Haiti: part 4...necessities
So after a few days in Haiti, we got pretty comfortable with John, Lusma, and Juad-ley. They were impressed by my vast knowledge of creole (i'm being sarcastic...i know like 20 phrases and a few random words) but nonetheless, they were still impressed and tried to teach me more. I asked them how to say "smile" one day and they said "surie" but then they said you had to be careful because "surie" also meant a small furry rodent.... and so then i got to teach them how to say "mouse". it was a lot of fun.
One day we did this thing called family visits where the church pairs us up with a family from the church and we go to their house and sit with them and see how they live and talk with them. I went with Tony to the house of the girl that he sponsors and it was a really cool experience. We had an interpreter with us and so we kept on asking questions back and forth. They asked us about our schooling, what we are studying, what we want to do with our futures, and if we ever plan on returning to Haiti. We asked them a lot of questions as well but the two that stick out most im my memory was we asked them what they think of Americans. The father of the household answered that he thought all Americans believed strongly in God. And he was awestruck by this. At the same time, we were awestruck by his answer. i WISH this statement was as true as he thought it was. but the truth is, i understand how he could think that because all of the people who go to Haiti are more than likely on missions trips and Jesus Christ is the first thing on their minds. It's kind of a beautiful thing and i am glad that we could make that kind of impression on people. The other question that really stuck out to me was when we asked him what HE thought Haiti needed most. He simply said that Haiti needed food and shelter. FOOD AND SHELTER?!??!?!! I know that i knew this already but hearing it from the mouth of a Hatian just made it all the more real. Americans can't even begin to understand the need in Haiti because we take food and shelter for granted every day. I am included as well, ask me what i need right now and i will probably tell you that i need another pair of shorts and some water proof shoes to wear at camp this summer. That is because Americans have made the word "need" a synomym for "want" and we now have trouble finding the difference between these two very different words. Hatians need food and shelter. I wonder what it feels like to need food and shelter....how hard it must be to get up in the morning not knowing if you'll eat that day or if you'll have somewhere to sleep that night. food and shelter, that's it.
The next day we went around to some of the villages surrounding Plaisance with Fr. Jose and we got to see the churches in those villages as well. I wasn't realy prepared to see the poverty in these outside villages. In Plaisance, you can tell it is very poor but you at least see kids wearing clothing and going to school and functioning, you know? In these villages, that is not always the case. We saw a lot of malnourished naked children, We saw a lot of malnourished adults as well, just sitting around sewing fishing nets, or fanning them selves from the sun. The dogs here were disgustingly skinny and the cats didn't even look like cats. This is where we saw a lot of the houses made with tree branches and mud. These people had absolutely nothing. And in the midst of all of that, we watched a man shimmy up a coconut tree and start throwing coconuts down to another man underneath. A few minutes later, all 10 of us somehow had coconuts! How in the world do you accept food from a village that has absolutely nothing? It literally broke my heart. I didn't do much more than taste it because i felt like crying instead. As we walked toward another church, i gave mine to a woman sitting in a chair near a gate holding her child. It just tore me up.
On Thursday night...half way through our trip, i got pretty sick. Tony had been really sick all week and, unfortunately, i jumped right on the bandwagon. I am sure that it was from the water but it makes me laugh because i was so careful not to drink it. I must have done a bad job, though, because there i was: completely ill in the middle of a third world country. It was the most isolated and helpless i have ever felt. On Friday, everyone on the team went out with the preists again to visit schools and churches and climb mountains and do all of this fun stuff and i couldn't go with them because i was so afraid to get more than 2 minutes away from what felt like the only toilet in Haiti. So i layed around all day and slept and journaled and thought and slept and thought some more. I think i thought too much though because i just became so bitter about the entire situation. i was so tired of hearing the cars honking, the children singing, the bugs, and the burning trash...i just wanted it all to stop so that i could sit in silence and breathe clean air for once. My bad mood just poured into my entire view of the trip and i became so sad about the sickness and the poverty there. It was so unfair that i got to leave and yet none of them will ever know anything else. By the time everyone got back, i was almost anrgy about it all. Rose and i took a walk down to the church and she sat with me in a pew in the back and listened to me complain about it all. Pretty soon the church started to fill with men and women who were there for choir practice. After a while, one of them came to us and invited us to join them. They handed us sheets filled with foreign words and the man next to me pointed to the right songs to sing while everyone else smiled approvingly. And it was so much fun! People in Haiti don't carry a tune, they just yell it to the Lord and so we fit right in! I felt so loved and accepted. In the midst of all of this poverty and oppression, they have such joy! I left feeling renewed.
One day we did this thing called family visits where the church pairs us up with a family from the church and we go to their house and sit with them and see how they live and talk with them. I went with Tony to the house of the girl that he sponsors and it was a really cool experience. We had an interpreter with us and so we kept on asking questions back and forth. They asked us about our schooling, what we are studying, what we want to do with our futures, and if we ever plan on returning to Haiti. We asked them a lot of questions as well but the two that stick out most im my memory was we asked them what they think of Americans. The father of the household answered that he thought all Americans believed strongly in God. And he was awestruck by this. At the same time, we were awestruck by his answer. i WISH this statement was as true as he thought it was. but the truth is, i understand how he could think that because all of the people who go to Haiti are more than likely on missions trips and Jesus Christ is the first thing on their minds. It's kind of a beautiful thing and i am glad that we could make that kind of impression on people. The other question that really stuck out to me was when we asked him what HE thought Haiti needed most. He simply said that Haiti needed food and shelter. FOOD AND SHELTER?!??!?!! I know that i knew this already but hearing it from the mouth of a Hatian just made it all the more real. Americans can't even begin to understand the need in Haiti because we take food and shelter for granted every day. I am included as well, ask me what i need right now and i will probably tell you that i need another pair of shorts and some water proof shoes to wear at camp this summer. That is because Americans have made the word "need" a synomym for "want" and we now have trouble finding the difference between these two very different words. Hatians need food and shelter. I wonder what it feels like to need food and shelter....how hard it must be to get up in the morning not knowing if you'll eat that day or if you'll have somewhere to sleep that night. food and shelter, that's it.
The next day we went around to some of the villages surrounding Plaisance with Fr. Jose and we got to see the churches in those villages as well. I wasn't realy prepared to see the poverty in these outside villages. In Plaisance, you can tell it is very poor but you at least see kids wearing clothing and going to school and functioning, you know? In these villages, that is not always the case. We saw a lot of malnourished naked children, We saw a lot of malnourished adults as well, just sitting around sewing fishing nets, or fanning them selves from the sun. The dogs here were disgustingly skinny and the cats didn't even look like cats. This is where we saw a lot of the houses made with tree branches and mud. These people had absolutely nothing. And in the midst of all of that, we watched a man shimmy up a coconut tree and start throwing coconuts down to another man underneath. A few minutes later, all 10 of us somehow had coconuts! How in the world do you accept food from a village that has absolutely nothing? It literally broke my heart. I didn't do much more than taste it because i felt like crying instead. As we walked toward another church, i gave mine to a woman sitting in a chair near a gate holding her child. It just tore me up.
On Thursday night...half way through our trip, i got pretty sick. Tony had been really sick all week and, unfortunately, i jumped right on the bandwagon. I am sure that it was from the water but it makes me laugh because i was so careful not to drink it. I must have done a bad job, though, because there i was: completely ill in the middle of a third world country. It was the most isolated and helpless i have ever felt. On Friday, everyone on the team went out with the preists again to visit schools and churches and climb mountains and do all of this fun stuff and i couldn't go with them because i was so afraid to get more than 2 minutes away from what felt like the only toilet in Haiti. So i layed around all day and slept and journaled and thought and slept and thought some more. I think i thought too much though because i just became so bitter about the entire situation. i was so tired of hearing the cars honking, the children singing, the bugs, and the burning trash...i just wanted it all to stop so that i could sit in silence and breathe clean air for once. My bad mood just poured into my entire view of the trip and i became so sad about the sickness and the poverty there. It was so unfair that i got to leave and yet none of them will ever know anything else. By the time everyone got back, i was almost anrgy about it all. Rose and i took a walk down to the church and she sat with me in a pew in the back and listened to me complain about it all. Pretty soon the church started to fill with men and women who were there for choir practice. After a while, one of them came to us and invited us to join them. They handed us sheets filled with foreign words and the man next to me pointed to the right songs to sing while everyone else smiled approvingly. And it was so much fun! People in Haiti don't carry a tune, they just yell it to the Lord and so we fit right in! I felt so loved and accepted. In the midst of all of this poverty and oppression, they have such joy! I left feeling renewed.