Exchanging Presence

by John Engle

Children from the Kawa literacy center pose for a photo with Jessica Vaught (front, center) visiting Haiti with a Transformational Travel group and Beyond Borders associate, John Engle (back left).

We were staying in Kawa, a small rural community on Haiti’s southern peninsula, with a group of seven people who were visiting from the U.S. We had taken them to the Haitian countryside to spend three of their ten days in a typical community as part of our Transformational Travel program. We split into three smaller groups, each staying with a different family. Myriam, Coleen, and I each stayed with a group to translate.

On our third day in Kawa we assembled and made a short trip to a nearby community called Giyèm to visit Christopher Barkan and his host family. Christopher was participating in our Apprenticeship in Shared Living program and had been in Haiti for four months. Through this program he was living with a family in Giyèm, learning their language, participating in their work, and growing to see the world through their eyes.

Christopher Barkan with two children from his community of Giyèm on the day of his good-bye party.

Christopher and his Haitian family greeted us warmly when we arrived and led us to the yard beside their house, where we all sat in a large circle in the shade of palm trees. There Christopher and his family and a few friends shared the story of their first meeting and their growing bond. Members of our group were in the middle of their own cross-cultural adventure in Kawa and had many questions. We all joined in the laughter as Christopher and his family explained the sometimes-comical confusion of those first days together.

Christopher, with his beaming smile, was flourishing here. He was learning Creole quickly and had formed dozens of friendships. Each day he was busy helping with chores, working in the fields, visiting neighbors, getting to know the various churches and organizations in the area, and learning interesting skills like how to fashion walls using palm fronds.

Helping without Hurting: When medical doctors take the Hippocratic oath, they pledge first to do no harm to their patients. Haiti’s many material needs draw a host of well-meaning helpers. Missionaries, development workers, and foreign experts come offering help but are sometimes in such a hurry that they inadvertently do real harm. Unintended consequences are inevitable, but a commitment to living with those we hope to help and learning from them makes a big difference. Not only do we minimize our mistakes and multiply our effectiveness, but also we discover our own neediness and receive real healing though those we came to help. Help becomes something we share with rather than do to our Haitian neighbors.

As we continued talking, a small crowd of curious neighbors and friends began to form around our circle to see what was happening. It wasn’t every day that so many foreigners visited their community. Foreign mission teams and international aid workers were not uncommon in this part of Haiti, but they usually came to build or fix something or hand something out. Our group may have seemed a little strange; we were in no hurry to do anything but sit and talk. We came with nothing but questions and a desire to relate, listen, and understand.

Some people wonder how Beyond Borders can justify bringing foreigners to a place with so many material needs without immediately putting them to work. But we send two really bad messages to a community when we rush in with all our resources and start “helping” them before we even take time to relate and understand the challenges they face and how they are helping themselves. First, we are saying to them that they are incapable of helping themselves. Secondly, we are saying that they have nothing to offer us that we need. Sadly, groups often leave Haiti with no more humility than when they came, believing they really helped when they mostly left a community feeling more helpless.

As our meeting time came to a close, one of the community leaders from Kawa who had come with us to Giyèm expressed his appreciation to Christopher. “I am a farmer. I often become tired and discouraged. My work is hard and humiliating. I am shocked by what I have learned today about Christopher’s experience here in Haiti. Here is an American who has chosen to leave his country, his culture, and his family and has came to live with us and learn about us— even work beside us. He gives me courage and strength to work harder and better now.”

Later that night back in Kawa, we all gathered again as a group along with our host families and sat in a large circle under the stars for our last meeting. There were probably 20 people in the inner circle with another 40 or 50 others encircling us. A lantern sat in the middle illuminating our faces. One by one, community members and visitors shared their thoughts and feelings from our time together. Elda, a strong and vibrant woman who serves as the pastor of the Kawa Church of God, had also been with us on our visit to Giyèm. She had the last word:

“Today, I had an experience that I will never forget. I learned about how a young American man has come to Haiti, leaving behind his family and friends, his comforts and privileges, and all that is familiar to him, just so he could be with us and learn from us. It is not unlike what Christ did. He left behind what he knew so he could share in our life. I am inspired and touched. I will never forget this.”