Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Big, Big Wall?


The rocky area in this photo is an area that's been devastated by the erosion that happens when the river overflows.


Wanted to share with all of you that things are going well here in Haiti for me. As many of you know, I'm in Haiti to learn about some wonderful community programs in the area around Fayet. Thought this it was sort of related to the message you see below, too.
Part of my reason for coming here was to look at things from the perspective of "what's possible?"

So what is possible in the Fayet area?

The Fayet area has an elementary school built by volunteers, who are also passionate about literacy education. It has 5 adult literacy centers. What's possible for the future? Teachers at the school sharing their experiences directly with you on Facebook, for one. (We just set them each up with an account!)

Fayet has a serious problem I'd like to tell you about. In 2008, a stretch of land about 50 feet wide and probably over a mile long, alongside the major river Fayet is next to, (the "Momas") was washed into the ocean. Another hurricane season like that could turn Fayet into a rocky wasteland that goes underwater every time there's a hurricane, instead of a beautiful farming community.


--Here's a view of the south side of the riverbed, where huge government-owned tractors are working on a protective wall. Fayet is just upstream and across the river from this project.--

But here's the good news: Folks in the community are asking for, and ready to work on building, a concrete wall to keep the river in its bed. Sand and rocks (the main ingredients in a concrete wall) abound in the riverbed. So what's needed is cement, and an experienced mason to manage the construction. Yes, it's possible! Sure, it'll cost thousands of dollars, but I know we can get there. Would you be willing to help? If you or someone you know would like to donate money, or find a mason who'd like an all expenses paid trip to Haiti, or know how we can get a bunch of cement... let me know! Some of the funding we need is already lined up, but I imagine we'll need more...

So there's another possibility I'd like to share with you. It's the possibility of learning a little from the Haitian way of life, and how it brings joy in communities that don't have much, besides joy, to call their own. How can those of us from the US learn from this? Though there's not a huge amount of choice involved, Haitians get a lot of joy from sharing their lives with their communities. People live with extended families, share bedrooms, adopt family members from relatives and from non-relatives, visit each other whenever they want to (without calling first), and typically do almost everything together. It's clear their lives are full with relationships that give them more security in an otherwise insecure world, and that relationships with people are what give them joy.



It looks to me as though Haitian society and American society each have a certain amount of malady in them, but the good thing is that each of these two societies has some of the solution for the other's sickness.

So if I may, I'd like to invite you to look at this not from a perspective of "such and such people are bad" or "I/they/we should have known better than to..." and look at it instead from the perspective of what's possible from here forward. How can we as a society heal ourselves of our separation from nature and from dependance on each other?

Finally, I'd like to share about religion here a little. What I've learned so far definitely gives me the impression that Haitians love God (whom they call bondye, or "good god") and love the connection between religion and the simple act of people coming together to cooperate as a community. In some sense, religion here is about the possibility of people being close to people.

This has had me reflecting on what Jesus said about love in the new testament (paraphrases):"love your neighbor as much as you love yourself" (Luke 10:27), "take everything you have, sell it, and then give the money to people less fortunate than yourself" (Mark 10:21). "don't worry about where you'll live and what you'll eat; follow God and God will provide for you". (Matthew 6:19-34)

In my life I'm coming to feel that Jesus meant all of these things more or less literally, and would like us to look at how we can come closer to the ideal embodied in these ideas. An ideal it is, and not something that any of us really lives up to fully. I invite you to consider that this doesn't mean we don't gain anything by taking steps in the direction of this ideal of love for the earth's people. I encourage you to avoid having feelings of guilt play a part in this, either in having you feel forced to change your life or in having you feel bad about not living up to an ideal (and, possibly, not moving in the direction of the ideal since you feel you can't reach the ideal completely!).


--Adolphe, teacher and community organizer, gives an impassioned speech--

I'd also like to share that, for me personally, holding on to these ideas as an ideal to work towards is something that has stuck with me through a lot of changes in what I've thought about Christianity and religion. These ideas made sense to me when I thought of myself as an Atheist, they make sense to me when I think of myself not as a Christian but as someone who follows whatever religion brings out the best in people (I really love what I've heard about Haitian Vaudou (voodoo), about asian religions) and they make sense to me if I think of myself as a Christian.

Let your love for people shine like a light in the world.
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