it’s been about four months since i went to and from the dominican republic & haiti. one of my friends asked not long after i returned, “are you gonna send out an email about haiti?” he figured correctly that trying to describe the experience via gchat would be unwieldy.
i twittered throughout that week, wrote a couple blogs and an article for our church’s newsletter (page 6 of 8), but no quintessential novella email has been sent to my supporters. aside from plunging immediately back to “normal life” after the trip, i’ve been stuck in the “processing” process. by now, i feel like i should’ve reached some kind of light-bulb-in-my-head-switched-on conclusion.
i wanted to tell you about jean-gabriel, his wife, marie-claude, and their daughter, gabrielle, who’s six years old but looks like she could pass for eight. i met them in the plaza in jimani; chino, with his bible in hand, was talking with jean-gabriel and marie-claude and i joined them on the bench. i listened even though i don’t understand creole.
with the little french i knew, i introduced myself. when my recollection of french tanked, chino helped translate; he did so between creole and spanish. this family of three was spared from injury and death because they happened not to be in the five-story building where they lived at the time the earthquake struck. they somehow made it to the this side of the island.
other than that and that jean-gabriel had been working at a resort/restaurant in barbados, i knew little else of this family. i did sense such kindness and gentleness and resiliency and hope. raul did his best to try to connect him with a haitian refugee center. they had fled with nothing, so we gave them a duffle bag with some toiletries and clothes.
i wanted to tell you how torn i was when he asked for my contact information. i didn’t, in the end, ’cause he was surrounded by young haitian men who had also asked for my (and steph’s) contact information; we declined them as diplomatically as we could. i wanted to tell you how i hurt a little inside when i didn’t give him my number because i really would’ve liked to find a way for them to start all over in a better place, like here, perhaps.
i wanted to tell you how it hurt a little more when he smiled and said that it it was okay, with little to no disappointment.
i wanted to tell you how unsettled i was by the way some of the orphans would say, “he’s haitian, i’m not, i’m dominican”. i’d explain to them that it makes no difference to God. i wanted to tell you how encouraging it was to meet people from puerto rico who came to serve in whatever way they could. and i can’t rave enough about raul, who put on the mantle of his haitian brothers and sisters’ keeper, who has been so moved with compassion for his neighbors.
i wanted to tell you how amazed i was by miguel shaul, director of AIM’s base in the dominican republic, who’d been shuttling between the dr and haiti like a roadrunner on his motorcycle.
i wanted to tell you how refreshing it was to be in “world race mode” for a week with the likes of ashley musick, aaron bruner, jacob hoyer, steph tyrna, and sarah diederich. i was tired but felt so alive; coming back to a desk though less strenuous felt more exhausting in comparison.
i would’ve liked to convey this in a neat executive summary. but i can’t. my week in haiti hasn’t resolved. thankfully, anne jackson, who was a part of the youth ministry advance team that went in not long after i did, has shown me that the lack of resolution isn’t a bad thing all the time, so i will borrow from her.
i went into hispaniola as part of a first wave. since then, i’m glad to share with you that there have been successive waves, closer to the epicenter of the earthquake, and there will continue to be waves of people, like benny v, and resources from AIM partnering with the church in haiti. God’s still working through other ministries such as ywam and kindred spirits like this guy.
so even though i wasn’t able to package my experience in haiti, this nation hasn’t fallen off of God’s radar. His hand remains ever firmly and gently on this land; many thanks for letting me be an extension of it.
