I am not Haitian. I’m just an overweight white guy from Nebraska who has fallen in love with Haitian people over the past ten years. People who know me say I am too analytical and think about things nobody else thinks about. That’s true. Those who know me will also tell you there has not been a day in my life in the past ten years when Haiti has not been a part of my conversations.
As I was preparing, prior to the earthquake, for my 8th trip to Pignon, I thought about a question Dr. Guy Theodore asked our group the first year I was down. He wondered if we, as any individual, were given $10 Million, to spend on Haiti, what we’d do with it? There were 18 of us there and there were 18 different plans. Some of the seasoned missionaries were more careful with their answers, but in the end, Dr. Guy smiled and remarked that we were not Haitian enough in our thinking. An example was my idea. I would have built a concrete infrastructure of highway and bridges from Cap Haitien to Port au Prince. My reasoning was that the project would create jobs, use concrete, a plentiful resource in Haiti, speed transportation and go easier on vehicles and so much more! Later in the visit the good doctor visited with me and told me he appreciated the thought that went into my suggestion. Unfortunately, he explained, that if such a highway were built, every bit of corruption, greed, violence and the ugly things in the bigger cities could come to Pignon in just an hour instead of a day. He added that with any of the regular military takeovers the fear and bloodshed would make it to every populated area throughout the country. He also commented that it would be likely that bridges would be intentionally destroyed during such uprisings, totally stopping road transportation.
Our group learned another lesson regarding our lack of Haitian wisdom a few years later. We had developed a tradition of annually bringing large amounts of cash to the mountain plains to buy rice, beans etc. locally, helping the economy, and performing an orchestrated distribution to more rural and needy communities. This went so well we thought it might be appropriate to mount such a distribution in Pignon. The thought was that we would field the effort within the hospital compound and have the powers to be designate 600 of the neediest recipients. We would invite them in, close the gates and hand out the supplies. No big deal. Aside from being analytical and thinking about stuff nobody else thinks of, I also have this useless ability to eyeball a crowd and tell you how many people are in it. As I saw the number of people in the courtyard grow to over 1000, I feared we were in for trouble. About half way through the distribution, hungry people sensed they would not get a share and a riot broke out. Nobody was hurt, thankfully, and a lot of rice, beans and oil strewed the ground as bags were fought over and people filled up pants cuffs and skirts with whatever they could grab. Later in the day there was some criticism of the Haitians for being so uncooperative with ‘our’ project. I was in a low mood that day. How can you display (and nothing is a secret in Pignon) thousands of pounds of food to a community of 35,000 people and say only 600 are allowed…sounds like American wisdom to me.
As I consider the seemingly insurmountable tragedy represented by the earthquake, I am compelled to draw some conclusions. Ones which will likely effect Pignon, and, in fact the entire island nation.
Nobody I speak with here knows the smallness of Haiti. It is a third of the Island of Hispanola and about 1/7th the size of Nebraska, with 9-12 Million inhabitants. Imagine drawing a line from Council Bluffs, Iowa up to Sioux City, Iowa, following the northern border for a hundred miles, dropping south to Des Moines and then back to Council Bluffs. Then imagine cramming 9-12 million people in that space, 60 percent of them in two cities, giving only one in five a job, paying at best a buck a day, feeding them a meal every couple days, withholding basic health care, perpetuating 50% illiteracy, building the homes with no architectural soundness or code, most with dirt floors and few with water or electricity. Then imagine setting them up with a negative culture beset for hundreds of years with the fear of voodoo (second in competition with evangelical Christianity only to materialism). Let’s not forget to saddle them with one corrupt administration after another and make it virtually impossible to immigrate outside our imaginary line and provide them with un-farm-able land and virtually nothing to export. Then, finally, let’s hit them with almost annual hurricanes and then a 7.0 earthquake.
All of this has occurred six hundred miles off our shore. Our country invests billions of dollars in countries who can give us back oil but can’t figure out how to react to a country who can’t give us anything. We blame HIV-AIDS, when America ranks 10th in the world for the virus. (Haiti ranks 43rd). We blame voodoo. More people, Per capita, worship the God of the universe in Haiti, than here. We throw away more food every year than it would take to provide three square meals for every Haitian man, woman and child.
Guess I should get to my point. As I witness the relief efforts, most of which is downright heroic, I wonder how much money, food and lodging it is occupying to meet the needs of the relief workers. I marvel at the fact that a single short-term telethon, fielded by celebrities, has raised $80 million for Haiti. I am excited that billions of people around the world, who didn’t know where Haiti lies on a map, are now concerned.
…but
- Has anyone considered that a city larger than Los Angeles will for the most part need to be re-built…and where do you put millions of tons of collapsed building materials?
- Where do the 200,000 displaced people go?
- How long will it be popular to help Haiti? (The 5 year projects to reconstruct the hurricane ravaged gulf coast in our country lost most of its steam after just 18 months).
- What will become of the orphan population which will likely double from the current 400,000?
- How will anyone achieve peace and patience with people who are in hell?
The question obsessing me is what will happen to the Haiti we know?
- It has already been reported that there has been a mass relocation of relief efforts from other parts of the country to Port au Prince.
- People, by the tens of thousands are migrating north in hopes of sharing the little or nothing with their countrymen.
- Food and medicine distribution for the middle of the country, largely coming from the port cities, is being cut off and redistributed.
- People from our neck of the Haitian woods are bringing back the bodies of loved ones for burial. (Think of the logistical problems associated).
- Tens of thousands of country-Haitians who relocated to Port au Prince for jobs and have sent support back to Pignon may be dead, dying or at least without income.
- Many of the medical, construction and educational teams I am aware of who typically direct their efforts to rural Haiti have now focused on the quake-zone.
- What will Pignon do when the fuel runs out?
I would really love to see a dedication to Pignon and its environs during the next twelve months by those who have left parts of their hearts there. There are many helping hands in Port au Prince right now but the tragedy is 200 years old and country-wide. I would really hate for the hope our groups have brought to our dear friends would be relocated.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Steve Kendall
4851 South 189th Circle
Omaha, NE 68135
402-681-3545
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