HAITI:  a Land of Extreme Contrasts (excepts from Donna Canady’s report)

 by Tim Mastenbrook

Haiti is a country of striking contrasts.  I was both repulsed and enticed by the things I saw on my trip.  

Beyond the walls where I stayed was widespread poverty.  Daily we witnessed people suffering from hunger and unemployment, women washing clothes in sewage, little boys naked from the waist down, emaciated horses with open sores, and children screaming “Give me a dollah!” and “Blans!” at our white faces. 

But despite this widespread poverty, I also saw opulence at the Hotel Christophe where we went once for a Coke. 

I also witnessed contrast in the daily rhythms of life.  One day we set off on a three-hour journey to visit a school.  As we clung for dear life in the back of a truck, we experienced, within a few miles, both the chaotic bustle of the market place and the relaxed, friendly lull of the countryside. 

I expected neither such beauty nor such filth.  One turn of the road brought mud holes and trenches filled with contaminated water and garbage, which the pigs enjoyed.  The next turn of the road brought blooming foliage and lush trees bursting with grapefruit, oranges, mangoes, coconuts, and bananas reminding us of the Garden of Eden. 

We laughed, sang and talked in a mixture of French, English and Creole with the students from the Center for Biblical Training on our journey.  The students would reach out for a piece of fruit or a stalk of sugar cane, cut it and such it like a piece of candy.  I was struck by the awesome gifts God had created for us to feast on with all our senses. 

I was also surprised by the joy I found among the Haitian people despite miserable conditions.  Haiti is plagued by gross unemployment, malnutrition, infectious disease, widespread illiteracy, and has had generations of abusive rulers.  The average life expectancy is so low. 

More often than not, however, Haitian faces reflected joy.  As we drove by and greeted people, they would smile and wave to us.  Many of the children jumped up and down with glee and did handstands.  My experience with the Haitian children was they were polite, thoughtful and loving. 

Another contrast that seems clearer in Haiti is the distinction between Satan and God.  The difference rings sharply in the sounds I remember.  Late into the night, we heard the bam-bam-bam of the drums and the ecstatic voices of the voodoo dancers outside the walls.  Voodoo combines animal sacrifices, spirit worship, and drunken ceremonies. The ancient religion is still practiced by many Haitians though 80 percent claim to be Roman Catholic and another 15 percent Protestant. 

But, on Sunday morning, the soulful, exuberant Creole chants called the Christians to worship (chants replace watches for summoning the church), and the recitation of long passages of Scripture enabled the illiterate to be transformed by the Word of God. 

I wonder if, in some ways, it is not better for the Kingdom to have a clear contrast between good and evil.  In the U.S., the contrast between light and dark has been blurred somewhat by our ability to re-label sin as dysfunction and by our permissiveness toward evil in the name of tolerance. 

I do not want to idealize Haiti; I just want to acknowledge there are different blessings in different parts of the world. I think we can benefit spiritually from stepping out of our culture at times and seeing Satan is as present in American self-centeredness and self-sufficiency as he is in Haiti’s voodoo. 

Think of it as another inoculation, one to prepare you to return to a strange country called America.  One to protect you from all manner of bad things you might catch there.  May God bless you.

Littleton Church of Christ                                                                           

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303-741-0265

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