January 15, 2010
Haiti
I’ve been crying an awful lot this week…
I cried at the gym while I was on the elliptical.
I cried as I sat on my couch.
I cried as I lay in my bed.
I cried as I sat in my desk chair.
I’m crying now as I type this post.
The situation in Haiti as a result from Tuesday’s earthquake has moved me to tears, honestly more times than I can count. As I listen to reports and watch the coverage and read the articles and look at pictures I cry.
I honestly don’t know why this particular catastrophe has affected me so profoundly.
Maybe it’s the proximity of the crisis. The damage and the destruction and the loss and the heartache unfolding right now are just across the water – right over there.
Maybe it’s because when I see the little injured children – or worse the little sheet-covered bodies that line the rubble-filled streets – I see the face of the little girl I mentored. A Haitian who was lucky enough to be here Tuesday evening where she and her family live now and not in their native land.
Maybe it’s because of the dire situation of the country before this even happened. About 80% of the people living there live below the poverty line. Did this tiny, yet cultural rich country even stand a chance? With few welfare resources and a very shaky infrastructure, it seems that foreign relief organizations were supporting and helping much of the population.
Now those relief workers’ pictures along with thousands of others’ photos are posted on websites by their loved ones asking for information on their whereabouts, on their safety.
Mixed in there with my sadness and my feelings of despair are also twinges of guilt and remorse. And so I cry. Could something more have been done before to prevent the devastation that’s occurring now?
Regardless, action needs to be taken ASAP to help our neighbors. And luckily it is. Internationally, nationally, and locally. My local FL news reported a story about a woman who called up a donation center and donated $4 – which was all the money she had in her bank account. Rough times for her personally, but she still wanted to help…
So much death and turmoil and heartbreak… and then that little kernel of love and compassion, kindness and generosity.
Jonny said,
January 20, 2010 at 5:54 pm
It should make you happy at the ability of your government and elected officials to be able to come to the rescue of Haitians in this dire time of need. It should make you happy that people like that woman who donated the $4 and yourself are donating to the cause. I know tearful times are the cost of being a loving, caring and beautiful person. I’m proud to say I know and love such a person who is willing to latch on another weight to her already overwhelming load. That makes me happy, and guilty, for not being able to do more myself. So make like your last post and “Turn that frown upside down” if only just for a moment to reflect.