"A Different View of Haiti" Article

InFlight USA

The above link is to an article I wrote for InFlight USA magazine about my journey to Haiti that will appear in the May issue.

That journey is continuing as I try and determine the best way to write to help Haiti and the Haitian people. I have been offered the gift of many stories I could tell, but I'm realizing I want to tell the uplifting and positive ones. The media does an adequate job of presenting the negative. I would like to try and focus on the best of human nature being brought out in the midst of this tragedy.

There are rays of light to be found in even the darkest places in Haiti. The beautiful school in Cite` Soleil and the children there are a classic example. If you read the papers, there is talk about supposed impending violence in Cite` Soleil; how horrible conditions are there. There is however, another side to that story and to Cite` Soleil, and all you might read in the media is not grounded in reality.

I do not mean to minimize the conditions, for they are indeed still horrendeous for too many in the aftermath of the quake. Absolutely the government and International community needs to continue to do all it can to rebuild and bring Haiti to a place of integrity for its people. I use that description "bring Haiti to a place of integrity" intentionally, for integrity has not always been a part of the equation in how its own government or the world as a whole has treated Haiti and its people.

But I want to focus on the good, and envision that good growing exponentially and Haiti being restored from this tragedy into the place of beauty it once was and can be again. I want to write about the positives; the light and hope.
Those things are to be found in the people and stories involved with the organizations I've already mentioned here: Project Medishare - Aviation for Humanity - Art Creation Foundation for Children Within each are tales of the best in human nature coming forth in giving and generous ways.

A positive attitude and light can be found too in the faces of these children at the school in Cite` Soleil. A school that was built by community leaders who chose not to dwell on violence or the past, but instead on creating a productive and peaceful future for these children.

Children ....

I was looking through my notebook and photos this morning from the trip. I'd written notes about the afternoon we went to the school in Cite`Soleil, and how the children swarmed around me. They wanted to touch my clothes, my camera, to make eye contact. They giggled and pointed and smiled in glee as I snapped photos of them and instantly shared them - how often did they ever see themselves? Seems mirrors aren't too prevalent in a tent city. They were "sweetly respectful" I had written in my notes, "curious but never intrusive. It was like they were in awe of me; that I represented something to them. I'm not sure I deserved that ..."

That is not an unusual reaction to a white person in a country like Haiti, I'm well aware of that. But my mature older self had a flashback to my 13 year old self in the Philippine's. I remember the same reaction there, walking the streets of Angeles City outside of Clark AFB. What a sad and depressive environment that was; such a stark contrast to where I came from. They were a bit more jaded there however and oddly I have rememberances of feeling unsettled and a bit threatened. That could have been related to my age at the time and the fact that it was my first exposure to that kind of poverty - that world. But I still come back also to the fact that there is something about ... the Haitian people.

A white ("blan" as they say in Haiti) person obviously represents to them - as it also did to those children in the Philippines - something to be in awe of.

I do indeed have to question whether I'm worthy of that.

This trip has me coming home acutely aware of the excess in my world; uncomfortable somewhat because if one is lucky enough to live relatively without want in the U.S., life doesn't ask us to dwell on that excess - it asks us to revel in it. Advertising implores us to acquire more this more that; speaks to our egos and salves our conscious with rationals that aren't really valid in the end, but echo sufficiently in the beginning to walk us easily down the material path of life fullfillment. It's like that from childhood on. And that all works fairly fine ... until you get exposed to the other extreme and you have any sense of empathy at all. Then you kind of start to squirm a little like I am.

I'm not advocating give it all up and living a life of austerity and service - that's for saints and I'm far from one. But I am saying - seems there has to be a better balance. Is it just luck of the draw that I live the life I do? Certainly there have been life choices, hard work, discipline that have all played over the years into my circumstances now. But I can't avoid the fact that I was born into a comfortably off middle class family in the United States. And these kids swarming me in Cite` Soleil certainly were not.

I can't change their world for them. Ultimately only they as the future generation of Haiti can make the kind of meaningful, at the core of their country changes that can shape the world their children will grow up in.

But they - like impoverished children the world over - need to somehow be empowered; given some hope.

And I - we - can do little things to maybe help toward that end at least for the children of Haiti.

I can tell you I think I need to be in awe of the spirit I saw in the Haitian people on this trip, in awe of their dignity I mention often because it was so apparent; in awe of their graciousness and humor and strength in the face of such incredible sorrow and adversity. I can read their history and gain respect for it and how it has shaped the world they live in now - how it is going to continue to shape their desire for a better future.

Lets all see the connection with doing small things that might help some children in Haiti. And like the butterfly effect, perhaps those small things could have a larger overall impact. Especially if offered by enough people ... in the right way for the right reasons.

I think it will be a good thing as I continue to process this trip for me to be in awe of those kids, as opposed to letting it be the other way around.

(These were children at the fresh water spring at Souce Zabete; an uplifting image after seeing all the dirty water in Port au Prince ...)

Sharing the Experience - Part 1 ....

I came home with 799 photos, 72 videos, hours of recorded conversation with my host, a mind with images and encounters embedded in it I will never forget. I also came back with an even stronger determination to accomplish what I set out on this journey to do in the first place, which is to somehow write about it all in a way that will raise awareness and keep Haiti and its people rightly in minds and hearts as the media coverage wanes but their need for help sadly only grows.

For here - for now - as I try and settle thoughts, perceptions, experiences, people met, paths and connections offered that now need to be followed in order to tell an educated and informed story - I'll use this place to simply record basic thoughts. I am not yet together enough to write a long eloquent accounting of this trip - and when I am, I hope to sit and do so in a way that will do justice to the stories, the people and the truth ... a manuscript that can be offered as a contribution to raise awareness and understanding; my goal in the first place.

So day one - after waiting in Miami for 2 days, I finally found myself at Miami Int'l at 5:00 in the morning, in line waiting to check in for my Vision Air Charter Flight. I was surrounded by people checking in for my flight wearing sweatshirts, jeans and scrubs. There were large rolling pallets of supplies everywhere - medical items, water, cans of Ensure - many wrapped tight in light blue plastic - something done at this airport I hadn't seen before. They had stations where you could "wrap" your luggage. I suppose appropriate in a way - wrapped presents for the people of Haiti. Although I found it sad that they were of the nature this disaster dictated.

I stood in line feeling out of place & a little guilty that I had not been able to bring anything of value in with me i.e. tarps or tents or supplies of any sort - "pack light" I'd been told and so I'd stuffed everything into a backpack and small bag. I try to make up for that now however, as I'm negotiating to get a bulk purchase deal on tents to be flown by private aircraft into Haiti. But I get ahead of myself ...

Our plane - because of those supplies - sat for over an hour on the tarmac before pulling away from the gate. My window seat just forward of the wing afforded me a good view of the cargo loading process and it was obvious from reading the actions unfolding below me that weight was an issue for this flight. The plane itself was filled to capacity with passengers - obviously the combination of all those crucial supplies, and the medical team's luggage was causing a weight and balance issue with the plane. Those bulk supplies I'd seen at check-in had rightly been priority - now a rolling cart of personal luggage of the medical personnel sat, as a group of ramp employees and 2 airline reps huddled over clipboards and paper while simultaeneously talking on cell phones. The pilot did finally make an announcement as we sat there, explaining every caution was being take to ensure the plane was properly weighted and as many supplies as possible made the trip, hence the delay in departure. Eventually I watched as some boxes came off the aircraft - ones that looked more like they were personal as opposed to relief supplies - and the luggage was put on. Shortly after - we finally pulled away from the gate.

The flight was filled with listening to the chatter around me from the doctor's, nurses and medical technicians that made up the flight, and glancing out the window periodically at the beautiful blue/green Carribean water below us.

In a precursor to a gathering suspicion that would prove to be correct - I looked around again at the dress code of those in my immediate vacinity - all as I said in either sweats, t-shirts and jeans or scrubs, and wondered if I was overdressed. It was obvious too of course, by the numerous scrubs worn, that these people were going to hit the deck running once they arrived in Haiti. The Medishare hospital they were going to as relief staff, was located on land adjacent to the airport.

They obviously had received different "appropriate clothing" advice than I had that would prove to be wise - just the first in many misconceptions about Haiti I arrived with. I came with outdoor clothing designed for a hot, humid, tropical, bug infested environment. Yes, it was warm, yes there were mosquitos - but I stepped off the plane thinking the heat was nothing like what I'm used to during the "bad summer spells" here in Redding of weeks of triple-plus heat - and the humidity? Hawaii is worse. And according to my host I wasn't just arriving in an unusually non-typical spell - he didn't understand the bad-rap the island gets for humidity either.

Conversations around me ranged from humourous anecdotes being told about co-workers who had already been to Haiti (obvious there was a conscious desire to "keep things light") - to medical discussions way over my head. What was striking though, was how quiet the entire plane got the minute we got our first vision of the Haitian coastline.

It took a while for that however. There was a heavy cloud cover, so at first there were only brief glimpses snatched through temporary holes in the clouds we passed over. But as the plane got lower on approach to Port au Prince, we saw it clearly - the brownish coastline muddied by erosion run-off due to the deforestation; the obvious density of population as we got closer to Port au Prince itself - and then the obvious devastation visible as we came in to land.

I sat looking out the window in the quiet - thinking as I'm sure many others did - this isn't a television video unfolding. I have arrived in Haiti, and this is real.