I figured out that if I was to help in any way at all, I should start with those around me. Through the children, their families, the cooks, the translators and everybody I came into contact with, one person at a time. This is how my time in Haiti would have a meaning, a purpose. I needed to think of individual people not the entire population, otherwise, I wouldn’t have a clue where to start. It’s funny though, I never imagined being covered in pee, puke and poo for so long would make me so happy.
These images no longer make prime-time news bulletins. Gone are CNN, NBC and the BBC. Gone too are the international lifesavers, the firemen, the sniffer dogs, the army of rapid-response heroes to which ordinary Haitians without hesitation or prompting openly acknowledge a great debt of gratitude. Everyone left behind has been scarred by events. Slowly it becomes clear how dislocated the mechanisms of subsistence living have become, pitching the already poor even further into the abyss of hopelessness.
I wonder how long, if ever, it will take to get PAP and the whole of Haiti on its feet. Can Wycliffe Jean (or anybody else) make a difference?
NB: when you are neck deep in children and working hard, it’s not always easy to capture the moment. Thus, most of the images in this blog are of happier, relaxed times when there was more of an opportunity to take a photograph. Accordingly, my images are not a true representation of my total time in the beautiful Ayiti but they will forever remain symbolic of the overriding lesson I have learnt throughout this experience. That if people put their cultural and religious differences to one side and do something to help make the lives of others less fortunate just a little better, then the world will be a better place for us all.
Thank you, once again, to all of you who helped me do that!
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