Final Haiti Update (check out the photo album to go with post) I have now left Haiti and am glad to be with my family in the Cayman Islands. I will be honest in saying that this trip has had a large impact on me, and I got a lot of ideas about how we as Canadians can continue to help and partner and journey with our Haitian friends - but there is one experience I think will stick with me more then the others - visiting the Grandma House. Just to give you a little background - what is sometimes called the Grandma house is more accurately called the Elderly Home. The vision is to give safe living quarters with love and care for aging members of the community that cant be cared for by their families. As we know the most vulnerable in a community like Carries Haiti are the young, the handicapped, and the elderly. The stories Miss Lynn told me about seniors in the community broke my heart, and when I got to go see their home I was struck with how important this ministry is. It is easy to get excited about babies - the cuteness, the possibility, the life yet to be lived. But elderly can sometime be forgotten, they have lived long lives, you dont have the hope of life yet to be lived - this is about giving people dignity and love in their final years, it is a ministry to walk with those that cant walk for themselves. I have always had great respect for those who care for and take care of aging seniors (whether it be physical problems or mental degradation). In Haiti, many times these are just forgotten - literally discarded (and I do mean literally) - when the families cant even take care of themselves or the kids - how do we expect them to be able to care for a physically and mentally aging parent or grandparent? There are many things to be fixed, but while working on that we cant forget about those at the end of their journey. I dont know fully what I am saying here, or why I am so impacted by this part of what we are up to in Carries, I am just struck with how we raise tonnes of money for orphanages, and the number of commercials to help fund kids programs in developing countries and countries in crisis, but I cant remember one push or commercial or fund raising campaign (not saying they dont exist I just dont remember any) for the elderly in a country in crisis. And I am not saying one is more important than the other - Im just saying that I was struck with how God loves and cares for a dying grandma as much as She cares for a struggling baby and how I have been guilty of forgetting a segment of the population that I think God will never forget about. That part of my experience took more words then I thought to express, so I will wrap up some of my other experiences quickly: I had the chance to go to a piece of land along the highway south of Carries, Haiti and discuss starting a business there and what it might take. In fact there were many conversations around bringing in industry, creating jobs, and giving the local population opportunities for work (you have to recognize that there really is very very little work available in Carries). Kim and Miss Lynn shared about their dream to build a home to live in (they are both living in hotel rooms in the resort which is nice but no way to live long term or raise kids for Kim). I am looking forward to dreaming and supporting them in making this a reality. I sat around the meal table and discussed with volunteers how we could support the community to improve itself, what seemed to be lacking, and what we could offer that they might need. I was excited about conversations about tackling the problems by supporting the family rather then just rescuing the children once the family cant care for them at all. But probably the coolest thing is that I met amazing Haitians who were great at their jobs and living life with a smile on their face and working hard to keep moving forward. I am grateful for the opportunity to take this trip and I feel blessed to support my new friends in Carries, Haiti.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 04:49:12 +0000