Haitians Humanity

I want to write so much and still I don't. I want you to know everything ...but only the good stuff. I want you to love Haiti like I do and I want you to forget all those horrid things the rest of the world tells you. So tonight, I'll just write the truth and let you find your own way out of the weeds. It was food distribution day today, and that always tears at my heart. This year I couldn't keep my gaze from returning over and over to the feet of the dear people of Phaeton. Go ahead, look down at your own and mentally calculate how much your shoes cost. Take a visual tour of your closet and count up the shoes that make up your wardrobe. And know that you are blessed. Now transport yourself to the outskirts of northern Haiti to Phaeton, a 45 minute drive down roads that would quickly disappear with the slightest hint of rain. A town that once was busy producing and exporting sisal with roads and a generator until the market dried up and they picked up and left, taking their electricity, jobs and promise of any future with them. All that is left are the eldery and their families, hungry, impoverished and jobless... Stuck. As we prepared the food, an elderly woman was moving just inside the gate trying to find a seat over some rocks and as she moved she began to fall. I went to help her and once she was upright I looked down at her fett - swollen, barefoot, covered in callouses and dirt and at least 3-4 open sores oozing with puss. Pere Bruno called me back. I then couldn't take my eyes off the feet of these dear people. Our feet carry us everywhere. We spoil them with spa treatments and fancy running socks. We spend thousands of dollars on shoes and orthotic inserts so they won't hurt, ache or blister. And these people have nothing. They walk in dirt filled with hook worms and unknown funguses. Those feet carry them through rivers of mud and fields of manure... And they have nothing. So we were there handing out bags of fish, noodles, rice and beans. The basics of the basics and it seemed as if we were offering so little and yet everyone seemed so grateful. It's ok, we made a dent and for that I'm thankful. But next we went to Paulette. An extremely poor town further out into the boondox of Haiti. I've been there countless times before and I was never able to put my finger on it until now... But Paulette is not the Haiti I know and love. They are hungry and today we were the hands and feet of Christ, of that there is no doubt. But the question remains, how do you serve when those your serve seem so thankless? We gave food the the elderly first, as it should be. They were grateful and beautiful people and if I could I would sit and bake them a buffet to end all buffets. But there are those that came Expecting. And when I say Expecting , you know of whom I'm talking. Those people that Expect others to give to them, without cost, without question, just because. This is not the Haiti I want you to know and it certainly isn't the Haiti I want to remember, but it is reality and as much as it hurts, it is real. Near the end of our supply some young men came in, they were wearing soccer uniforms and they laughed at my dad when he moved the 65 pound bags of food from one place to another. They didn't offer to help. They laughed. And yet they had no problem walking up and taking food out of the very same hands. So how do we balance that? It's as real here as it is in the States, You can't convince me otherwise. It's humanity and it's ugly, but it is. One mother begged me to take photos of her child and then yelled at me when I couldn't give her food in exchange. "Pushy" is what Berry said, and the word fits. As we were getting ready to leave Elmer pulled out a packet of Mary Jane candy and I followed suit...bad move. The kids came running, the hands started tugging and quickly Elmer lost his bag and I was on my own, pinned against the car and using my best mother voice I could muster. I looked into the back seat and saw the look of "I told you so" on my fathers face and as I looked at Elmer he was laughing so hard I thought he'd bust. Mom came to the rescue, unlocked the door and I squeezed my way back in. Lesson learned ? Humanity is what it is and we aren't called to judge, question or even correct it at times, we are called to serve, and that we did.