Our descent into hell began when the Uncle Macoutes (then-dictator’s henchmen) had rumored that this school was providing unparalleled service to the community. Since, to enter, one had to be from good family, or pass exams, or recommended by respectable and respected people in society.
These criteria did not please the macoutes who wanted to go beyond, as they did in all administrative spheres of the country, habits which have continued to degenerate into what we see today; an ungovernable country with incompetent people at its head.
Witness, Jacques Sauveurs Jean, whom I ask you to listen to.
I will not say Senator, to respect his wishes and not offend him.
Well, one fine morning, these priests had been driven out Manu militari
on the pretext that they were communists.
This is our Haiti.
Since then, the school has started to lose its reputation, the Haitian state, poor manager, not knowing how to run a boarding school with all these well-established infrastructures, has made a paradise, HELL.
Still at the crossroads, very close to the sea, there was the Duval Duvalier reception center, named after the dictator’s father, run by locals whose administration left a lot to be desired, this establishment welcomed street children, a kind juvenile prison, the Alcatraz of Haiti pour enfant.
Believing to be able to continue to do like the Belgians who had left a formidable administrative structure, well-disciplined children.
Wanting to do well, they transferred nearly sixty children from this Duval Duvalier Center whom they believed could be recovered in our beautiful establishment.
They had them accompany them with guards formidable enough to counter the savage tendency of these children who often ran away from the other center.
We had no problem with them being with us until it was discovered that their education left much to be desired. Their language and behavior were different from ours.
Being children and also without prejudices, we saw no harm in integrating them into our circles, we were even very amused to see the difference in behavior. it didn’t take long for them to adjust and conform to the same discipline.
It seems that children are better teachers for children.
At the end of six months, the food reserves and especially the incompatibility of character and management that the new director and his new administrative staff displayed towards professors whose treatment was different from what they received before.
Seeing the change that took place on the children they considered more malleable, they decided to close the other center near the sea and also sent the bigger and more brigands they had to keep for fear that they do not come to corrupt us at the Rehabilitation Center which in the meantime, and to our great despair, we saw the name change to be called: Duval Duvalier Reception Center.
Parents began to parade through the center, they came to pick up their children, because there were rumors that the center was no longer the same, that it was vagrants who were welcomed into this school.
The descent into hell had started since then. Indeed, the politicians who had taken control of the center did not have the capacity to provide adequate supervision.
For example, the school swimming pool was reserved exclusively for the family of the principal who had taken up accommodation with his wife and children.
Arrogance and disrespect had become the norm.
Fortunately, my generation was about to start, in the last line, we were given special treatment vis-à-vis other children, to leave an example.
There was a rumor that we were very loud and exceeded our class level.
To settle down, the director, who was intellectually up to the task, had himself come to pass us exams or he had come out in awe. This had been shown in the primary school leaving exams where 41 out of 42 had passed in the first round of June and the only one who had not passed, ironically, he was the youngest of us and kept the head of the class. Due to poor handwriting (fly paste) he had in the meantime improved and was successful in September.
I met some of these former classmates later. I can take pride in saying that everyone I have met with whom I have made any friendship at all have done well in life.
The new administration had encountered serious problems:
Feeding the children had become a big dilemma for them.
Feeding the children had become a big dilemma for them.
Unfortunately, she did not have the same options as the priests who provided almost everything from the toothbrush, toothpaste, bath soap, uniforms and the five meals that made this center an enviable establishment.
I could have written a whole book to explain the five years I spent in this boarding house which left me with unforgettable memories, including the last year I saw how hell is close to heaven.
This video reminded me of a last image I had of the center in the year 2000, the state of disrepair in which I had seen the center, to show how the officials at the head of the state of my country had no vision of the well-being of this people.
I want to cry 😢
