Who Will be My Brother's Keeper--My First Visit to Haiti

In this article, the author describes her preparations for the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) professional presentations in Haiti. As a cultural worker, (after Paulo Freire), she was very conscious of the need for care in working with "the Other" especially when the Other is known only from second hand experiences and mainly through superficial lens. How presumptuous it would be on their first visit to assume the needs of the people they had never met. It would be better to become familiar with the needs and then decide upon the best course of action later. Similar to what she does in her TESOL practicum in working in the homes of unknown refugee families, she knows that it is important for an ethnographer to clarify his or her own thinking and purpose before venturing into unfamiliar territory. She wanted to be sure that she was not operating under a false assumption or deficit perspective. How was she to be in Haiti? What lens would dominate seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling? What does poverty really look like? From her readings she learned about the evils and corruptions of life in an impoverished state. Described herein are her preparations and her work during her time in Haiti. (Contains 1 table.)