Wow, what a day so far. I started it with some early morning prep followed by the hotel breakfast buffet, again violating all health warnings about buffets in Haiti (no joke, there is a buffet health warning). I’m not usually a risk-loving personality, but it’s either that or not eat. Plus, last night I saw a little kid eating from it, so it must be safe. Although come to think of it, I didn’t see that kid again this morning at the breakfast buffet. Anyway, I’m not sick from food YET…knock on wood. It would be terrifying to be visiting sweat shops and traveling the streets of Port au Prince with digestive issues.
Breakfast was delicious, and the coffee was excellent as usual. Oddly though, when I returned to my room to get dressed for the day, all of my towels were gone. Nothing else was changed in the room, except for the absence of towels that I kind of needed to finish getting ready. Tomorrow morning I’ll be sure to hide my towels before breakfast. While I was getting ready (without the help of towels), the hotel phone started to ring. I thought about not answering it, because really, who would be calling me in Haiti. But I did finally pick up to have the front desk say ‘your driver is here for you’…those are six words I could totally get used to.
We started the work day with a meeting at the program headquarters to update staff on our work. For those of you that don’t know, I’m part of a project that looks at working conditions in Haitian apparel factories (aka sweatshops). The US gives preferential trade status to the apparel companies under the condition they treat workers humanely, and there is a quasi-enforcement program in place as watchdogs/helpers to keep factories in line. If you’re interested in learning more about it, go to http://betterwork.org/global/ My travel partner and I are both part of a Tufts team exploring how well the program is doing, and my piece in particular is focused on health and safety. But more on that to come later.
We had a great meeting with the program staff before heading off to our first factory. Unfortunately, once we got there they were ‘busy’, so we scheduled to return during an open spot in our itinerary on Wednesday. But lucky us we made the trip despite being turned away, because while we were out there was a major gas explosion at our hotel that sent a number of people to the hospital. We arrived just in time to see the people being taken away in ambulances. Everything seems back to normal, and fortunately it didn’t impact my part of the hotel. But I’ll thank my lucky stars that we were scheduled for the sweatshop that turned us away or else we would have been at the hotel at the time.
On a different note, I’ve been monitoring the air quality in Port au Prince since we got here as part of a side study. The first year I was here I was completely flabbergasted by what I perceived to be the worst air pollution I could have ever imagined (for those of you that don’t know, air quality is a major research interest of mine). The poor air is caused by a combination of extensive diesel generator use (because the electricity grid is so poor and unreliable), horribly polluting diesel vehicles, massive traffic backup, and trash burning. So this year I came prepared with an air monitor and ran it hanging out the window of the car while driving through traffic on our way around the city. Just to give you a sense of the problem, the levels in traffic were over 5 times the EPA max set to protect public health in the US. Scientists have been complaining for some time that the US health limits are not protective enough, so imagine 5 times what would be considered the worst possible acceptable scenario in the US as your standard workday commute. I’m going to keep collecting gobs of data on this trip, and hope to bring some visibility to the problem when I get back. All of the attention in countries like Haiti is going into ‘saving lives’, but the quality of life remains truly deplorable. I got a headache and nausea just from having the window cracked with the monitor hanging out, and people have to live and work in these conditions daily.
Tonight we’re headed to meet a group of World Bank folks for drinks and dinner (sorry in advance to those friends of mine who are WB haters). I’m looking forward to getting a different perspective on the issues here.
PS – I swear something just fell from the sky right outside my hotel window. Never a dull moment in Haiti.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire