After Thought
My six weeks in Jacmel, Haiti
Summer 2013
I am on the plane now, sitting alone for the first time an a few weeks. I can’t seem to
settle myself. I can’t figure out how to think or what to think about. Since January, I
have thought about this trip. But now, it is over. It’s hard to say that I had a wonderful
time in Haiti. How can you have a wonderful time when so many people are hungry, sick, out of
work and void of any dreams? Maybe I should sayI feel lucky. I feel lucky to be here, to be an
American, to be retired and able to travel like this, to have been born into my family, to have lived a
life filled with love; this provided me with so many opportunities, to have been an educator. I feel
lucky to continue to have had these opportunities that
challenge me and enrich my life.
But I continue to wonder what is the meaning of this thing called life. I am overrun with all sorts of
questions pulling at me and tormenting me:
questions pulling at me and tormenting me:
- Why were the Haitians born where they are and why was I born in the richest country in the
- world? Is this life sentence of poverty some sort of reincarnation plan?
- Why do I have so much and they have so little?
- Why is their life so simple and hard? Why is my life so convenient?
- Why do I have so many opportunities for good health, good education, good food, good times
- and good use of my time?
- Why are all of their basic needs, everything, a struggle for these people every single stinking day?
- What do they pray for?
- How do they stay hopeful?
- Do they struggle with their difficulties as much as I think they do or so? Is their life really the
- struggle for them as I think it is? Does a millionaire think my life is a struggle?
- How do you deal with consistent hunger?
- How will the old lady eat when I leave? How many other old women are out there, on their own,
- abandoned and living a life in so much isolation? And why weren’t the Haitians outraged that
- this poor woman is all alone in this harsh world? Are there just so many of them that nothing can
- be done about these people?
- How are they ever going to recover from too many years of government corruption and natural
- disasters?
- Why can’t their leaders understand and commit to helping their people?
- What does President Montelly think when he sees thousands and thousands of foreigners come
- to his country every year to help his people? Does he feel grateful or inadequate?
- How can we instill the same interest and admiration of education in American kids as many of
- the Haitian kids have? Do you have to be hungry to appreciate the value of an education?
- How do I say goodbye today to these wonderful translators who work for free for the sheer
- reward of trying to improve the quality of life for their fellow countrymen. I am not that altruistic.
- Will I ever return to Haiti?
- Should all of my travel from now on, have some component of giving back?
- Now that I have seen and lived this poverty, do I have a deeper responsibility to do something to
- eradicate this poverty?
- What is my responsibility to the rest of the world?
- How do I walk away from here today and go back to my regular life?
- What is my regular life now?
- What have I learned from this experience?
- What do I do next?
- What is the purpose of my life?
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