Reflection time...

(Writen March 2011, before the trip takes off)

If you don't know where you've been, you can't know where you are going.

I'm trying to remember what got me interested in wanting to "discover" Haiti for myself. I think it was just because I knew that my family had a little more "character" than the others around me, because they were HAITIAN, and in our small town, we were like rockstars. I remember in elementary school my parents came to speak to our class about Haiti and the culture etc. I think at the time I was a little embarrassed because- well who wants their parents to hang out at school, but I still learned a lot. I remember long drives to NY I would ask my dad from the back seat, tell me something about your childhood in Haiti. And he'd tell me a story from what he remembered about his time in Haiti.
I think I had this vision of Haiti being this luscious Island , I imagined myself as a little girl in Haiti and wondering what kind of life I would live. One day I saw the Haitian flag being splattered across the TV. It was the 90s under Bush and Clinton and during the Aristide Coups. I don't think I have ever seen my father so animated. I remember he called into every radio station he could, wrote various news papers. I think he was even interviewed on TV once, while I wasn't able to grasp the whole story, I knew that something big was happening. And the way the reporters talked about Haiti, I knew there was something different about the Haiti I had envisioned and the "reality" of Haiti. I think as I grew older and began to see the changes in U.S foreign policy towards Haiti, I started to carve out my career goals based on how I could give back.
January 12, 2010 is a day that will never be forgotten. I remember coming back to my residence hall room that Tuesday evening to channel surf after the second day of classes, and I saw the Haitian Flag splattered across TV once again- brought me back to the 90s. Hearing what had happened, a 7.0 earthquake, I knew something had to be done. I didn't know what but I knew something.