Black and white. Hot and cold. Dull and sharp. Light and heavy. Bougainvillea and barbed wire.
Haiti, as this view from our front door suggests, is a place of contrasts.
It is a place of beauty. Natural beauty. It is, after all, on a tropical island. Palm trees, mountains, hot sticky temperatures, welcome rain, geckos, wild dogs, tarantulas, softball-size avocados and even bigger mangos. Haiti, to our untrained eyes, is also a place of scars. The earth is scarred by deforestation and rampant urbanization, and of course, earthquakes and hurricanes. The roads are a combination of dirt, rocks, and construction scrabble, unless, oddly, they are paved. Then, they are simply plugged with traffic, each vehicle sitting prey for predatory window-washers or bumper-cleaners or worse. While some, including we North American missionaries, live in safe and comfortable homes with electricity back-up systems for the 12 or more hours a day there is no electricity, most do not live with such luxury.
Yesterday, I went with Zachary (Zachary King and his wife Sharon are the missionaries whose work I will be doing and in whose home we will be living) to the veterinarian to have his two dogs get their annual shots. Angel and Pearl are the names Zach's young daughter gave to them: one a pure white German shepherd mix and the other a big black Bull Mastiff/Great Dane mix with a small white patch - resembling a pearl - on the front of her neck. As we walked with these two intimidating (but very friendly) dogs on leashes across a bridge to the veterinarian in Petionville, I looked out from the bridge. There was a dry gulch, a wide empty river basin, teeming with garbage where the water should be. I learned that this and many others around the city are dry most of the time, except during rainy season, when they turn into rivers.
It was with this bizarre news of this on-again, off-again river that I noticed, perched along the side of the trash-strewn ditch, a family, huddled under a tarp with six goats. I imagined, much like we do when we go to the mall and watch strangers and wonder what their lives might be like, I imagined what this family's life must be like. Normally, they lived along a garbage dump, visible to but likely disconnected to all of their "neighbours." But part(s) of the year, when their tarp wasn't holding back sun or rain, they would be living alongside a raging river, possibly sweeping away their goats. It struck me that their goats were not pets, but their livelihood. And it struck me that their goats have probably never had an ounce or an HTG (Haitian Gourde, the standard currency here) of care. And it struck me as an unfair contrast that I, as a missionary, was the one walking a dog to the vet, a contrast that seemed, at first blush to simply be wrong.
However, I got to thinking in larger terms and the overall work of which I am a small part. I am thankful that I can be part of a team that is trying to make a lasting difference here in Haiti -- "Sous Espwa" (Haitian Creole for "Source of Hope"). Sous Espwa is the name of the consolidated effort of BTGMI (Back to God Ministries International, here called PRIHA), World Renew, and Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM). While I am technically a staff member of CRWM (hence the nifty logo on my blog here :), I am part of this larger team called Sous Espwa. For over three decades we have not only been broadcasting messages of hope but teaching locally and backing that up with actions of sustainable development. Sous Espwa has affected many communities helping hundreds if not thousands of families just like that family perched along the drainage ditch with their six goats. We have supplied goats, latrines, training, and many forms of support.
If you have given to the ministry we are doing, if you have prayed, if you have encouraged us in any way, please know that you are making a difference for people who live "on the edge" helping them to pass on a future for their children that will include dreams that will not simply be washed away.
Thanks for your support,
till next time,
John
No comments:
Post a Comment