Haiti At Home…
We’ve seen the visuals and read the headlines. To some they are just stories, something to discuss like the weather, to others its a wake up call to help. Some donate money and others immediately go into crisis mode and head to the epicenter of need.
For the emergency food bank in a forgotten pocket of Scarborough the disaster is here, now. The pain is palpable as one person after another tells of loved ones lost, hurt or killed. Eyes fill with tears as stories are shared of trying to get news of missing loved ones. You feel a paralyzing helplessness as you listen.
“My cousin and her baby are gone, dead”, “I don’t know where my husband is”.
Some look like they want to run, escape the words, shed the fresh layer of pain. All you can do is hug them, hold their hand, whisper words of encouragement.
Some of the Haitian women sit together, quietly talking to each other in French. Some are alone, head in hands. They came here with their children looking for a better life. They come in on Saturday mornings to get extra food for their families to get through the week. They look out for each other, some volunteer their time at the food bank while older children watch their little ones. Their husbands are not here. They wait for court hearings so they can work and eventually sponsor their husbands. Now many are not even sure their husbands are alive.
These Haitians did not come directly from Haiti. Many came from Florida having already sought refuge years ago in the US. Many have southern accents after a decade in Georgia, Florida or Texas. The same government rushing to Haiti’s aid is also responsible for deporting thousands of Haitians under the George Bush government. They had already escaped their 4th world existence looking for a better life, many found it in the US but George cleansed the counties by turfing out family after family of illegal immigrants, many of whom had started families, held jobs and paid taxes in their adopted country. They lacked official documents from a homeland where corruption is the only language. For those who landed in Canada the struggles they face every day are nothing compared to what they’ve known.
Haiti was a politically corrupt, social and economic nightmare before this earthquake. Education was difficult to come by and poverty was everywhere in that tiny nation. Most of it’s people are God-fearing and pious and today it was reported that nightly in Port au Prince many gather in the hills and sing hymns of praise and worship -thankful to be alive. In a place with almost no means of progressing to a third world country Haitians stay hopeful and humble.
We invited the Saturday morning crowd, our food bank clients and volunteers to join us for a prayer for Haiti -if they wanted to. We stood in the lobby so those who wanted to could take part and those that didn’t wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. It was a large surprise when many left the ‘church’ to come and pray in the lobby. Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Catholic and many more stood close together, bowed their heads and asked for Haiti’s healing.
The moment wasn’t lost on any of us.
