This is a land
so vibrant and alive
that laughter will come bursting through
as imperious as the sun
and the spirit will survive
resilient as the soil.
– Dennis Brutus, 1978, “Love; the Struggle”
so vibrant and alive
that laughter will come bursting through
as imperious as the sun
and the spirit will survive
resilient as the soil.
– Dennis Brutus, 1978, “Love; the Struggle”
This poem so aptly describes Haiti. We are in a new year now, we have commemorated the 4th anniversary of the earthquake, and the strength and courage described in the lines above shines through at every turn There has been much improvement in 2013, but so much more remains to be done. Already in this the first month of the new year we have experienced a shortage of gasoline, almost 2 weeks without electricity, and because of the latter no water, and now no cooking gas. And yet, life goes on, and amazingly it is not lacking in laughter. The beauty of people visible at every step. While tragedy is always right around the corner, so is laughter, and an unfathomable faith that carries one though no matter what.
One young man was under the rubble of his fallen down house in Port au Prince after the earthquake; now he is in his last year of management study at the University of the Nouvelle Grand’Anse. A survivor in so many ways, who can, despite it all, laugh today.
“Nou se wozo; menm si nou pliye, nou pa’p kase / We are like reeds, though we may bend, we will never break.”
Haitian Connection 