Down memory lane with Justin Curtice

My first memory of HDC Josh had asked me to come over there for some reason to look at something for him.  In normal Haiti fashion he got stuck in traffic and I was just waiting for him forever.  At the time I could barley speak any creole. Adelson came out and kept trying to say something to me…….but to no avail.I just couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. He then made sign language that resembled eating. I realized he wanted me to come eat with him. So I go inside his house and his wife Majorie had made this amazing tasting fish.We sat there and shared a meal together without even being able to communicate to each other much of anything. After that Josh showed up and we ended up looking at his electrical or whatever his problem was.  Ever since that day Adelson and I always had a cool connection.   

After that day, I pretty much got recruited to be HDCs maintenance guy. Anytime they had a problem I was called over to try and solve it or fix it.   Usually if I couldn’t fix it, I could find someone else that could.  Let it be Robert or Gaetan.  

Kobus, Josh, Gaetan and I build the gazebo/pergola thing on the roof of HDC.   I was over there so often all of the workers from the night guard to the leather guys to the jewelry ladies to the administration ladies upstairs all pretty much knew me by name.   I would hear my name called out on the  streets in Clercine and usually it would end up being some one from HDC saying hi to me.  

I have so many fond memories of HDC.  Many times I’d hang out with Josh late into the night as he was trying to iron out the kinks of some new leather product they were about to come out with “NEXT WEEK!”   One time he let me go pick out my own leather from the scrap bin and make my own passport cover. He basically gave me a little guidance and let me pick out all my own stamps or anything I wanted to add to it.  I love that passport cover.  I’ve also been rocking a wallet from them ever since I bought it probably back in like 2017.   

Being a part of HDC was an awesome testament to what community actually means.   That’s one thing I had in Haiti that has always been hard to find anywhere else after leaving!

Decolonizing: Beauty

My name is Christelle Dossous. I am 30 years old and grew up in Port au Prince, Haiti. I left Haiti after  graduating from high school  to study in the United States. I moved back to Haiti in 2013 and still live here today. I am the youngest of four children in my family, 3 boys and 1 girl.

Growing up I though I needed to look a certain way in order to be accepted in the society. I thought my hair was too kinky so I had a perm at the age of 11. It wasn’t until I went to University in the US that  I began my decolonization journey. I went to a French school in Haiti where Haitian history was not taught. All I knew was European & US history. I took an anthropology class in college and that’s when I began to see things differently. I realized how much I was blinded and how much work I needed to do to value my own culture, but also myself. 

If I could speak to my younger self, I would want to tell her-

“You are enough just the way you are. Don’t try to meet anybody’s standards but your own.  Your history is rich and you have every reason to be proud of it.”

I launched my company, Onaturall in 2013. Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care company. Last year we launched Onaturell Hairspa to offer a spa experience to our clients when it comes to taking care of their hair. Onaturell first started as a blog where I wanted to share my experience with natural hair with my followers. It quickly turned into a business when I realized that there was a great opportunity in Haiti because most of the ingredients I was using were not available to my audience.  So that’s pretty much how Onaturell started.

The beauty industry has a lot of work to do as far as decolonization. The beauty industry needs more diversity because those who are in charge of pushing what is fashion or beautiful are not people that look like us. I think a major part of the Haitian population still has the western beauty as their standard of beauty. This explains why you have so many bleaching of their skin, still perming their hair or using extensions . The idea that you can be  “Tet grenn “ and still be beautiful is something that is new to us . The closer you are to being light or having wavy hair, the more beautiful Haitian society thinks you are.

For the future of beauty and self love in Haitian culture- I dream of a Haiti where every color shade is celebrated, from the darkest to the lightest tone. A place where we learn to embrace the traditional styling that our ancestors passed down to us .

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D.S. Series Quick Dive:

• What does “decolonization” mean to you personally?

  No longer using western ideologies to define who we are, or should I say to validate our existence.

• What are you most proud of when thinking about being Haitian and Haitian culture?

Our history and our resilience. 

• If you were speaking to a group of elementary students about beauty, what is the message you would most want to share?

  Beauty starts from within and it is unique. Learn to love yourself first and do not compare it to anybody.

• We may have someone reading this who has suffered much pain from the lies they’ve been told and are just kicking off their personal decolonization journey. What encouragement can you give them? Where should they seek sources of truth and inspiration? 

You are on the right track , just be patient with yourself and take it one day at a time.  Inspiration should start from within. Practice self love first .

About Onaturell:

Onaturell is an all natural hair and skin care brand. All of our products are formulated in-house and we source ingredients from all over the world. Onaturell was founded by Christelle Dossous, a Cosmetic Formulator with a speciality in natural skin & hair products.

We are located at #56 Rue Chavannes in Petionville, Haiti.

You can call us to book an appointment at- +509  4216 2345

BRIDGING THE GAP

Day 7: BRIDGING THE GAP

In our final day of #HDCFam Week we are focusing on the core value that brings us all together- bridging the gap for and with our artisan families. Today’s essay is written by Jerry, the head of quality control and a member of the leather team at Haiti Design Co.

“My name is Evens, but usually people call me Jerry. I have been working at HDC for a while now, and even met my wife there. She has a daughter that I feel is my own now, and we have our first baby on the way. I’m really happy to have them as my family. 

I manage quality control at Haiti Design Co., which means that I go through every single product to make sure they are perfect before we ship them to our customers. I also work with the leather team, and help lead tours when visitors stop by to see the workshop. I am also a designer, and HDC always provides opportunities for me to use my skills and create new designs.

Something that I really love about HDC is that most people who begin working with us have no idea that they have the ability to do great things, and have the potential to change their community, and then when they start working at HDC, all of these things are revealed. HDC has provided a lot of training, and has helped a lot of dreams to become a reality. 

One of my biggest dreams was to own my own house. My wife and I were always struggling to pay rent every year. Saving for the future isn’t something that exists in my culture or really is even a possibility, but after receiving training at HDC, this changed for me, and my wife and I began saving for our dream.

After participating for a while in a program that Haiti Design Co started called “Save for Tomorrow”, my wife and I sat down and talked with the HDC leaders about our goal of buying a house, and our financial plan to do it. They were so impressed with our motivation and how much we had saved, that they agreed to give us a loan to complete what we needed. 

A mutual friend of ours helped us find a house, and we bought it. Now we have our own house, and I am so proud of that. I really like our home because it looks like a cube, and at night there is a nice breeze that sweeps in and helps me sleep. It has been really fun to make our home more interesting. We have painted the inside white, have put down ceramic tiles, and have begun to purchase appliances. It’s a great feeling to not have to worry about next year’s rent, to not be so stressed, and to just feel so comfortable in your own home. Our home is the nicest house I have ever lived in.

I really appreciate HDC because it is such a unique organization in Haiti. HDC wants to see less people living in poverty, and more people living a vibrant life, but instead of just asking for charity, they instead ask people to take a look at the beautiful products that we create. I don’t have enough time to talk about all of the different things HDC does, but getting to talk about the dream that HDC helped me achieve is a pretty great thing that I wanted to share.

PEYI LOCK

Day 4: TOGETHER IN THE STRUGGLE

“A long time ago, Haiti used to be a prosperous nation in the Caribbean. A few years ago, Haiti wasn’t facing what it currently is.

This year has been full of hardship. Gas shortages. Food shortages. Corruption in the government and private sector- all of this leading to what we call “Peyi-Lok” or a “Country Shut-down”.
Streets are barricaded and roads are blocked, forcing people to stay in their homes- unable to sell or go to work, and kids can’t go to school. For me personally, it’s been really hard. There have been many days when I can’t go to work, and a lot of times the streets are too dangerous to go out. Some days I tried to leave my house but I got threatened and had to turn around, or had things thrown at me while driving my motorcycle.
What’s sad is that when you are at home, you should feel comfortable and safe. But it has turned into something else, because now when you are home you don’t feel those things, instead you feel frustrated, scared, and sad. You aren’t home because you want to be, you are home because you are forced to be by protestors and gangs.
The Peyi-Lok has really affected my spirit, and I feel like I have been traumatized by the things that I have seen, and by the fear I have felt. One time I was on my way home from work and my brother and I accidentally drove into a violent riot- where tires were burning everywhere. We were terrified by being hit by bottles or rocks that were being thrown, we drove like crazy to get out of there. I have had friends that fell victim because of the lockdown. My friend’s father was run over by a car trying to escape from a manned roadblock, I had another friend who was shot after a gang robbed him while driving his motorcycle. They both died because of the lockdown.
More people are hungry. It’s harder to get food when businesses can’t get produce delivered. It’s hard to feel safe at all now, you used to feel like you could call the police if you got into trouble, but now the police are so preoccupied by the situation- it’s like there isn’t enough to go around. Honestly, they probably couldn’t even make it to you in time because of the road situations.
So it’s a hard time in Haiti, but I will say this- Haitians stand together. People are helping each other survive- they share food, they share resources because they know others are going hungry or don’t have money because they lost their job or can’t make it to work to get paid. Haitians are resilient, it’s not the first time that we have had to face such trials as a people, and it certainly won’t be the last. But I always find that we make it through together, we always help each other through it.”

As we continue in the week of #HDCFam, we reach a core value that is especially important to us during this difficult time, being together in the struggle. Today’s essay was written by Carl Mathiew. Carl is the head of sewing on our leather team. He is also a member of our advanced english class and wrote this feature based on his personal experience of peyi lock.

While this phase has been extremely difficult, it has been a great comfort being able to pull together as a team during this time. When we can make it to work- be with community, commiserate, and do our best to support one another and encourage one another, it reminds us that we really aren’t alone in it all.

And many thanks to each of you who make this opportunity possible for us through your orders! You keep us working and give us motivation for a new day.

To further support our team members in more impactful ways, please consider being a part of HDC Fam.