Healing Haiti Trip // Day 2 [Karissa]

Hi all –

This is Karissa Lyle writing today’s update. As I sit here in front of the keyboard, I’m not sure how to begin today’s recap, mostly because there is way too much to say!

Today was “Water Truck Day”. After a hearty breakfast and a quick devotional, we were all anxious and ready for our 9:30am Tap Tap to journey into Cite Soleil. 9:30 Haitian time was closer to 10:15 (my kind of morning!) so this gave us some time to ask questions of the two Healing Haiti staff, Michael and Jesse, who joined the 6 of us on today’s water delivery. Cite Soleil, the “city” we were heading to, is essentially a 4-square-mile slum, divided into different neighborhoods, only 15 minutes from the Port-au-Prince airport. Cite Soleil is made up of Haiti’s “untouchables”. Much like the caste system, these people are considered unworthy of visits from even other Haitian locals, and those living in Port-au-Prince wouldn’t dare venture there. The area we are staying in is apparently considered “middle class”… What?! All of our jaws basically dropped when we heard this.

We were told of the pervasive orphan crisis in Haiti. Americans have come to Haiti, have fallen in love with the children here, and have built orphanages to house these kids as a result. It is a beautiful thing – however, there are two sides of this coin. The unemployment rate in Haiti is ~70%. In Cite Soleil, the unemployment rate rises to ~90%. This means as a Haitian parent you probably have 3 options:

1. With no means to support your family, watch your children starve.
2. Drop your children off at a local orphanage, knowing that they will at least have meals provided and a place to sleep at night. Strangely, orphanages here are filled with kids that still have parents.
3. Sell your children into slavery to work for a family that is slightly better off and will be able to feed your children.

Child slavery runs rampant in Haiti, particularly in Cite Soleil. “Restaveks”, the name for child slaves, are given up by their parents to other families to perform all the chores for the family. Referred to as “Cinderella Syndrome”, these kids are treated as less than, performing manual labor from the time they are toddlers, are physically and verbally abused, unable to actually eat meals with their new “family”, etc. As you can imagine, this environment leaves many families and children alike feeling hopeless, worthless and destitute. These were the kids we would be encountering today.

We hopped in the Tap Tap to follow the water truck to our first of three stops in Cite Soleil. Healing Haiti does these water runs to different neighborhoods every single day, with or without volunteers. We learned quickly that volunteers are greatly needed. The Tap Tap bus stopped and we walked down the steps greeted by 20 small kids with their hands lifted above their heads, huge grins on their faces, and yelling in Creole “Hold me, hold me!” These kids were absolutely desperate for love. Many of these children were clearly restaveks. We could only go so far into the neighborhood carrying water before the child would say “Fin! Fin!” or “Finished!” Essentially, we needed to drop the bucket and turn around and go back to the truck. These kids will often get in trouble by their owners/families if they accept help doing chores. The entire day was sensory overload from beginning to end. A little girl on your back with her arms wrapped around your neck, a baby tugging at your shorts, a boy shouting at you to help him carry a bucket of water to his house, garbage everywhere, smells of sewage filling your nose, water splashing from the water truck hose, motorcycles honking for you to get out of the way…

The best word to describe today for me would be: Overwhelming. For others: Broken. Depressing. Grateful. The day was chaotic, and sad, but with glimpses of hope. There was so much despair but also so much joy.

In addition to bringing people clean water, we were able to visit Hope Church and School in Cite Soleil, which was founded by Healing Haiti. There is an area of Cite Soleil that is a garbage dump which serves as the local people’s bathroom, dump and makeshift graveyard. It is not unusual to see someone burying a baby here or sorting through trash to try and find clothes to cover themselves. Long story short, Healing Haiti had a crazy idea to build a church on this land that would be run by local Haitians. They started the build process by digging through trash – they dug 8 stories deep until they hit rock and were able to actually begin the cementing process. Many nonprofits have given up when they run into road bumps like this in Haiti. The people of Cite Soleil told staff of Healing Haiti that “Americans always make big promises but they never follow through.” So although it was an expensive endeavor, Healing Haiti followed through and built a church/school. They worked for 10 years with all the local gang leaders to eventually come together as the church elders (!) to allow the church/school into Cite Soleil. We were able to visit the dozens and dozens of little kindergarten kids at school in their white and purple uniforms with ribbons in their hair and books in their tiny hands. Hope Church/School is truly transformational for Cite Soleil. After the church was built, the local people were interviewed and were asked, “Is it the church what will change Cite Soleil?” An elderly woman responded, “No – it is the people. They needed to know they are worth building something for. They have to believe they are loved. And then they will change it.”I think that phrase perfectly depicts the hope that Healing Haiti is bringing to these people.

We also briefly visited Fleri Farms, where we got to drink from fresh coconuts chopped down with a machete. This farm was recently purchased by Healing Haiti to employ local Haitian farmers and stimulate the economy in Port-au-Prince. I could go on with all of the ways Healing Haiti is focusing on job creation, or educating children, or lifting up communities to be self-sufficient, but I’ll let someone else explain in another email. J Although today was depressing, I have hope knowing that organizations like Healing Haiti are here to empower the Haitian people and initiate change. It was an incredible first day.

-Karissa