The Big Finish

We hate to say it, but today was our last day of printing. And whadda week it was!
Around noon, a dozen patients arrived from Port-au-Prince in a van and the local band Prestige played to welcome them. There were several kids and an old friend, Mitha who had been treated in Deshapelles last time we were here.

We got a bunch of the patients just waiting around to get checked in to print with us and did some flags and other prints which were really exciting for them to see. It was confusing at first how a blank sheet of paper could be put under a screen with ink and come out with a Haitian flag on it. After getting the swing of things they loved pushing the ink over the papers to create a really crisp image. One little girl, Natalia, was really excited about printing. She was such a princess ordering Miller around and telling him he looked funny. But it was okay because she was adorable and was great at hopping around without her left leg.

 While walking around we hung out with some school kids and tried to teach them how to make silly faces. But guess what? Tip for next time you encounter some Haitian school kids and try to take a silly picture: don't do it. They don't get it at all and you end up looking pretty stupid... We tried to explain "Fas Komik", or funny face, but they just gave us these looks like "what the..."
We get up at 5 tomorrow to drive to Port-au-Prince which happens to be the same morning that Aristide (a former Haitian leader) is arriving at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport ... Should be fun.
Overall, an amazing trip. We think we've started something here in Deschapelles...a huge interest in screenprinting! The hope is that printing can become a business for people here considering it is pretty cheap to start and can be very profitable. Many of the patients we were working with were just sitting around with nothing to do and it is a great feeling to be able to entertain them and have some fun with them when they are struggling with issues we can't even relate to. They are very far from home, handicapped, and living in a third world country at a really challenging time.
Haiti has been amazing and fun and thanks to everyone who helped us out on this trip! We appreciate everything and love all the people here.
So guys, guess this is it. Goodbye to all reading this, if you're reading it. Maybe this isn't goodbye, we hope so. So scratch that, we're coming back! Haiti can't get rid of us this easily. mwahah.
MORE LATER!
Ayiti, bon bagay! Ayiti, bon bagay!
Miller Hetzel Schulman and Erin Rawson West

Magdela

Magdela is a patient at Hanger Prosthetics. She lost her leg and got a new one here in Deschapelles and can walk perfectly now. It's almost impossible to tell she has a prosthetic leg. She is beautiful and confident with her leg and very excited to print. She had traced her picture which we turned into a screen and she got to see her own drawing turned into many prints. She was fun to be with and had cool ideas like lining up the black ink so it hit her head on the print and the green for her body. It's great to be able to bring some distraction and fun to someone whose life is very hard being handicapped.
Being disabled is challenging in Haiti because many people won't hire the handicapped and it's  impossible to farm without both legs. This is a big problem for many people especially after the earth quake when so many were left without limbs. These prosthetic legs give opportunity to those who wouldn't have it otherwise. We're really happy to be able to work with these kinds of people.

"We are handicapped. Where can we go?"
A drawing made at the clinic

In the afternoon we went to the Verettes market which is always packed with people selling charcoal, tomatoes, shirts, and questionable meat(?) stew...we're pretty sure we saw an eyeball in one of them. After eating that for lunch... juuuust kidding.

On our way home we saw an ad for purified water with a funny ad. The woman in the ad has a pretty interesting dress on and some wacked out eyebrows. Miller says, "even the water here is sexy". Not sure what he means by that.
Tomorrow there are lots more patients coming to the prosthetics lab from Port-au-Prince which is really exciting because it means even more prints!
Time to try and get some sleep. This is a pretty difficult task considering the animals here party all night or something and the roosters must be confused or over-achievers because they crow at four in the morning to wake us up. C'est la vie.
(La vie!)
Erin and Miller

Bon Bagay!

Bon Bagay is a common phrase used for, well... everything. It's almost as popular as OMG for tween girls. It basically means "good thing". The local band Prestige's catchphrase is bon bagay, Erin was called a bon bagay, but mostly we hope our printing is worthy of a "BON BAGAY!".

One patient who was working on walking with her new prosthetic leg traced her picture on a  transparency which we turned into a print. She was very excited about the printing process and tomorrow she will get to use the screen we burned of her drawing! Hopefully we can get close to every patient at Hanger to do this.

We printed some other portraits of patients and attempted flags on teeshirts. Everyone was pysched about printing on shirts and being able to wear clothing they made.
We also decided that young school children here are probably our favorite people in the world. They're funny, happy, and love following us around often calling us "blanc!" (white!). Part of us wants to call back and say "nwa!" (black!) for fun...but is that offensive?

We also played tennis today with the local Haitian teacher, Walter. He has become a friend over the past few years and is a great player. Miller impressed the boys hanging around the courts with his crazay skillz and proved that yes, artsy people can play sports (occasionally). Erin didn't fare so well... but she was entertaining to everyone watching and produced many many cries of "OUT!" from the crowd.
One print was really funny. This man drew a dog with a bone going into its tent, or something like that. This is pretty random considering the dog in the picture looks almost like a dalmatian and all the dogs in Deschapelles are wild, skinny little mutts that run around eating trash.
Oreos are calling us. Saved treasures from the US... it's probably the heat that makes us crave it so much here.
Over and out.
Meellah et Ereen
(That's how they say it at least)

Trial and Error (heavy on the error)

If today were a movie, the entire plot would be stuck in the first five minutes and the last hour and a half would be a slow moving tragedy with a heart-lifting ending.
But has the path of true printmaking ever run smooth?
The morning was awesome. About twenty people came to learn to screen print behind the prosthetic legs clinic where we set up. We made Haitian flags in red and blue which were super popular. One guy thought it was so cool he took off his shirt and printed the flag right on it. Smiles and eager learners were welcome sights after months of planning.

The prints were far from perfect, but that is what makes them so interesting. What's cool about the printing process is that the slight imperfections of each print make them unique and personal to each individual.

After everyone got excited about the process, we had them draw on transparencies with sharpie to make into screens. The drawings were beautiful. One woman, Rosalyn, drew a handicapped person who lost his legs which should look really good. Another drew a "Fanm Kreyol" (Creole Woman) who we like to call our Haitian Marilyn Monroe. The results of this are below! A little boy drew a collage of cars that look like carrots, helicopters, and figures that are either girls with long hair or boys with their arms near their head... either way, it was cute.

However, we learned today that despite our naive hopes of a flawless project, there are bound to be glitches. Several problems came up when we tried to transfer the drawings to make screens such as the emulsion not working, not being able to rinse it out well, and the screens getting clogged. Finally, towards the end of the day we got a couple images burned on screens and we're psyched to see how they'll turn out tomorrow. More to come!

Starting up!

Today was filled with checking out our supplies and a dead tarantula. Both were thrilling. 


We taught two men, Kirby and Elisian who are part of the Phillips art program, how to silk screen. We used Elisian's MC logo, "Singer M" for a test print on his tee-shirt. The results were great, très Haitian couture. Tomorrow is our first day with the project, so fingers crossed!


Fun fact: We took a walk around the Deschapelles market today and a cute little boy made fun of Miller walking. He was imitating him with big strides/lunges and some swishy hips. (Miller didn't take it well). Loving the Haitian humor. 


Jouk Denmen! (until tomorrow)


Erin and Miller
Creole-experts-in-training

We're here!

Bonswa everyone!
Miller and Erin here, checking in. 
After waking up at 5:30 (awesome, right?!), we arrived in Port-au-Prince and struggled in the 90 degree weather to get to our car. Traffic in PaP was lots of fun. There are no rules and an aggressive driver is a successful driver. Interestingly, the roads are in much better shape than many Pittsburgh pot-holed-death-trap streets. After lunch and a two hour long car ride going north, we got to little Deschapelles in the Artibonite Valley of Haiti.
Now, we are ready to start our project!

Steps:
1) Set up screens and ink and other supplies
2) Get kids and people in the art program and around the hospital to share with us their dreams for Haiti through printing
4) Have fun!
3) Save the world. (well...maybe)

PS- In case you are wondering what this is all about, some background for you:
Erin's great-grandparents built a hospital in Deschapelles and her family has continued to work in Haiti for over 60 years. Her grandparents and two uncles live here and one runs the art program. So that's how we got involved!