Several weeks ago, while in northwest Haiti performing engineering work associated with a Seattle University senior project I am advising, I experienced the tragedy of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Thankfully, the rural part of the country I was visiting did not experience significant damage. However, the earthquake disrupted the lives of many people and caused them to prioritize certain technologies. Two that survived remarkably well are motorcycles and cell phones.
Let’s start with the first: motorcycles. Motorcycles are not new to Haiti, but they became common in the countryside only a few years ago. Nevertheless, by the Saturday after the earthquake, with gas at a premium, motorcycles had become a preferred form of local travel (donkeys remain a less preferred alternative). On a trip a week after the earthquake, I counted four adults and one infant on a single off-road bike. Sadly, the risks we associate with motorcycles are present in Haiti—on that trip, we barely missed the riders of a motorcycle that slipped in the mud in front of our vehicle. Nevertheless, this recently imported technology provides an inexpensive form of transportation that is vital for Haiti right now.
Cellular phones are an even more recent and more powerful import. Cell phones are now ubiquitous even in rural parts of Haiti. It would not shock anyone to see a farmer sending a text after a long day of labor. Many of my field crew had phones. Some of the first people flown into the country on aid flights were engineers charged with fixing the cell networks. In any case, the phones began working intermittently by Thursday, and by Saturday they provided relatively reliable communication for our group. The value of such communication is difficult to overstate, particularly when you realize the alternative to a simple call might be a 10-mile hike, or, after the earthquake, a dangerous motorcycle journey to Port-au-Prince to check up on family.
The nearly complete integration of cell phones into the cultural landscape is perhaps best illustrated by an experience I had on the Sunday after the earthquake while attending a local church service. Upon entering the open-air building, I noticed a bank of cell phones plugged into a set of power strips. Attendees were using this opportunity to charge up for the week. Later in the service, I was amused to hear a creative ringtone from a phone whose owner had failed to place it in silent mode (an experience I must say some of my students should be able to identify with).
Unsurprisingly, the need to communicate with family and loved ones was one of the most important priorities for Haitians after the earthquake. What is surprising is how effectively both motorcycles and cell phones helped meet this need, and how resilient these two technologies proved in the face of the chaos surrounding the disaster.
Wes Lauer, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering
The editor may be reached at opinion@su-spectator.com.
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