My trip to Haiti (January 5-12, 2008) was a humbling and learning experience. I came back to America fully reminded that we have so many things to be thankful for. Even the most difficult times in our lives are nothing compared to the life in Haiti. While in Haiti, I wanted to give the poor my "everything" - even my "nothing", for I knew that their "nothing", compared to mine, is hopeless and permanent.
I arrived at the PORT-au-PRINCE airport under a scorching heat of the sun on January 5, 2008. Two nuns from the congregation of The Little Sisters of St. Therese took me to St. Louis church for the Sunday Mass. The streets looked narrow because vendors and panhandlers were almost everywhere, I saw mothers sitting on the pavement soliciting for alms while nursing their newborn babies.
night with the orphans in Petite Riviere with a kerosene lamp that died out and a mosquito net that fell on my face in the middle of the night.
On the fourth day, I was on the road again with the mother superior for a seven-hour drive to BARADERES to visit a clinic and a school of 412 students and 12 teachers. The roads were almost impassable or impossible, but I think praying the rosary and chewing pieces of sugar cane helped us survive the tough roads.
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Just an hour more drive would take us to another community called FOND-TORTUE. The poor parish here also runs a clinic and a school.
The roads in Haiti are very poor. Two-way traffic may not apply as pot-holes and sharp rocks determine which part of the road the drivers must use. Our journeys to Baraderes and Fond-Tortue were particularly toilsome as our truck continuously shook and jolted through rocky and narrow roads. Crossing a running river with our truck was unbelievable! I could feel the truck-wheels milling around and grinding through stones and gravels with so much difficulty.
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All the places that I visited in Haiti are afflicted by poverty. The catholic nuns have so many programs to help the poor, the sick, and the dying in Haiti, but they do not get enough donations to keep their projects running. Electricity is almost non-existent in Haiti. Furthermore, the schools, clinics, sanitariums, and other mission houses do not have easy access to water. Workers in the missions and schools often do not get paid because the nuns do not get enough donations to keep their projects running
sufferings. Millions of people die due to lack of basic necessities of life and is a challenge to anyone of us at this time.
We think that giving is a sole responsibility of the wealthy, but no. Each of us always has something to give to the needy. It is not only material that we can give. We can give a smile or a kind word. We can start simple acts of love and kindness in our homes, where charity begins.
We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We may be different in race, color, origin, and religion but we all come from One Father, our God, who wants all His children to care for one another, healing the wounds of poverty through love.
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Thalia N. Cayetano is the founding president of The Love of Vicentica Foundation.
She lives with her family in Hercules, California. January 2008 |
