i get worked up way to easily

Injustice. Oh my. I know I will leave this selected writing utterly exhausted, because it is so pervasive, so bleak, and so heartbreaking. Injustice, suffering, Hell, whatever you want to call it, it’s here in abundance. I’ve read scholarly peer-reviewed journals on the strife of Haiti, written papers for class about it, and seen documentaries. Some deep switch inside of you turns on when you see childrens’ hearts beating through their bloated ribs, or feel the same scorching sun that destroyed the rice patties that gave the villages life, or when you smell the garbage throughout the city that the corrupt mayor of St. Marc will not let us clean for free. Experiencing this myself does not make me special, or empowered, and definitely not “super-Christian”. It merely makes me responsible and accountable to do something about it. If I don’t have compassion after seeing all of this, if ANYBODY experiences this and doesn’t have compassion that moves them into action then I won’t apologize for saying this, but you’ve missed the entire commission of being a Christian.
Injustice is more part of Haiti’s identity than “freedom” is part of the United State’s “fabled tradition”. When we get a mild sense of nostalgic annoyance that the bloody redcoats would dare to tax us without representation, the Haitians must be consumed with revulsion when they look back and see that their nation was birthed by the labor of slaves from the west coast of Africa. Going even further back, there is no voice for the injustice and suffering of the indigenous people, the Arawak, because they have been long dead by disease or slaughter. Thanks Chris Columbus! Fast forward to the 1950s through the 1980s. As the United States is being propelled to the most powerful and influential state in the world, they were also filling Haiti’s brutal dictators’ corrupt pockets and even training its personal military. From the beginning Haiti has never had a chance. A vibrant beautiful Caribbean island laid baron by colonial deforestation; a vibrant and beautiful group of people who have never had the chance to elect their own leaders who will serve their humble wellbeing. I do apologize if I sound disgruntled and cynical, but the truth of what has happened and is happening must be heard and seen for justice to come. Just as Moses and the Israelites’ moans had to be heard by God before they could be liberated. We are asked, pleaded, begged to be the hands and feet of Jesus, Jezi, in this broken world today.
Enough macro-historical information, entire books have been written on that. I’ll get into what I have personally experienced. You can’t avoid injustice in this country. In the villages, the cities, the mountains, everywhere. Even seeing the rich houses of the foreigners or wealthy elite class only starkly accentuates how big of a gap there is. My second day here I got to spend a day seeing how poor our world can allow people can get. The base I live at does an outreach in a place outside of St. Marc known as the 5th Section. This is an area of about 6 or 7 villages that are sustained only by the literal fruit of their labor from mangos, bananas, rice patties, and also from anything that an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) has at its disposal to give. Unfortunately the canal system going out to these parts was destroyed during the storms of September. The government is rebuilding this, but at a snails pace. Funding is few and far between, and motivated and well-paid workers is difficult as well. Because of this lack of efficiency people are starving. Rice patties, which depend on standing water, have dried up and a baron wasteland is what is left. Some villages had up to 60% of its houses destroyed by the hurricanes. One village was not even known to exist by the NGOs until after much cajoling our base proved it to them.
The government does nothing. One village I went to had the concrete skeleton of a school completed, but it dormantly waits for funds from the school… for years. The government is more concerned with lining it’s pockets with cash, then providing the one feasible outlet for upward mobility: education. This is injustice. Most of the people have no records of citizenship or property or anything resembling anything official. What the YWAM base has done is come in and computerized the households of each small village and kept records of sicknesses, property damage, and established a sufficient way of handing out food. This was no small feat considering the obliterated infrastructure out here after the hurricanes. As Christians they had enough to do cleaning their own base, and reaching out to the city, but seeing this suffering they had compassion and had no choice but to give themselves. Can we not all do the same?
Yes I’ve felt anger throughout writing this bit about injustice. I’m angry when my friend Philipson tells me about the prison system here in Haiti. How they are not corrected when they are brought to prison they are destroyed. No sanitation, no communication with their families, no dignity, and no justice. I’m angry that the YWAM Haiti team has the resources and the drive to clean up the city and bring dignity but the politicians of the city will not allow it. I’m angry that there is literally no word in Creole for the word “sorry”, and that wrongs are revenged with more wrongs. Whether on the playground between children, or among the masses of a coup d’etat, there are only reactionary violent movements because that is all that has been presented to them. If, however, our anger does not end in love then the deeply entrenched cycle of wrongdoing will only be repeated. It’s a constant struggle for us all, but it’s why our Lord and Savior died alone on the cross. How bout we take up the cross with him, and follow him, and where we see the wrong—because it’s all around—lets spread some love. Amen?? Wow i'm exhausted.