an ounce of hopelessness or a hesitation in their faith in God.  For outside observers like me, this very nature is itself a great reason to be hopeful for Haiti’s future.  But I’m filled with the most hope of all when I look at the children attending the school here.

This is the last full day in Haiti and tomorrow morning we board a bus and head for home.  For me, it’s been a wonderful two weeks getting to know some incredible people and learn some incredible things.   In the Haiti topic of this blog I’ve tried to give you some examples of the faith and hope that I’ve experienced here and there’s no doubt I leave this place with great optimism, equaled by a desire to support this mission and this country in their next chapters. I will have some final closing thoughts on both of those in an imminent post.  But I’d like to close this post with a story of something unexpected that happened yesterday that only further builds my hope for the children, the future leaders of Haiti.

It’s still a little strange to think that in this farily remote place I’m so totally able to stay connected. Through my laptop, cell phone and the wifi available here, I’ve been able to help a few clients even from central Haiti, so it’s not like I’ve ever been totally out of “work” mode.  But I never really thought my IT experience and general geekiness would come in handy HERE of all places.

It so happens that this school has (I’m not sure if by investment of the school or by outside donation) many tablet computers and a small projector.  They also have a projectro input system by which the position of a pointing device is read by a receiver and input to the tablet – thus essentially kids can interact with the tablet by pointing at things being projected at the front of the class.  It’s a fairly simple system but pretty amazing all the same.  Yesterday the principal and head IT guy (of course that’s not his job or title, just one of the hats he’s been given to wear, which in itself is a comical allusion to fledgling technology in America many years ago) were trying to get the system working for some kindergartners learning the names of body parts. They’d set it up successfully a number of times but nothing was working that day.  I just happened to be looking in and suggested I might be able to help.  What they had was a tablet, a small server and a small projector running on large external battery packs.  Their procedure was to interface the tablet and the projector communicate to each via WIFI through the server.  That’s just the way they knew to do it. And while, yes, it should have worked, it was an overly complicated way of doing things given their needs.  I suggested that, perhaps, they hook the tablet up to the projector directly and bypass the server.  After all, both devices had HDMI ports and they even had the proper HDMI cable!  So we hooked them up, rebooted the projector and voila – it worked!  I told them this way they could eliminate both the server, its battery and a set of cables and dongles making the operation much simpler.  There were other problems that followed basically stemming from the fact that there was too much light in their open air school room for the pointing device to work, but they were still able to use the system at some level.

Afterward we were talking about the problems and solutions.  We are going to talk further and hopefully I’ll be able to help them with some of these – more on that later.  But in conversation, the question came up to me, “what do you think of the system in general – is it valuable?”  I told them it definitely was – having something like that along with internet access gives these huts in Haiti boundless educational potential.  “However,” I warned them, “technology is never without its problems.” I told them that there is now a new layer of complexity they have to be ready to address.  A book with pictures of the human body will always open, but a website may not. As just about any American will tell you, technology like this usually works fine but when it doesn’t it’s both frustrating a difficult to get back on track.  I suggested they need to form an IT team with a thorough understanding of the tools they are using and the ability to get them running again quickly when they quit, like any modern school or business in America.  I don’t know why but I just found this very amusing. I can read about and have an analytical understanding of things like famine, hospitals, wells, voodoo, etc.  But this was one of those “growing pains” that I was infinitely familiar with and could fully appreciate. They appreciated my help and I, honestly was grateful that I was finally able to actually be of real help here after all the kindness and hospitality they’ve shown me and my family.