Fabulous welcome in Haiti
Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Sat 30 Apr 2016 18:00
On arrival in the anchorage, we were greeted by approximately 15 ‘boat boys’. It was wonderful as although a little overwhelming, they were all without exception smiling and friendly. Apart from 2 of the boats, all of the rest were dug out canoes, with palm stalks as paddles. The children could not believe their eyes! The dugouts all leaked and the boys had to keep bailing. They were all hanging of Arion’s rails and selling us their trades and in the end we had to tell them all to come back in the morning as we were very tired and needed to go to sleep. They all left without a fuss and smiles on their faces, so we can report that the boat boys here are exceptional and really unthreatening.
The people of Ile de Vache are very poor indeed so we decided that we ought to spread a few dollars around the community and made a plan that we would like some mangoes, some fish and someone to take us to the orphanage (it is a 4 mile walk or a 10 minute dinghy ride but we thought it wise to take a local with us). With that in mind we organised all of this with the boat boys who arrived the next morning. Unfortunately our trip to the orphanage did not work out (see blog entry ‘oh for a can of easy start’ for the reason) but we went for a walk and found a fabulous beach on the other side of the island. All the women were working the crops by hand, no body had shoes and the houses were slightly upgraded mud huts. It is an amazing place and we would have loved to stay for longer. When walking around the island, we had a number of people walking with us at all times as they were very intrigued by the blond children! We shared our picnic with a 17 year old boy who had joined us on our walk. He tried crisps for the very first time in his life!
Now, on another note, the crew of Arion like to think of themselves as charitable people. In fact, I went to Haiti with the realisation that folk here are very poor so I had gathered some bits from the boat to give to people who I saw fit.
When we gave anything to people here, none of them said thank you, or even seemed particularly grateful. They just wanted to know whether you had anything else to give them! I am sure it is a cultural thing and Douglas has noticed this in other parts of the world. Rather than making us more sympathetic, and wanting to be more charitable, it has hardened us. I think it is better to perhaps employ one or two people to do a couple of jobs on the boat instead and not give them anything for nothing, as it only makes them want more. For example, the boy who we shared our picnic with, rather than saying thank you after lunch, he wanted me to take him back to the boat and give him some bread and biscuits. It really upset me as I am a person who genuinely feels so lucky myself for what I have, and I want to give to people who are less fortunate, but when you do give, it does not actually seem to make them happy. I am sure some of you will think me horrid for saying this, but it is how we feel having witnessed it first hand.
The charitable part aside, this is a great place with very happy, lovely people. We hope to come back here again some day as it is a little untouched part of the world we feel privileged to have seen!