A Tale of Two Haiti's

It seems that my last post, an allusion to Oliver Twist, was ill-received by a few readers. I admit that my writing can be sarcastic at times, in part because it is reflective of my personality, but also because I tend to use a sense of humor to cope with adversity. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and with a GDP of $300/year its people are among the poorest in the world. Over eighty percent of Haitian professionals live abroad and, as a result, more than three-quarters of the very modest internal revenue is generated through remittances. The government is marked by instability and apathy and the only news that ever comes out of Port Au Prince revolves around coups, kidnappings, and corruption. Unlike America where private schools cater to the elite, Haitian communities must establish and fund their own education because the government seldom provides the essential civil services. The fact that I am able to use the internet to write this is an anomaly in a country where less than ten percent of the population has access to electricity. Flush toilets and fans are a great luxury; air conditioning and anything that resembles a grocery store are preposterous. And yet these factors should compel future groups to visit Bayonnais, not deter them.

Despite the aforementioned hardships that plague Haiti, OFCB is a testament of triumph. Every morning close to fifteen hundred children put on matching uniforms, participate in a comprehensive curriculum taught by well-selected professors, and receive, what is to many, their only meal of the day. The future of the community is enrolled in universities from Limbe to Port au Prince, studying everything from medicine and agronomy to business and information science. The new church is teeming with eager worshippers not only at the all-day Sunday service but on Wednesday evenings and at the infamous 6:00am Saturday morning worship. With each day that passes I feel less like a visitor and more like a member the community. Although no amount of sun could give my skin the same tone as my colleagues in Bayonnais, a handful of Creole phrases has opened a lot of doors and formed many friendships. I recognize the names of close to a hundred Haitians and the infamous “blanc” is now being phased out for the more affectionate moniker of “Morgan” (or sometimes “Mo-den” or “Morgens”). I consider the sweltering heat and the occasional absence of food to be yet another right of passage, one more hardship that I can overcome. I am an advocate of the idea that confidence is conceived outside of one’s comfort zone; that through adversity, character is formed. So, when I say that I do not have any condiments to flavor my rice and beans, it should be taken with a grain of salt.