Cruising Highway 1

Well, what would you do if you had a couple of days to kill in Miami and you wanted to sample a little bit of America? I decided a road trip would be the go.  And if you're going to do a road trip, you might as well do it along Highway 1.  I hired a car at the Miami Airport and hit the road, heading south.  

I have to say that hiring a car in Miami is a bit more relaxed then when Shez and I hired one in Paris several years ago.  On that occasion, I hadn't even had a chance to get aquatinted with the controls being on the wrong side, let alone driving on the wrong side of the road, when the car park exit unceremoniously deposited us on one of those 10 lane round-a-bouts.  The exit to the car park was literally onto the round-a-bout.  This was both a surprise and a disappointment, since we had chosen that particular car hire company as it was out of the centre of Paris and (we thought) well away form the mad drivers on the round-a-bouts.  We had been warned how crazy the Arc de Triomphe was, and we wanted to avoid it as all costs.  

Anyway, back to the present in Miami, the exit deposited me onto a nice quiet street.  However, I still managed to almost have an accident by looking the wrong way as I moved onto the street.  My attention sharpened by this near miss (don't worry mum, I'm using dramatic license here), I had a pretty good drive out of Miami.  Also, improving on our Paris experience, I hired a GPS and managed to get out of town without a hitch.  As an aside, that whole plan of missing the Arc in Paris went astray .  I remember swearing quite a few times as the Arc loomed up on the horizon unexpectedly after driving around Paris lost for a couple of hours (as Shez will confirm, I think I broke a record for swearing that day).  But I digress...

So, I pumped up the radio and headed south on Highway One and into the Florida Keys.  Well, when I say pumped up the radio, what mean to say is that I nearly worked the tuning dial to death.  Take your pick: soppy R & B, country, traffic, Latino,  80s rock, Elvis 24/7, right wing shock jocks, evangelical and much much more.  They all seemed to specialise in playing one good song followed by either 20 bad ones, or 50 ads.  Oh well, I did say I wanted to sample the culture.

My goal was to make it to Key West, about 3.5 hours south, and to observe a bit of American culture along the way.  The Florida Keys are a chain of barrier islands that run form Miami and Key Largo in the north, to Key West in the south, and are connected by a series of bridges and causeways that is Highway 1.  The islands range from small mangrove covered dots to large islands hosting small cities.  All the islands are barely above see level, and the road seems to be the highest point on most.  Cruising down this road felt like a good taster of cliché America.  From the sheriff's cruisers parked on the side of the road trapping speeding motorists (although tempted to start a Blues Brothers inspired car chase, I didn't think my little car would live up to it), to the tacky themed roadside diners like the ship shaped fish joint I almost stopped at for lunch.  

Where I did end up stopping for lunch was a place called the Boondocks Cafe - well you just can't go past that can you!  Classic.  I was planning on having a good old clam chowder, seeing as I was in the Keys, but was swayed by the waitress to have their crab soup.  It was a great choice, but, as with every meal so far in the US, it was too big.  I amused myself while eating by watching a couple of surveyors working on the other side of the highway.  One of the guys was wearing one of those umbrella hats - you know the brightly coloured hat you sometimes see clowns wear.  Hilarious.  I was waiting for him to stick on a pair of oversized shoes and a red nose. Alas, disappointed on that front, I hit the road again for the last 30 miles to Key West.

When I hit Key West, I followed the signs to the historic district and was rewarded with avenues of traditional weather board houses, along quiet tree lined avenues. Oh, and about 50 of those tourist train things you see driving around the botanic gardens or the zoos.  I think you might feel a bit like you were in a zoo if you lived in one of those houses.  A small price to pay for living in a great spot (when there's no cyclones bearing down on you at least).

I just cruised the streets for a while before coming across a bunch of people taking photos of a large bell shaped blob of cement.  Curious, I found a about a block down the street and walked back to find out what the deal was.  The names on the businesses gave a strong hint as to what it was all about: "Southernmost Guest House", "Southernmost Bar", "Southernmost Scooter Hire" - Ok so I may have made that last one up, but only to highlight that scooters were thick as flies in Key West.  The most amusing however, was "The Southernmost House", which is a hotel just down the street from the big blob thing.  Well that wasn't funny, but a (I think private) house a few doors down from the southernmost house ad a sign declaring it the "southernmost southernmost house".  And as it was closer to the blob, I guess you couldn't argue with that! 

 

As you may have guessed by now, the big blob was marking the southernmost point of continental USA, and the end of Highway One.  Duly photographed, I headed back past the Southernmost southernmost house and hit the road. I wished I could stay a bit longer, at the least to get some ideas for painting our house (at least I've struck bright pink and pale yellow off the list), but I had to hit the road and head back north.

All this driving gave me ample opportunity to peak at some cliché USA.  Here are a few things that caught my attention. The yellow school buses; trailer parks; road side diners; giant SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles - not sure what sport they could be for, except mine's bigger than yours games.  I wasn't playing in my "compact" which was the smallest rental, but still about the size of one of our mid sized cars. The movie Super Size Me keeps springing to mind); macmansions (they still look bad in the weather board look); (sadly) foreclosure sale signs; airforce jets; and Harley Hogs and other cruisers that look like armchairs on wheels.  I finally made it back to my hotel, tired and not too sure if I had quite filled up on American culture yet.  Oh well, I still had half a day before heading to Mexico.

Haiti

As you've probably guessed from the sudden deluge of blog posts, the pace has been a little more relaxed here in Haiti than over the last few weeks. I've pretty much just been enjoying the comforts of the hotel while poor Shez has been hard at work in the local office. This week she has been trying to get a handle on the projects, and organise the training she is conducting next week. This week she is out in the field visiting some of the projects. Apparently, the road to the town where they'll be staying consists of basically driving up a river bed - sounds pretty slow and rough to me.

I'm sad to say that I haven't ventured far beyond the hotel this week. I was troubled by the security brief Shez received from the local office before we arrived. However, we've been out the last few nights with a local ex-pat (does that make sense), who says the brief is largely out of date and things are much more stable. We've been to a couple of local bars and tasted some local cuisine, which is heavy on the deep frying and light on vegetables - except for a salad which is like coleslaw infused with the hottest chili known to man.

Shez and I drinking coconuts from a street vendor in Pentionville Port-au-Prince.

Shez and I avoiding the killer coleslaw (but enjoying the rest) in a bar just down the road from the hotel.  We went out a couple of times with Anne, a friend of Shez's from the office, and her boyfriend Alain.




Shez at the hotel.









Sadly, it is our last day together today. Shez is off into the field tomorrow and I am off to Miami (a few days earlier than originally plan since Shez is going to be away). We are both sad to be parting ways, but we've really enjoyed the last few months and feel lucky that we've been able to travel together. I certainly feel lucky to have been able to dip a toe into Shez's world and see what she does for a crust, and go to places I would never have imagined visiting before. I hope that I've been more help than hinderance along the way!

Shez will be here for a couple more weeks, while I head to Miami for two days then to Cancun to catch up with Jenn, Chris and to also meet Andrew who will be traveling to Cuba and NY with me. It doesn't seem like long now before I'll be back home. Apparently just in time for harvest according to my brother - maybe I'll have to miss a flight somewhere!

Last Day

Today is the last day that Shez and I will be traveling together.  I'm heading off to Miami and then Cancun tomorrow (Monday) and Shez is going out into the field here in Haiti for a week.  We are both pretty sad and can't believe how quickly the last few months has gone.

I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to places I would never have dreamed of, and to meet the wonderful friends Shez makes wherever she goes.  I'm also glad to have seen Shez's world so to speak. Hopefully I was able to help out here and there, and not get in the way too much!

What does Shez do?

It's a good question. And one, I'm not sure I can answer, but here goes anyway.

Shez's current role is Global Protection Advisor.  The Global part is easy to explain - just have a look at her passport!  The Protection part is a bit harder to explain.  What it doesn't mean is that Shez is some sort of security guard or something.

Protection in the humanitarian aid sector is a very broad concept.  It basically means that people should have safety, security and dignity. "So isn't that what aid agencies all about?" I hear you ask.  Often not, I've learned.  Humanitarian aid, is about providing material assistance to meet basic needs and rights to food, water, shelter, health, education and livelihoods, for populations in crisis. That is, access to the basic human rights (as set out in the Geneva Conventions etc etc). Protection is like a way of thinking about these things through a lens that seeks to also improve the safety and dignity of the populations, in addition to providing the basics.

For example, lets say you're feeding a population hit by drought and a civil war.  You set up a warehouse and people come along, line up and you hand out the rations, right?  It's predominantly women and kids who collect the food.  What if it's 5km to the food station, where they have to line up all day before getting mugged by bandits on the way home. Clearly this situation isn't doing anything for a persons security or dignity.  A protection approach would look to see how you could change the process to improve your client's lot.

And that's the nub of it really.  Getting agencies to see people as clients (implying that you are trying to improve their lives) rather than just beneficiaries where the attitude is "something is better than nothing".

So, back to Shez's roll.  As it's a new roll for the organisation, so she is going around to the various country programs and looking at what can be changed to improve protection.  What she does on a day to day basis depends on what is needed in each country.  It usually involves a lot of meetings and report writing.

Of course the ultimate aim is for staff and partner organisations to just integrate protection into their operations as a matter of course. To this end Shez also conducts training for staff and the staff of local partners.  Spreading the word so to speak.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of Shez doing her thing.

Shez writing one of her many emails.

A role play in one of Shez's training sessions.  These things can run any thing up to three days which Shez usually conducts by herself.

Local partners love certificates!

Shez also heads out to the field to see how the operations work on the ground.