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Haiti 2012: June 6

Our team accomplished a lot today. This is surprising, considering the pace of work in Haiti is much slower than what we're accustomed to in the United States. One of the missionaries said that the only thing Haitians do fast is drive. This seems true. They drive quickly, for the most part, on motorcycles or in their cars, honking to warn each other that they are passing. We finished building and painting all six of the bunk beds that will be placed in the main house for a team of seventeen who will be coming this Friday night. Another team member-- Brittaney-- and I installed two ceiling fans in the dining room, which gave me a sense of pride, even if the second one didn't work. I have to see why tomorrow. We stopped around 3:00 to shop with merchants who are allowed on the compound to sell merchandise to the teams who come each week.

Afterward, we traveled to an incredible hotel to have dinner. It was set on a mountain above a cove that opened up to a wide ocean. There is no escaping the dominance of nature in this country. Even the relatively small mountain behind the orphanage seems to impose itself on this place. To me, it is a symbol of the problems the Hatians face here. I cannot help but think that the suffering here-- indeed, that Haiti itself-- would not have existed but for greed. The French used African slaves to raise sugar cane here. The legacy of this mercantilism was a country birthed of a slave rebellion-- the first successful long-term slave rebellion in the Caribbean-- a country whose future has always seemed bleak. From natural disaster to government corruption, Haiti doesn't lack problems.

At the same time, I can't help thinking of the conversation a few of us had with a young missionary from the orphanage. He expressed his frustration at just how much more the orphanage could be doing to help the children here, how much these children face emotionally because of the experiences that got them here. I only hope the missionaries are able to see, eventually at least, just how much they are doing to foster emotional and financial stability among these children.

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