With all the barriers that are preventing these people from getting the help they need, it is no wonder that it is sometimes just easier to sit down and give up than to try and trudge ahead when your efforts may seemingly feel fruitless. The man in the picture above was sitting outside of a Church, not unusual given that someone who appears to be in as much duress as he is may turn to the Church for comfort. Interestingly enough however, as soon as I approached the Church to enter they immediately slammed the doors on my face and locked me out.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the whole premise of a Church to be accepting of everyone? I’ll do my best to avoid right now sharing my own personal feelings on politics and religion, but for me personally, this felt incredibly disheartening. I genuinely wanted to see the Church. I had absolutely no intention of taking pictures inside, yet for one of the first times in my life, I really began to understand what it feels like to be discriminated against. You can hear stories from friends of other ethnicities who have been discriminated against, but until you actually feel it for yourself firsthand, you truly don’t know how bad it hurts.
Some of my fondest memories in Haiti were the times I spent with a girl name Katiana. Katiana was deaf and mute, and no one quite knew where her parents were. Although I was warned that she had a temper and to be careful around her, Katiana and I connected in some special way that she felt it her duty to protect me, and in some odd way, I too began to feel a duty to protect her. Although she could not speak to me, or hear what I would say to her, she took to me like a sister and I developed a genuine love for this touching young girl.
Despite my trying to refuse, Katiana would always insist on grabbing my bag and carrying it for me, on trying to move me out of the sun and into the shade, on slapping my skin to kill the mosquitoes that were about to bite me; truly going out of her way to do anything she could to protect me. Of all the people I met, Katiana felt most like a sister to me because I truly believe she and I connected on a level that doesn’t require speech or sound, it requires love and compassion; something most people get too confused or frustrated
