20423: Esser: A Decade Of Separation - Haitians happily settled in Jamaica (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 From D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

March 14, 2004

A Decade Of Separation
Haitians happily settled in Jamaica
By Colin Hemmings Observer writer

Today marks one month since the new wave of Haitian immigration into
Jamaica began. They have weathered the same seas their compatriots of
13 years ago, who arrived on the shores of Portland and St Mary.
Subsequently over 100 Haitians were housed in Montpelier then, 15
minutes outside Montego Bay. When the crisis subsided in Haiti a
couple years later, more than half of them opted to go back home
leaving 53 refugees here. Some two dozen gradually filtered back to
Haiti over the ensuing years. The rest have firmly entrenched
themselves in Jamaica, gainfully employed with families in tow.

For the most part, the Haitians have remained in the Montpelier and
its immediate environs such as Mt Carey, Anchovy, Reading, Montego
Bay and Lucea.

Jean-Claude Janvier, who came here as a precocious 20 year old, three
months ago completed a modest four-bedroom house for his family - 17
month old Chantal, his wife and two step-children. Janvier, named for
Jean-Claude Duvalier who became President shortly before Janvier was
born, epitomises the spirit of the Haitians - hard-working and not
content with one job if there's an opportunity for another. Last
Wednesday he was making arrangements to land a job in Montego Bay
while preparing a late afternoon meal for his clients at his tiny
restaurant on the Montpelier main road.

" I just got a call from a friend at the freeport about a job," says
Janvier. "The Haitian community looks out for each other."

Which explains the presence of another tiny Haitian establishment
merely metres down the road by an emigrant who came a few years after
the Montpelier group and under far less treacherous circumstances.

The Haitians who still reside in Montpelier, a village noted for its
citrus orchards, for the most part are engaged in farming, a vocation
few Jamaicans are attracted to. They are small farmers with peas,
corn, pumpkin, bananas and yam their main crops.

Lermo Luver reaps his yams for his lunch time business where he
serves up roast yam with either mackeral or salt fish at a popular
taxi stand in the heart of Montego Bay. Luver has a three-bedroom
house in Montpelier for his wife and two children - a seven-year old
daughter and a five-year old son.

Janvier says he is making steps to raise chickens and pigs, like some
of his compatriots. Such a venture would complement his culinary
vocation and help him serve his clients more efficiently.

"I have some special customers who like how I cook their pork," says
the coy Janvier who the neighbourhood children affectionately refer
to as 'Uncle John'.
Also in the service business is Diesel Miradieu, a waiter at the
world renown Half Moon Hotel for the past five years. He also resides
in Montpelier.

Pierre Alcindor contributes to the country's tourism product too. He
works with tour companies like Jamaica Tours as a multi-lingual tour
guide. Apart from English and French, Alcindor is fluent in Spanish,
a language he picked up while living in Cuba in the late 1980s. He's
pretty busy during the tourist season but opportunities become scarce
during the off-season, except for when immigration authorities seek
his help for interpretation purposes, a service he says he doesn't
get paid for. Additionally, Alcindor has taught Spanish and French
evening classes at the Montego Bay High School and French at the UWI
School of Continuing Studies. Yet, Alcindor remains one of the
precious few, if not the only ex-Haitian refugee still living in
Jamaica not to be afforded Jamaican citizenry.

"I applied for Jamaican citizenship since 1998 and I have not heard
anything since," says the married father of two boys - Chadwick and
Emmanuel aged seven years and five months, respectively. "I help out
the immigration officers for free, I have my voter's card, I don't
understand."
Alcindor isn't expressing bitterness but feels he might be in a
better position to care for his family especially in the summer
months when job opportunities dry up for him.

Alcindor voted in the local government elections last year. So too
did Jerome Bernadin who sailed one of the large boats that landed in
St Mary 13 years ago. Bernadin, now in his early 40s, is an active
carpenter living in the Mt Salem community of Montego Bay since his
seafaring exploits.
"We did a head fi Miami but we decide fi change route and we end up
in Jamaica," recalls Bernadin in his Haitian accented patois. "When
we land dem tek we to police. Didn't even get to see mi boat again."

Practically all the Haitians have been back to their homeland at
least once since. One recent returnee who has since moved to the
Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands, according to Janvier, is one man
who was thriving in Montpelier as an obeahman.

Janvier himself has been quite an itinerant, locally albeit, having
lived in Irwin, Reading and Anchovy before coming full circle to
Montpelier. The love and acceptance he received in Montpelier a
decade ago is not lost on him, which helps to explain the affinity to
Jamaica.
"Jamaica has created an environment where I feel at home," says
Janvier, who like several countrymen studied at the defunct
missionary school, Caribbean Christ for the Nations. "So I might not
move back to Haiti. But I don't know what the Lord will say."
Janvier is under no pressure to leave despite some negative comments
he has heard since the latest batch of arrivals.
"I hear people say they should kill two or three Haitians so that no
more Haitians come here," says Janvier. "People are the same
everywhere whether in Jamaica or Haiti. The only difference is the
language."
Several of the expatriate Haitian community journeyed to Portland
last month to offer support to the new wave of adventurers but they
were rebuffed for security purposes.
"I think we have to wait until they come to Montpelier," says Luver,
cognizant of plans to house some of them on the site of their former
residence. "But I must thank Mr PJ Patterson for helping my Haitian
brothers to stay in this country."
.