I arrived at New Life 4 Kids at about 5 PM Easter Sunday and the celebration was well underway. The 100 or so kids had just been given their Easter treats of candy and toys and they were filled with excitement (and sugar). I am told they had been worshiping and singing praise all day. It was quite a celebration.
Monday—up at 6 AM. We set aside this day to visit various friends in Haiti and catch up on their lives. We met our friend Rene who now works at New Life as a driver and anything else they can keep him busy with. Rene drove us to Marie’s house and the Grace orphanage, after a brief stop to see a Syrian friend who runs a small grocery store and picking up our friend Frenzy who would join us for the day. Marie is doing well and is expecting a team from Kentucky on Tuesday. The girls are doing well and we hung out, did some coloring in coloring books, sang songs, and did lots of hugging. It was great to see all of them. Then we stopped to see our friend Debbie at the Lazarus Project and caught up with her.
I had not seen my friend Johnny and his wife and their little two year old John Kelly for the last several visits because Johnny has a job and they have moved from Marie’s neighborhood to a “tent city.” Tent cities are still home to about 1,000,000 people in Haiti who have been displaced by the earthquake (15 months ago). When I was here two weeks after the earthquake in January of 2010 several of the workers who were working on the demolition of the orphanage had taken the day off to stake out some land that they heard the government was going to give away to those in need. It was a rumor but they still left to stake out their own space—an opportunity to have a piece of land to call your own in Haiti is not obtainable for almost all Haitians. I remember the line of people walking down the road to get to this land—thousands upon thousands of people in search of their dream to have land they could call their own. These are not acre lots they are small lots that are based on the number of people in your family. Johnny, his wife and son along with his nieces and nephews have a space that is about 10 feet by 20 feet. The house occupies about 2/3 of this space and there is a little garden on the rest of it. The house is built out of plywood (unpainted) and rusty tin that was salvaged from somewhere. It is raised up about a foot off the ground sitting on four by four posts so when it rains the water runs under the house and not through it. The public restrooms are not too far away and there is a well to pump water within a mile of his home. Our friend Philistine and his wife and two kids have a similar space right across the dirt road from Johnny. They haven’t completely moved in yet but they will be soon. It is hard to believe that they are living their dream—land that one day they hope to call their own…and a home they can call their own. There are no schools in the area so most of the kids are not in school…if they are they have a long way to travel to get there. Johnny is still active as a deacon at Marie’s church and he travels there several times a week. His wife and two year old were heading there after our visit for a prayer meeting. It would take them an hour or more to get to the weekly prayer meeting but that is not an obstacle…just a way of life for many Haitians. This was another humbling visit to see our friends in this setting which we would think of as “unlivable”…and they are full of joy, living the high life, and always praising the Lord.
The kids there were playing a game that would only be played in Haiti—called Cholera—really it’s a new form of Haitian tag—when you’re “it” you are the one with Cholera and when you tag someone else you say “Cholera” and run…then they have Cholera and they are “it.” It sounds sick but there has been a public awareness campaign about Cholera and washing your hands and keeping clean…so the kids are even aware if it and hopefully it will help. Cholera continues to be a big issue in Haiti.
We left Johnny’s to go to see Michelle and Merlinda. They used to live with Marie at the orphanage but they were released because they were old enough to leave (age 16). They now live with their mom in a 10 by 10 foot room that they lease. They want to move from there because the public restrooms are awful (if they say they are awful I’m not sure what word we would use to describe them…I didn’t want to ask if we could take look).They are both in school and we hope they continue their education. We had previously attempted to help their mom get started with a small “concession” stand but she claims she lost everything to voodoo…someone in the marketplace took all her money using the power of voodoo? Haiti is always Haiti!
We arrived back at New Life with Rene and Frenzy about dark. They had to take a “tap tap” (taxi) back to Marie’s neighborhood where they live. It probably took them an hour and a half to get home. We had a good day with them.
Last night there were a couple of nearby gun shots that woke us up. No one here is concerned about it though since we are inside a secured compound. We hear that there is some continuing political unrest (why not—there has been for 200 years) because of a new president and the old regime who still controls the legislature. Nothing new for Haiti.
The people here are generally loving and peaceful and filled with the Holy Spirit keeping God at the center of their lives. We don’t hear much about that in the US…we only hear “newsworthy” stuff. Glad to back and happy to have touched base with our friends...and once again we are humbled by the lives they so happily live!
Jim Meyer
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