I knew transitioning back to Haiti after 7.5 months in the States was going to present its challenges. I was prepared to work through the heat, food, power, isolation, and the “everythings always broken” struggles. I never could have imagined that six days after returning home we would have to flee our house to ensure our families safety.
Before I go into what has been happening the past week, let me give you a little background. Without naming names, there is a certain US government organization that provides “AID” to developing countries who has been working for years in a village near our farm. We have heard directly from them that they pay “Ghost Workers” when doing projects in this village. Basically it’s their way of accounting for bribes to ensure that the local gangs leave them alone and allow them to do their work. As soon as I heard this, I told Nick that it was just a matter of time before they came and demanded the same thing of us.
The leader of the gang from this village, who we will call Andrew (obviously not his real name) helps organize and equip trouble makers in other nearby villages. It was he who helped get “Micheal” going, the man we wrote about earlier this year who had been threatening Jovenel, our manager. After a year of threats and getting no where with Jovenel, a group of men decided it was time that they meet and discuss this matter directly with Nick.
On Monday approximately 15 men, most of which were armed, showed up at the gate for an unscheduled meeting. Nick invited them into our break room knowing full well that they just wanted to be heard. They then insisted that Nick pay a set amount each month to them or they would block the roads so our employees couldn’t come to work and vandalize our farm. At this Nick became VERY frustrated and informed them that we never have and never will pay extortion fees in order to work in this country and keep our family safe. As the men left our compound they began firing their guns in the air and throwing rocks at our buildings.
Nick and I had a quick meeting to discuss how we were going to handle this situation and what we needed to do to ensure that our family and our employees remain safe. We have dealt with protests at our gates numerous times through out our time in Haiti, but the use of guns is new. With all the political unrest the past 2 years, guns, which used to be rare, are now abundant. We are sad to see that they have even made it to rural Haiti. This, coupled with the fact that they were out in broad daylight instead of under the cover of darkness, made us more uneasy than normal protests.
Many of our employees already pay monthly bribes to these men to ensure they can arrive safely at work, which infuriates me to no end. We came up with a plan and called for a community meeting later that evening to discuss the situation. However before we were able to do so, the men came back, surrounded the farm, and began firing shots off in the air and throwing more rocks. At this point we decided our family needed to leave for a while. We weren’t overly worried about our physical safety as we didn’t think they would do any thing else, but since the kids could hear the gun shots and rocks, we wanted to ensure that we protected their emotional health as well. We called the police and the equivalent of a SWAT team escorted us off the farm and through the village.
The protests continued for a few nights after we left, but thankfully never really amounted to much except a few broken exterior lights which we had installed for the community. The police continued to do rounds every day to ensure things didn’t escalate too much. Our family returned home on Saturday after staying six days in our friends guests house at Welcome Home Haiti. We are so thankful for their generosity (you should check out their work because they are amazing).
So where does this leave us moving forward? To be honest, we don’t know. Our best guess would be that this won’t be the end of it. The past two years has been filled with ongoing protests nation wide. This is the method people use to be heard and express their frustrations with the difficulties of life. Life in Haiti has become more and more desperate over the past two years, and unfortunately desperate people do desperate things.
To be honest, we feel for many of the men who were causing the trouble. According to our crew, not one of them ever went to Kindergarten. All they have ever known is poverty. They aren’t trying to be ruthless or take advantage of the system. They are trying to fight for their children. To have a way to provide food and education. What they truly want is a job. If these 15 men could have a job, can you imagine how much different this situation would look? How much less desperate they would feel?
I’m sure there are many people who wonder why we continue to stay when things just seem to be getting worse. First, our daughter legally has to live in Haiti until her adoption/immigration process is done. And second, we aren’t ready to be done with New Roots. We aren’t ready to be done trying desperately to bring this community out of poverty. So that these men can find a dignified job to support their family.
The tractor we just imported will allow farmers to get a larger yield of corn each harvest. The community center we are going to start in the VERY near future will provide a safe place for the children of our village to dream about their future and learn life skills that will have a lasting impact. We want to continue to grow New Roots so that more and more families can benefit from jobs.
In the mean time, we will do what we can to keep our family both physically and emotionally well. Soon we will add another section to our perimeter wall in the front of the compound. We have added extra security and are being extremely diligent with any and all time spent off the farm. The kids and I already don’t leave the farm without Nick or a male employee with us. This requirement will become even more strict for the foreseeable future. And if things start back up again, we will not hesitate to temporarily relocate if we need.
Many we have shared this with so far have asked what they can do for us besides for prayers. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot. We feel safe and the kids enjoyed our “mini vacation” as we referred to it. The only thing we ask is that you continue to support the work we are doing in Haiti. It is making a difference. It is changing lives.