The First Morning

This morning I woke to the sounds of roosters crowing and the rubber of rattling vehicles throwing stones and dirt as they pass. For the first moment, nothing was new. And then like a soft blow to the belly, I gasped for air realizing where I really am. I am on the country hillside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Overlooking a small portion of the city which feels more like a large village, I can only hear human activity from beyond the ten-foot high block walls embedded with barbed wire. I am in the heart of the poorest, most corrupt and highly devastated country in the Western Hemisphere and yet, I feel like a prince in the palace of the nation's king. Where I sit, I have my morning coffee and I have the normal solitude I get while sitting on my back porch in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, the context feels very similar to home, only the Haitian version. I am surrounded by beautiful flowering trees, wild and domestic birds[doves, peacocks, roosters and what sounds like loons in the distance(I know it can't possibly be a loon)]and the morning sun is just starting to break through the dense vegetation to warm my skin and cue me into a small glimpse of of its intensity. An intensity that I can only imagine I will become very familiar with, within the next six days of my stay here.

I guess this intense heat is more of a reminder of what I came here to do; to help Haiti. I know this sounds ambitious and possibly foolish [to some], but something has brought me to Haiti, something larger than life, something so real.

It is so hard for me to explain my feelings and my desire to help these people that just a few months ago, I had absolutely no connection to. Still, I cannot define my goal in a clear, concise statement. I just know I am here to help in the only way I know how. Through art and architecture, through written words and photographs, through blogs and emails, I want to bring the attention of Wentworth... no Boston... no the U.S. ... no the human race to Haiti. I want this forgotten land, these incredible people to have the same opportunity for growth, the same quality of life, the same strength of a nation that I have grown to know and love as a man from the middle of nowhere America. Take it for what it is. We will see what today brings.