Q&A with AHA

Monday, February 06, 2006

This is an email interview with Mary Nosek of Holy Angels, the high school I graduated from in Richfield, MN.

1. Why Haiti? What inspired you to go there? (I think I remember reading
that you spent some time there in college.)

I was first sent to Haiti by a program run by Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns called the International Summer Service Learning Program. I didn’t have a particular interest in Haiti at the time, I was really just looking to experience community service on an international level.

What brought me back a second time after college was my admiration for the Haitian people and Fr. Joseph Philippe, who I had worked with in 2003. I could never sum it up in a few words, but my admiration for Haitians stems from their resolute courage and dignity in the face of breathtaking poverty. I have so much to learn here about dealing with challenges and living in solidarity, and every interaction is an opportunity for growth.

My placement in 2003 was with the Peasant Association of Fondwa (APF), which was started by Fr. Joseph in 1988. In addition to the APF, Fr. Joseph also founded Fonkoze, Haiti’s first micro-credit bank for the poor that today provides more than 25,000 women with small loans to grow their businesses. Most recently he established the University of Fondwa 2004, Haiti’s first and only rural university. A Catholic priest of the Spiritan (or Holy Ghost) order, his dedication to alleviating the conditions of poverty in rural Haiti is unparalleled and has won my deep respect. The opportunity to work closely with him in UNIF was one of the main reasons for my return to Fondwa.

2. Tell me a little more about what you¹re doing there, (your duties for the
university, and I think I also read you¹re doing some teaching in other
places as well.)

A little bit of everything! I am the Secretary of the university, which might sound a bit dull until you realize that we work in Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, and English, not to mention many combinations thereof. That means I do a lot of correspondence with and translating for students, staff, and supporters in the United States. Two of my major projects in the Fall were designing our new website (www.unif2004.org) and making a 20-minute promotional video about Fondwa, which can be viewed at the website. I will be teaching English to all of the students in the Spring, and I am also collaborating with a filmmaker to produce an hour-long documentary about Fondwa.

3. Tell me a little more about how the university came to be, how it
operates, how it chooses its students.

UNIF is the result of the two decades of experience of the APF in testing and implementing a model of sustainable development specifically adapted to the conditions of rural Haiti. To alleviate poverty in rural areas, it is necessary to improve the agricultural practices that have left Haiti 98% deforested. Most peasants depend on livestock for food or a small income, but until UNIF opened there was not a single faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the whole country! By educating professionals from rural areas in Agronomy, Veterinary Medicine, and Management, UNIF is working to train a network of sustainable development experts that are willing to return to their home communities after graduation. Its students are therefore chosen largely according to their academic records and involvement in their communities.

The university is also a unique model of international cooperation. The curriculum was developed in concert with the University of Guantanamo, which is a successful example of a rural, mountainous university. Our professors come from Haiti, Cuba, France, and the United States, and courses are taught in Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, and English. UNIF was founded in 2004 to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of Haiti’s independence, which it won from France on January 1^st, 1804.

4. What¹s your living situation like?

Fondwa is located high in the mountains south of Port-au-Prince in the Department of Leogane. A highway runs along the top of the mountain, and Fondwa occupies the valley below. For my first two months I lived in the APF’s Guest Center deep in the valley, along with 7 nuns, a 78-year-old priest, and a pastor who used to be a parachute rigger in the US Air Force. I now live up near the road with a friend from college and a Cuban veterinarian, both of whom work for the APF.

We don’t have running water or electricity, but we do have a great time. There is a much greater emphasis on community here, which comes through in a number of ways. We have all of our meals together, there are unannounced visitors at all hours of the day, and there are frequent community gatherings such as mass, peasant groups, or modest birthday parties. Life is simple but rich.

5. I read in your blog that finances are tough, and that your students are
spending a semester on internships. Tell me more about that and what that
means for you during this period.

One of the great difficulties of building a university for students from rural areas is their inability to finance their education. The university was short on funds at the beginning of the year, so it decided to have its students go out into other areas of the country for semester-long internships. Even though UNIF is very new, it has gained a nation-wide reputation because it is a unique endeavor in the history of Haiti. That reputation allowed us to find quality placement for all 20 of our students, who have been putting their knowledge to use throughout the country. This offered me the perfect excuse to see more of this beautiful country, which I did by visiting the North, South, and Central departments by bus over three bumpy weeks in November and December.

6. Maybe you could distill some of your perceptions about Haiti and the
people who live there.

My perceptions of Haiti have been completely turned upside-down by the time I have spent here. Haiti is vilified and mystified in all popular representations of the country in the United States and elsewhere. People fear violence and vodou and chaos in Haiti because that’s all they ever see in the news. By actually living with Haitian peasants, learning their language, working in cooperation with them, and establishing meaningful relationships, I have been able to move past the sensational to understand what is significant. Haiti has been a blessing to me, I am now fortunate to be able to share that blessing with friends and family back home.

7. What’s the political climate at this moment. (I know elections are
imminent or on the horizon.)

Haiti’s political system is not just fragile, it is broken. At this point, successful elections are an essential step toward ending the spiral of suffering that has hit the poor of Haiti even harder since the fall of Aristide. No one leader, however, will be capable of bringing Haiti out of the depths of ruin it now finds itself in. That will take a collaborative effort that has to be led on the local level by Haiti’s next generation of leadership, one not marked by the violence and corruption of the past.

8. What are the greatest challenges this country faces?

Haiti’s problems are obvious: rampant malnutrition, no access to health care, non-existent infrastructure, and other factors have left the country with a life expectancy of under 50 years. The causes are more difficult to distill. I think that Haiti’s greatest challenge is resolving the rift between its wealthy minority and poor majority that has existed since the time of the revolution. In order to advance, the country needs these two groups to come together with a common vision for reconstructing Haiti for the good of all. In this sense, Haiti is just like our country; learning to live together is a constant challenge that only becomes worse when ignored.

We have a saying in Fondwa: Fondwa se yon lekòl (Fondwa is a school). In Fondwa, people from vastly different countries and circumstances learn from each other in all areas of life, from language, to religion, to profession, and more. Everyone is both a teacher and a student, from the most learned visitor to the youngest child.

9. How do you feel overall about what you’re doing?

I feel very privileged to have this opportunity to pursue exactly what I want to be doing after college. The community of Fondwa has welcomed me warmly, and my work is very fulfilling. I know that this experience will stay with me my entire life.

10. What will you do once you leave Haiti?

Plot to return! I will have to leave Haiti this summer because next year I will be a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where I will be in a program of Middle Eastern Studies. I don’t know where life will take me after that, but I know that Haiti will never be far from my mind.

11. Is there anything in your Holy Angels experience that inspired you to
spend part of your career in service to others? (“To serve selflessly” is
our school theme for 2005-06.)

When I tell people that I live in Haiti, they suspect that I’m a little bit nuts. When I tell them that I like living in Haiti, they know for sure. What my Holy Angels experience did for me was demonstrate that serving others is something natural. Living in Haiti isn’t crazy; it’s a rational response to God’s call for a preferential option for the poor.