The Highway to Haiti

When people in abject poverty face difficult decisions, good options seldom exist—the choices are simply bad or worse. When a mother has more children than she can feed, where does she find help? In Haiti, there is a culturally acceptable and clandestine child-trafficking arrangement resulting from these difficult decisions and those who prop-up and benefit from the structural evils that force these decisions in the first place.

Restaveks: 300,000 child-slaves blend into the landscape here. They are visible only by understanding what to look for—most foreigners do not. Conversely, tens-of-thousands of families in Haiti rationalize this form of trafficking by promising food, shelter, and education in return for household help. Unfortunately, in too many instances these arrangements fall victim to human depravity, and children are exploited.

The following video was produced by Compassion UK:

The Massacre, Libon, Artibonite, and Pedernales rivers serve as the border between much of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They also draw the dividing lines between many unfortunate realities.

top photo: Cobb, Charles E. 1987. “Haiti: Against All Odds.” National Geographic, Vol. 172, No. 5: 645-670. Photo by James Blair

bottom image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center - Scientific Visualization Studio

Last week, to celebrate Pam’s 26th birthday, Silas and Daddy surprised “Mama” with a Giordano’s pizza for dinner.

How do you order Giordano’s pizza in Haiti? (more…)

I, Matt, had the distinct privilege of going to college with Ben Piper. Ben is the classic opportunist. Once he had nothing better to do in the summer, so he decided to see what it was like to be homeless for a couple months. When he heard an attractive Brazilian girl got a job as a librarian, Ben immediately found his library card and met his future wife. Using peas and mashed potatoes, Ben convinced a prof—in the student dining room—that he didn’t need to take an Ancient Near East geography exam. Pam and I, and Ben and his wife, Melissa, enjoyed those sweet years in Chicago together. But as it was with all of our friends at Moody, what brought us together there is ultimately what pushed us apart.

Whether or not you know Ben, you may be familiar with his dad, John. John recently shared his thoughts at his granddaughter’s funeral. Having known Ben and Melissa, and being expectant parents ourselves, there is a sense of closeness in his words. It’s worth your time to read. The article is called: What I Said at My Granddaughter’s Funeral