Seeing all the children make their way to school dressed smartly in uniforms was a sight that spoke to the rebuilding of Haiti post-earthquake. Another was the return of the street markets. Even before the earthquake, only 7% of Haitians worked for an issued paycheck, the rest of those who worked worked in small shops or sold merchandise from the streets. Today you can find just about anything on the street-side markets: food, sodas, shoes, clothes, suitcases, car care items, school supplies, and the list goes on. Though availability of items and ability to pay for them do not go hand in hand in Haiti for most. Even before the earthquake it was the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
No matter what was being sold, chances are high that it was transported in baskets, boxes or bags balanced effortlessly on the heads of the vendor. While we were coming back from clinic one day I marveled at a young boy selling sodas on the street: he danced to the beat of his MP3 player as a dozen bottles kept their place in the box a top his head.
A thought that I had more than once was how the common American health complaints of low back pain, neck pain, headaches--all caused or significantly worsened by poor posture--would be significantly less if we all transported things on our heads rather than slung over our shoulders and backs. It is a striking thing actually to look a the posture of the Haitians on the whole. They stand tall. It is rare to see a signinficantly kyphotic (hunch back) posture, even in the elderly.
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