Haiti: part 2...the people
In Haiti it sunny rains all of the time! It is beautiful there. There are palm trees and hibiscus plants everywhere you look. the children are gorgeous with their dark skin, big eyes, and beautiful smiles, choirs singing in the church constantly! yet at the same time, there is so much poverty here. piles of garbage cascading down the sides of mountains...dogs, pigs, and goats eating out of sewage piles, people bathing in murky water, others squatting behind gates and buildings, huts made of mud...it is a lot to take in.
On the first full day we were there, we visited the new housing area that St. Francis helped to fund and St. Henry's helped to build. We also went down to the school that Fr. Andre started and met all of the children. When they saw us, they came running and they all wanted their picture taken so that they could look at themselves in the digital image on the back. It was so cute! The little boys were so funny because they would have these huge smiles plastered across their faces until you pointed a camera at them and then they would turn to stone and make a gangster pose, it was very comical. hah.
the church rectory where we stayed was just gorgeous! our rooms were open and airy and beautiful and they set out all of their best stuff for us to use. We ate 3 meals a day at this huge table in a dining room where they served us huge, meticulously cooked meals on their best china. There was a balcony connected to our living corders where would would all sit every night and write in our journals and it caught the perfect breeze. We live like kings and queens.
It was really hard for me to accept living this way. It just seemed so unfair that they used all of their nicest things on us and at the same time, it ate me up inside because it was such a step down from how i am used to living. I honestly don't think i could have lived like most of them actually lived -- not even for a week. And it ate me up inside because the poverty there was so apparent and yet i felt as if i was adding to it just by my presence there. We lived inised this goregous little gated community connected to the church and yet right outside the iron barrier were thousands of people with absolutely nothing to eat. You could even see the main street and the shacks that lined it from out terrace. It all just seemed so unfair. Now that i'm back, it feels even more unfair.
The way that people show affection to each other in Haiti is so different than we're used to in America. Men involved in intimate conversations walk down the street hand in hand, boys continuously hug each other and girls do the same. Their friendships seem so intense and yet so incredibly simple, it is absolutely beautiful.
They also say exactly what they feel all of the time. We met these 3 boys named Lusma, John, and Juad-ley who were learning english from a man who travels around to 5 different villages - one village a day - every week and teaches a class full of high school aged people english in each one. Their teacher had heard we were coming and told his students to practice speaking english with us whenever possible. To make a long story short, these 3 would come to the church courtyard every day to chat with us and ask for help on their homework. Their english was amazing! These boys had such a passion for learning and it was just beautiful. We asked them all what they wanted to do with their lives and they wanted to be doctors, lawyers, and interpreters...such high aspirations! It is so hard to look around at what they would have to overcome just to reach their dreams and be positive about the situation. it breaks my heart. But these boys, they were just so intelligent, sincere, and so inspiring!
all of the kids in Haiti had such a good work ethics. It's really funny because you would never guess it by the way they follow you around all of the time...sometimes you just want to turn around and yell, "don't you have anything better to do!?!?" but that would be futile for two reasons: #1 they can't understand you and #2 they really don't have anything better to do. there is nothing TO DO. It's either they kick a bottle, chase chickens, of follow the white people around, you know? there is never anything interesting happening and they don't live from meeting to meeting - hour to hour like Americans do. They rise with the sun and set with it as well...that is, excpet when it comes to homework. these kids, these 7,8,9 year olds would crowd the bench under the light inside the courtyard every night and study until the generator shut off. wow. that is such dedication! They have such a passion for learning in Haiti...and yet, where will it get them in the end? i don't know...
On the first full day we were there, we visited the new housing area that St. Francis helped to fund and St. Henry's helped to build. We also went down to the school that Fr. Andre started and met all of the children. When they saw us, they came running and they all wanted their picture taken so that they could look at themselves in the digital image on the back. It was so cute! The little boys were so funny because they would have these huge smiles plastered across their faces until you pointed a camera at them and then they would turn to stone and make a gangster pose, it was very comical. hah.
the church rectory where we stayed was just gorgeous! our rooms were open and airy and beautiful and they set out all of their best stuff for us to use. We ate 3 meals a day at this huge table in a dining room where they served us huge, meticulously cooked meals on their best china. There was a balcony connected to our living corders where would would all sit every night and write in our journals and it caught the perfect breeze. We live like kings and queens.
It was really hard for me to accept living this way. It just seemed so unfair that they used all of their nicest things on us and at the same time, it ate me up inside because it was such a step down from how i am used to living. I honestly don't think i could have lived like most of them actually lived -- not even for a week. And it ate me up inside because the poverty there was so apparent and yet i felt as if i was adding to it just by my presence there. We lived inised this goregous little gated community connected to the church and yet right outside the iron barrier were thousands of people with absolutely nothing to eat. You could even see the main street and the shacks that lined it from out terrace. It all just seemed so unfair. Now that i'm back, it feels even more unfair.
The way that people show affection to each other in Haiti is so different than we're used to in America. Men involved in intimate conversations walk down the street hand in hand, boys continuously hug each other and girls do the same. Their friendships seem so intense and yet so incredibly simple, it is absolutely beautiful.
They also say exactly what they feel all of the time. We met these 3 boys named Lusma, John, and Juad-ley who were learning english from a man who travels around to 5 different villages - one village a day - every week and teaches a class full of high school aged people english in each one. Their teacher had heard we were coming and told his students to practice speaking english with us whenever possible. To make a long story short, these 3 would come to the church courtyard every day to chat with us and ask for help on their homework. Their english was amazing! These boys had such a passion for learning and it was just beautiful. We asked them all what they wanted to do with their lives and they wanted to be doctors, lawyers, and interpreters...such high aspirations! It is so hard to look around at what they would have to overcome just to reach their dreams and be positive about the situation. it breaks my heart. But these boys, they were just so intelligent, sincere, and so inspiring!
all of the kids in Haiti had such a good work ethics. It's really funny because you would never guess it by the way they follow you around all of the time...sometimes you just want to turn around and yell, "don't you have anything better to do!?!?" but that would be futile for two reasons: #1 they can't understand you and #2 they really don't have anything better to do. there is nothing TO DO. It's either they kick a bottle, chase chickens, of follow the white people around, you know? there is never anything interesting happening and they don't live from meeting to meeting - hour to hour like Americans do. They rise with the sun and set with it as well...that is, excpet when it comes to homework. these kids, these 7,8,9 year olds would crowd the bench under the light inside the courtyard every night and study until the generator shut off. wow. that is such dedication! They have such a passion for learning in Haiti...and yet, where will it get them in the end? i don't know...