I am Haitian. 100%.

Well, I loved Haiti. I learned to say in Creole, 'I am Haitian. 100%.' Unfortunately, I can't read or write Creole, so you'll have to believe me. I guess I am an illiterate Creole speaker, if knowing about 4 sentences in Creole counts as actually knowing the lanugage. I love the place I'll be working. The people there are great and there is a very welcoming atmosphere. I felt at home immediately. There is very much a sense of community with good conversation taking place in at least three languages (English, French, and Creole with some occassional Spanish thrown in just for fun) and two communal meals a day with the staff, guests and longer-term patients from the clinic. It is a safe haven in a beautiful but very scarred country.

It isn't safe for me to be out walking by myself, which is fine since I'll be living and working in the same place. It could probably be compared to walking along Kelvin Way after dark. The landscape itself is beautiful but it is masked by the desperate poverty of her people, who have "torn her hair out" as one Haitian put it. They speak of Haiti so lovingly, as if she is this mother helpless to save her children. They are still a very proud people despite everything.

The poverty did not stike me as hard as I thought it might. In some respects this is a comfort to me, I know that I will be ok to live there. In others was it makes me feel ashamed that I was not touched by it more than I was. I think this was partly due to the fact that there were so many new sights and sounds and smells, that I was too busy experiencing all of these new things. It seems that in general the situation in Port-au-Prince is not as bad as in the rural areas. Hopefully, I will have the chance to see that side of the coin as well.

I think God has a lot to teach me this summer about myself and about his desperate people. Haiti has opened her heart to me and I hope to inturn open my heart to her.