I recently spent a few weeks in the US, and my activities included a wonderful fund-raising banquet that was held in Milwaukee on April 4th. We’re thankful to Fund Development Corporation, who helped with the planning of it, in collaboration with a great group of volunteers and our administrative assistant Tracy Bernhardt. Over 230 people attended the event, which was held at the beautiful Wisconsin Club, and I think everyone had an enjoyable evening. It was a wonderful chance to share what Friends for Health in Haiti is doing here in the Jérémie area and what our vision is for the future.
I realized, after getting back to Haiti, how much I became accustomed to the luxuries of life in the US when I felt surprised that:
I turned on the light switch in my room and the ceiling light didn’t come on (we only have electricity when we turn on a generator or inverter/batteries).
I stopped at one of the local gas pumps and they were out of gas.
I put on my seat belt and realized that no one else in the pick-up was wearing theirs.
I turned on the hot water faucet in the shower and no hot water came out. In fact, no water came out because the pipe bringing running water to our house was broken and took a day and a half to fix.
There were 30 people in front of me in the line at the bank and no one seemed to care that they would be standing there for an hour or more.
This just goes to show that the daily activities of life are much more difficult in Haiti than they are in the US. So, don’t take 24/7 running water and electricity for granted! They are a luxury to people in many parts of the world, including Haiti.