Today’s been hard.
I drove my Dad to the airport early in the morning, and upon my return found the newspaper at my front door.
“Helpless”- the headline reads. The pictures are worse.
“Useless” is the headline I feel like is hanging over my head.
We still haven’t heard from our interpreter, Daniel, from Mario, or any one else that we interviewed on our trip. The little we have heard has been cryptic and pessimistic.
A friend, Willy, who lives in Jacmel on the coast, finally updated his facebook page. He writes that he is alive, but that Jacmel is dead.
From our driver and friend, Vladimir:
Thanks my friends Haiti is down. Completely down, It's very difficult to walk in Port au Prince without seeing a dead. I am using Internet at olofson hotel [sic]on a I touch I can not send pictures to you but you will see them soon, I hope. Peace and may God bless Haiti.
I’ve been feeling like I’m walking around in a daze, going through the motions, and feeling incredibly useless if I let myself think about it. I feel guilty for the times I was overwhelmed by Haiti and wanted to be home and a sense of longing for the people, art, music, and heartache I left behind. I’m struggling to find meaning to my last semester of law school and trying my best not to add strain to the relationships around me.
I’m a writer, a story-teller by nature, so I suppose all I can do is continue to write here, both about what I saw in Haiti and how I think people can best help. I need your help to wake up and feel like in the very least I’m doing something- by telling people what they need to hear about Haiti. We need to talk about the hard truths of a nation we owe a lot, and also, what our response says about our own country.
I never really considered myself a blogger, but comments and emails from strangers who have found my blog are beginning to convince me otherwise.
I think Saul Williams said it best…. “WE OWE HAITI.”
So in the very least, let’s try not to move onto the next scandal and let’s continue to talk about, pray about, sing about Haiti.
1 comment:
I'm so glad you posted. Thank you. As much as you feel like sharing, please do share. And about feeling useless: Of all the adjectives I could use to describe you and the work you do, "useless" is not one of them. But I understand. It's painful to be so far away, wanting to do something, knowing all you can do is wait.
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