A year ago today, that massive earthquake nearly obliterated Haiti. Today, the country is still in ruins. Marjorie Valbrun, with whom I've had the great pleasure of working with in the past, has a very powerul op-ed in the Washington Post today. She tells the story of the earthquake through the experience of her 83 year old father, who survived the destruction. And, she writes of the responsibility to her native country:
My Papa, like thousands of others who sought to build better lives for their families in the United States and then returned to Haiti to live out their old age, gave our family a precious gift: a life of opportunities we could never have had in Haiti. But he also helped us hold onto our past by keeping us tethered to memories. I continue to love a country I left so long ago because, well, Papa taught me to.
Later this month he will travel to Haiti to assess the landscape, inspect his broken house, decide whether to rebuild or sell the land and be done with it. I will go with him and do some personal assessing of my own. It's time.
Even after everything, Papa still wants to eventually return to Haiti for good. When I ask why, he responds: "Your Papa still feels like a young man, why should I stay in Florida? To watch TV and wait to die like the other old people? Not me. I want to live in Haiti."
At 83, his work is done. It's time for all those Haitian fathers and mothers who sacrificed so much for their children to finally rest. Now it's up to my generation of Haitian Americans to reclaim Haiti and help it get back on its feet. Our work is just getting started.
