1er JOURNÉE

A friend warned me of the chaos here in Haiti and I have seen it from the moment I arrived. The army of taxi chauffeurs, baggage men, fixers and opportunists hits you immediately at the airport. I was picked up by the school’s chauffeur, a young local of Jacmel- tres sympa, driving in a rare nice vehicle, through the holes, dust, smoke and mountains of waste that are the winding roads on the 3 hour journey to the Cine Institut about 4 km outside of Jacmel. Jacmel itself while a cultural centre with some amazing colonial architecture is crowded with incessant roadside life and such extreme poverty, it’s hard to appreciate the history. I was struck by the biblical multitude of black people and the shadows they live in. There is little electrical light and they seem to appear and disappear by day- whereas by night, they are phantoms. These are my first impressions.

As for the Ciné Institute, it is a modest hotel/cabin compound of such luxury compared to the rest – that used to be a scuba diving haven with a splendid rocky coastline that I tried to swim in but was too sauvage to enjoy. The school has adequate facilities and an excellent group of international colleagues and intelligent locals who are proud and ready for the heroic challenge of teaching 36 post-seconday students who have had almost no exposure to pop culture or equipment. The school is at the beginnings of an ambitious project to create a national academy known worldwide – and with plans to build a sprawling campus with newly acquired lands beside the existing modest ones. The school is a walled compound with 24 hr security but with a pleasant vibe and environment. I share a cabin with a teacher who was here last semestre, originally from Quebec who has lived in Barcelona for the past 20 years. The only other 2 full-time profs are women- an editing teacher from Madrid and a documentary filmmaker from Bourgogne who lives in Montreal – complimented by the Spanish cameraman who is the pedagogical director and a very cool Haitian woman who takes care of all incidentals. There is a staff at the school for cooking and chambre and we the teachers eat together by day and prepare our own dinner when the staff has left for the day. There is a good bonhommie as we prepare classes for next week.