SUMC News

VIM Haiti 2012

 An Impression of Haiti

Visiting Haiti brings an avalanche of disparate sights, smells, feelings, and sounds. Two years ago, a devastating earthquake affected the poorest country in the western hemisphere. A quarter of a million died. Another million were made homeless. Still today, more than half a million souls live in the principle refugee camps with many more dwelling in the ruins of their homes. The story of the relief effort mounted to aid Haiti is, in places, troublesome to recount. After the earthquake, relief efforts were complicated by devastated infrastructure, storms, and a cholera outbreak. Further difficulties emerged with the beginning of the hurricane season. The menace of civil unrest surrounded the national elections last January. A year after the quake the relief efforts looked a shambles. Today, though still a cause for exasperation, relief efforts are going better. Now people are pulling together better and looking toward the future. Emergency aid, however, will be required for a long time to come.

    Six volunteers went to Haiti January 4th to 14th to serve in the earthquake-damaged community of Arcahaie, Haiti. The team consisted of Swarthmore residents Amanda Hunter, Sam Coulter, Natalee Hill, Barbara Felton, and Russell Atkinson and Mt. Airy resident David Fonda.

     Arcahaie is located about an hour north of Port-au-Prince, along the coast toward Saint Marc. The team’s primary project was assisting in the construction of a rainwater holding tank, kitchen, storage building, and security wall. L’Eglise Methodiste d’Haiti, founded in 1817, identified this project in Arcahaie as a priority. The Swarthmore team was one in a stream of volunteers working through a three-year plan of the United Methodist Church’s Volunteers in Mission program. Working to a locally produced plan toward the host community’s objectives, the team cooperated with Haitian construction workers in a ratio of 3 or 4 locals to one visitor.

Russell Atkinson, team leader and pastor of Swarthmore United Methodist Church said, “I have worked quite a bit in the Caribbean, and much I saw in Haiti was familiar to me, but I was surprised at the vastness of Port-au-Prince and the immediate towns around (pop. approx. 3.5 million). They contain almost half the population of the nation. I was also most impressed with the character of the Haitians. I know it is expected in our culture to report progress and to measure results. In church work we certainly prefer to see these too, but they do not confine us. Sometimes it is more blessed to share in hopefulness. Haiti is an enormous challenge and there is much for cynics to point to. But cynicism about Haiti is more useless than cynicism is normally. Whatever the origins of Haiti’s woes, they have nothing to do with the industry or spirit of the Haitians with whom we worked.”

Sam Coulter is a college student with a part time job at Renato’s. “I have studied engineering and been fascinated by technology. I have spent a lot of time thinking about sophisticated machines and the manufacture of specialized devices. But the workers in Haiti were using local, commonly available materials to rebuild their community. Talking with the people my age I found that they have many of the same interests and talk about a lot of the same things that my friends at home talk about. The experience of working alongside the people in Aracahaie convinces me that the human spirit is indomitable.”

Barbara Felton, who has a studio above Paulson’s, said: “My intention as a massage and energy therapist was to offer treatments to anyone who came to me. The people we worked with, both at the work site in Arcahaie and at the Methodist Guest House in Port-au-Prince, were among the hardest working I have ever met. I found the construction workers to be in ridiculously good shape; many went on to a quick game of soccer after a full day’s physical labor! The short time I spent with them (although some did return for a second session) was almost certainly the only bodywork they had ever received. My challenge was to offer a suggestion or two that they could use to help themselves after I’d gone.”

David Fonda is a professional photographer and the only member of our team who had been to Haiti before; he’s been there five times, the last in 2000. “I think that the main difference I noticed from previous trips is disillusionment. Haitians I saw were disillusioned about the complications associated with aid coming into the country. Still, I always find that we’re unconditionally welcomed by Haitians. If we show that we’re there to help we’re accepted with open arms. Haitians are invariably friendly and open and are ready to share if you come in a spirit of kindness.”

Amanda Hunter recently finished college and is working at the Coop: “It was very, very different from the US. It was life changing, and opened my eyes to what it’s like to live in a different culture. Haiti is very different from when I go to Chester and volunteer there. The situation of the poor there is different from the poor people we see here. This trip gave me a new perspective on things.”

Natalee Hill is a church administrator: “I was really struck by how structurally fragile the place is as far as buildings are concerned, but also socially and governmentally, and yet there’s this underlying resilience. Returning home people asked me if I thought I’d made any difference and even though the challenges Haiti faces are vast, in my own small way I made a difference.”

The group stayed in a private home while in Haiti that was surrounded by the owning family’s hens, dogs, cats, goats and roosters. These all made notable noise in the small hours of the morning. All team members agree that their favorite barnyard animal is definitely not the rooster!

 

The team looks forward to sharing stories of the experience with the Swarthmore United Methodist Church congregation during Sunday worship on January 29th. They also look forward to sharing their experiences with various community groups.