Peace Corps Volunteer Piper Perreault says she and seven other Peace Corps volunteers have been transferred from Haiti to the Dominican Republic city of Dajabon on the Haitian border to work with Haitians living there
'Haitians have no chance,' says Peace Corps worker with Gautier ties
03/01/04
By John Surratt
GAUTIER -- News reports about unrest and violence in the Caribbean nation of Haiti were personal for Gautier resident Alice Cox.
Her granddaughter, Piper Perreault, a Peace Corps volunteer, was working in the Haitian village of Romeo, near the county's northern border with the Dominican Republic.
"I was frantic," Cox said, recalling the period before Perreault e-mailed her to say she was in safely Washington. "I could not get any news from her; the Internet was down, so I couldn't get any e-mails from her."
Perreault and other Peace Corps volunteers were evacuated to Washington on Feb. 21. She has since been transferred to the Dominican Republic.
In an interview via e-mail with The Mississippi Press Saturday, Perreault said she and seven other Peace Corps volunteers had been transferred to the Dominican Republic city of Dajabon on the Haitian border to work with Haitians living there. She said she hopes the Haitian host family she lived with in Romeo will be able to cross the border to see her.
"The Peace Corps is forbidding us to go to Haiti right now," she wrote.
She said she signed on with the Peace Corps for a year in the Dominican Republic because she believed it was her best option to continue working with the Haitians and help them find the resources so they can help themselves.
"Haitians aren't unintelligent, they just have no security, no infrastructure and basically have no chance," she said. "It's not a country where people can just pull themselves up by their bootstraps; they don't even have boots! A lot of their problems have been brought on by international politics, so really their plight is everyone's problem."
Perreault and other Peace Corps volunteers in the north and northwest areas of Haiti were moved to the Haitian capital of Port au Prince in mid-February.
When she arrived in Port au Prince, Perreault said, she saw tires burning in the streets, which she said people do to block off roads. She heard demonstrations near where the volunteers were staying, but never saw any.
On Feb. 20, The Peace Corps took the 77 volunteers by bus to the Dominican Republic. They were flown to Washington the following day. Because of Haiti's climate, the volunteers had no winter clothes for Washington's winter and received donations of warm clothing.
The violence became worse soon after the volunteers left.
"Our Peace Corps country director, who was planning on staying in Haiti and waiting it out, was forced to leave by the U.S. Embassy the following Tuesday (Feb. 24)," Perreault said. "He was hoping that the Peace Corps could reopen soon, which might now be a possibility since Aristide is out -- or the country just might get worse."
Residents in Romeo, she said, told her that the police left Fort Liberte, which is near Romeo, and an armed gang took over.
Gang members sometimes go to Romeo.
"My Haitian family told me that the gang didn't do anything except strut around. There wasn't an increase in violence there," Perreault said. She said she was in the middle of a number of projects in Romeo when she had to leave Haiti. One of those was a project to put lights in the homes of the village.
Using donations from Gautier residents and others, she had purchased solar panels to provide the power source for the lights. The panels are currently in the Dominican Republic.
"I'm very proud of her," Cox said. "She has learned to do so many things. The money for the solar panels, she raised by herself."
"I hope that God made me leave at this time so I will be able to come back and help even more," Perreault said. "When things calm down, I plan on going back to Romeo and finishing my work there while also working on the border with the Peace Corps Dominican Republic," she said. "My heart is in Haiti."
