HAITI - The Invisible Recovery

January 12 marked the anniversary of one of the most catastrophic events in history. Unfortunately, it took place in a small country that happened to be one of the poorest in the world - the country of Haiti. As many as 300,000 people died that afternoon in 2010, countless tens of thousands were injured, and over a million were left homeless with no hope of a home for their foreseeable future.

How do you recover from such a thing? Can you recover?

In Haiti, many asked the question, "What would you recover too?" The situation in Haiti was so bad before the quake, the country already needed recovery. There were better days in many ways. Better economics. Better security. Better roads. Better education. Better opportunities for many. But with those better days also came a brutal dictatorship that strangled the freedoms of many and unwisely centralized Haiti's internal structures.

For years, Haiti's reputation became "the poorest country in the western hemisphere - because of corruption." Leadership basically consisted of the Duvaliers, Preval, and Aristide. These men came to serve as the most powerful men in Haiti over the past 50 years. Each represented corruption, accusations of the murder of dissidents, self promotion and preoccupation, personal gain, and a total lack of care for the country of Haiti and its people.

During Baby Doc, Aristide, Preval, and periods of occasional military control, the people of Haiti suffered as the economy declined, education disappeared, and the country spiraled into deep decay. The decay was visible on every level of Haiti's infrastructure. But somehow in the midst of it all, the people of Haiti (at least those who stayed) managed to maintain a national pride that exists in great strength to this day.

The quake was clearly the most horrible event in Haiti's history. One pastor shared a story with us that his mother came out from her damaged building after the quake, looked at the destruction and dead bodies all around and was so overcome that she had a heart attach and died. As we traveled to the Presidential Palace - Haiti's Whitehouse - immediately following the quake, hundreds of people were gathered on the street in front of the palace weeping at their losses. The loss of loved ones and friends, the loss of homes, the loss of a sense of security, and as important as all of those - the loss of so many of the remaining things that made them proud to be Haitian. About the only thing left they could point to to show their national pride was the simple fact that they were Haitian born.

As horrible as the quake was, it garnered attention and compassion from around the world. If there has been any glimmer of hope since that terrible day, it has been that the attention and support of the world could help create changes in Haiti that would rebuild and restructure the country into a "nation of people" instead of a small group of greedy leaders who siphon the needed dollars away to some foreign account for their personal gain.

Every time I return from Haiti, I am asked the question, "Is it getting any better down there?" Early on, I would immediately think about the rubble cleanup and the rebuilding of structures. Those things for quite a while were going slow. Tent cities still lined the roads, but the tents were now old and tattered. Rubble still could be found everywhere on the sides of roads. Occasionally, you could see a piece of heavy equipment in use. That was the typical scene before the election.

After the election, things began to improve. Nations who had been burned before by Haiti's corruption wisely held pledged money until the new president was placed in power. This new president, Martelly, began to address structural changes that included much needed leadership changes. The level of accountability began to increase. He represented the voices of the people and has not forgotten those voices. For the first time, a man was elected who was not connected to one of the three most powerful men who had ruled Haiti over the past 50 years.

Change has begun. It is visible in many places. Economic changes in Port au Prince and Cap Haitien are noticeable. Industrial parks are springing up in both cities. A university has been completed in Cap Haitien that will educate several thousand students. Outside investors are being attracted to Haiti on a daily basis. The coffee industry is being revived. These are all good signs of the beginning of a recovery.

But when I am asked this question today I think about a bigger picture. The recovery that Haiti is beginning to experience is more evidenced in what is not visible. It is in the spirit and hope of the Haitian people. Their national pride has risen significantly. Their sense of hope can be detected on every level of society. As they go about their daily work, whether as a self-employed vendor, a teacher in a church school, an employee of a local government, or a newly employed construction worker, there is hope. For many, circumstances have not improved much, but their hope in Haiti's future is greater than ever.

Perhaps the most powerful force behind the great future Haiti has in front of it is the Invisible Recovery that is taking place in the hearts and minds of the Haitian people.

To the people of Haiti, we applaud you.

Come Go To Haiti With Me!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

Come go to Haiti with Me!

I have been asked......so what do you do when you go to Haiti?
Let me share.

First, go to the airport, weighted down with four suitcases that
are over limit, over weight, and full of stuff that you have to get
to the people.  Over the counter medicine, food, diapers
(large ones that can't be found in Haiti for the handicap kids),
 vitamins, shoes, underwear for the kids, items that they need
and just can't find in Haiti, i.e. plastic bags/shopping bags,
endless sippy cups and bottles, kids clothes.....you get the picture.

Arrive in Port au Prince, and see before you land, a landscape
 that is full of tents, and people, and need.

Fight through the endless people trying to "help" that are at first
annoying, but you realize they just need to make money, and
 with unemployment at 80%, carrying a suitcase for someone
might buy them a pot of rice that night.  It stops being annoying,
when you realize it is desperation.

Get in a truck with a pre-arranged driver, and get on the
 road...........full of potholes, and people, and traffic.  You immediately
 see what you have heard about..........humans living in tent cities
that were built for an emergency, and are now there two years later,
 worse for wear, and full of stories of sadness and desperation.
This is within two minutes of leaving the airport.

The scene continues...........tents, people trying to sell whatever they can (5 mangos, old clothes, whatever) on the side of roads, to buy food.  They are wearing donated clothes, donated shoes,
and are doing whatever they can in a crowded and dirty world.  You see in the tent towns, maybe for the first time ever, kids without clothes/no underwear/no diapers looking at you with shame
and hope and desperation.........as you drive by.  You can't look for long, it seems too wrong to see this and to keep driving. Your instinct is to stop your truck, get out, take care of those in need.

You will arrive at what will now seem like an oasis, New Life Children's Home,after one dirty street after another, full of people that are trying to stay alive.  New Life is a walled compound for children and guests, and it just happens to be one of my homes.  You are greeted by a guard, and you scrub down with soap and bleach to kill whatever you have picked up on the outside......all before you enter the compound.  They can't risk you bringing in anything that would harm the children, more than they were harmed before they came in.

And then you start your work.  Some people stay within the safety of New Life, and work with the kids, and interact with them, and try to make difference with them, and try to not get too attached, and wonder how you can leave them?  Some people go back into the rubble and dirt and problems, and try to make a difference there, through work projects, and feeding people, and providing care and reassurance, and hope that a few people will go to bed each night less sick, less hungry, less exposed, because of what you did.

You go to bed at night, covered with mosquito nets, and think "I am glad to be here, glad to have done what I did today, and how can I do more?".  And in the morning, you get up, and you do the same,and you are both happy that you are there doing what you are doing, but somewhat lost in the vast need.

You have to keep focused on what you are doing........not what you can't do.  It is the only way to move forward.  EVERY LITTLE bit matters.  You keep repeating that.  You repeat that when you see the peoples eyes whom you are not helping this time, you repeat that when you are too tired to do more, and you repeat that when you realize that you will be leaving soon.  It is all that you can do, repeat EVERY LITTLE BIT matters.

And, your time is up.  You think "what did I do?", and here is a list I will share: you stopped some hunger pangs, you gave your one bottle of water/your one protein bar/your tablet of 

antibiotic to someone who needed it more, you cleaned a church or school and not because the others were too lazy but too weak to do so,  you held a child that desperately needed to be held, you laughed with a couple of adults who have had a rough life but can still share a laugh, you shared the contents of your suitcases because to leave with anything seems criminal when these people are grateful for everything.

You made a difference, for a day for a week for a month.................

So, you travel back to the airport, same roads, same half-dressed hungry kids, and you hate to leave because you feel a sense of responsibility and guilt.  But go, and tell the story of what you did, make plans to return and do it all again, and share the message of these people, just like us, worse circumstances, but just like us, and how they need us. 

My Vision Has Changed/The People Of Haiti

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

The People of Haiti

I would like to share with you all some thoughts
on how my vision has changed over the past fifteen
months, and specifically about the people of Haiti.

When I first started travelling down, for my "volunteer missions",
I saw the people in a very simple and one dimensional way.
It was simple, straightforward, at least in my mind.  They were victims.
They were victims of a terrible natural disaster, the earthquake that
hit January 2010, killed close to 300,000 people and devastated the
poorest country in the western hemisphere.  They were victims of
poverty, a bad economy, a corrupt government, few natural resources,
bad infrastructure, lack of education, lack of nutrition, lack of medical
care, lack of resources, and lack of any known future.  These were the
people of Haiti, at least in my mind, during my first trip in September 2010.

I don't know when my vision started to change..............with the
frequencyof my trips there........with my growing relationships with
some of the people,both children and adults, that were cultivated by
returning to them time andtime again...............with my growing
knowledge of the history of Haiti.............notsure when it happened,
or even sure if it is finished transitioning, but I knowthat it has changed.

I have started seeing the people as no longer a one dimensional view, with a
label of "victim".  They are much more complex, and much more like me,
than I ever thought.

These people are mothers/fathers, family members, people trying to beg and borrow to become educated, who can clearly see a past of strife and a future of hope, they are smart if not educated, they are caring and generous although often with nothing to give, they love, they hurt, they want more and better and stronger than they have had.

These people strive to live, but are also homeowners, employees, community leaders, mentors, and caretakers.  Yes, they do it all with so much less than we can even imagine, walk many more miles a day than we can imagine, struggling to find the books, the money, the food, the health, which they need for themselves and their families.

They have personalities, can be funny, sad, smart, smart-assed : ), wise, discouraged, hopeful, tired, excited.................just like us.

Yes, they do this in tent homes, or shanties, or dirt floored one room houses.........while bathing in contaminated rivers.............while eating rice and beans every single day for nourishment (if they are one of the lucky ones)..............while waiting in mile long lines at a free clinic............while hoping a group of missionaries show up with  shoes for their kids.............

No, how they live their lives, does  not look like ours at all.  But, take that away, and just look at the people, and they are no different.  Their minds and bodies all work just like ours.

And, I am so glad that I have learned to see them more clearly, to enjoy them as people, not just as a victim.  Through this I have learned the lesson that we are all the same, inside our heads and hearts and bodies.  Our different environments and circumstances cannot eliminate these facts.  Around the world, we may all look different, life different lives, eat different foods, use different monies, enjoy different pleasures and suffer from different pains................however, the truth is, we are all the same.

I am fortunate that my vision has changed, become clearer, and that I have learned to see these people for what they are...........people, not victims.