WEEKEND EXTRA:
GOALIE INJURY MARS HAITI’S JOURNEY
Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere, just “can’t seem to catch a break”, suggests John Boulos, the father of Haitian national soccer team player Kim Boulos.
He’s talking about the grinding poverty and the multi- billiondollar disaster in January 2010, a 7.0 earthquake that crushed the capital of Port- au- Prince, killing an estimated 220,000, and leaving thousands more to die a slow death as international aid was painfully late in reaching them.
Two years later, about 600,000 still live in tent cities, down from 1.5 million, an outwardly encouraging sign, except that many Haitians have left, simply because health services and water distribution have run out.
In Vancouver this week, however, a very lucky group of young Haitian women have left their sad but resilient and proud country behind to play in the CONCACAF ( a confederation of North, Central and Caribbean soccer federations), Olympic qualifying soccer tournament at BC Place Stadium.
And yet, even at the start of what was supposed to be a joyful event, the Haitians still couldn’t catch a break. Their rock, goalkeeper Ednie Limage, was injured in the second half of a 6- 0 loss to Canada Thursday night, when she went airborne to deflect away a volley from the dominating home side. In doing so, Limage collided with teammate Samantha Brand — who unintentionally submarined the keeper, much as Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand did with malice aforethought to the Canucks Sami Salo in a Jan. 7 NHL game.
Limage landed just as awkwardly as Salo, but from a greater height, and ended up in a heap, writhing in pain.
Later, paramedics transported her to Vancouver General hospital where she spent the night, under observation, for a suspected nerve/ spinal injury.
“Our players are in shock. They’re really kind of dealing with what went on there,” coach Ronald Luxieux said, through a translator. “The result, Ednie’s injury, everything that happened ... We played as best as we can, but we played a really tough team. The Canadian team is a tough team to start off with. We expected it to be a difficult game, and we weren’t surprised.”
One of the poorest countries in the world outside of Africa, Haiti shares a 200- kilometrelong border with the Dominican Republic, the two countries dividing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, southeast of Florida.
As sports fans know, there are unique differences between the tropical neighbours.
The Spanish- speaking Dominican Republic exports avocados and world- class baseball players.
In Haiti, French and Creolespeaking, most of the people are subsistence farmers, and the Third World problems of public health, weak or corrupt government and low productivity are even more acute; soccer — not baseball — is seen as a way out.
The question most people ask of Haiti is one of hope. Is there any?
The same question, in a different context, is asked of the Haiti’s women’s soccer team, facing the same long odds for Olympic qualifying as the dramatic challenges facing their countrymen and women, just to get through another day.
The three- hour time change, frigid Arctic air and unfamiliar surroundings didn’t make the settling- in period easy for the Haitians earlier this week, Luxieux acknowledged. But not for everyone. Limage, whose parents live in Puerto Rico and Florida, was recruited last year by the Universite de Moncton to play Canadian university soccer for the Aigles Bleues ( the Blue Angels). The muscular ‘ keeper — who throws shot and discus in intercollegiate track competition, and for her national team, when she’s not punching away soccer balls — took her west coast arrival to snow and ice in stride.
“I was recruited by Moncton,” Limage said. “But, if I had a choice, I’d be playing here [ Vancouver]. It’s really cold there. Here, the cold doesn’t bother me. It’s perfect here. And most of the snow and ice stays in the mountains.”
In CONCACAF, the Haitians are solidly second- division, behind the U. S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. But the women in blue played nobly in their first match — at least measured by their passion in scrambling to make tackles and bring down Canadian attackers, rather than by goals. Limage staved off embarrassment time and time again with heroic, athletic saves, even if she gave up four before leaving the game.
“She’s definitely a leader on our team. Just having her back there gives the rest of the team a lot of confidence,” said Boulos, one of three Americans on the Haitian squad. “They told us the feeling in her legs was gone, but I’m not positive on that.”
Ben Spencer, a tournament spokesman, said Friday Limage probably would be kept in hospital a second night for precautionary reasons, but tests revealed no serious injuries, broken bones or spinal damage.
Good news, but backup Haitian ‘ keeper Geralda Saintilus, who finished up the Canada game, is expected to play in a 5 p. m. start today against Costa Rica.
‘ We have confidence’
“We were really scared, because Ednie is probably the toughest player I’ve ever met,” Boulos said. “To see her carried off the field, we knew it must have been bad. But we have confidence in Geralda, and if we bring our A game, we can beat Costa Rica.”
Boulos, born in Croton, N. Y., just up the Hudson River from Manhattan, is the grandchild of John “Frenchy” Boulos, who is enshrined in the U. S. soccer hall of fame.
Frenchy, born in Haiti, moved to the U. S. with his family as a youngster and later played elite soccer at Yankee Stadium, when the Bronx Bombers and NFL Giants weren’t inhabiting the House that Ruth Built.
Kim, 25, picked up her grandpa’s legacy only 10 years ago, when she decided to get serious about soccer. As a tribute to Frenchy, and for good luck, she thrusts two laminated cards inside her shin pad before every game. One is Frenchy’s I. D. card; the other is the prayer card from his funeral mass.
To our eyes, the oversimplified image of Haiti is seen as a Creole- speaking African society needing handouts to survive. Boulos doesn’t fit the stereotype. She’s white, the family’s background reaches back to Lebanon, and her dad is a music promoter with Atlantic Records in New York.
Indeed, John Boulos is making his first visit to Vancouver since he was here for the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour in 1994.
“We had a party here for Keith Richards 50th birthday,” he explained. “It was back when I was drinkin’, and I don’t really remember much.”
Now, he’s lounging with a soft drink in hand, cheering on the Caribbean country where voodoo is practised by the African diaspora.
“Kim has been able to see that there are people in this world who don’t have a lot, and she’s been very, very lucky,” Boulos said. “She collects [ soccer] cleats and equipment and brings them to Haiti. That’s her thing. If she could save the world, she would do it. Haiti is the classic underdog. It can’t seem to catch a break. But Kim still has the attitude, ‘ We have to believe.’ Last year [ at a World Cup qualifying tournament] in Cancún, she had the team watch Miracle on Ice [ the inspirational movie of the 1980 gold medal- winning U. S. Olympic men’s hockey team]. When they walk away from a tournament like this, even if they don’t win, the most important thing is that they gave their best.”
Middle East roots
The Boulos family is one of many in Haiti whose roots can be traced back to the Middle East. More than a century ago, many French- speaking Lebanese, merchants and traders moved to island to trade pearls and own retail stores.
The relationship is such that Lebanon was one of the first countries to send humanitarian aid to Haiti with a plane full of supplies following the earthquake.
Among the hundreds of structures which were shaken and collapsed violently in Port- auPrince January 12, 2010 was the building housing the Haitian soccer association. Thirty two employees were killed outright, dozens more were injured, and the national soccer stadium was turned into a landing pad for helicopters ferrying food and medical supplies to the stricken nation.
Gaspard d’alexis, a Haitianborn coach who grew up in Montreal, assumed head coaching duties of the women’s team on an emergency basis in the hope of restoring some pride in Haiti’s passion.
Training was moved to the Dominican Republic, Brazil offered coaching clinics and expertise for a training camp in South America, and Americans of Haitian descent, such as Boulos, Brand and Tatiana Mathelier, with their background in NCAA soccer, were recruited to inspire the team.
Brand and Boulos were playing in a women’s professional league for the San Francisco Nighthawks when they discovered each other’s Haitian connection. “She said a Creole word ‘ bunda’ ( meaning: ass) one day, and I said, ‘ Whoa. Where did you learn that?’ Only my family has ever used a word like that. ‘ You must be Haitian!’ That’s how we met,” explained Brand.
Boulos and Mathelier, whose parents were born in Haiti, are practically neighbours, hailing from different counties in the New York area.
“The Haitian girls have been very welcoming to us,” Boulos said. “At first, I really wasn’t sure how it would be. I felt a little bad being there, because I didn’t want to come in and take somebody’s spot. But Gaspard kept encouraging me, ‘ You don’t know how much you’re doing for these girls. You’re helping them more than by taking up a spot.’ A lot of them ask me if I have any contacts, because they want to play in the States one day.”
Though they’ve grown up, in the world’s most powerful country, away from the disadvantages of one of the poorest ones, they have seen the hunger, the hurt, the rubble and the devastation that arbitrarily cut through Haiti, and it’s given the American- Haitians a new perspective and appreciation for what they have.
“When I’m with my teammates, I feel really happy, and really close to God,” Mathelier said.
“Even after the earthquake and everything, they’re so thankful to be alive. They’re thankful for what little they have. They’re thankful for the food they eat. That’s just how they are. It doesn’t matter what difficult circumstances they’re in — they’re praising God and thanking God. America has so much. And we don’t have so much. But we still go out there and play with all our heart.”
With a swift kick to the ‘ bunda’, the Haitians remind the First World of what it truly is to have a bad day.