Not Even a Hurricane

We've all known for some time that tents in Haiti that house hundreds of thousands of people were not going to cut it when the storms came. People say in passing, ah yes, things are bad now, and when the hurricanes comes,it will be even worse. The storms are coming, and things are even worse. On Friday there was a freak thirty minute storm with high speed winds blasted Port-au-Prince and killed at least six people. At least in one case, a tree fell on a tent, crushing a two children inside. Thousands of tents were blown apart, exposing people's fragile sense of normality to the elements. This wasn't even a hurricane! In the camp where I hang out, the tarps that made the roof of Twenty's tent were ripped off and the rain poured in over everything. It's great and all that this month the Haitian government is putting together a housing expo to show off possible model houses, but that maybe should have been done six months ago because right now peoples lives are on the line and there is nowhere for them to go. This is an absolutely unacceptable situation that has, somehow, become acceptable. People have begun to adjust to it. Hundreds of thousands of people squatting throughout the region in shabby houses made of plastic sheeting and tin is totally normal. Intolerably hot during the day, prone to flooding, and easily blown away in the winds, totally normal. It has been said that Haitians are very 'resilient' and 'adaptable', but as soon as this situation became tolerable Haitian leaders responsible for finding a solution were released from the pressure of 'NOW'. I want to believe this place is a time bomb about to explode with collective outrage, with people demanding basic human rights, but as far as I can tell, it's not. Some people say people are much to worried about meeting their day to day needs to concern themselves with social change. Others say people lost too much or too many in the earthquake, they are still in mourning. People will share their grievances with you when you ask, and the list is long. "Mwen blige akseptel": I'm obliged to accept it. You hear that phrase over and over. Maybe it's a reflection of the role of the church that encourages resignation and the patinent bearing of suffering. On tap-taps you see expressions like "The future is with God". The future may be with god but it's made by men and women. Are they obliged to wait for their homes to be destroyed in the next gust of wind? Are they obliged to wait for the hurricane that might crush their family as the huddle together to wait out the storm?

It's frustrating to see the intolerable become tolerable, but that might be because the Haitians know that the answer to those questions might be yes.