Heading to Haiti

Brian and I began this blog with the idea that together we would share our love of travel and adventure with our family and friends, which we surely will. However, for the next two weeks, this blog is going to be about my trip to Haiti to volunteer with a school and orphanage in Jacmel. This will be a solo journey that I have been able to do with the love and support of Brian, who is right now driving home from the airport and planning to fill his free time with fishing and lots of guitar playing while I'm gone.

Over the last few weeks, Haiti has become my obsession and its history has rivaled the best fiction and horror. After colonization by the French in the 1700's, exports from Haiti made it more prosperous than all the thirteen colonies combined. However, the cost of prosperity was staggering. The huge sugarcane plantations were owned by a handful of white men made rich by the hundreds of thousands of  slaves brought from West Africa to work the fields. The conditions were so brutal that the average life expectancy upon arrival was less than ten years. While the French Revolution was roaring, Haiti was in the midst of its own revolution pitting whites, desperate to preserve the system of slavery, against blacks, desperate to end it and gain independence. During the ensuing revolt, atrocities were carried out by all sides which horrified the rest of the world. Yet it wasn't until twelve years later, in 1804, that Haiti declared its independence and became the first and only nation in history created by a slave revolt.

The rest of the world then began to turn its back on Haiti. The American colonies were expanding, slavery was still in place there, and Haiti was plagued by one bad dictatorship after the next. The last 30 years have been defined by the reign of  terror of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier then Aristide and now the devastating earthquake on January 12 and seem to cast Haiti in a shadow of chaos and destruction.

But make no mistake, the Haitian people are the most resilient. Seven months after the 7.0 magnitude quake thousands are still living in tent cities, trying to move on, rebuild and I hope be able to use people like me for some labor. Enter Hearts With Haiti, an organization that has three schools throughout the country and was in the midst of expanding their school in Jacmel when the earthquake struck. The school where we will stay tonight  in Port-au-Prince, St Joseph's, was also badly damaged and has a rebuilding project occurring at the same time. Our project: Complete the construction of a classroom and computer room for the school and orphanage in Jacmel. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity to celebrate my 28th birthday and spend the next two weeks. See you in Haiti.

"To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being."
- John Lubbock- British Biologist