Part 4: COLLABORATORS
Safety First
Radio Protestant, Carrefour
Kevin spends the next week preparing for his excursion to Mount Boeffe in Southern Haiti. It’s one of the highest peaks on a mountain range that begins near Miragoane and then bisects Haiti with Cayes to the south and Jeremie to the north of its spine. This strategic location is perfect to receive FM signals from the main Radio Protestant tower near the international airport. With line of sight to all of southern Haiti, the Mount Boeffe tower can then relay signals for retransmission by AM transmitters in communities that can’t receive a signal directly from Port-au-Prince.
By the end of the week, Kevin has also moved in with Jè . It’s an easy move involving Kevin’s backpack, the footlocker from Mother Mary’s, and some used furniture Jè has collected from friends. They’ve worked together since Kevin arrived at the station. Jè has excellent English and French language skills. While Kevin is still learning Creole, Jè has been teaching him about local customs and how to be a less clumsy blan. They’ve commiserated about their shared problems with housing and life as single men in Haiti. Kevin’s real estate broker will only show him large four-bedroom houses. Every time Kevin insists that he doesn’t need that much room the agent just smiles and says, “You need a Haitian wife!” Jè’s family all live up north and he’s been staying with friends. They agree to combine their resources. Jè has a few conversations with the right people and now they share a two-bedroom house within walking distance of the station.
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. When at the station, Jè always wears professional attire. Now his tie is loose and he’s sweating through his white shirt. He drags two large canvas bags behind him and places them in the center of 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 that the pastors brought down here.” Jè, “We needed a dozen local guys to drag all their gear along!” Kevin sighs as he disentangles a multi-meter’s prongs from a rat’s nest of cables and electrical leads. “Then they lost the manuals and left this behind.” He shakes a portable radio battery out of the canvas bag. The brick-sized gray battery is covered in the white dust that remains after a battery has leaked its chemicals. Its connection terminals are corroded badly and the salt air from the marshy area around the station has turned an entire box of batteries into toxic rust. Kevin shakes his head in disgust and bursts into a coughing fit.