Will we EVER forget?

I haven’t blogged since the New Year.  Yea, its 2011! I couldn’t wait for this year to get here! I haven’t felt inspired much though, so I have been taking it easy….thinking a lot but not writing anything down.  Being in Haiti inspires me, as I expected. I try to write some of the things I see and think about down, but I can’t really write anything down. I think of doing it in Creole, because I feel that maybe then, I could really express what I think of the situation in Haiti. But then I don’t. This whole week, I have been thinking about what most people in my circle have been thinking about.  Haiti. 12 Janvier 2010. Election. Cholera. Mostly 12 Janvier 2010….a year later.  I know.... it’s a lot in someone’s head!

“I remember”! This catchy little phrase that everyone has been posting as their status has magically inspired me, because every time I read it something inside of me SCREAMS….How could we NOT remember? Even though I am not grieving or remembering anyone in particular, I am haunted by over 250,000 Haitian souls questioning why their deaths haven't helped change things around, asking why over 800,000 of their loved ones still live an earthquake on a daily basis.

When you are in Haiti, it’s impossible to not “remember”, it’s on people’s faces; the despair, the sadness, the expression of hopelessness. Everyone wants to share their story with you, it just pours out of them. They tell you over and over how it feels to feel the earth shake so violently.  Every single survivor tells you how they escaped and how God saved them for a reason.  And then there are the physical reminders, on the way from the airport, the tent cities, the palace, houses, businesses, one would have to be blind to not see, let alone forget.  

I like that we “remember”! Haitians actually have a reputation of forgetting too quickly! We forget the wrong they do to us and allow them to be repeated over and over again. Sort of like what we are living now.  I want to remember, I don’t want to forget, because lives were lost….can‘t forget such a thing.  I want to remember for the people who are still struggling, people who have to start yet another year under those tents. I want to remember for the women who are being raped, those who get pregnant and have to raise a child conceived in such horrifying circumstances.  Families who made it alive out of the earthquake but are losing loved ones to Cholera. I want to remember for the lady I heard on the radio, wishing she had died on January 12^th, 2010….because life is so hard for her and her kids now.  I have been wondering how many must feel the same way? I want to remember for those who have reasons to lose hope yet are still holding on, praying and hoping that all of 2011 will not see them in this same predicament.

I want to remember the wrong being done to Haiti, the abuse that she has endured this past year.  I don’t want to forget the people who claim they care, who have pledged their help to us yet haven’t done anything BUT help themselves both on the national and international level.  I don’t want to forget those who have contributed in the ongoing misery of my fellow Haitians, those who’ve benefited from this natural disaster.

Above all, I don’t want to forget my people’s resilience.  I want to remember Haitians as they were the days after the earthquake…united and willing to help rebuild Haiti. I want to remember the songs that were sung, the prayers that went up and the feeling of hope that lingered around. I want to continue to remember, because we have to give value to the lives that were lost on that day. God....let this be the last year we simply "remember"!  Help us match our actions to our thoughts! Help us make better decisions and hold each other accountable for the growth and future of Haiti. January 12^th, 2010…I do remember.Will we EVER forget?