by Jeane LaRance…….

It was around the year 1910 when officials in Jacmel decided they would demolish Saint Jean Baptiste Catholic Church. I can’t say for sure, but from what I have learned about Haitian culture, the people in LaVallée must have been devastated by that news. So they joined together and moved the entire church to Ridoré. They carried it by hand, piece by piece, stone by stone!

There were no roads or vehicles back then and that area is extremely rough terrain. Even now driving a vehicle is difficult to get there. All people in LaVallée took part in bringing Saint Jean Baptiste Catholic Church up the steep mountains to Ridoré. They carried what they could for their size, big people carried big stones and as much as they could, small people, old people and children carried what they could, even if it was a bucket of sand. Everyone worked one day a week even the farmers and some of the people worked everyday. By 1922, Saint Jean Baptiste Catholic Church was completed! Father Bonnaud was the first resident priest; he was from Brittany, France. It seems Father Bonnaud played a large part in the development of LaVallée; he introduced masonry work to the men and they began to build their town, the town of Ridoré. In 1910, LaVallée was named a parish in the Sud-Est department of Haiti.

This is important information but for me the most important information is about the people building their entire community together by hand! When I say the story of life and culture in LaVallée is long and beautiful, this is what I’m talking about. But I’m not sure I would believe this story if I had not been there to hear the stories and meet some of the people that were there during that time and who were a part of that extraordinary group of people. The sad part is that they have no pictures of that time, no visual documentation. There is a large bust of Fr. Bonnaud by the church, honoring him as the founder of the parish. The people in LaVallée started the first “cooperative movement” in Haiti, the historic “Caisse Populaire”(credit union), founded in 1946.

The first couple of times I was there in LaVallée I asked why everything was made of cement. I was told it was because they have all of the elements it takes to make cement and Haitian men are the best masonry workers. They do everything by hand; they don’t have fancy tools or levels. I watched them build a water tower and houses all by hand, it was amazing; I’ve never seen anything like it! They built four schools, and the open-air market.

Then in 1975 Codéva (Coude-a-Coude pour le Développement Valleen) meaning elbow-to-elbow for the development of LaVallée came into being. They were a well-structured very organized Haitian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

Their focus was on a dispensary hospital and in 1977 they began building what is now L’Hôpital St. Joseph. They completed the St. Joseph Dispensary in 1980. In 1986 AHDH, Association Haitienne de Développement Humain, Inc. (Haitian Association for Human Development), arrived to do their part in helping their brothers and sisters, as if all the pieces of the puzzle were now in place. L’Hôpital St. Joseph is community owned and operated; all of this is in the municipality of Ridoré, the main village in LaVallée.

In the meantime Haitians in the US were working toward organizing a group in order to help their brothers and sisters in Haiti. In 1977, Fraternité Valléenne Inc. (FV) became a non-profit organization in the state of NY. I see them as the caretakers of St. Jean Baptiste Church but that is not their only project. They are involved in education and the schools as well; just like Codéva their focus is in the development of LaVallée. Most recently they raised enough money to completely renovate the church and the surrounding area. Both the young photographers and I documented the construction at different stages of the renovation.

I have been fascinated by the strength and courage of the Haitian people since my first trip. It goes beyond the building of their entire community by hand. It’s more about them being able to survive the hardships they’ve endured; it’s about the sacrifices they make so their children can attend school. Their determination was way out of scope to me in the beginning, but seeing is believing. I think of the time one of Michael’s ultrasound students wanted a job so badly that one day he dressed nicely and went to work at the hospital in the records dept. They did not stop him from working but did let Michael and Dr. René know about it and Michael decided to pay him until another plan was worked out.

So I think you can see my fascination with these amazing people and their culture. But things are changing, which is inevitable and they just go with the changes as they come.
After the earthquake in 2010, the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, visited LaVallée and because Ridoré is the main village all of the streets are now being paved and blacktopped. I don’t like it but I am just a visitor; the LaValléens seem fine with it and that’s all that matters.

See more images at: JLaRance.wordpress.com

All images are property of the photographer, Jeane LaRance and may not be copied or used without permission.