"Woch nan dlo pa konnen doule woch nan soley."--Haitian proverb
I'm in the back of a tap-tap. We've rented it out for the week to ferry us back and forth from the Methodist Mission house in Cap-Haitien and the clinic in Latannerie. I'm sweating and my butt hurts, but I'm trying to look like I've been here before.
I feel every bump. I am not comfortable. With us on this trip are 8 young people, in their late teens or early twenties. I am sure they are not comfortable either.
That's sort of the point. People who live here ride in these same tap-tap's all the time. I want our team to experience a taste of what it is like here. To us, the thinly cushioned benches, the smell of charcoal and burning trash, the sights and sounds of the crowded market, the constant beeping of tapa taps, trucks, and motos in the stop and go traffic, these are all novelties. I close my eyes and wonder what it would be like to live here all the time, for this to be everyday. This week, in the heat and humidity, there will be no A/C. I wonder if we will get used to it. I wonder if we will embrace it. Embrace a slice of discomfort for our short time here.
I am always so honored when people volunteer to go on trips with us. They spend a lot of money, endure inconvenient travel, and give us a chunk of their time. In return, we give them hot bumpy rides and humid nights. It is not comfortable.
But they also get to see a way of life that they've never seen and connect to people who live that life and see both our difference and our commonalities. Which can also be an uncomfortable experience. when we develop a relationship with someone who is happy to get just one meal a day, poverty becomes more real to us.
That in itself is a valuable experience. One that has the potential to fundamentally change the way we view the world.
Which brings us back to the proverb:
'The rock in the water cannot know the pain of the rock in the sun.'
We are the rocks in the water. We are the comfortable ones. We can never know what it is truly like to live in poverty.
But this week we can get a little uncomfortable.
(all photos by Leah Stieferman)
I'm in the back of a tap-tap. We've rented it out for the week to ferry us back and forth from the Methodist Mission house in Cap-Haitien and the clinic in Latannerie. I'm sweating and my butt hurts, but I'm trying to look like I've been here before.
I feel every bump. I am not comfortable. With us on this trip are 8 young people, in their late teens or early twenties. I am sure they are not comfortable either.
That's sort of the point. People who live here ride in these same tap-tap's all the time. I want our team to experience a taste of what it is like here. To us, the thinly cushioned benches, the smell of charcoal and burning trash, the sights and sounds of the crowded market, the constant beeping of tapa taps, trucks, and motos in the stop and go traffic, these are all novelties. I close my eyes and wonder what it would be like to live here all the time, for this to be everyday. This week, in the heat and humidity, there will be no A/C. I wonder if we will get used to it. I wonder if we will embrace it. Embrace a slice of discomfort for our short time here.
I am always so honored when people volunteer to go on trips with us. They spend a lot of money, endure inconvenient travel, and give us a chunk of their time. In return, we give them hot bumpy rides and humid nights. It is not comfortable.
But they also get to see a way of life that they've never seen and connect to people who live that life and see both our difference and our commonalities. Which can also be an uncomfortable experience. when we develop a relationship with someone who is happy to get just one meal a day, poverty becomes more real to us.
That in itself is a valuable experience. One that has the potential to fundamentally change the way we view the world.
Which brings us back to the proverb:
'The rock in the water cannot know the pain of the rock in the sun.'
We are the rocks in the water. We are the comfortable ones. We can never know what it is truly like to live in poverty.
But this week we can get a little uncomfortable.
(all photos by Leah Stieferman)
