My Trip to Haiti Part 2: What Surprised me?

My Teva sandals were not cute but comfortable for the long days on my feet!

My team’s purpose in Haiti was to travel to textile factories with Share Hope and educate the pregnant factory workers on how to protect themselves from the Zika virus. We were going to be presenting to over 300 women in the course of 6 days and we weren’t quite sure how to dress for the occasion.

​In my mind, I didn’t want to be overdressed and thus communicate a social class difference. But I what I didn’t realize is that although 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, the Haitian people take a lot of pride in their appearance!

In fact, when our team arrived at the factory office we all felt under-dressed! The Her Health educators were dressed professionally and looked beautiful! ​

HerHealth Educator, Vanessa dressed super cute!

Needless to say,  I was completely surprised by how well dressed the people were and at the amount of clothing on the streets of Haiti. As we drove around Port au Prince  I was thinking “Where on earth did all these clothes come from?”
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That’s when I learned about Pepe or the journey of second hand clothing from the United States. So as I understand it, when thrift stores like the Goodwill and Salvation Army get rid of clothes they sell them to companies who buy them in bulk. These companies then sort the clothing and put them in huge pallets to sell to developing countries around the world.

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In many cases, Haitian Americans living in the States, buy the clothing in bulk and then ship it to Haiti so that the local people can buy and sell them in the markets.

​ It seemed like every main street was filled with people selling these items. I saw a lot of cute designer clothes and shoes and trust me, the next time I travel to Haiti, I will be dressed cute!