Posts Tagged ‘Haiti’

Our immediate family is okay, just a little shaken up. We still have many friends and family in the capital that we have not heard from. Two of the RPCVs I served with that live in the capital have contacted our Haiti Yahoo Group and are okay (You may have seen one of them — Matt Marek — on CNN with Anderson Cooper last night). The capital is almost completely destroyed.

Please contact me if you would like information on how to help.
Mason

I can’t help but feel a little sorry for my dad who is serving in the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan currently.

When I served in the Peace Corps, only 8 years ago, I didn’t have access to a telephone, electricity, running water or sanitation systems. While having many of those things wouldn’t have changed my experience much, they are what make my experience unique. While visiting my father in Azerbaijan last year, I realized that cell phones would have changed my experience drastically, negatively.

During our visit (my wife went as well), my father was perpetually calling or texting other PCVs or Azeri friends. He was always in the process of contacting someone or being contacted. From my perspective, the ease of communication kept him too close to other PCVs in his area. It did help him stay contacted with his Azeri friends but I’m sure they would have found him without a phone.

Dad always complains about other PCVs missing text-scheduled rendezvous. Makes sense, you disconnect yourself from others through text. It’s not as if you stood face to face with someone and made plans to get together. While I was in Haiti, we made plans in person months in advance. We made sure we arrived at the occasion unless some Haiti-esque problem struck us down. Often, we would arrive and sit and wait around for hours at the rendezvous point. We would sit and talk with whoever was around, usually Haitian friends of your friend. We did this contently because, after all, we had only set a date for the rendezvous, not a date and an hour.

I can’t help but feel some of the PC experience has been lost by handing out phones to volunteers. Don’t get me started on allowing them to have televisions and DVD players. It’s my understanding that PCVs in Azerbaijan watched DVDs until all hours of the night and woke up every afternoon. In my humble opinion, if you’re going to do that, stay home in the U.S. and waste your own money on worthless movies. I regress.

I think I would recommend to volunteers going into the Peace Corps now to ditch the cell phones except in emergency situations or during working hours. Outside of that, spend your time getting to know the people and try living like they do. That is what Peace Corps is about.

That’s right. You may not know but travel in the U.S. has no soul – at least not the travel that most of you know.

Maybe because I’m older now, travel doesn’t hold the wonder it once did. I remember traveling with my parents or grandparents or both when I was a kid. There was something magical about the trips. We traveled almost exclusively by undesirable vehicle (car) but something was different. We didn’t have nice cars when I was a kid. The first car my father had that I remember was a square-back VW Beetle. It was the only car we had at the time. In the winter, my sister and I sat on the floor of the front seat – that was the only place that was reasonably warm – and it wasn’t warm. Then we had a couple of second-hand Oldsmobiles. One of them was nicknamed Snicker, because it was brown and my father’s favorite candy bar. We had to physically rock it when we came to hills because it would almost come to a stop. We didn’t have an air conditioned car until we bought a four-cylinder Dodge Caravan in 1986. It had power windshield wipers and that was it. It was even a manual transmission. There was something to traveling in crummy vehicles.

During our trips in our crummy vehicles we did many of the things the Griswald family did when they were on their trip out west. We played cards, looked outside, counted the blue cars, read books. Whatever we did, it was different than what we normally did and we were at least mildly in touch with our surroundings.

Travel now with high-def stereos, I-pods, personal DVD players is virtually void of experience. Passengers are shielded from their environment by sound, vision, attention, doors and windows and a temperature-controlled climate. Passengers only passively look out the window once and a while and get out at and stretch their legs at the interstate McDonald’s which looks exactly like the one in their own town, and thus, are only distantly aware of the passing terrain. The things people do while traveling now are basically the same things they do in their living room at home. No indelible memories are created. It’s easy. It’s convenient. It’s comfortable. It’s fast. It’s travel without a soul.

I learned about soulful travel when I went to Haiti. There are several things that make travel in Haiti soulful. If you are going somewhere there are tens or hundreds of others that want to go there at the same time you do. So, you’re always packed in whatever vehicle you’re taking. Almost no vehicles have air conditioning so you’re right out in the open breathing the fresh, or not so fresh, air. Most people in Haiti don’t travel a lot so even a small trip can be an adventure. They are excited and want to talk and have fun. Travel in Haiti is also slow due to the condition of the roads. You have a chance to see things and look into the eyes of people along the road. The rocking of the vehicle is also excellent entertainment for kids. I’ve sat and watched 3 and 4 year olds sit quietly for hours – see if you can manage that on your next trip in the U.S. You’re never quite sure about the food but you can find almost every kind – and this ain’t fast food. From fried plantain and pork to something like peanut brittle, you can find it and it’s made in someone’s home kitchen. The vendors will even hop on the back of moving buses and sell the food with one hand and hold on for dear life with the other. Just another day’s work for them. It’s all part of what makes it travel with soul.

I thought about writing a paragraph here on how to make your travel meaningful. However, I’m sure not many people will read this and even fewer would do the things I would recommend to experience travel with soul so what’s the point. If you are interested, you may e-mail me at mason@biketofeel.com. I’ll be more than happy to help you. And, don’t be offended if I ask you to leave your car at home.

When I first came to Memphis one and a half years ago, I was determined to continue biking to work or, since this was the big city, take the bus to work. I was told by people at work, and I quote, “You ain’t ridin’ your bike around here,” and, “You don’t want to ride the bus.” After last year’s experience riding the bus in the winter, I found they were right. You don’t want to ride the bus.

I think it’s funny that people said I couldn’t do either. I along with a long-time Memphian friend of mine have long ago proven them wrong. It’s not because they said it, it’s more because who said it. The quotes I gave above didn’t actually come from only two people, they’re an amalgam of quotes from numerous people. What I find funny about both quotes is that none of the people who said them have actually tried to do either, ride the bus or ride their bike to work. I guess people just like to give an opinion whether they know anything or not.

I have expressed my views on the biking environment of Memphis previously on my website. I don’t paint the doom and gloom picture that most cycling advocates around Memphis do. Memphis is a pretty good place to ride. My kids (ages 2 and 4) and I bike all over Memphis and we’ve never had a problem. My view on the Memphis buses is not so flattering.

I started taking the bus last winter when it became too dark in the morning and night to ride my bike to work. I was excited. I’m just a small-town kid and although I had taken buses in places around the country and in several other countries, I had never taken a city bus on my own. After much internet research I was able to find my route. The morning route started a half block from my house and dropped me off in front of my work. The evening route started 10 minutes walk from work and dropped me off a half block from my home. A one-way trip took an hour and ten minutes to cover the 8 miles. Yes, it only takes 35 minutes by bike and 15 by car but hey, I’m doing it for the environment and the future of my kids.

My long-time-Memphian friend joined me on the bus rides. We soon found out how difficult it is to ride the bus in Memphis. Often the buses didn’t come on time or came early which was worse. Since the next bus didn’t come for another 35 or 40 minutes, good luck getting to work on time. The MATA help line wasn’t much help either. The twenty or so times I tried to call, only once did someone answer. My friend complained profusely both to MATA and the Commercial Appeal (see his letter to the editor entitled “Don’t Count on MATA”) to no avail. The bus arrivals continued to be erratic. The day daylight savings came, I was back on the bike.

My buddy and I are professionals and being late to work now and then probably wouldn’t do either or our careers much damage. I really feel for the people who have hourly jobs and no other way to get to work. They can’t show up 30 minutes late, even if infrequently. And I can’t imagine relying on the bus entirely without a car or bicycle. I often sat on the bus and wondered how these people got along using the bus. Maybe they had been riding it so long they didn’t know any better. I lived in Haiti for over two years and the public transportation in most of the major cities was abundant and efficient, although not always comfortable. MATA is neither abundant, efficient nor comfortable.

I don’t know how to fix MATA but as long as gas, cars and insurance are cheap and MATA’s service stinks, they aren’t going to see an increase in ridership. I still have a MATA punch card in my wallet…forget it, I’m going by bike.

1. Thinks Americans and a lot of others around the world are missing life. They live behind glass (televisions and cars), veiled behind music in headphones, interact with others primarily through electronic media, behind the walls of their homes. Hence, www.biketofeel.com.
2. Does not fear or worry about dying very much. He as had a fulfilling life and has had far more meaningful experiences and opportunities than a lot of people.
3. Believes that individuals should make good, intelligent and informed decisions about how they interact in society before being required to interact a certain way by law.
4. Tries to live his life by the motto, ‘Do the right thing.’ He believes he should ask himself, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ on a daily basis even when making small decisions.
5. Had a hard time as a new father until he approached fatherhood with this objective: Try to teach your children how to live long, healthy lives even though they may be taken from you at any moment. That is all you can do.
6. Is learning how and strives to be a better father every day.
7. Really likes beer.
8. Thinks that a lot of people don’t understand him. He believes that his wife is not one of those people.
9. Would like to ‘retire’ in a few years and do ‘hands on’ work to help other people who haven’t had the opportunities that he has.
10. Really likes cigars.
11. Feels people vastly misjudge his character because of how he looks.
12. Has hope for the future.
13. Believes that war is fundamentally wrong. After all, why do we teach our children not to hit others.
14. Has few regrets about life. He’s made a lot of mistakes but has learned from them and moved on.
15. Believes that most people in his line of work (medical device regulatory affairs) are pretty weird and anal retentive. He maintains that he is normal.
16. Thinks all people inherently want to take the path of least resistance. But he thinks people have the cognitive ability to instead do what’s right. He would like people to use this cognitive ability more frequently.
17. Would like to be a vegetarian and is working hard at it. He feels it’s very hard though with a very carnivorous wife and daughter.
18. Believes that he should walk the world a humble man. He likes to substitute the word ‘bike’ for ‘walk’ in the previous sentence.
19. Believes fear is the pathway to evil.
20. Feels like the band camp girl from the movie ‘American Pie’ when he talks about his Peace Corps experience in Haiti . He’s apologizes for talking about it so much.
21. And his wife are building a house in Haiti that overlooks provincial capital of the Gran D’Anse and the Caribbean Sea .
22. Wishes he was better at brushing his kids’ teeth and reading a book to them before bed. He really doesn’t like doing either. He’d rather just sing to them but he doesn’t remember very many songs from childhood.
23. Had to finally get glasses this year. He bought the biggest, blackest dorkiest looking frames he could find just to spite his eyes. He is disappointed that people now call him Clark Kent or Superman because he looks like him/them. He is also disappointed that he agrees with their assessment.
24. Wishes he could just shave his head instead of cutting his hair but he realizes that his head looks too small anyway.
25. Once fell asleep in the co-pilots’ seat of a small commercial passenger aircraft and woke up to find his face only inches from pushing the yoke forward.
26. Is an overachiever and listed 26 things: Doesn’t love bikes, he loves biking.