BLOG: To Haiti and Back

• Tweet
• 

Editor’s note: Staff reporter Mike Nichols traveled to Haiti with a group of volunteers. He will document the ongoing struggle of the Haitian people months after the catastrophic earthquake. This is the first of his entries.

“There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.” -Leo F. Buscaglia

If you remember your history, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and arrived at the new world.

I’m sitting 30,000 feet above that same ocean blue, on a plane taking me to that same island that Columbus landed on and called, ‘Hispaniola.’  Today, that island is called by two names for the two different republics inhabiting either side of it: the Dominican Republic on the east and the Republic of Haiti on the west.  My flight is taking me to Santiago in the Dominican Republic.

Let me give you a quick briefing: On Jan. 12 a monstrous 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti at its capitol and largest city, Port-au-Prince.  The place was devastated and buildings, homes and shanties crumbled.  The Presidential Palace and Parliament lay in ruins.  According to an article in the Washington Post the Haitian Government estimated the death toll reached 230,000.  According to BBC, the earthquake “left about 300,000 injured and one million homeless.”

It is was one of the greatest natural disasters in human history.

Although this is my first time to Haiti, this isn’t actually my first time to the island. I first visited the Dominican Republic almost exactly four years ago in the summer of 2006.  Back then I was just out of high school and off on a mission trip with my youth group.  We had a blast working around Santo Domingo and enjoying the wonderful culture of the Dominican people.  It was during that summer that I first learned the complex history of the island, a story that is exciting but also tragic.

The history of Haiti is rather sad and very bloody. Once Columbus showed up, the natives found themselves trapped in a war between outsiders fighting over their homeland. A resolution finally came in 1697 when France and Spain signed the Treaty of Ryswick and carved the island up for themselves. Spain took the eastern half and the French took the western half, beginning the colonizing of plantations with slaves from Africa.

In a somewhat fitting sense of irony, France began to lose control of the slaves when they decided they wanted their own freedom during the French Revolution. It started when a slave named Toussaint l’Ouverture revolted and formed an army that eventually fought off Napoleon’s troops and took control. In 1804, the slaves finally won their nation’s freedom and declared themselves the Republic of Haiti, thus making Haiti the only country ever created from a slave rebellion.

But the story of Haiti did not end there happily ever after. The country still suffered from extreme squalor and warring military coups. It seemed like the final nail was hammered into the coffin of their poverty in 1825 when the French came back and recaptured the island, demanding 90 million francs as payment for “loss of profits.” After this, Haiti’s national stability was torn apart by French, German, English, and US occupations as well as divisions in the army, business groups, elitist class systems, and brutal coups funded by expatriates. Plantation mismanagement ruined much of the soil and the rich forests once covering the land were cut down by the Haitians themselves for fuel.

For the last 50 years, the only real authority has been deadly dictatorship.  The Haitian government has been accused of numerous human rights violations.  The United Nations even declared its largest slum, Cite’ Soleil, as “the most dangerous place on earth.”

Tomorrow, myself and others will be making the long drive over the border and into Haiti.  Although a little nervous, I am excited to begin this adventure and see what happens next for the people of Haiti. The earthquake has focused the world’s interests on this poor country in a way that nothing else has. This disaster tapped into roots of mercy many didn’t know they had. Like everyone else, I guess I just want to help. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. All I know is the greatest gift I can give to the people of Haiti during this time of suffering is a voice. Something in my gut brought me here. I had a feeling that I was meant to be in Haiti, to be reporting there. Call it destiny, fate, God’s providence . . .  either way.

I’m here.