Haiti - 1of 3 - Beauty

Instead of trying to get everything down, I'm going to try to limit myself to three stories that will hopefully serve as a way for me to wrap my head around this experience and for you to get a glimpse into what this amazing island country is like.

Flying in, I was struck by the landscape. Being one for mountains and water, Haiti has plenty of both. The water, though slightly hazy compared to other Caribbean islands, was blue and turquoise and green. The mountains shot from the coast in cliffs, reminding me of how the Hogsback comes out of the Colorado plain. The wrinkles and ridges were very reminiscent of my memory of Colorado, driving up through Boulder to Rocky Mountain National Park, our drive up the Rue de Cabaret was a lot like that (only a lot bumpier).
But a closer look told a different story. There was trash everywhere. Broken buildings, broken infrastructure, broken opportunities, broken lives. You could see it on faces as clear as you could see the mounds of debris clogging the filthy streams that ran through town. It was heart breaking.

It reminded me a lot of my heart. Created so beautifully, so ugly when you take a close look at it. And it will take a miracle to turn this place around. Both Haiti and me. A friend of mine told me that a group of experts were asked to come to Haiti to create a redevelopment plan for this country. Their best, most cost effective solution was to make all 9 million Haitians refugees, send them to different countries, bring in folks to clean it up, and let the island heal for thirty years before bringing anyone back.

But if that was the whole story, it would be tragic. And to an extent it is. The history of this island and my heart is ugly and brutal and broken. But what I learned while in Haiti is that even in the brokenness there still exists an undeniable beauty. I saw it the flowers that refused to stop growing. The bananas and mango trees that still rose to the sun. Mostly, I saw it in the faces. I saw it in their gratitude. In their faith, hope and love. And it inspired me. It gave me hope. It gave me hope for them. It gave me hope for myself. Maybe all is not lost. Maybe while beauty remains there is hope for us all.