Optimism and Forward Progress



The kids enjoying the beach at Port Salut on Elizabeth's Birthday


Family and Friends,

Day 158 of our Haiti Adventure!

We got our first speed bump in the little village of Ti-Rivier recently. I don’t mean that in any figurative sense. We literally got a speed bump on the road that leads through town. The word for speedbump in Creole translates literally to “sleeping policeman.” People have a great sense of humor here. Of course getting a speep bump means we have arrived. We’re sitting at the big-boy table now! I joked with Adrien that at this rate of progress we could have a stop sign in less than twenty years and a stoplight in fifty. We can only dare to dream.

All joking aside, there does seem to be a small sense of optimism about the future in Haiti, now. People are allowing themselves to dream about a positive future. Of course we are optimistic at Mission Haiti about everything God is helping us plan from the bigger and better orphanage compound (which is nearly finished), the Bible School which will open in the fall of 2012, the expanding medical services we are offering, the ongoing efforts to improve local schools, and many other projects to improve this community and draw people closer to Christ.

But we are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Yes, we are making a difference in the lives of some people, but the prevailing viewpoint in the recent past seemed to be that Haiti as a whole was on a trajectory of gradual decline leading to an inevitable political and financial meltdown at some point leading to abject poverty for all. In Tracy Kidder’s book about Paul Farmer, “Mountains Beyond Mountains”, he refers to this notion that Haiti is headed for even harder times, and even if we are just here to help the people as they travel in that direction, so be it. In other words, our work could be seen as similar to that of a nurse or teacher or cook doing his/her work on the Titanic as it takes on water, never giving up until the bitter end.

I don’t know if it is the recent election of a president the regular people believe in, with all of the accompanying promises, or other factors, but people are excited about the future. Something seems tohave changed. There have been other small signs of progress as well. For example, the electric company, with the help and backing of a large Canadian organization, has been installing new poles and lines for both better electricity and internect access. Both of these will change life quite a bit for us and the rest of the community. It is fun to watch them work. There is a tall lumberjack-type guy working with them. He is Canadian. I’m assuming he speaks French fluently.

More and more people have been going to internet cafes in the city. They are gaining access to computers and trying to learn how to use them. Why couldn’t computers and other technologies be a part of Haiti’s future opportunities for education, manufacturing, and jobs in general? This is part of the reason Japan was able to morph from their poverty-stricken ancient culture into a modern country after World War II. We have many ideas about how computers could be utilized locally to prepare students for the future. There are also computer degrees popping up at some of the universities here. Now we just need the computers to get started! I’ll post about some ideas for that soon.

Cell phones and televisions have been taking over here in recent years, just like back home. That is one of the things that surprises you when you first come to visit. You walk up to a home in that mountains that is falling down around the family, everyone you see is extremely thin, the crops look weak, and then you hear a cell phone ring from somewhere in the house. It doesn't add up, but it is the new reality. In one sense we aren’t too excited about these pleasantly naïve people being exposed to the worldliness of television and other technologies. On the positive side, though, some of those images and ideas can inspire them to see what is out there in the world and imagine how some of those things could make their lives and the lives of their family and friends better.

We caught wind of a big billboard in Port-au-Prince which reads, “Jesus will return on May 21st.” As we know from Scripture, no one knows the date or the time of His return except God the Father, so of course that isn’t true. However, the billboard illlustrates, albeit in a warped way, the sense of the people that things are changing rapidly and these days we are living in are of eternal consequence. Hopefully people won’t get swept away in doomsday preaching and cults and stuff like that. Instead we pray that God will use this sense of progress and optimism to touch hearts and minds, drawing all of us closer to him, and inspiring us to think big about the future of everyone here.



May Your Adventure be marked by a Holy Optimism Today!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers