Haiti
I have been trying to think of what I will say in this e-mail for days now. The truth is, words will never do justice to the country or the people of Haiti. I saw so many things. It is a completely different world. Children wore the same clothes every single day. Their clothes were filled with dirt and holes. The kids have one nice outfit that they wore every single day to come learn English from us. Their homes have mud floors and no bed. I visited a house where 15 people lived in three rooms. The rooms were small, in fact if I stretched out my arms I could touch from one side of the room to the other. Despite all that the Haitians do not have, they still have so much. The kids all have smiles on their faces and lovingly take care of their siblings and families. The kids don't complain about having to work in the gardens, because that is how they eat.
I learned so much about myself on this trip. I am selfish. I have taken my education and life for granted up until this point. Kids in the United States complain about school, but yet my students in Haiti showed up for class every day, early and dressed in their best clothes.
I take for granted that I get to eat everyday, while these kids wonder when they will be able to eat again. So many kids had red hair with is a sign of malnutrition. It is heart wrenching that 1 in 5 children die of starvation.
We flew into Port au Prince, the capital city. The city is much different than the mountains where I stayed. The city has nicer parts and then terrible parts. The nice parts are developing mainly because of drug money, which is a bad thing.
The next day we attended Mass at the orphanage. I wanted to take every single kid home. AfterMass we headed for the mountains. We piled 18 hockey bags and then all of our little bags into the back of a pick-up truck and then packed 9 more people in on top. It was a 2 hour ride in the heat of the day. There are no road rules, no street signs, and no stop lights. People just honk and then pass, wherever and whenever they want to. It was so bad I couldn't look. The highway wasn't even paved in parts. One we got onto the road that headed up to the mountains the ride got bumpy. The road is made out of dirt and rocks. It is the rainy season, meaning that there is about 3 thunderstorms a week, all at night between 5-6, and therefore the road gets really bad. This is the only road that leads to the villages in the mountains and it needs to be maintained so that people can ride their donkeys into the city to sell things. Once we got to the top of the mountain we were surrounded by kids. They all helped us to carry the bags up to our cement and tin house. I picked my wooded bunk bed, even though it had scorpions under it, it was doable.
After the first day we fell into a routine. We would wake up at 6. Go collect hundreds of rocks, put them in the truck and move them to the worst parts along the road. It helped a lot, but needless to say.I never want to see another rock again. At around 12 we went back to the house to eat rice and beans. We had rice and beans every day for lunch. After lunch we had a discussion about a book we had to read about Haiti. I led the discussion the first day and enjoyed all of the others. At about 3 we started teaching English. I was given my own three students because they were advanced. They were so sweet and just wanted to learn everything they could. I loved teaching them for two weeks. At 6 we would end the English classes and the Haitian boys would close with a hymn. It was amazing, their voices are so pure.
After classes we would good dinner in our make shift kitchen. We had to bring our food from the U.S. because we could not eat or drink anything there. The stove was run on propane because we had no electricity and the water needed to be boiled because it was taken out of the cistern, which is just rain water. There is no running water there.
After dinner we would hang out with the kids and then close the night with prayer and discussion.
At night we would hope for rain, because if it rained we would get a shower. Let's just say I was able to wash my hair under a hole in the gutter only twice.
As the two weeks went on, the kids became friendlier. Every night they would come play games with us and dance. Their games are inventive. They play hand and rock games a lot. They don't have anything else. We had a good time hanging out with them, even thought breaking the language barrier was a challenge.
The last day came all too fast. We all said good bye and left for our only day of relaxation. We went to the beach. It did not take us long to run into the water. We were covered with 12 days of dirt.
The beach was like a completely different place. The water was a beautiful blue surrounded by tropical flowers and bamboo, but right across the street from the resort was a bus in which a family lived.
After the beach we headed back to the city because our flight was the next morning. We picked up 5 Haitian boys that were coming to the U.S. with us to join 25 others. The reason we taught English was because the boys are part of a coop. They learn English from us and then they come to the U.S. for 10 weeks in the summer or 10 weeks in the winter and work at camps. The money that they make in 10 weeks is equivalent to what they would make in 5 years in Haiti. The average Haitian makes less than $1.00 a day. The program is amazing. It has helped so many families. These boys work hard and then they are able to support their communities and families. I am excited that the boys are here for the summer, I will be visiting them many times before they return to Haiti in August.
The flight home was calm. I was cold once we got back to JFK, because it was so hot in Haiti. We cleared immigration and customs easily and then drove to Western, MA. I stayed at Carolyn's house because we got home at 1 am. Friday was our welcome home dinner and so my parents and friends came down to welcome me home. It was emotional, not because I hadn't seen them, but because I was still not yet ready to tell everything I had seen. It is hard to be asked so many questions, when you are still trying to sort out everything that just happened. I am still not even close to having the right words, but I thought I could start with this.
I had so many great moments, but my greatest by far was when I was teaching my students some verbs and one of them looked at me and said, "Teacher, I understand". I am so proud of this. If a Haitian calls someone his teacher, it is with utmost respect. Teacher is a title that must be earned, and I had.
I hope this finds you all well and that you can atleast understand a little of what I did and how it has changed my life.
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Thanks, Amelia. Her story shows us that the greatest example we can portray of Christ's love is to do justice, and in this case, both social and personal.
... be the change you wish to see in the world...
... preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words...
Amen.
posted by Chris @ 7:53 AM
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