it's been 6 months since the earthquake, and judging by the media coverage (or should I say lack there of?), it seems Haiti has regained some stability and normalcy.
Well, normalcy, yes. I can attest to the fact that the Haitians seemed to have adjusted. Unfortunately what the past 6 months has made "normal" to Haitians is a life that no one should have to adjust to. Every single park, field, or open space has been converted in to a tent city (If you haven't read my previous posts, a "tent" could mean anything from a big hoop tent to a small camping tent to four big sticks with plastic wrap and rice bags for a ceiling.), some housing as many as 10,000 displaced Haitians (very possibly a higher number, that's just the largest that I personally saw), with another tent city down the road, and then on the next street, and the next and the next and the one after that and so on and so forth.
You do not need to go looking for the ones who have lost everything, they are everywhere.
So, yes, there's more of a sense of normalcy. But the "norm" is rape. The "norm," is starvation. The NORM is sleepless nights, hugging your few belongings tight as the rest of your tent gets flooded in torrential downpour and fishing out other possessions in the morning, not knowing when the next time you'll be assured a sip of water, unemployment and boredom resulting in theft and gang activity, hundreds of orphans in one place being "cared for" by people who don't have enough to feed their own children, the norm is children being robbed of a future or education because you no longer have the right clothes or supplies to be allowed in to schools, the norm are swollen stomachs and orange hair that's falling out from malnutrition.
Haiti is no doubt more stable than it was right after the earthquake. But instead of a tragic "event," it is now a tragic life.
And it is already almost forgotten.
Please.. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET ABOUT HAITI!!!
When the Earthquake was still really big, Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Bono wrote a song regarding the tragedy. During the chorus, along with some semi-unfortunate "ooh"ing, this is repeated:
"We're not gunna leave you stranded...."
I listened to it the other day when I was looking some Haiti stuff up on youtube, and I started crying when it got to that part. (haha, yea, okay, embarrassing... whatever, lol) Not because of the song (can't really claim to be a fan), not even so much about the message... but because... It's only 6 months later and in many ways we HAVE already left. We did leave them stranded... or at least I kind of feel like I did.
This song had no emotional anything to me when I heard it originally.
But now it's different. Now I've been there. Now I know the people. I've seen their destroyed homes, destroyed lives, destroyed families. And yes, I was there for almost 2 and a half months, and I worked my hardest while I was there. But that was already almost a month ago, and I've done nothing for them since. As far as I know, I will never do anything that helps the country of Haiti ever again. I know it's not about guilt, but I am sitting in my comfortable chair on the internet in the air conditioning, when I now have friends who don't even have a ceiling or walls, and I am not actively trying to improve their life.
The entire world was mourning with Haiti on January 12th, yet now it's as if the dead were buried with the alive, and no one's bringing flowers to the graveside.
***I wrote this and didn't publish it because I was going to add/edit it and make it awesome and make you care, but mostly this is just me realizing the depth of my experiences in Haiti and everything that happened, and really finally mourning for them, and wanting to be there again, very much. But now I am going to post it anyway because I've concluded I'll never really finish it, and I do think it's important to remember that Haiti is not instantly better just because TV's got something new to cover.
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