It’s been awhile everybody, and while we’re all shivering away in this chillier northern hemisphere my mind is going to back to warmer places, much warmer places. Join me in Haiti for a couple of minutes, and feel the heat of the tropics.
Haiti is an explosion of warmth and culture, and it was the first time I’ve stepped off a plane and felt like I was entering another world. I haven’t traveled extensively, so I’m guessing other places do this as well, but because Haiti is still struggling after a couple hundred years of devastating poverty and a major earthquake recently it has a completely different feel to it than any place I’ve been before.
We ended up in Merger in what felt like one of the more well-to-do areas of Haiti. Many of the houses were only partially built, which will be part of efforts from mission and humanitarian teams coming in the next few years to finish. The heat was intense, and we quickly learned that speed-walking everywhere in typical U.S.A style wasn’t the best idea here. Haitians walk slowly and gracefully, and when they get to the top of the hill find the nearest shade and stand under it awhile. After two days their idea seemed genius, and it worked much better for some of the steep, dusty hills we walked.
Every day we’d end up at the soccer field and the little church just beyond to hang out with the kids. With an amazing team of translators who could put life into the Creole translated we taught the kids, played with them, arranged for some crafts, and put on little dramas for them.
The saddest day for me was walking through the tent city near us and sensing the hopelessness of the greater amount of the people. Some had hope, but many of them were just barely surviving. It was incredibly heart-breaking to ask someone for a prayer request and get the answer time and time again, “please pray that we can get out of here.”
The happiest (or saddest) day was different for all of us, but whenever we could help a little, or connect with people and pray for them, or just hang out and have fun in the courtyard while watching papa ak manman skip rope with us all, or have the girls braid our hair – we loved it. Everyone got down, got dirty, and boy did we have fun. People from all races, all kinds of jobs and lives, all came together in Haiti for one amazing week that stamped the country in our hearts and passports for ever.
I can’t romanticize Haiti too much while hope is still bleak for many of them. This is where we come in because we can empower them to support themselves, and nothing we can do will be as effective in the long run as getting resources to them. Gratitude and simple enjoyment of life they have, jobs they don’t. There are so many who want to help their own people and don’t have the means and here we can help.
Photo credits: Seth Haley