Anne launches book Living in a Land That Time Forgot

‘LIVING in a Land That Time Forgot’ by Anne Heffernan, a Rathcoole native, was launched in the Tallaght Library on Thursday, July 10.

Anne is excited to share her story and some photos of what it was like to live in the remotest of areas of the Caribbean, where she spent a year volunteering among the local people.

The area of Jean Rabel in the northwest of the country was almost at the end of the national highway from the capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to Anne, “very few cars travel this highway.”

One might see the odd truck trying to make its way through the rough terrain to deliver goods to outlying areas or a colourful tap-tap bus making the six-hour journey to the capital, complete with people, chickens and even goats.

Most people Anne saw on her first journey northwards travelled on foot, for up to an hour and more, simply to get to school, work, church or the local market.

Many she met while living in Haiti had never visited Port-au-Prince.

They simply had no business going there.

This area was indeed remote, being cut off not only by lack of infrastructure such as decent roads and bridges but also cut off legislatively too.

The people of the area simply got on with their day-to-day living; rearing their families, attending to their meagre crops and visiting the local market to trade or barter when they could.

This week, we sat down with Anne to discuss ‘Living in a Land that Time Forgot’; money raised from book sales will go directly to projects in northwest Haiti.

What inspired the book?

I spent one year volunteering in Haiti, and while I was there, I wrote a blog as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends at home and letting them know what life was like living there.

So I had some basis for writing it when I eventually got going on it.

I have had an interest in writing since I was quite young, but when people suggested I write a book, I always felt it was a little beyond me; I wouldn’t consider myself to be particularly creative, so the idea of making up fiction or fantasy never appealed to me.

I like things to be real, I suppose.

Suddenly, while I was in Haiti, I had all the raw material, right there in front of me.

Everything was just so different from how we live here in the west.

I felt the need to share it. And, particularly because so many in our world actually live closer to how the people I worked with in Haiti live than they do to how we live here in Ireland or in the west in general, yet I think for the most part, if we give any thought to how other people live at all, we generally think their lives are similar to our own, but that is not the case at all.

In Haiti, and in the third world for the most part, people’s lives are at rock-bottom subsistence level whereby families struggle and scrape for the very basics of life; social welfare is non-existent, and many have no access to basic education, particularly women and girls.

Living in Haiti, I was forcibly struck by these facts; they were ever before me, and writing my book, Living in a Land That Time Forgot, is my way of bringing those who are ‘forgotten’ and ‘ignored’ by humanity to light.

Rose, one of my colleagues in Haiti and also my boss there, constantly encouraged me to write a book about my time there, so that inspired me too.

How long were you working on it?

I was probably a year and a half to two years working on the book, up until it was actually published and ready to go.

Is it your favourite project so far?

I think it is definitely one of my favourite projects so far.

I’ve done many things throughout my life, but writing this book and now trying to sell it to raise funds for projects in northwest Haiti is definitely one of the projects I have undertaken of which I am most proud, coming next after rearing my two grown-up children, of course.

Living in a Land That Time Forgot gives me the ‘feel good’ factor and helps those who buy and read it to feel good too.

It makes us feel we are making a difference in other people’s lives.

What is next for you?

For the foreseeable future I think I will be putting most of my effort into getting my book publicised, distributed and sold to as wide an audience as possible because I think its message is one that needs to be heard loud and clear, and the funds raised through its sale are even more vital than ever at the current time for Haiti because, as it is, over half of the 12 million people living in the country depend on humanitarian aid for their survival on a daily basis.

They are in dire need of food and, after that, all the other basic essentials of life we simply take for granted.

After that I do have a couple of ideas for further writing but haven’t managed to quite get down to that yet, due to the time that goes into marketing a self-published book.

Who would you like to thank?

There are so many people I’d like to thank because this book wouldn’t have come to fruition without the help and encouragement from oodles of people. I think it ‘takes a village to write and sell a book’.

Firstly, I’d like to thank my late mother; she always encouraged me to write a book, but I never felt it would happen.

Next, I’d like to say a huge thanks to my colleague Rose, who continues to work in solidarity with the people of Jean Rabel in northwest Haiti, for her constant encouragement to write.

My sister, Christina, has done trojan work in selling my book to everyone she knows.

I felt such encouragement when Fr Liam Lawton endorsed my book publicly, inviting his congregation to buy and read Living in a Land That Time Forgot.

It meant so much to me, especially coming when it did, just after its publication, and from such a creative and talented man, whose music I absolutely love.

I’d also like to thank the Library Services who are so supportive of local writers as well as independent bookshops who have stocked my book.

Rachel from buythebook has also been a great support.

Her website deals so smoothly with the sale of my book online; it’s a pleasure to be part of her enterprise for Irish authors.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all those who have already bought my book, all those who will buy my book and all those who have supported any of my fundraising endeavours for Haiti over the past number of years.

Especially, I’d like to reach out to those who have given me encouragement or have commented on the quality and entertainment value of my writing; I’d like to say a massive, heartfelt thank you.

Your support really means the world to me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.