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). |
Exchanging
Presence
by John Engle
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.
Christopher
Barkan with two children from his
community of Giyèm on the day
of his good-bye party. |
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
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 and learning from those
we hope to help 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.”
|
