When I say the Haiti episode of our podcast was the hardest to make, here’s what I mean-
There are so many different problematic ways that people often talk about Haiti. From “see how people can be so happy with so little” to shocking and undignifying images of poverty porn. 🇭🇹Haiti is beautiful, complex, and so much more than those narratives.
Unfortunately, that’s what happens when Haiti’s narrative has been shaped by outsiders.
So when it came time to feature Haiti as an episode on my podcast, I knew that I needed to involve Haitians in its creation.
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Collecting Haitian interviews was no easy task. I asked our Haitian Plant With Purpose director Guy for help, and he rounded up the group of men and women you hear on the finished product. But before we could start, we spent an hour and a half tinkering with both my phone and computer to get the internet to work. 📱💻📱When that was done, searching the Internet far and wide for voice actors with the appropriate accents to dub their translated Kreyol was another challenge.
Honestly, there were a lot of points during the interview call where I wanted to give up, but two things kept me going. 1️⃣ I knew our Haiti team drove about 3.5 hours into Port Au Prince just to have that internet connection for our interview. 2️⃣ I kept thinking of my visit to Haiti last year and remembered how each night Guy and his team spent close to an hour trying to yank a portable generator into starting so we could have electricity. Persistence is a big deal in Haiti.
In the end, I’m glad we struggled through in order to make this episode the right way. I’m so happy with how it turned out. We’ll have another new one drop next week, but if you haven’t heard Haiti’s Challenge yet, I invite you to go do so