Preconceptions.

Prior to heading to the super strict security scene of Haïti for deployment #2, I spent a fair amount of time grilling those other trainees who has been based in insecure countries about life where the going gets rough. Did you regularly hear gunfire at night? How did you decide if you should be evacuated during elections? Didn’t it frustrate you being driven everywhere? Did you get used to feeling so unsafe?

Just before flying out here a security sit-rep was emailed to me, detailing information about the recent incidences and criminal activities in Haiti that week:

 

March 20th, 2012

At 8:30 pm near Cabaret Public Market Place, Port-au-Prince, an identified 40-year-old male was kidnapped by unknown armed suspects riding in an unidentified vehicle. The following day the body of the victim was reportedly found at Carrefour Lanmo, Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince.

At around 2:00 am on Rue Monjolly, Port-au-Prince, an unknown number of armed individuals gained entrance to a private residence of a 54-year-old male of an international citizenship and shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. A female, believed to be his wife, was shot in the left arm. The suspects fled the scene without taking anything with them. 

March 21st, 2012

At around 10:30 pm, on Rue Saint-Martin in Port-au-Prince, an unidentified circa 30-year-old male corpse with bullet wounds to his mouth was found by a MINUSTAH Military patrol.

At 3:00 am in Jean-Marie Vincent IDP Camp a 17-year-old pregnant female was gang raped by three known males. The victim was transported to Médecins Sans Frontières Hospital by a joint National Police/UNPOL patrol. The suspects remain at large.

March 23rd, 2012

At 4:00 pm in Petit Goâve, an identified 75-year-old male was killed by unknown persons. The victim was attacked with machetes and stones.

At approximately 2:00 am in Carrefour district, a 34-year-old female was kidnapped by an unknown number of armed individuals who forced their way into her residence, fired three shots, kidnapped her and drove off with her on board her vehicle.

Not the most uplifting content to land in my inbox, no.

Alongside this sit-rep, my hour-long pre-departure security briefing and the interrogation of my fellow peers, my investigations have taught me the following about the country, mainly relating to its (in)security:

- Haiti is ranked among the ‘kidnapping capitals’ of the world. Whilst nationals are targets <90% of the time, kidnapping has developed into its own business, and incidents along with armed crime have been increasing this year.

- Several bodies of murder victims are discovered on a daily basis in the capital Port-au-Prince.

- During the earthquake 4,000 inmates managed to escape from prison. Many are still on the streets where they have picked up their previous criminal activities.

- 130 people were killed by bullets from 1st Jan- 14th march 2012, and gang culture is rife.

- Certain areas of the capital city remain so dangerous that they are marked as strictly no-go areas for any Save the Children vehicles.

- Literacy rate is 52%.

- 63% children finish primary education, and attendance at secondary is as low as 15%.

- The majority of teachers have only ever completed one year of secondary schooling.

- Life expectancy stands an average of 51years.

- The chance of an earthquake of a similar or larger intensity to that of Jan 2010 is still a possibility. Aftershocks are recurrent and there have been over 100 tremors over the last two years.

- Malaria; it’s definitely about, even the locals say so.

- Due to deforestation, mainly for coal, only 2% of Haiti’s natural forest remains.

- The field office where I will be working is in a place called Leogane, 1-2hrs from PaP. Here internal staff politics have been problematic, causing certain staff to receive death threats on a regular basis from disgruntled ex-staff. The biggie was an angry tyre burning (protest) outside Save’s front door at the end of last year which protested that too many staff were being hired from the capital, rather than from Leogane itself. This event landed expat staff with a ‘walking ban’. Can you really ban people from walking? Well…yeah.

So it's fairly easy to conclude that the security situation doesn’t sound like fun and games. Yet in spite of all of this, and without a shimmering shadow of a doubt, it's not security that I have been fretting about. Rather the real and imminent removal of my freedom, independence, self-sufficiency and ability to exercise and explore -the precise factors upon which I rely to ensure my personal wellbeing. The prospect of not being able to step out of my front door unless it's into a vehicle for the the next 5 months is a little daunting to say the least. When I think too hard about it, it dawns on me I am about to voluntarily sacrifice of the very foundations of my happiness. And it's going to frustrate me to tears. Not to mention the expected disconnection with anything really Haïtian at all?

I may have made it through the pollution, dust and traffic of oppressive Bhubaneswar (just) during my placement in India, but can I honestly learn to live a lifestyle like this? From bed to car to office to car to bed? 

I’m not actually sure I’m up to it…