6/18/2009
There is no shade near Celinecia’s house. To avoid the fierce sun, we went inside her house. With the four of us, the house felt overcrowded. It looked so fragile that a little bump here or there could bring the entire house down.
Inside, there were a bed, a table, some pots and buckets. I sat on an empty paint-can and Celinecia sat on her bed with her baby in her arms. Bonison and Ashley both sat down on the ground since there was nothing else to sit on. The floor of the house was uncovered and the bare earth was exposed. The roof was made out of banana leaves. The sunlight peaked through the house. When it rains, the entire house will become wet and muddy.
Celinecia hadn’t been living in this house for that long. A few months ago, she lost her original house because her mother-in-law, the owner of the property, threw her out. She was able to move into her parents’ property, where she built this temporary house. She hopes to build a more durable house in the coming July. CLM will provide tin, some nails, and labor, and she would have to prepare wood and stones.
Celinecia was originally born and raised in Port-Au-Prince. She never knew her father because he left the family when she was a baby. Her mother died a few years ago. Celinecia has one brother who lives near the Artibonite River and two sisters who are still living in Port-Au-Prince, but she hasn’t seen them ever since she came to Chevry two years ago. The only kin she keeps in touch with is her grandmother, whom she visits occasionally.
Celinecia has been married for two years and she is now a mother of two children. Her youngest is ten months old, and the older one is two years old. Her husband was working in the garden when I visited her. She said that they had just planted some vegetables in the garden. What would you do with the vegetables when they grow? She hopes to feed them to her family. How many times in a week do you eat? She does not know for sure but maybe once a week.
From CLM, she received three female goats, and she is also going to start a "small commerce." She wants to buy chickens to sell them for a good price. Before CLM, she had to buy food with credit. She burned some wood to make charcoal and sold them so she could pay back what she owed. However, since she had to buy food continuously, she kept accumulating more and more debts. But now with CLM, she feels she can gradually start paying back her debts, and even start her own business.
