Nativity Parish Pilgrims Witness Haiti's Extreme Poverty

By Alfonso Aguilar
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 9/5/02)

First of two parts

"This trip will change your life […] and it will change forever."

This intriguing statement was made by Father Paul Wilderotter of Food for the Poor in Miami, as he introduced himself to a delegation of 12 pilgrims from the Church of the Nativity in Burke, led by Pastor Father Richard B. Martin, founder of Project Starfish which has raised more than half a million dollars to help the people of Haiti.

The parishioners, who were on their way to see for themselves the results of the Nativity’s generosity, listened attentively, focused on the power of Father Wilderotter’s words. Father Martin and two parishioners who already visited this Caribbean island, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and the first black republic in the world, knew that he was not exaggerating.

"The people of Haiti are in great need," continued Father Wilderotter, a charismatic priest well versed in the grim realities of Haitian life, where water, food and electricity are in scarce supply, and 80 percent of the population lives in abject poverty.

The priest concluded this introductory meeting by telling the pilgrims, "The best things you can bring to Haitian people are a smile, a hug and a hand." He cautioned them not to throw money or gifts and again repeated:

"This trip will change your life […] and it will change forever."

The following day, Aug 13, as travelers gathered at the gate to await the arrival of their flight, it was apparent that Haiti began here, in Miami. With the exception of the Nativity delegation, and two or three journalists, all of the passengers seemed to be Haitians, who speak two languages, French and Creole. They carried so many parcels and bags that one could mistakenly have thought that they had not checked their baggage. In addition many carried big "boom boxes."

Father Wilderotter explained that in Haiti the need is so great that Haitian travelers take advantage of the opportunity to bring home as many things as they can. He also said that because of the lack of electricity, battery-powered radios are more functional than TVs that require electricity.

"And they love music," he added, laughing.

During the flight, the airline hostesses and fellow travelers volunteered to assist others in filling out the necessary immigration forms. Illiteracy is one of Haiti’s most pressing problems. More than 50 percent of the population is illiterate.

The capital airport in Port au Prince is small, perhaps the smallest international airport in the hemisphere. There are no gates and no bording ramps. Only four or five other planes are visible, and two bearing the name of Haiti appear abandoned and non-functional.

Inside the terminal there seem to be more pictures of President Jean- Bertrand Aristide that employees. But within 20 minutes of the airport all visible signs of government disappear.

Once called "the jewel of the Caribbean" and regarded as "the richest colony in the world," Haiti is now a land of terrible devastation, so much so that "soil erosion and creeping desertification threaten to extinguish life altogether," wrote Elizabeth Abbot in Haiti —The First Inside Account (McGraw-Hill)

Haiti is so close to a tragedy of epic proportions that it is extremely difficult to find a travel guide book about this island of 8 million people and 700 miles off the coast of Florida.

One of the few and probably the best book is Haiti and Dominican Republic (Inside Guide-Discovery Channel), which described Haiti as a "land of startling extremes and contrasts, a place where grinding poverty is matched by extraordinary resilience, distressing squalor by great natural beauty, cruel inequality by individual warmth."

During the four-day journey in the capital and surrounding areas it was clear that the city has been abandoned as if no central authority existed.

"If you have a problem, let’s say an assault, the worst thing you can do is call the police," said a Haitian guide assigned to the visitors from the Nativity parish.

Roads are in bad shape, trash is everywhere, surrounding both homes and businesses.

There is no signs of public work. In this mountainous country most of the structures are one story, and at least 90 percent seen to be works-in-progress. Small houses haphazardly constructed of timber, tin and trash appear everywhere, with clear signs that there are not sanitation facilities.

Not surprisingly, when the pilgrims saw a house with a roof, windows and a door, some exclaimed: "Look at that. That house must belong to rich people."

Other houses, small, humbles and clean, belong to those families who had received help from Food for the Poor and the Church of the Nativity, help that can make the difference between life and death.

Next week: a close look at the places visited and sponsored by Food for the Poor and the delegation of Nativity Parish. 

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