The Desolation of Haiti, pt. 2.

The UN office at Cap Haitian International Airport.

The United Nations has had a peacekeeping force of some 3,000 international forces in Haiti for a few years now. As most local police are corrupt, underfunded, and under equipped these are the only stabilizing force against the gangs and drug cartels that pray on the Haitian citizens. While we were in Haiti, the gang violence in Port Au Prince reached a crescendo with attacks on UN vehicles and soldiers. Some of these were perpetrated by children under the age of 14, weilding AK-47's supplied by the now defunct Aristied government. Usually the UN will not engage the population in a firefight, but the day before we left we were told by our missionary hosts of street to street gunfights, as the UN took a stand to rout the gangs from the city streets.


12 ft. walls surrounding the OMS compound.

Walls are a common sight in Haitian life. They define those who have and those who have not, they protect and preserve, and they segregate and divide. The original land area or the OMS compound was almost twice what is circled by walls today. Squatters are a fact of life here, and the only way to drive off the desperate and destitute is by the gun. Saints would do no such thing, so walls were erected around the land not yet taken over by the poor to keep the establishment of service to the Haitian people intact. The envious and unrepentant look upon them with resentment, and the VooDoo practitioners focus their malice upon them and those they protect. The broken in spirit see hope in the establishment of secure boundaries, where help for what ails the body and soul can be found.


Multipurpose waterway.

Fresh water in Haiti is rarity. Here a shallow river provides water for a multiple of uses. Cars are washed, garbage and sewerage is disposed of, bodies are washed and the poor drink from the same source, fish and wildlife are polluted out of existence by this. Deforestation and erosion scar the land causing rockfalls and mudslides that take lives without warning. This desolation has been caused by a people fighting to survive day to day in a land almost devoid of hope and natural resorces. I fish many of the waters in Massachusetts where I live and appreciate their beauty. Many times I feel shame and anger at the sight of trash left by uncaring people who have no appreciation for the gift of the natural world God has given us. Perhaps if these unthinking minds and unconcerned hearts had only such places like these in Haiti in which to get their drinking water or to bathe they would consider the bounty The Father has heaped on us, and treat it accordingly.


Housing of the middle class.

Haiti is a nation of over 8 million as of 2005 estimates. The area of Haiti is only slightly less than that of Maryland, and much of the country is arid and mountainous. 75% of the population crowds into it's two major cities, Cap Haitian and Port Au Prince. 80% of the people live below poverty level, for us in the United States thats a little over $10,000 annual salary. For the Haitian citizen it is less than $500 a year. The most basic of needs take precedence, food and shelter. Above is a coastal district of Cap Haitian that is blessed with concrete domiciles, offering protection from hurricanes, and offering some sense of security.


Dangerous shores.

This is a beach front property in Cap Haitian. The erratic fluctuation of an unstable economy and political upheaval see flurries of unfinished construction as resources fail, and long intervals of decay and stagnation. This has taught the people of Haiti to be resourceful with what they do have available to them. Cars that breakdown and can not be fixed due to lack of parts or money are stripped to the bare metal frame, every nut, bolt, scrap of upholstery and length of wire is salvaged, reused, sold, or traded.


Pop shop.

Soda pop is as common in Haiti as in the US. Small businesses like this are found all throughout Cap Haitian and Port Au Prince. The glass bottle is more valuable than it's contents and are always reused. Of all the refuse one will see in Haiti, a discarded pop bottle is the most rare.
The next post in this series will show the natural beauty that the nation of Haiti still possesses. while there is precious little of it left, it is breathtakingly beautiful none the less. It shows I think that God has not completely forsaken this place, and as the Faithful labor to do the work of The Kingdom in the hearts of the Haitian people the land may yet heal.

The Desolation of Haiti, pt. 1.

The Citadel

Welcome to the beginning of the Haiti mission blog series. To better understand the circumstance of this Island nation you will need a brief history.
The Island of Hispaniola (which Haiti now occupies 1/3 of) was discovered by Columbus in 1492. The native Arawak Indians were exterminated to make way for Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the early 17th century the French established a settlement on the western coast of the island, and in 1697 Spain ceded the west third to France, thus establishing the colony of Haiti.
Forestry and sugar cane, worked on the backs of millions of African slaves soon made Haiti one of the Caribbeans' wealthiest spots. In the late 18th century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L'ouverture and after many years of bitter fighting ejected the French and became the first black republic to declare it's independence. The date was 1804.

Seaport of Cap Haitian, second largest city in Haiti.

This is the history you will read according to the CIA World Factbook, and most of western history. While it is true, it is not the complete story as known by the Haitian people and the missionaries who work and live among them. Western culture has little room for the supernatural in enlightened thought and so fails to understand the plight of this poorest of nations. In the battle for independence from the French the African Slaves sought an ally, they turned to the idols and demons of Voodoo brought from their native Africa,and the power of the Devil to aid them to victory. To this end a pact was made between the slave population seeking freedom, and the Evil one. The new found country of Haiti would serve the Devil for 200 years in exchange for their release from the tyranny of the French. To seal this deal, 3000 human sacrifices were made at The Citadel (pictured above) on a mountain overlooking Cap Haitian, a northern seaport.
A well maintained street in Cap Haitian.

The Devil delivered. Independence was soon after won, the French were ousted and Haiti began it's two century debt payment to evil and corruption. Since it's establishment as a sovereign nation Haiti has never know peace or prosperity. The influence of spiritual decay is evident in even the heavily guarded and walled compounds of the relatively wealthy as the odor of rotting trash in near 100 degree F. heat wafts by. There are little or no government services of any kind, and other than a precious few mission clinics scattered throughout the country medical care is a scarce and often times a lethal proposition. To put this into some small perspective, Dr. Gavin McClintock of the Bethesda Medical Clinic, (the top rated in the nation) located in the OMS compound where we stayed related a tragic yet common event. A young mother and her dead newborn were found in a small house in town. The infant died on a dirt floor of umbilical hemorrhage shortly after birth. The new mother did not know to tie off the umbilicus, nor did she have the clean scissors and thread to do the job. The sterile kit to do this costs a little under 50 cents US.
Malnourished animals and refuse, breeding disease are a commonplace.

Disease, a harsh and rampant neighbor is born and bred in the open sewer trenches that line the streets next to homes, shops, and marketplaces. Among these are Malaria, carried by mosquitoes breeding in stagnate polluted water that abounds in both city and rural areas due to lack of structural planning. Dengi fever, an often fatal debilitating disease related to Malaria and also carried by mosquitoes, Yellow fever, Tetanus, Typhus, and a great host of parasites and other more common infectious agents. AIDS, is also a factor here. It is estimated by the World Health Organization that possibly 1 in 4 of the nearly 6 million Haitian people are infected, and with little or no education or government program in place to deal with the crisis the forecast for control of further infection is grim.
A typical food market on the roadside.


A main thoroughfare in the City of Cap Haitian.

The average house in Haiti is small. Sometimes constructed of poor grade concrete blocks and salvaged corrugated steel, more often of scrap wood and plastics they are not usually larger than 10 feet by 12 feet, and are with few exceptions without running water, bathrooms, or electricity. At one time as many as 16 adults and children may reside in a domicile, taking turns sleeping in shifts on straw, wood pallets or the dirt floor. In the cities of Cap Haitian and Port-Au Prince structures are built of low grade, iron reinforced concrete blocks, sometimes 4 or 5 stories high. There is no building code, no safety standard, and collapse resulting in death and injury are a consequence. Electric service is sporadic and unreliable. Most people obtain electricity by cutting through the insulation of high voltage lines that are connected to the compounds of the wealthy and the missionaries, and adding their own sometimes uninsulated and usually inadequate gauge wires to get power to their houses and shops. These are hazards for adults as well as children.
Streets are seldom maintained, travel is always precarious.


Without sanitation services, refuse is piled in the streets, sometimes burned.


A bridge over an inlet, waterfront in Haiti is toxic, polluted and a dangerous place to live.

By these images it is easy to see the ravages of poverty, the condition of a society with little or no structure of law and the inevitable downward spiral of the human condition without the hope of redemption. This is the result of evil in it's most simple and pure form. The Devil will always get his due, and the nation of Haiti is the proof.


A vehicle is a luxury most Haitians do not know. The 'Tap-Tap' (so named because when you want to get off you tap the vehicle to alert the driver to stop) is the second most common form of transportation after the foot. There are no seat belts, and loss of limb and life are a very real and frequent risk.

In the year 2004 the debt to the Devil was paid in full. Yet today three years later human sacrifices in Voodoo rituals are not uncommon, almost daily bodies are found mutilated in rural and mountain ritual Voodoo sites. In 2006 the interim president Boniface Alexandre rededicated Haiti as a nation to God. The long recovery of Haiti as a viable country, and the spiritual rebirth of it's people has begun but faces a legion of challenges. The predominant culture of Voodoo infused Catholicism is strongly ingrained in the adult population and in Haiti's cultural history. The restoration of the countryside from deforestation and erosion will take decades, and the sanitation issues of the urban centers will cost millions that the government and some of it's corrupted factions don't care, or don't have to spend. Violent gangs control most of the streets, commerce, and illegal drug trade, holding the rest of the population in fear. Many who see this scenario will close their eyes and feel the hopelessness of a nation of people lost, but the dedicated in Christ Jesus see a fertile field of souls ripe for the harvest. Over the next few weeks and possibly months I will continue to assault your sensibilities, and prod your Christian ethic to pray, feel and consider the soul of Haiti and her people, as well as our own. For all their poverty and disease they are brought closer to the need of Jesus for salvation, something we in our clean and grossly wealthy society place too little importance on past noon on Sunday.

In love in Christ Jesus, Mike.

Haiti blog intro

As promised and a long time in coming, I begin my account of my missions trip to Haiti. Over the past few months I have thought a lot about the experience, how God used me and the humble work of the hands and hearts of our team for His Kingdom.
Even more dominating in my thoughts is how mightily He blessed us by the tasks that were provided, and how we are humbled by the awesome faith of the people of this island nation, the poorest in the western hemisphere. I hope through the next three blogs,( it will take that many at least!) that I am able to impress upon you the vastness of the gulf that separates the wealth and faith, joy and sorrow, hope and despair in the existence of these amazing people, and the comparably tragic state of the soul of our own nation in regard to our mutual faith in the same God, and the same Saviour.
I also hope to goad you to spiritual self examination, as I was by the reality of what I saw, and maybe even exhort you to action in your faith in Christ beyond Sunday service attendance, weekly giving, and an occasional Bible study. I do not condescend, the scathing tone is for myself as well as for the comfortable Believer. Since I have been home I have settled into the familiar comforts of running hot and cold water, adequate clothing, shelter, medical care, and abundant food quite easily. This is natural for the average American Christian as we know little of hardship, and are prone to whining when the price of gas jumps higher than we feel we deserve to pay, or our favorite ice cream is out of stock on a given day.
while these things may sound trite, it is the truth. We are a spoiled and wealthy beyond reason and the soft, easy life God has blessed us with in this season is not the reality for our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Or for most of the rest of the world for that matter.
The next blog will be uncomfortable I promise. I will attempt by the Grace of God to rip you from your emotional and spiritual comfort zone with images and words that are the daily truth of life for millions less than a days' plane flight away from your home. My only sorrow is that I can not transfer the feeling of the heat and humidity, the smell of burning garbage and human waste, and the desperation in the voices of children begging as a way of life.
The second post will be on the natural beauty of the island and the potential God has put there. Despite the wreckage of most of the land there is the breathtaking glory of The Lords' love of good things to be seen, this will be soothing ice for the wounds your eyes will endure just before.
The third will be on the hope of Gods' people in that land, the work being done in faith by the hands of full and part time missionaries for the glory of His Kingdom, and stories of perseverance in the field, and in the face of kidnapping, human tragedy, Voodoo and death, all of which took place in and around the week we were there. It is my fervent hope that you will be moved to tears, feel the heat of shame, be overcome with the need to reach out and take action in your commitment to Christ to some degree. Weather that is to sponsor a child in Haiti or elsewhere, donate money, goods, time, or heed the call of our Saviour to go into the world and proclaim His Truth in person to people you have never met is between you and Jesus. Be assured however, that it is between you and Him if He is your Saviour, and the call sounds every day in the life of a Believer. We have only to pry our attention off of ourselves for a moment and it is easy to hear.

In love in Christ, Mike Z.