2010- Haiti, the world, and a glass of water

Happy New Year everyone! I know it’s been some time. 2009 was a rollercoaster of a year filled with deaths, lack of jobs, temporary deportation out of the UK, feeling the blues, exercising, and of course, just trying to figure my way through life just like everyone else.

By the end of 2009 I thought ‘this has got to be the end of this bad streak! Both parents are now dead. More friends have died. I’m finally back in the UK after being kept away from my son and husband for a time to straighten out immigration status’. That had to be it. 2010 has to be better. This year, I said to myself, was going to be about positivity and hope.

And then the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince. Despite learning that those family members who still live there survived, I couldn’t stop crying for my friends whose family were so lucky. I couldn’t stop crying for Haiti itself.



But that’s the way it works sometimes, isn’t it? It takes strength and courage to find hope in bleakness. There must be a boundless will to find positivity in the darkness. But does it always have to be about the superhuman strength and will?
For many people, it seems, I am the only Haitian descendant they know. Therefore, all of a sudden, a horrendous tragedy in some Third World nation was brought all the more closer to them. And for this and other reasons of course, they needed to reach out to me. I was flooded with Facebook wall postings, emails, texts, phone calls from truly beautiful people. They wanted to reach out, to know if my family was ok, if what little they could give would be helpful and/or comforting somehow.

It was. It still is.

I am amazed at how fast the world has pulled together to lend assistance and support to a tiny island country that has no relevance on most of this world’s lives. I have always felt that Haiti was like that little kid who everyone tried to hit first and repeatedly during a dodgeball game. After getting pummelled, the little kid would get up, brush herself off and limp to her next class. All the while, she’s either ignored when something pretty walks into view or viciously teased and tormented when she’s tries to interact with others. But there is she again, the next day in P.E. class, ready to survive another day.

And yet this time, when something large, hard, and random fell out of the sky hitting this little girl in her head, knocking her down with a severe concussion, bleeding profusely, a bunch of kids ran over to help her.

Personally, I’m not interested in all the competition over who gave how much more. I’m just happy to know that people are helping. I’m happy for the millions of people that I will never know and who may never know me felt such humanity to help my ancestral homeland.

How can I not believe in positivity and hope?
So, world, I thank you for helping Haiti and making me believe in the future of humanity. I promise to return the favor!

As someone who by nature tends to see the glass half-empty—I’m cocking my head to the side and thinking ‘hm, there’s a lot more room for more water, isn’t there?’