George Bernard Shaw -Quote

“This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a selfish little clot of grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

Today, in a quiet moment after meeting for 3 hours with our PWP Haitian staff to re-vamp our literacy program this quote came to mind. Funny how “the true joy of life” that Shaw outlines can feel just the opposite sometimes –doesn’t seem “mighty” but more like such a miniscule drop in the bucket of need in Haiti. “Being used up” can feel anything but a “joy in life”-more like drained, exhausted, sick of trying to find time to meet all the needs this volunteer job requires, brain drained from trying to engage others to help with this work (and it is work), worn out from fielding one cultural problem after another not to mention the worry of finding the financial support necessary to float this sometimes leaky boat. Alas I fear, I more times than not resemble the “selfish little clot of grievances” I don’t want to be. Wayne & Russell –I know you two are high five-ing that last comment-ha

Meeting with our staff and hearing them tell of how our little program has grown and become so respected in Cap-Haitien brought me back to feeling “mighty” again. One of our teachers, Juliette, said “you know Madame Julie, when we started this program we used to have to go to all the homes in our communities and spend a lot of time talking with people trying to convince them to sign up for the program. We had a really hard time to get anyone to believe in us. Even when we got students to join, they didn’t value the program and come every day so we had to keep going to their homes and use a lot of patience and prayer to keep students coming. Sometimes we thought we might never see the first graduation. It was very discouraging for us. All the teachers called each other and had so many meetings to keep ourselves encouraged in those first years that we became a very tight group. We became a family. Because we never gave up and because PWP never gave up now, after every graduation we have people of all ages begging us to make a spot for them in our classes.”

This is a very positive comment for PWP. In Haiti, because of the low success rate of literacy programs, the people don’t give them much credit. They are usually government sponsored programs that get people to commit and spend some of their precious few dollars to enroll and then after 2 or 3 months they fold up. This gives the government the platform to say to the International community that they sponsor programs because they care about their people and at the same time never go far enough so that the population stays illiterate and controllable. PWP’s program has been growing now for 5 years. It has proven itself over and over and has become a “purpose” we all believe is worth “being used up for” and is making “mighty” changes in small ways.

Am I always joyous being used up for this purpose? Okay Wayne and Russell, if you don’t stop that cheering I’m going to have to call your mothers….

At home in Canada the major part of what we do is fundraising –the most time consuming thing you can imagine with a huge rejection factor. In Haiti we walk on streets where the smell is enough to keep your eyes from ever wanting to look at what you are walking over. Sweat, dust, heat exhaustion, bug bites,(the ones I am still praying did not have Dengue fever in them this time) stomach issues (if you know what I mean –if you don’t, it is called “Haitian Happiness” the parallel of Mexico’s “Montezuma’s Revenge”), and any number of similar things are the perks of working here in Haiti. However, to be “used up for the purpose”  as a Partner With Purpose intent on freeing the Haitian voice through literacy and the life changing confidence that brings to the poor is a worthy thing.

And some day as I keep evolving I hope my times of being a “selfish little clot of grievances” get fewer and farther between. Really you two –opening champagne and toasting is a little extreme don’t you think??

P.S. Our staff is taking the steps necessary to register our program with the Ministry of Social Affairs in Cap-Haitien so we will be official. We had to find a compatible acronym since Partners With Purpose doesn’t translate well to Krèyole. The ladies came up with “Patisipan –Wè –Pale” The literal translation means Participants –See –Speak –the meaning understood is - those collaborating will understand their rights and then speak out.  So cool!