PART 4: COLLABORATORS
Safety First
March 1991
Carrefour, Radio Protestant
After returning from Mirogoane, Kevin moves in with Jè as planned. It’s an easy move involving his backpack, the footlocker from Mother Mary’s, and some used furniture they’ve collected from friends. They agree that Creole will be the house language, even though Jè has excellent English. They’ll speak English at the station or as Jè puts it, “whenever I can’t take a chance of you getting confused!”
Then it’s time to prepare for excursion to Mount Boeffe in Southern Haiti. It’s one of the highest peaks on a mountain range that begins near Miragoane and stretches to Ceyes. With line of sight to all of southern Haiti, the Mount Boeffe tower can then relay signals from Port-au-Prince to the cities of Jacmel, Ceyes, and Jeremie. Kevin asks Jè to join him on the trip as “bodyguard”. Jè agrees, but only after emphasizing that he won’t be stepping in front of any bullets.
They’re at the station and Jè emerges from a large closet in the engineering team’s work area. He’s in his mid-twenties, average height and weight, with short cropped hair and thin mustache. He wears dark slacks and is sweating through his collared shirt, as he drags two large canvas bags into the room. Kevin joins him and they start pulling things out of the bags. Jè asks Kevin, “Are you sure those priests in the base community can help us?” Kevin chuckles, “Can’t do worse than the last group of American engineers.” Jè replies dismissively, “Seriously. We needed a dozen guys to drag their bagay to the peak!”
Kevin sighs as he disentangles a multi-meter’s prongs from a tangle of cables. “Then they lost the manuals and left this mess behind.” He shakes a portable radio battery out of the bag. Its connection terminals are corroded badly and it leaks chemicals onto the floor. Kevin shakes his head in disgust and bursts into a coughing fit. Jè dumps the other bag, disgorging a cloud of dust and rat droppings into the work space. Coughing and sneezing, they pull on the rusty chains to open the garage doors and step into the station’s courtyard for some fresh air. When the dust clears, they return to the engineering bay and continue assembling the gear they’ll need.
The Head Engineer opens the door from the office area and looks at the pile of debris in the middle of the engineering bay. “Tim just radioed down from Delmas. He wants to know if you guys are on your way yet.” He looks at the pile and the empty SUV outside the engineering bay. “What do I tell him?” Kevin and Jè look at each other and Kevin’s face breaks into a mischievous grin. He winks at Jè and responds to Head Engineer, “Tell him that I’m trying to find all the manuals that we gave his Alabama friends.” Head Engineer grins, “Oh, I’ll gladly pass that along!” They all laugh until he continues, “But for my own sanity, what exactly do you want me to tell him? I can’t believe I’m the negotiator between God-almighty Tim and you!”
Kevin says with his best innocent face, “If he doesn’t come down here until next week, he’ll never need to see me again. He won’t need to be on short-wave with me all month either, because Jè has a radio that he keeps in our kitchen.” Jè starts to chuckle, expecting what will come next from the Head Engineer. “What do you mean, last time Tim will see you? You’re covering for me this summer when I go on vacation.” Kevin shrugs, “You better work that out with Tim. He doesn’t want to see me at the station all summer. Sounds like I’ll be fired by the time you get back anyway.” Kevin dusts his hands off and pulls on some leather gloves, “Tell him we’re loading up and will be on the mountain fixing the transmitter any day now.”