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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