God's Kiss of Beauty

What images come to your mind when you think of Haiti?  Is it sad eyed children suffering from malnutrition? Shacks made of tin scraps crowded with garbage?  Or is it simply immeasurable despair?  It’s true, you can’t go far without witnessing versions of all of these things.  Yet, as with every town, city, and country in the world, there are so may more layers to Haiti’s story.  One only needs to pause for a second to gasp in the glory of the prolific blooms of the bougainvillea swathed decadently along gates and fences everywhere to admire God’s kiss of beauty.

That same beauty exists in the glorious colors of bright oranges, reds, and yellows of the papayas, mangos, and bananas piled sky high in straw baskets and balanced on the heads of women –young and old- heading to market.  And what’s more beautiful than freshly scrubbed, beribboned school girls walking hand in hand on their way to a day of learning and growing.

Along with beauty, Haiti offers lessons to us all on resiliency and ingenuity.  It’s not often one sees a structure made entirely out of empty soda bottles – colorful and shiny –and yet there it was smack dab in the center of a busy marketplace on our team’s route to Leogane-used as a little but bustling barbershop.

Haiti also offers great lessons to us all on what it means to be joyful.  Exuberant, unbridled joy greeted us as we entered their schoolyard, and made “Minnesota Nice” pale in comparison.  Ladies at the Abandoned Women’s Home dancing and gracing us with abundant kisses taught us the power of welcoming guests from the heart.

The school children’s choir serenaded Joyce with a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday following our second mass of the day.  Their joyful voices filled the chapel and truly made us feel welcome.

We are privileged to participate in Haiti’s story as it unfolds to us over this week.