Has anybody on the SDMB ever been to Haiti? My fiancee and I are thinking of going there for our honeymoon - not really as a “touristy” trip, we would like to get involved with some charitable endeavours there. However, we know very little about the country or the practicalities involved in visiting. We know it can be volatile, and has a reputation for being unsafe. Any experiences or advice to share?
I was there for 10 days during a missions trip, mainly the city of Port-au-prince and the ‘suburbs’. In general, tourist, in those places seem to hide behind strong protected walls. I would strongly consider hiring a native guide or 2 so you can feel comfortable in actually seeing the country instead of staying within the resort/hotel.
I have never set foot in the place. However, a former co-worker of mine was married to a Haitian guy, and when they went to visit his family, they both felt it was dangerous enough that they stayed in a hotel rather than with his family. YMMV.
I would start by reading the State Department’s travel advisory:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_917.html
I understand you want to help out but there’s plenty of poverty to go around. Why not Costa Rica, or Panama, or Columbia or even the Dominican Republic where you can feel a modicum of personal safety and still do good for the poor? Going into Haiti with no local language skills, no family connection and limited consular safety net strikes me as quite foolish. Pardon me for saying so but you seem like the kind of naive and well meaning person who ends up kidnapped, raped, murdered, and chopped up into bits, just from cluelessness.
I’m afraid I have to agree with Hello Again. I did a major research project on public health in Haiti (I’m a grad student) last year and the country is an absolute disaster. It’s nice that you want to help, but unless you’re with a group and have a trustworthy, knowledgeable guide, I wouldn’t recommend Haiti. There are a lot of impoverished places to visit that are much safer than Haiti.
FWIW, after doing this research paper, I decided I want to go to Haiti, too. I’d happily take a job there, but only if I could live in a secured area and studied Haitian Creole first. It’s just crazy to go there without a lot of guarantees of security.
Unless you speak French at the very least I wouldn’t even think about it. There are lots of Haitians around here and even the ones who speak English are nearly impossible to understand.
I do speak French, so we wouldn’t have troubles with signage or official documentation - I realize, though, that only about 10% of the general population speaks French. I would definitely learn as much of the local language as possible beforehand. My biggest problem is that all of the information I can find seems contradictory. The US State Dept.'s website seems pretty scary, but looking at travel guides like Lonely Planet don’t seem nearly so alarmist. I really wish we knew someone in Haiti personally, that would be an ideal situation - to have a trusted local guide.
What year was your copy last updated? The Lonely Planet on Haiti I can find on Amazon was last updated in 2002.
I went to the Lonely Planet Haiti website and the first thing at the top of the page was a note saying Haiti is extremely unstable and you should read their “Safe Travel” link, which takes you to this:
http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/destinations/haiti.shtml
My copy is from 2008, it is “Dominican Republic & Haiti”, 4th ed. Thanks for the link - the Canadian one only advises a high degree of caution (not the higher two categories - “avoid all non-essential travel” and “avoid all travel”), not “extreme risk” like the NZ site - interesting to see the differences.
Unless you offer some specific technical expertise that can be readily put to use (like knowing how to build a water purification device or offering medical services) I often wonder what practical benefit there is for a western person to travel to such places and offer ‘an extra set of hands’ for time periods that are limited to a matter of days and/or weeks.
For example, I know coworkers who do ‘mission’ trips for 5-7 days to 3rd world countries and are put to work helping build brick ovens or something. That is fine and all, but really it is more about providing them with an ‘experience’ and in those cases providing ‘religion’ where applicable.
If it was really about ‘charity’ then you’d be better off sending the cash you used to pay for your plane ticket and expenses to an organization that is there year round and knows what it is doing.
Or me. I promise the money will go to the deprived.
I’m a very adventurous traveler, and I wouldn’t go to Haiti without the support of a well established organization.
It’s not so much that the place is patently unsafe, it’s that a newcomer won’t know what is and isn’t safe. These things can be very specific. For example, in my Cameroonian town, road travel during the day was generally safe…except on Tuesday mornings. On Tuesday mornings there was a cattle market in Nigeria and people often carried large amounts of cash after selling their cows, attracting road bandits. People were often injured and killed in these raids. So everyone knew not to get on a bus on Tuesdays. Every other time was fine.
You, of course, won’t know this stuff.
If you want to read a great book about Haiti that really challenges you to think about what “charity” means, read Mountains Beyond Mountains. I highly recommend it.
I’ve been there as recently as May, but I went with a local church that’s doing work 6 hours from the capital. So, what can I say?
-Are you white? Don’t go. seriously, I know of only once that I was a target, while others in my group that were black and latino were not.
-Do you speak French fluently? Don’t go. See above why not.
-Are you female? Don’t go. There’s a lot of unwanted attention, especially if you’re a white woman.
That being said, once you get out of the capital, it;s really quite lawless. Try staying instead in the Dominican Republic and making day trips into Haiti. It’s like night and day. If you are going to experience the country, I really do second that recommendation that you find a local Haitian church and contact them. Oh, and pack light, because suitcases and large backpacks are also conspicuous.
Thanks Shecky, staying in the Dominican Republic and making guided day trips to Haiti sounds like a good compromise, especially for our first trip.
Ooh, haven’t been there since c. 1980 (before they ousted the Duvaliers). Have nothing terribly helpful to say.
Well, drink only bottled water when there, get shots for tropical diseases before going (it was typhoid fever 30 years ago, probably others now), expect that everyone will see you as a rich, white American (even if you’re not) & a lot of folks will try to befriend you for that reason… Others might mug you, or kidnap you, I guess.
I’m actually a bit shocked at the “don’t go” answers. I should point out that my mother was a thin white woman & managed to live there several months without being kidnapped or something, but again, pre-revolution, ymmv.
Um, Zimbabwe used to be a pretty nice tourist destination before Mugabe. Now, not so much. Hell, I felt pretty safe there in 2002, but I doubt I’d go now.
I have not personally been, but my sister lived in the Domincan Republic for several years and made a few trips to Haiti. She always came back with…interesting stories.
I would not recommend going without someone to meet/guide you. She went with several friends who had been there before to volunteer at an orphanage and they still had problems. (In fact, she ended up crossing back over the border by literally riding on the shoulders of a Haitian man crossing the river after the border had closed…and that is not even the most dangerous part of her trip.) She has also been to several places in Africa, but she speaks of Haiti as the most tricky and hazardous to navigate.
I agree with those who suggest going to the Dominican Republic (lovely - I have been there myself) and crossing to Haiti if you still wish after you have made the proper arrangements.
There are also places you can do a lot of good in the DR if you get out of the resorts.
ETA - I certainly don’t want to discourage you from volunteering at the orphanages there - she speaks of it as a very rewarding experience and I have another friend who has done it several times also. Just not to go without having the proper connections, and with your eyes open.
Indeed. They held the Olympics in Sarajevo, and Beirut was the Riviera of the Middle East.
Places change, often in a hurry. Haiti changed a long, long time ago.
You realize that 1980 was thirty years ago, right? It’s not the same place.
And Sarajevo is once again a beautiful - if still somewhat scarred - city. I was there in 2007 and loved it. Hopefully Haiti will be able to make a similar recovery. Things change, but not always for the negative.
haiti would not be a good idea in the near and even far future. very big earthquake this evening, 7.0, very horrible.
i can not imagine what conditions are like there now. very very bad would be an understatement.