These past few weeks, the world has been very tumultuous. A powerful earthquake happened in Japan, leaving the world under a nuclear menace. The beginning of aerial bombing in Libya to apply the UN council resolution for the “no fly zone”. The continuous fights in Ivory Coast, and the Middle East’s revolutions. All these hot spots eclipsed some important stuff happening in Haiti.

Important is certainly a word to put in bold, because the future of this Caribbean nation was advanced last weekend. Let me recapitulate for you. After one year of extreme struggle, Haiti had to deal with two major political and historical situations. Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti. After creating a lot of noise locally and internationally, his return was soon forgotten. He is eating publicly in the best restaurants, and even attended a Jazz Festival where people and the press have seen him sipping some good French wine and enjoying life. But does time cure all? Is 25 years passage enough to forgive a dictator’s cruelty: I wonder. If we can learn from actions, forgive and decide to move forward, then I interpret it as “a wind of hope” for Haiti.

Now, there is a quite big gap between 25 years and 7 years. For seven years, Jean Bertrand Aristide was exiled in South Africa. A week ago tomorrow, he returned to Haiti, just before last Sunday’s presidential run-off election.  Now, seven years does not allow a whole generation of Haitians to forget.  For example, with Duvalier, I only know of his actions through stories and films; with Aristide it is totally different. I know what his reign was about and I even fought to throw him out of the country. There is not time enough here to refresh your mind on how he was destroying the country by arming his famous militia “the Chimere,” but suffice it to say that many fear his return would destabilize our tenuous peace and democratic process. Much to my amazement, everything happened smoothly. Now, while everybody is talking about chance or luck, I am thinking of “a wind of hope” for Haiti.

Handy casting his vote in the Haitian presidential run-off between Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat.

People predicted a disaster and major troubles during the votes. But, as always and faithful to her reputation, Haiti created the surprise. We had a nice, smooth and quite fair election day March 20^th. Beside logistic problems with the vote materials in some vote center, overall the day end up very positively.  The elections went well. Of course you won’t hear of it in the news, it’s not news, it cannot be Haiti. Now the speculations go around the coming results. I’m totally confident that we’ll keep up this good way. As people are saying that it’s a miracle. I am thinking of “a wind of hope” for Haiti.

And in the meanwhile, our thoughts are with everyone effected by the disasters that are in the news this week.

Today celebrates the centenary of International Women’s Day, and there’s chatter all around the world and all over the news about measuring women’s progress since 1911, the unique challenges to their pursuit of health and happiness and the importance of captivating their intellectual capital.

Arianna Huffington had one of my favorite posts of the day. In thinking about women and their unique way of looking at the world and problem-solving, Ms. Huffington had this (and much more) to say about her mother:

For example, she taught me that there is always a way around a problem — you’ve just got to find it. Keep trying doors, and one will eventually open.

And, by word and by deed, she regularly demonstrated the value of having a support group of family and friends — what I call my “fearlessness tribe” — in place to give you honest feedback, to support you when the going gets tough, to help salve your wounds… and, just as importantly, to help you celebrate and appreciate the good times too…

As working women, we have to weigh the psychic cost of not trying a new job or venture against the possibility of not succeeding and being embarrassed by our efforts. The former creates regret, the latter a few hours — or perhaps a few days — of licking our wounds. I’ve learned again and again over my career that if you want to succeed, there is no substitute for simply sticking your neck out.

And the world desperately needs women willing to do that. That’s because women are ideally suited to supplying the qualities we need in our leaders right now — being strong and decisive while at the same time being nurturing, wise, and respectful enough to tell the truth with a moral authority that inspires and empowers.

Ms. Huffington advocates a breed of woman who is fearless about her priorities and relationships, and I buy into that wholesale. However, to be so fearless is a luxury, I think, and not one to which most women around the world have access. Everything starts with health and education, and so it is this question of access to luxury (or: opportunity for fearlessness) that C2C seeks to address. Healthy women are more empowered women. This is where it starts.

In Haiti, having a day off is welcome. Any situation, any reason is good enough to take a day of rest with friends, take care of other businesses, or even just to sit at home. This past year, the country had many occasions for “days off.” When it’s not a natural disaster, it’s political trouble. Unfortunately, “days off” also apply to the healthcare system.

Every year, Haiti celebrates Carnival forty days before Holy Friday and Easter. Because of the devastating earthquake that shook the country last year, we missed the 2010 carnival. So this year, we were ready to make up for it and pack two years of celebrations in one. Funny, though: if we’re honest with ourselves, nothing has really changed about the reasons the government canceled 2010 parade. We haven’t come very far…

The Haitian Carnival is very expensive. The 2011 allowed budget for the carnival celebration is 90 million of Gourdes (or $2,250,000 USD). This is insane you will say. It probably is crazy, but the government officials won’t miss the opportunity to earn some money from the treasury two years in a row. You see, the Carnival is perfect for money laundering. Anyway this is another side of the problem. Let’s stay focused on how the country will be turned off for almost 6 days…

From Friday March 4^th to Wednesday March 9^th, schools, hospitals, businesses will all be closed for Carnival celebrations. What is really funny in all this is the fact that there will be no real carnival celebration.  The parade will be just a “masquerade”, a joke on the Champs-de-Mars near the Palace where 75 000 people are suffering, starving and dying under tents. Most the music bands, dance group have decided to boycott the celebration. So there will be no real carnival, but only 4 “days off.”

The C2C clinic at Grace Children Hospital will be open for a half day on Monday and closed for Mardi Gras (Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday. This will happen not because the Nurses and doctors will attend the carnival, but again because any holiday is welcome. Even in the health system.  So, sadly if a lady has a problem and needs care for those days, she will have to wait for Thursday to stop by the clinic and meet a doctor.  This is deeply sad and unproductive, so let’s hope everyone returns with a vigor on Thursday…

C2C recently traveled to Fond des Blancs to look at a new potential site in Villa (about 1:30 from FdB by way of seriously adventurous roads and rivers…) in partnership with St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. More on the partnership and opportunity in Villa as it develops but for now, check out the great work St. B’s is already up to…

It has been two weeks since the final results of the Haitian presidential elections were published.  We now know that on March 20^th, Michel Martelly “should” face Mirlande Manigat for the runoff. Don’t be surprised if I said should, because here in Haiti a surprise is never a surprise. We have learned to live with the fact that anything can happen at any moment.

The campaigns for this famous runoff have started. You can be sure that I have skipped some details for you about the ongoing internal fight inside the elections council and the government on the coming elections.  So do a lot of my fellow Haitians. We remain silent but watchful. We definitely prefer this “back to normal” appearance. Where is baby doc? And what is he doing? Nobody seems to care.  Is Aristide coming back tomorrow or the day after or next week? We don’t want to know. We kind of prefer this surprise game that is never a surprise. However, whatever, our life is so simple and much better when we don’t care. Or I’d better say when we just care about our self.

Take care of ourselves and our own business – this is something I walk with all the time. People who care about themselves and who want nothing else than some opportunity and support. That’s exactly what I see every day while I am working at the C2C women’s clinic at Grace Children’s Hospital. Day by day I meet a lot of women who never say a word about politics, even when we have a female candidate on the runoff. I meet a lot of women whom are only concerned about their health, their coming babies, how they are going to get back home, what they are going to bring home. I see them laughing, sighing, complaining about the heat, but never being discouraged and patient enough to wait hours to receive health care. Good and proper health care.  They don’t care about the protest going one a mile away. They don’t care about Martelly having thousands of people listening to him in a meeting next door. Their priority is to know if the doctors can make it to the clinic and if they will be able to complete their follow up until they deliver the HOPE that they are carrying. This baby, the HOPE for the future of Haiti. And that is what we call “back to Normal.”

I came across a youth art program run by a community clinic called the Association for the Promotion of Family Integrated Health (APROSIFA). Beverly Bell reports in today’s Huffington Post: “APROSIFA’s youth art program began in 2009 in a couple of cement-block rooms in the back of the clinic. A few professional artists donated their time to teach. Today, 68 youth from ages 8 to early 20s are painting and sculpting. A few of the youth who began learning two years ago are now teaching the others.”

This is so wonderful to learn about, and while I’m certainly prone to negative visceral reactions to anecdotal stories as proxies for success, even I have a weakness for this sort of messaging. This quote is from 22-year-old art student Islande Henry. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was her muse as she prepared for an art show in Port-au-Prince last month.

To me, CEDAW is a beautiful thing. It speaks to the restavèk [child slavery] system and how those kids have no rights. It speaks to violence against women, and how women are mistreated in society, and how there are so many things they can’t do from serving in Parliament to playing ball.

Our artwork says, ‘No! Women can do anything. Women must have access to everything this society offers.

I love the combination of social commentary, youth engagement, and using art to express ambition for a country’s future, and I wonder what opportunities there are to engage women in artful expression while waiting for a doctor’s visit…