Haiti Cheri

Years back we had two young men in our group home, Elvio and Daby, who were aspiring rappers. Well, there have been many more than those two, but these two were quite into it. Their rapper names were Snake and Violent Poison. These are young men who have left Haiti and immigrated to the Dominican Republic "in search of life".

Anyway, Daby, I believe it was, wrote a song called "Ayiti Cheri", which is how you would write it in Creole. It means "Dear Haiti" or "Darling Haiti". The first verse went like this:

Ayiti cheri
Lon tan ou pa t pe soufri
Sa pa fe m plezi
Ak kriminel sa yo

Darling Haiti
You didn't used to be afraid to suffer
That doesn't make me happy
With those criminals

A few days ago, a friend of mine in New York posted this article on Facebook. It's talking about how Haiti is facing a humanitarian calamity and most people outside of Haiti don't even know about it. I am here in the Dominican Republic. My husband is from Haiti. Most of Project Esperanza's employees are from Haiti. I have been hearing about what's going on there and we have felt some effects of it, but reading this article made me realize that I have grown somewhat numb to it throughout the years. It makes me sad, but I also had thoughts like, "What else is new? There's no Civil War or war against another country but simply a war against themselves. How can you help them? In general, they're so upside down," and more. I also thought things like, "Isn't this just proof of what you get when you endlessly play with the devil... or worse."

But as I continued to read through the article, I was moved to tears. I am not sure of all the details, but from what I understand, rioting has been taking place for months by people who don't want the current president in power. This article says the crisis started in July, but I remember hearing of an attempt to burn down the perhaps Haitian equivalent of the White House earlier than that and being forwarded videos of various Haitians' opinions on the matter. This article tells more about the current president, as well as informs and counsels about the country's politics.

I just keep shaking my head and thinking, "Sure, shut down your schools. That's a productive way to advance the country." It has also been said that gangs have been paying uninvolved people to do chaos-creating things. What seems to have happened in the more recent past is that gas prices rose, so rioting worsened.

Haitians here in Puerto Plata always talk about the president and money as if it all just goes straight into his pocket. There is no accountaiblity (claimed in the way they talk) and all presidents are stealing the country's money. I don't know how it really works, but it's surely not the most organized system. It makes me think of the several people who I have hired (not simultaneously) to help me out with housework. They always seem to stack plates with the smaller plates beneath the bigger plates, or with no order at all. What they definitely do not do is stack the biggest on the bottom, smallest on top.

Heck, just yesterday I believe it was, I asked my husband to help our two-year-old use the bathroom as I was occupied. Poor little Gabe was losing control and started to go in his pants. But instead of helping him remove his pants, my husband started taking off his shirt...button by button. God love him. I just am constantly shaking my head...or worse.

So after reading this article, my negative thoughts and numbness was broken. I remembered the children who are growing up with the same type of experiences as the previous generation, leaving little hope for the next generation. I remembered the church members in my husband's hometown who rang a bell every morning at 5am. It was pitch black as there is no electricity, yet they got out of bed and joined in prayer every day. Talk about faithfulness!

I started brainstorming. What could be done here? They can't arrest everyone causing trouble. Everything is basically shut down. What is going on with prisons, anyway? I heard that some U.S. troops have been sent to help and that that has done some good. They also can't give in to gangs and let them run the show!

Well, my long term vision, hope, and prayer for Haiti is free, quality, nurturing elementary education for all. I suppose I should say all children. The opportunity for adults through a night program would be great too, as well as workshops for parents of students in elementary school. Sure, high school and college are great, but educating a portion of the population may not be effective when roughly 50% never go to school at all.

I also think that the educated folks are still affected by the rest, as they seem to still believe all sorts of tall tales, such bats being rats that grow wings when they get old. The majority of the members of society have never done activities like this:

Which is longest? How can you tell? Is the ___ longer or shorter than the ___? Why does the marker look like it's longer than the pencil? How could we fix that?

These photos and questions were taken from this blog post. 

Sure, many things are learned through living life. And some skills are mastered much more than us educated folk, such as washing clothes by hand! It's truly amazing the stains that the average Haitian woman here I know can get out! But in the end, we know that formal education for all is a must in order to raise a developed society.

When I give an orientation to volunteers coming to volunteer with Project Esperanza, I explain that a way I wrap my head around the unstable state of Haiti is this. Columbus conquered the island of Hispaniola, making it a Spanish island. Spain ceded the Western third to France. France brought over boatloads of people from West Africa and enslaved them to do their work and profit off of them in their colony. If you read a book by Dr. Paul Farmer called Uses of Haiti, you can gain great insight into the brutality of that slave system. It was said that more slaves died during that time period which lasted around 150 years than in the United States slave system!

The slaves led a revolution that lasted from 1791 to 1804, where they basically were successful in killing and chasing off all the French, and became the first black republic and the second democratic nation in the New World after the U.S. Why has that not been made a Hollywood movie? It's an amazing and heroic story.

But then you have to run a country. Most of your population (excluding the Mulattos - offspring of French and slaves who would've received education) was treated with extreme brutality, lived through an autrocity of war for the last twelve or thirteen years, and never received any formal education! That's quite a challenge! To make matters worse, the country continued to be abused to France, and also the United States, I hear. I am not sure as to the facts of this article, but you may want to take some time to read its claims. I would highly suggest reading The Uses of Haiti for more info on the matter. 

People sometimes ask, "Why don't you do this work in Haiti?" Project Esperanza has two schools full of Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. I first say, this is where God brought me. I just jumped on a volunteer trip and learned about intense need that wasn't being met. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. I didn't need to go looking for need anywhere else. I also believe that creating a healthy refuge in the neighboring country while encouraging immigrants to commit themselves to the development of their motherland can be just as effective as working right in Haiti. 

But there is also a good point in that question. The source of the problem is in Haiti. My end goal for our schools is to create the best elementary schools possible for this specific population. A main focus is to create social conscious change makers, as well as loving and well-educated problem solvers and critical thinkers. Teachers and students will learn the best practices we strive to implement. I could go on forever about the process it has taken to get our teachers to use behavior charts rather than disciplining kids by making them kneel, slaps on the hand, kicking them out, etc. They have one thing engrained in them, and I have another engrained in me. It's a fight at first to bring about change, but the kids growing up and becoming teachers will be a different story. 

Once we can "perfect" our schools and are able to claim actual financial sustainability, I would love for Project Esperanza to collaborate with others in reaching the goal of helping Haiti to have free, quality, nurturing elementary education for everyone. I envision this happening by providing grants to private schools in Haiti coupled with visits, organizational and academic materials, and trainings. We would also either employ or provide financial aid to teachers and students of ours who are dedicated to working in the sector of education in Haiti. This should be a fairly lucrative position compared to other local jobs for those who are selected as top notch candidates. 

This is the vision that fills my heart. I don't think it's something I came up with myself, but something God has shared with me. I think it's what he wants. After all, Jesus did say that the greatest commandment is to love God and then to love others as we love ourselves. May all of our hearts break for the innocent people who are stuck in the chaos that is going on there; in the upside down-ness where bridges break down because people stole the nuts and bolts from them. Think about that the next time you're frustrated with a long line at Starbucks! 

This is nice and ideal for the future, right? But it's November 17th and the school year still has not started for most in Haiti due to these riots. I have some ideas I would like to share about what could be done now, but will do that in a next post as this one has become quite long. Let me finish by inviting your support in the work that Project Esperanza is doing. 

At this point, we have 150 more students we need to get sponsored this school year. We have three levels of sponsorship: 

Level 1 - an annual donation of $150 which covers daily lunch, a uniform shirt, and some materials. 

Level 2 - a monthly donation of $30 which covers daily lunch, a uniform shirt, some materials, and contribution to teacher's salary.

Level 3 - a monthly donation of $50 which covers daily lunch, a uniform shirt, some materials, contribution to teacher's salary, and contribution to the facilities.

You can learn more here. Thank you for considering investing in someone so worthy in the eyes of our creator. Let's not give up. May his kingdom come. 

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JW.org

Probably about six years ago I met a young, British Jehovah’s witness woman who was going through our neighborhood. She was very friendly and invited me to have some Bible based discussion. She started visiting my house every Saturday morning, often accompanied by another English speaking friend. The friend changed weekly for the most part, early on. So I got to meet many English speaking Jehovah’s witnesses in Puerto Plata. I had already met a few through working at a private school in 2008 and I found them to be very friendly and cool.

In college my roommate and I received two nice Jehovah’s Witness ladies who came to our door and did a weekly study, but they were not as confident as this friend. They did not follow the topics as well as her, and didn’t seem to know their stuff as well as her. We had a teacher in Project Esperanza who was also a Jehovah’s Witness. He is an excellent teacher and used to do studies with Jeres and I, often bringing his wife along.

Growing up, I remember being curious about a boy in my class who wasn’t allowed to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I learned that it was because he was a Jehovah’s Witness. I grew up in a non-denominational Christian church and somewhere along the line was told that the organization of Jehovah’s Witness was a cult.

I am not easily scared off. Someone friendly coming to you and asking if you want to have a Bible based discussion? Well I had fallen in love with the Bible – especially in college. I figured that the Bible would speak for itself and I didn’t think I was in danger of falling into a cult.

In our short lived college study with the two nice ladies, we didn’t get very far. Somehow we got on the topic of a mathematical prophesy and the witnesses weren’t ready or prepared to talk about it. After that, I’m not sure if we stopped being around at the time they came or they stopped coming, but the study ended there. I thought it was a little weird and was curious about the mathematical prophesy, but didn’t give it too much thought since we stopped meeting.

With our teacher who did the study with us, he mainly focused on the fact that God’s name is Jehovah and this text has been changed to LORD in most Bibles. I had heard of this previously but he really tried to impress on us the importance of using God’s name. I had a hard time with that at first, and understood that Jehovah was one of several names for God, but did not realize that it was his main name as in my main name on my birth certificate is Caitlin, (although people call me Catalina, rubia (blonde), morena (because my family and “circle” are dark), gringa (foreigner), etc). While it is a great and important point, I don’t think it fully affects someone’s relationship with another if they don’t know or call them by their real name. But it does have some effect if you think about it.

My JW friend started the study with me not long after my father died. My father was who instilled a love of and faith in God in me, I would say, from early childhood. He always prayed with my sister and I together since we shared a bedroom. He always encouraged our family with Bible verses, prayer, and faith. And he represented Jehovah God’s love with his endless and overflowing love for us. He was really a beautiful man that touched many lives. He gave me a Bible with Christ’s words in red and said, “Read the words in red and do what he said”. Though it is a little beat up, I still have and use this Bible.

It was very nice to have someone else pop in with such encouragement in his absence. I will always be grateful for that. However, some of the things I was being told and pointed out from the same Bible were quite different than the ideas and notions I grew up with. I did extensive Bible study in college and read the Bible in one year. I took an intensive class through my church which they called a year of seminary integrated into your regular university. We had various speakers come and read various books together along with Bible reading assignments. I ate it all up and learned a ton.

But my Jehovah’s witness friends were touching on the very, very basics; stuff that I don’t know if I was ever exactly taught with verses specifically or if they were notions and ideas that were so integrated into the religious practices I had been around that I just assumed they were true. And this was radical stuff like, “When you die you either go to heaven or hell”. 

Does the Bible say that? Can that be concluded 100%? They showed me many verses and gave me some original text/language knowledge surrounding the word that is translated to “hell” supporting their theory that when you die you are in a sleep state. At some unknown point people will be raised from the dead and given a second chance to learn about Jehovah’s will before judgment day that is outlined in the book of Revelation. This sounds kind of scary, but there’s no denying that the Bible says that.

What about heaven? They believe that when Jesus comes to reign and Satan is finally destroyed as outlined in the book of Revelation, that the earth will be restored to the Paradise it was created to be, and people will enjoy eternal life on an earthly Paradise, as was originally intended. Jehovah God will remain in heaven and some people will join him there to govern. I guess that will be Jesus’ HQ as well? But the majority of people will be on the earth.

Hell? Eternal torture? A fire that burns you forever but doesn’t turn you into ashes and be done with it as fire is known to do? Where exactly did this idea come from? It’s explained this way in the Bible? There is a parable about Lazarus and the rich man, but is that conclusive of the existence of this actual place? The book of Revelation talks about a lake of fire where everyone who, after their resurrection and chance to come around (and I believe even after Satan is chained up for “1,000 years” will be destroyed in the lake of fire. Destroyed, turned into nothing as fire does – not burnt alive for eternity. I'm not saying I have completely concluded that someone does not necessarily go directly to heaven or hell upon death, I just don't feel as though the Bible 100% concludes that they do. It is clear that one has eternal life through Jesus. But does it really give us all the details? 

So that’s very different than what I grew up with, not that anyone sat me down and taught me this, but it was infused into… well I don’t even know if it was church or TV or school or where I initially learned this. It was just the facts! But my JW friends taught me something very different and have quite a lot of biblical proof to back it up. This sure got my attention!

So they touched on many other subjects as well. Some I said, “You’re right. That seems like a very plausible theory.” Others I said, “Okay, that’s a theory and I respect that. It may even be correct, but I don’t feel as though there is enough clear proof in the Bible to conclude that 100%.” They have always shown their respect for that and continued to meet with me when we can throughout these years.

Do I plan to convert to the Jehovah’s Witness organization? No. I fully enjoy calling myself a non-denominational, Protestant Christian. I don’t want to attach to any denomination that would seemingly exclude other denominations or show any sort of division, basically. We have visited the Kingdom Hall on a few occasions, especially their Easter celebrations, and went to a conference in Creole in Santiago one time with some of the boys in the group home. They have some awesome movies and in Creole, as well as many other languages. They really are a very impressive organization. They are adamant about not conforming to the ways of this world. They are non-violent and environmentalists.

However, they don’t have a children’s church. My kids are not the type to sit still in such a thing. This has been one of the main reasons we have had trouble finding a church throughout our time here! Thankfully we met a neighbor where we now live who does children’s church at the church nearby and our kids started attending. And recently we began attending a house church in Costambar started by a couple who actually volunteered in our school in Padre Granero throughout 2018 giving sewing and karate classes! This is where I feel we have found our home as it is super kid friendly, outdoors, oversees the ocean, the pastor wears a button up shirt and jeans, my husband can wear his casual clothes and feels fine, they show family movies on Saturday nights, service is in English and Spanish…. I’m just really glad that we have found a place where we feel we can all go together. The teachings are very rich as well.

I also don’t really believe in door to door evangelism as the go to practice for every single member of a church, although I think it does work for them and respect it. Jesus did do it, but I find their teachings hypocritical at times as though they pick and choose what still should be practiced today and what they write off as being “what they did back then but should not be done today”. For example, you don’t think you should lay your hands on the sick and pray for them because that is what was done then but is not how things are done now. However, you do think you should do door to door evangelism exactly as it was done back then?

I don’t want to go on criticizing but I could make a huge list of pros and a huge list of cons. I haven’t seen JWs being the best good Samaritans. I think they are with people within their congregation, but not to those who they visit their houses and see their problems. They will offer their time to study the Bible and encourage you, but not take action to dress your wounds as the good Samaritan did. He didn’t ask the suffering man to convert before he dressed the wounds, did he? Someone may be offended in reading that as maybe they have “dressed someone’s wounds” while visiting their house and observing their needs, but my observations have been that such aid is reserved for those within the congregation, with the exception of natural disasters.  

Lastly, I’ll just share that I dislike how there seems to be a superiority as though JW is the true Christianity and any other Christian practice is pagan. There is almost a fear of everything else and the desire to convert everyone to JW. I wish they would more so/simultaneously take on a role of teaching others the misconceptions that don’t align with the Bible that are prevalent in hopes that they will alter teachings in other churches rather than having a strong agenda to get everyone to convert to JW. There is no fear in love. God is love. They will know you are his followers by your love. 

In conclusion, I don’t feel as though I need to become an official Jehovah’s Witness to be impressed by a lot of what they have opened my eyes to, interested in what I may not be able to conclude as strongly as they do, and willing to share and discuss such findings with others. If you believe that the Bible is the book that Jehovah God the Creator left for us to understand the history of what he has done, what people have done, what his will is, and where he is headed with us, then I think we should dig into it together and find our common ground. 

You highlight a verse that the Sabbath is actually on Saturday? Let’s talk about that. Obviously now I'm referring to another denomination. Is that the most important point the Bible has to make? I don’t think so. Jesus was clear about the greatest commandment. I think if we can focus on obeying what he said is most important, then everything else will fall into place. The question of which day the Sabbath should be practiced to me should be lower on the list since we first have to tackle – How do I love God? How do I love others? What is love? And do it! Sure the discussion of Sabbath can come up in how we love God, but I would like to Biblically conclude God’s priorities.

If you don’t believe the Bible is the Creator’s handbook for us and feel as though that claim is arrogant and exclusive of other handbooks like the Koran, well, then I simply don’t agree with you and wish you would really delve into it! I am willing to read other such books as well, but only to better understand others. Because when you are married, you can learn about others for the purpose of knowledge and coexistence, but you aren’t going to abandon your love. You are going to enhance him or her with your increased knowledge.