The best of Haiti

This being my last day in Haiti, I would like to reflect on the qualities of the Haitian people in general, that I will miss most. I wanted to spend this day visiting Do Digue and different people to say good-bye; however, last night’s dinner changed those plans. A month in Haiti is clearly my body’s limit. So, instead I spent my day, in my head, thinking about Haiti.

There are three qualities I admire most.

First is their openness. You wouldn’t expect this based on their history. It seems they should be cautious and suspicious of outsiders. Instead, everyone welcomed me with open arms. Everyone agreed to participate in my survey. And beyond that, they welcomed me inside their homes, made me comfortable, found me a chair and often offered me a coconut. People thanked me for spending time in Haiti, told me they would pray for me and asked me when I was coming back before knowing my name. My translator, John, frequently reminds me that we are family. He isn’t saying this as a nice line, he truly means it. This openness extends to comments too. If you are fat, people call you fat. (Though this is a compliment in Haiti.) If you are crazy, people call you crazy. Since I’m white, people call me white. These comments would really spice up my typical polite conversation with my neighbors.

The second quality is resilience. As we left the airport, on my first day in Haiti, the first thing we saw was all the street vendors. About 70% of Haitians work in some sort of private industry – making money driving the tap-tap or moto they own, selling food, selling various goods, etc. Our driver explained, within a day after the earthquake in 2010, all these vendors were back at their spots selling. The world around them may have seemed like it was ending; but, that didn’t mean their work was. Another example of resilience arrived at clinic last week. A woman who was 38 weeks pregnant walked 3 hours, through mountainous terrain, in 100+ degree weather, just so American doctors could check her baby. She wasn’t complaining that the journey had dehydrated her to the point of needing IV fluids, she was just thankful that her baby was healthy and she had a birth kit and medicine. Really puts sitting in an air-conditioned waiting room in perspective.

The final quality is love of neighbors. People live their lives in the open here. Many houses have shared outdoor spaces were the women can cook and do laundry together. Children wander throughout the village going from mother to mother and getting love from each. This love for the people around you extends to strangers as well. The other day, Mike and Alliance came upon a terrible moto accident. The injured person probably wasn’t going to survive, but, the people around him were going to do all they could to prevent that. There is no ambulance system, so someone offered their car, with no worries about the mess or inconvenience. They treat everyone they meet as family. I will miss this most.      

And of course I will miss the mountains