Haitian Diaries: Do You Know The Golden Rule?

Sunday, April 22, 2007
We went back to Fontain last Tuesday to see if there's anything that needs to be repaired. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I was. I couldn't believe how people don't have any respect for properties of others. For example, the back fence that we reenforced by making it taller. Kids still climbed over it, using the barbed-wire like steps on a ladder. Of course the wires were sagging due to that. There are many places in the neighborhood where they can play soccer, but for some reason they use our property. According to one kid who plays soccer here, there's really no reason. He's not even a little kid. He's a big teenager who seems to be listening to radio all the time (and imitates some English phrases he hears). What's even worse is the side fence with the gate, which we rebuilt last time also. Someone had cut out the wires on the gate so that people can walk through the gate without opening it. Seriously, since the water pump isn't working any more, there's no reason people should be going through the gate. Apparently the neighbors on one side would take a shortcut across our land to get to the neighbor's house on the other side. I guess the shortcut is worth trespassing and destroying other people's property... well, of course it's worth it, since it's not costing them anything. It's pretty crazy how people live here. One neighbor dug a hole on a wall that divides our land from theirs, so that their sewage (or water used for laundry, I hope) is drained into our land. Since that water can't go anywhere, it just rots away in a corner of our land. It's ridiculous. This is Haiti.

A young man came to church this morning. From the way him and Rev. Baek greeted each other, it seems he hadn’t been coming for a while. I was in the back yard before the service, and I saw him peeing on the wall by the trees where the goat is tied (we ate the other yesterday). I was debating whether I should tell him to stop, but it was too late since he started. So after he finished I told him “Twalet la! Pa fè sa!” “Toilet is there! Don’t do that!” Seriously though, he was peeing on a wall right outside the latrine. He just smiled and said “Eskize-m.” To think that I shook his hands after the service...