Kevin's random thoughts - haiti

Haitian hospitality

2008-06-04T20:34:00Z

[This is the piece I wrote for our monthly parish newsletter about the trip. There will be more to come about Haiti.]

In the United States, the only things we hear about Haiti are that they're either starving or rioting. Certainly Haiti is deeply in need of our help, especially as the worsening worldwide food crisis affects the people there most strongly, but the wholeness of Haiti cannot be reduced to such a simple description. From the moment we arrived, we were shown overwhelming hospitality. At the guest house in Leogane, we were greeted by a beautiful and tasty dinner of rice, beans, fish, and vegetables, the work of Fenide Deravil and her helpers at the guest house.

After the service on Sunday, we were again shown the utmost hospitality by Joseph Laborde, the lay leader and school administrator at St Philippe et St Jacques, and his wife, who invited us to their home for lunch. We sat on their front porch and chatted about his hopes for his son Jonas, who is currently a teacher at the school but also attending university in Port-au-Prince.

And finally, Fr. Kerwin Delicat and his family were the most gracious of hosts throughout our stay in Leogane. They translated for us, had us visit them at their home repeatedly, and even took us to the beach at Jacmel one fine afternoon. The culmination of their hospitality, though, was the evening we spent with Kerwin+, his wife Rholcie and daughter Kercie, his brothers Carlo and Roosnel, and his aunt Celecia. Rholcie and Celecia prepared a wonderful meal for us, and Carlo even gave us a little musical entertainment (with vocal help from his brothers).

This is how we build a true partnership, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to show Kerwin+ and Rholcie the same hospitality when they come to visit us.

Nou pralé en Ayiti

2008-04-17T16:07:00Z

We heard from our hosts in both Port-au-Prince and Leogane on Tuesday that it's safe again, so we're leaving on Saturday as planned. I've created a new section in case you want to follow just my posts on Haiti. It's likely all I'll be posting from now until we get back.

Meanwhile:

"The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year," [Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization author Lester] Brown says. "And what we are seeing now is the emergence of direct competition between the 860 million people in the world who own automobiles and who want to maintain their mobility while the 2 billion poorest people in the world simply want to survive."

(via NPR)

Also, the AIDG out of Boston has collected a good set of eyewitness accounts from the protests last week.

Haiti is starving (updated)

2008-04-14T13:30:00Z

Update: if you read only one thing about Haiti, read this: Haiti, Reaping the Whirlwind

For the past several months, my lovely partner and I have been planning a trip to Haiti. Our parish has a partnership with a parish there, and we're part of the group that works on the partnership. We're meant to leave on Saturday, but as you might have (but probably haven't) heard in the news last week, people are in the streets protesting and, in some instances, rioting.

Funny thing, what happens when people are starving. Eighty percent—four-fifths—of the people in Haiti live on less than US$2 per day, and many of those are in so-called abject poverty, living on less than US$1 per day. The cost of food in developing countries worldwide has as much as doubled in the past year, and in Haiti, many people are literally subsisting on cookies made of dirt.

If you're a praying sort, please include the people of Haiti in your prayers. If you're an activist type, call your congresspeople at the state and national levels. Here's some further reading to help you raise awareness:

Google News search for Haiti
HAITI: Economy forces poor to eat dirt
IMF warns rising food prices may spark more riots like Haiti
Biofuels a factor as global food riots spread to Haiti

If you're a charitable sort, consider donating to the UN World Food Programme mission in Haiti. It would take US$96 million to fully fund the WFP in Haiti, of which they have only received 13 percent.

That's all for now. If we go, I'll blog from the island if possible (there is at least e-mail access there).