Community Letter, October 29, 2020

10/29/2020

Dear Community,

When the thirty-year Duvalier régime came to an end in 1986 in Haiti, I was 22 years old. I had never witnessed or experienced an election. And until a year before that, I never thought I would. Fast forward three years and the dream of the first free election of my lifetime came true! It was December 16, 1990.

As a recently married young mother, I was filled with dreams for my future, my daughter's future, and for my country and was determined to be fully engaged in this incredible pivot of history. The truth was that setting up a voting system in a country that had no such memory, let alone system, and in which there were many practical obstacles, proved challenging. But the determination of the Haitian people and the international community made it an exhilarating moment. We would conquer together the fact that we could not count on electricity in polling stations, many villages were accessible by donkey only, and ballot boxes had to arrive on time, and be returned on time to headquarters. Eighty percent of the population was illiterate and many could not sign their name, and most had no ID cards. (Somewhere in one of my storage boxes, I have a copy of the sample ballot.) Each candidate — there were 11 — had an identifying number/a symbol/a picture and a name and in order to vote, you just needed to put a big X on one of the identifiers. The winner, with 67% of the popular vote was Jean Bertrand Aristide, whose symbol was the rooster.

The evening of the 15th was filled with anticipation and last minute preparations for the next day. All the ink bottles (Encre de Chine indelible ink) had arrived so everyone could get their finger marked, proving they had voted and could not vote a second time. And it would be used for a finger print in lieu of signatures for those who needed that option. At dawn on the 16th, lines were formed as the nation was embarking on this first experience in a truly democratic process. My grandmother (in her 80s), my sister, our cook, and I all went down to the polling place to vote early before our volunteer work would start. We made sandwiches all day long to deliver to the many polling stations near our house and brought candles and kerosene lamps as the day was ending and the ballots needed to be counted. Together, huddled with teams of people we did not know but with whom we shared this pride and urgency, ballots were counted, recounted and sealed in the boxes provided by the United Nations for secure transport. When they were taken to the central tallying station we caravened by bicycle and car to make sure the boxes arrived safely to their destination.

All these memories come rushing every four years as election day happens in the United States. And this year is no different except for the fact that I mailed in my ballot. I am going to miss the lines, the chats and the sticker! But the honor and privilege of being in a country where every vote matters or should matter, is awe inspiring.

This year, we all know that the tenor around next Tuesday is fraught with anxiety, fear, pride, anger, you name it. And it is in this context that we will celebrate a few of our students who are voting for the first time this year and helping all others process what the day will be like as well as its outcome. As a faculty, we have been thinking about the context of November 3, 2020. It is not lost on us that it could be mired in controversy and there could be much need for processing events and supporting various members of our school community in the days and weeks that follow. But we have been preparing for this moment, and we are ready for whatever comes our way.

In the days ahead, I will have more information for you on the pandemic, including calendar details about the upcoming Thanksgiving break. But today, I wanted to pause, share my reflections with you, and make note of this incredibly important time in history. If you have not already, please vote! To do so is an honor and a privilege that we must never take for granted.

I wish you all a safe and healthy weekend.

Sincerely,

Lise

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