February 24, 2011

Haiti is a Caribbean nation less than 700 miles from Miami’s glitzy skyline – a day’s drive if your car could float, or a short international flight.  Yet very few Americans know much about the country.  The earthquake last year brought attention and money but not much effective help.  From the beginning of its rich but tragic history, Haiti has been shaped by the actions of adventurers, missionaries, opportunists, and governments.  All the good and the bad of Haiti are a product of that history.  We should be cautious about accepting simplistic explanations about Haiti, and we should be slow to criticize. Reliable statistics about Haiti are hard to come by.  Relatively little data is kept by the Haitian government, and false assumptions and misinformation run rampant even among frequent visitors to Haiti.  Our work is specific to the Northwest region of the country.  Perhaps the poorest part of the island.  

The Neighbors program is a new endevor seeking to match up a community of like minded people here in the US, to a community/village of people in Haiti.  Purpose is to match up people for the long term.  It is a really cool idea and Mark Graham one of the runners of the runmarkrun–running team is going to Haiti in April to visit a village to support their new  Neighbors.  Pray for them.