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How Bloggers Can Make a Difference (Imagine Haiti in the Rainy Season)


I’ll ask you to imagine for a minute—

Imagine living in a camp in Port-au-Prince, camps where more than 630 thousand live in tents.

Imagine living in a tent—not even a tent—a make shift shelter of tarps—tent-like, at best.

Imagine living in a tent with seven children.   A tent that leaks when it rains at night. 

Imagine trying to keep your children dry, their crying late into the evening, drumming in the distance, the damp, the wet.

Imagine living with a mud floor, a mud floor made muddier by the rain.

and you thought YOU needed a kitchen remodel

Imagine trying to feed your family—preparing meals over an open fire—a pot set atop three rocks, stacked in the center of a pit.

Imagine a rainy season—months on end when it rains, day after day.  Imagine it raining with rage, with pounding, pouring fury—not buckets full, but raging rivers of rain, beating the earth into rivers of mud—thick, can’t-get-it-off-of-you mud—mean mud, mad mud, mud that makes you stand up and take notice or sink down into it and drown—a quick sand, a sucking sound, trying to pick your bare feet up out of it.

Imagine having no toilet.  No running water.

Imagine having to carry heavy buckets of water to cook with, clean with, wipe away a bit of the grit and grime with.

Imagine having babies and no diapers.  No disposable ones for sure.  Not more than rags to wrap around your baby’s bottom.  Imagine no washing machine to clean those dirty diapers—having to carry enough water for washing them—laundry for seven done in a tin basin—hung to dry on tree limbs in the open air.

doing laundry for 7 children

Imagine living like that.

Imagine—

What can bloggers do to make a difference? 

How can we make one life less miserable?   Fewer tents?  Less mud?

Click here to donate to Habitat for Humanity International’s rebuilding effort in Haiti, or, perhaps, repost this on your own blog.  Blogging can make Haiti a better place.  Bloggers make a difference.

31 thoughts on “How Bloggers Can Make a Difference (Imagine Haiti in the Rainy Season)”

  1. This is the most beautiful sad post I’ve ever read. Wow Kathy. It should be freshly pressed for sure. I reposted it and put it on Facebook. Your writing with the photos makes my heart weep. I wish I could volunteer there! But I’ll try to make a donation. It is so terrible, these poor people. I’ve also heard the women get constantly rapped in these camps and it makes my heart sick.

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    • You are so sadly corret. Rape is a huge problem in these camps. It’s a massive mess!

      I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your reposting this! Thank you, my friend! And my friends in Haiti thank you, as well!

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  4. I’ve reposted. Thanks for sharing this. I’ve got a connection to New Life 4 Kids children’s home and rescue center (Impactforjesus.org) so this is a message I couldn’t resist sharing. Thanks!

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  5. Pingback: How Bloggers Can Make a Difference (Imagine Haiti in the Rainy Season) (via reinventing the event horizon) « Small Things Honored

    • I know what you mean. It’s so painful to see so much suffering–blue tarps covering so many hillsides. The good thing is that there are fewer people in those camps than there used to be–still too many. But things are slowly improving, at least. Thanks for reading!

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  8. This is very moving and makes me feel very guilty for having such an easy life. We had floods here earlier this year and our house (not the one we live in) went under water, so I do know first hand the devastation mother nature can deliver. We are very lucky, we have insurance and a roof over our heads and the possiblilty to rebuild. I will refer to this post in my next one. The famine in east Africa is completely horrific now as well. Perhaps governments should stop buying guns and spend money feeding people. There is enough food in the world, but not everybody has a fair share.

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    • Hi, Munira. I remember both the earthquake and the floods–so sad–such devastation. I’m glad to know you wrote about it. I will definitely check it out. Thanks for reading, my friend. Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend—————

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  13. I can’t imagine. I just can’t. How miserable. How inhumane. And yet, the woman in your last photo is almost smiling. Just goes to show the incredible ability of the Haitian people to adapt to the most dire of circumstances.

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    • I know, Terri. If I recall correctly, that woman seemed fairly happy when I met her. Yet all I could think about was her sitting there washing seven kids’ laundry by hand. It was incredible–absolutely unbelievable. You are so right! And we think we have it bad! We are so spoiled!

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