Nous Esperon Pour le Meilleur Demain
We Hope For A Better Tomorrow
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Spending the past two weeks in Haiti has taught me some vital lessons about life… Yet, still so much to learn. This journey has me stepping back for a moment to take a good look at how I choose to live my life. I clearly see plenty of room for self-correction… in how I perceive the world around me, in how I go about treating others, especially those in need, and in how I take what I have, what God blesses me with and choose to utilize it to benefit those souls He also puts in my path from day to day..
I take so many things for granted everyday. Everything from the littlest and simplest things such as being able to brush my teeth, grab a glass of water when I’m thirsty, a snack when I’m a bit hungry between meals, to more important and even vital things such as going to see a doctor when I am not feeling well.. I woke up this morning, walked into the kitchen to make a morning pot of coffee… clean running water from a faucet I could trust would not kill me… cream and sugar sitting their in the cupboard at arms reach… A hot shower calling out my name… It’s all there at my disposal.
“Every Christian, in fact, is impelled to adopt Christ's attitude towards those without food: "Misereor super turbam, quia... nec habent quod manducent". "I have compassion for the crowd, because... they have nothing to eat" (Mk 8: 2).
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 20 September 2004
How can I change my own life in ways that can benefit those who wake up each morning in other parts of the world to no job, no money, no food, no water, no medicine, and very little hope that their current situation could ever possibly change? It seems so unfair that while in some regions of the world we enjoy an easily obtainable abundance of wealth we take for granted and yet, in other places our brothers and sisters have very little if any personal comforts at all to make it through their day. We see it all the time… Poverty, malnutrition, starvation… What can we do about it? How can we even the score so that our brothers and sisters in other rooms of the world do not suffer?
Most of us could never handle living the way 3rd world peoples have no other choice but to live. We do not know what it is to be them… to continually live day-in and day-out in utter poverty. We only know what it is to witness their poverty from behind a television screen… and even then, only to the extent we even choose to look towards and acknowledge that such poverty actually does exist… But to actually live it is something we simply never have to worry about.. We just take for granted that it’s all there at our disposal every morning we awake.. We simply go on with our lives because we know that everything we need is there... No worries… Our coffee, our groceries, our televisions, our jobs, our homes, our cars, our medicine, we reach for a warm blanket when it’s cold, and we turn on our air conditioners when it’s hot…
Now that I’ve been home a few days, I have this undying feeling going on in my heart that I left Haiti in the midst of a mission rather than having completed one… That there is unfinished work we left behind.. Well, there is so much truth to this. But the reality is that an intricate part of any mission is that we take turns.. We, being the collective groups of missionaries who continually flow in and out of a third world nation..
Hearts Together For Haiti is just one of many humanitarian aid groups making continual trips to Haiti. The past 10 days ending last week was just our turn to arrive and offer help. In the area of Jacmal and Cayes Jacmal alone, there were at least a dozen or so small groups like our own working together to assist those in need. Some groups were very small in numbers, perhaps 3 or 4 who travelled together from their hometown while others were part of a larger support network bonding together under the wing of another well established group such as those who came from various locations throughout Canada and the U.S to assist Dr. Tiffany who had been in Jacmal since about January 14th…
Our team of hearts made up mostly of nurses with the exception of 3 non-medical myself included, and Dr. Denis Marier, a homeopathic doctor who travelled with us, worked well together and side by side at the Centre Medical Emmanuel in Cayes Jacmal with other medical and non-medical personnel of various talents during the 10 days we were in Haiti.. Of such groups were nurses, doctors, pharmacist technicians, mental health counselors, as well as general assistants and such hailing from Virginia, New York City, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Utah, Kentucky, as well as Toronto & Windsor Canada…
The three main points of operation our team seemed to float back and forth between were the clinic in Cayes Jacmal, the Jacmal airport where Dr. Tiffany had much of her efforts going on, and the Mother Teresa Orphanage right in the heart of Jacmal where a few from our team along with Jenna, an amazing young lady of only 16 years old who travelled on her own from Florida had been continually offering help and assisting between Dr. Tiffany in her efforts and the Mother Teresa Orphanage..
To describe the physical landscape of Haiti, it is a beautiful paradise in many ways comparable to even Hawaii or the Bahamas. A blend of beautiful palm trees mixed with tropical and sub-tropical plant life line the beaches, the mountain sides, the rivers and it’s streams… For the most part Haiti is extremely mountainous adding to the sheer beauty of an already gorgeous tropical heaven.
The people of Haiti are beautiful people. It has been said that the white man who went to Africa and brought slaves to Haiti had chosen the most beautiful of the slaves to bring. Haitians are friendly people. They are meek and mild. I met so many who just had this gentle spirit about them, even in all of their suffering. They are a grateful people continually saying “thank you” for coming to their country to help. Smile at a Haitian and you will undoubtedly always receive a smile in return.
