The people of Haiti

Haiti’s people are incredible.  They are strong, brave and resilient.  I look around my school campus and not only have I begun to learn the names of hundreds of faces that belong to young, middle and older students, teachers and administration, but they are beginning to share their life stories with me and some of these stories are inconceivable.  I won’t go in to detail but there are not only adults who have stories of survival but children as well.  Yes, they all have their pivotal moment of where they were during the cataclysmic earthquake or the earth-shattering hurricane, but as if that wasn't tragic enough, they have horror stories of crimes against themselves or their loved ones.  Some of their heartbreaking stories are of kidnappings, where they were held against their will until a ransom was paid by their families or stories that sound like something from a movie such as “bad” people breaking in to homes and shooting at “good” people.  There is a story of a young woman who was abducted for several days, who is safe now and is looking forward to attending college in the next few years. There is a young elementary school boy whose father was shot and killed and who witnessed the entire moment of loss.  There are so many of these stories and those lucky few who don’t have personal encounters with heartbreak, still share in each other’s losses.

What amazes me as I learn more about my new school and my new home of Haiti is how amazingly self-sufficient most people are in this country and it is obvious to me why that is.  Most times, they have to depend on themselves and their families to help and protect each other and this not only makes them stronger but more compassionate. Someone told me the other day that Haiti’s self-sufficiency has led to their own complacency. I couldn't disagree more. If anything, it is their strong willed, independence that have made them who they are . . . . a loving, tenderhearted and considerate proud people and no matter what other catastrophes either political or natural that chooses to tear at the core of Haiti, no one will ever be able to break down a true Haitian man, woman or child.