We’ve arrived back in
Port-au-Prince after a four-hour-plus drive from Les Cayes this morning. The “plus” was the time spent alternately sitting,
creeping, and zooming in Port-au-Prince traffic. Here, driving isn’t about safety; it’s about
survival. We made it after only a couple
of close calls. Par for the course.
We’re blessed to stay at the beautiful
Hotel Montana for the next couple of nights.
It is in Haiti, but it isn’t in Haiti.
I’m sitting in the bar overlooking the city and harbor below, with clouds
playing at the tops of the mountains on the opposite side of the basin. Even with the deforestation and the troubled city
below, the view is stunning. The Montana
also has the advantage of being high enough to catch the lovely breezes that
never seem to blow through the city.
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| The view from the Hotel Montana |
Here, in the Port-au-Prince
suburb of Petionville, life is good. It’s
where the local elite and wealthy travelers enjoy Haiti as one imagines it
could be – with (mostly) clean streets and dependable plumbing, even air conditioning
and hot water. It’s a place where you
can enjoy “a feast of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained
clear” (Isaiah 25:6). Looking down on
Port-au-Prince, you only see that the buildings are crammed next to each
other. You don’t see their condition
from here; nor do you see the trash and stagnant water in the streets. This kind of contrast between rich and poor is
typical for developing nations, I know; but that doesn’t make it easier to
see. But it’s a good thing you have to drive
through the city to get to Petionville from the airport.
The people here at the Montana
for this Haiti Connection conference know the reality of rich and poor. All of them are involved in work on the
ground, far below Petionville. The
conference brings together Episcopal development efforts in education, health care,
economic development, construction, and work with special-needs populations –
and it includes the Haitian partners involved in those projects. Roughly half the 200+ attendees are Haitians
(though I don’t know that they’re all staying at the Montana). Partnership is the theme, in terms of
collaboration both between Americans and Haitians and among development projects. It’s amazing how limited our scopes can be. For example, St. Augustin’s School in Maniche
might be a good candidate for solar power.
But what experiences have other partnerships had with solar? I know of one (which wasn’t very positive),
but that’s hardly a good sampling. I’ll
just bet we can find more over the next few days here. We’ll also be sharing some of what St. Andrew’s
has learned. Carolyn Kroh is one of the
presenters on educational partnerships, talking about her work to train
early-elementary teachers in engaging, creative ways to teach concepts
typically memorized in Haiti through recitation. She has been a great blessing to our teachers
in Maniche and all the Episcopal schools under Pere Colbert’s stewardship.
Stewardship … there’s a divine
call that challenges me as I sit here in the Montana’s bar, enjoying the
view. Stewardship and justice,
actually. I believe there is huge value
in gathering these people to learn from one another, Americans and Haitians from
across both countries. There is huge
value in having these conversations onsite here, where the context is every bit
as much part of the curriculum as the presentations. And truly, the context’s chasm between rich
and poor, in which we are clearly participating, is also there on the table for
our consideration. I don’t have a clean
and satisfying way to reconcile why I get to sit here atop the cliff in
Petionville, overlooking the beauty and poverty below me. The poor will always be with us, Jesus says
(Mark 14:7), and they are blessed in that God chose to come, and become human,
among them. The reign of God is about
the miracle of us stewarding what God provides so that all may eat and be
satisfied (Luke 9:17). In our time in
this place of poverty and abundance, may we help bridge the chasm both through
what we give and through what we take away.
Amen.
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