Just back from Haiti
I just returned to the US after a couple of weeks working in a Catholic nun operated nutrition center and medical clinic near the town of Aquin. I have a few observations regarding the experience.
1. Say what you will about the Catholic Church as an institution; there are many good people spending their lives helping the unfortunate. The nuns I worked with ate the same food they provided to the hungry in their nutrition center - manioc, a very little rice and beans, millet.
2. When your daughter spends the two weeks vacation she gets annually helping the poor in a far-off land, maybe you imparted the right values. Or maybe she overcame the prejudices you passed on and became a better person than you.
3. Two weeks is way too short a time to gather anything other than impressions of a country. Anyone who thinks they know a country after a vacation there or a short visit is sadly mistaken.
4. Service to the poor in countries such as this is run on a shoestring -- the nuns asked me to leave behind any clothing I could spare including underwear (I left all of it) and,when it came time to leave, asked me to donate the cipro that I had brought along .
5. Earthquake damage in Port-Au-Prince remains largely untended.
6. Men need to take responsibility for the children they father. That, of course, is universal.
7. This may just be a response to many years in the US Army, but when Sri Lankan troops patrol the streets of your capital, you have really bottomed out as a country.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and may I suggest you cross-post this at GD and Travel, at least.
