Reflections on Haiti

Despite the drastic disparities in human living conditions, we can adjust to almost anything. I was only in Haiti for two weeks, but after one week I felt at home. It’s surprising how fast we can accept open sewers, burning trash, killing tarantulas and snakes with shovels and our hair mysteriously dreadlocking itself. It’s easy to forget to be constantly alert — it can take an experience like whizzing down the National Highway (no speed limits) on the back of an overcrowded “moto” with a speeding truck two inches from your leg to remind you.

Realistically, in order to work, function and have fun in a country that has had so much bad luck, it is necessary to let go of what we expect and what we are used to. It is important to relax and be flexible so that the different customs, laws and safety procedures don’t alarm us. Instead of trying to fix every issue that we as Americans see in a country with such different standards, we have to accept that we can move from different cultures and living conditions and survive them. There are people just like us who are living and surviving in devastating conditions all over the world.

This is particularly important when we, the predominantly wealthy white American volunteers, see poverty all around us that is unlike anything we have seen in the states. There are entire communities that are considered homeless by our standards, and yet they have pristine school uniforms for all their children and manage to keep a high morale. People live in tents that most Americans would not even consider camping in. When faced with that kind of poverty, where tent communities are on riverbanks strewn with garbage and waste and children are much smaller and slower to develop that American children, it’s hard to know how to react. It’s difficult to know how to be sympathetic without being patronizing or condescending. As a volunteer, I was in Haiti to try to help and make a difference, but at the same time I didn’t want to disrespect the way many Haitians were living by taking part in what is known as ‘poverty tourism’. For my first few days in Haiti I worried about the different ways I should respond to the unsettling images I was surrounded by. Then the general acceptance set in, and I became desensitized to the poverty.

Becoming desensitized to the poverty can feel liberating. It allowed me to open my mind and relate to Haitians more personally. I began to learn about Haiti on a deeper level. The more relaxed we became in Haiti, the more we felt at ease in the community, because we stopped seeing Haitians as so separate from ourselves. Yet the desensitization can also be confusing and unsettling; once these things are accepted as normal, it is hard to know what to do about them. Before desensitization, the tragedy of poverty can be overwhelming, and it’s easy to focus only on what needs to be improved. After the crossover from overwhelming sympathy and sadness to acceptance and appreciation, the line between helpful volunteer work and mild cultural imperialism becomes blurry.

The amount of necessary earthquake disaster response work was daunting, which allowed me to keep the fears of cultural imperialism at bay. Tackling huge piles of rubble and demolished houses does not bring up issues of superiority. It does not feel culturally insensitive to try to clear a plot of land that housed a family before the earthquake and now is a pile of cement, stones and wire. As Haitians came to work alongside us, using sledgehammers and pick axes towards a common goal, I didn’t worry that I might be condescending or treating Haitian culture and conditions as some sort of exhibit. However, I was aware that while this was a project for me, it had very real implications for the Haitians working alongside me. I was removed from the reality of the earthquake and the devastation.

What is most interesting about becoming desensitized and accepting the surroundings as status quo is that it goes unnoticed unless you take a pause and imagine how you would tell someone back home about the experience. Then you realize that riding on the rim of a pickup truck, eating unidentified fruit sold at the beach, using motorcycles as family vehicles, using bucket flushing toilets and bucket showers and constantly spraying yourself and your clothes with toxic amount of DEET are anything less than safe and normal. It is hard to know where to draw the line between making changes in a culturally insensitive way, where we are pushing our own agendas, and helping empower the Haitian people to help themselves in a way that is most positive for them.

this article is also available through the Oberlin College Review Website http://www.oberlinreview.org/article/op-ed-desensitization-haiti/