When Words Aren't Enough

Time and time again I've been told by the team that although I write my blogs well and always have pictures to share, Haiti is impossible to describe and you really have to see it with your own eyes.
How can mere words or snapshots really affect all five of your senses like Haiti does?
Haiti is a country of extremes. Extreme heat, extreme dust, extreme rain and lightning storms, extreme mud, extreme number of people and extreme poverty. Words can't really describe what it's like to work in the baking Caribbean sun at noon, or the extreme power of the rain storms that pound the city each night, or the dust or mud that covers everything and everybody, or the masses of people in the markets and on the streets, or the dismal conditions of millions living in tents, or the hungry children so desperate for one small glass of clean drinking water or a small plate of food to quiet their demanding stomachs. One of the team members said, and I quote "All I can say is that you have to be here to understand what is really going on."
Does that mean I stop writing and sharing pictures? Of course not. I will still do my best to help you see the Haiti I love so much.

The job site.




The feeding program.
Word has spread about our feeding program and each day more and more kids gather around the gate hoping they might be let in so they can have a glass of water and a plate of rice and beans. Since we can only feed a 100 children at a time and tickets are handed out in the poorest tent cities beforehand, we have to turn many children who don't have tickets away empty. This is really heart-breaking.
Those who have tickets and therefore permission to enter are greeted with a handshake and a smile by our team members.
Many of our team members have said that the most rewarding, and most difficult part of the day is when we run the feeding program. To give food is very rewarding, but to see so many children desperate for a cup of water and a plate of rice and beans is really difficult.



And so, if my meager words can't really explain, try to imagine what it is like to not be able to feed or clothe your children, to not even have a cup of water to give them, and to have powerful rains and wind soak and destroy the few things that you have each night. Imagine how you would feel if strangers came to work with you and build you a home. A home that you could lock at night, a home that could keep out the rain and wind, a home that would keep your children safe and dry.
When they wave their hands in the air and say "Mesi Bondye na siel la"(Thank you God in heaven), they mean it.