The 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. Strange today I had no idea..until I decided to log onto CNN.com and then saw the headlines--it was like, "where have I been??" It is incredible the destruction that these natural disasters cause to undeveloped nations. The fact that maybe 100,000 people are dead, and bodies are in the streets, people cannot get medical attention, there are not enough medical supplies anyways...it reads like a disaster movie. And I am reading this all today, while I am sitting in my lovely little home office, typing away on the computer, and find it such a stroke of luck, really, that we have these lives based on so much luck, just being born in the US was the first piece of luck, and then the rest is all extra. And yet we c o m p l a i n--I reminded my child tonight, as grandpa says "no one likes a complainer." So true.
Years ago, about 13, we had a trip to Dominican Republic. Classic trip for me in the married days, having to go somewhere where my husband could do something he wanted to do, wind surfing at the time. There were so many other places in the Caribbean I would have rather gone to..but that was that. It was not a bad trip. Actually where we stayed was pretty nice, with tons of restaurants lining the beach, and other places to stay. Still I always felt a bit nervous. The sales people on the beach, they were overwhelming! They did not take no for an answer. No one had ever left the island. We were their business. It was tough to avoid them.
One day we took a tour bus trip, and it was pretty interesting cruising around to different sites and stops. Then one part of the tour was seeing a sugar cane picking village. It was awful being in our air conditioned bus, and driving through what they called home. I felt so guilty. But then..then..we crossed a very shabby bridge, and then we were in the Haitian sugar cane picking village. It made the other one look like a ritzy first class neighborhood. It was the single most poverty I had ever seen in my 30 something years. It was honestly beyond my comprehension. There were make shift homes, like out cardboard. And people lining the street corners. There was no hope there.
And that was the single most powerful memory I took of the whole trip. I was on vacation and felt sick to my stomach with guilt, and I really did not know what to do with what I was seeing. And now it all came back to me.
So lucky, so lucky just to be born here.
I was in the massive quake in SF/Oakland/Santa Cruz in 1989. For the most part, things withstood the earthquake so well it was hard to believe what had happened the day before. Sure there was destruction with the Cypress Structure (a freeway section that led to the Bay Bridge) the whole upper section just crumbled into the bottom section--it was an incredible site--I think the worst of the whole quake. I was on that freeway every day, commuting, always at 5:05 going back home. But on Tuesdays, I had just started a Tai Chi class with my mom, and was leaving at 4:00 instead of 5:00--it is possible the class saved me. And there was quite a bit of destruction in Santa Cruz, and parts of the Marina in SF..but for the most part, life went on, we were overall.. fine. And I recall being somewhat awestruck by it all.
I don't know what it is like to see dead bodies on the street, children lying under plastic sheets. It is beyond the life I grew up in. There certainly is no "finding Saratoga" for most people in Haiti.
Years ago, about 13, we had a trip to Dominican Republic. Classic trip for me in the married days, having to go somewhere where my husband could do something he wanted to do, wind surfing at the time. There were so many other places in the Caribbean I would have rather gone to..but that was that. It was not a bad trip. Actually where we stayed was pretty nice, with tons of restaurants lining the beach, and other places to stay. Still I always felt a bit nervous. The sales people on the beach, they were overwhelming! They did not take no for an answer. No one had ever left the island. We were their business. It was tough to avoid them.
One day we took a tour bus trip, and it was pretty interesting cruising around to different sites and stops. Then one part of the tour was seeing a sugar cane picking village. It was awful being in our air conditioned bus, and driving through what they called home. I felt so guilty. But then..then..we crossed a very shabby bridge, and then we were in the Haitian sugar cane picking village. It made the other one look like a ritzy first class neighborhood. It was the single most poverty I had ever seen in my 30 something years. It was honestly beyond my comprehension. There were make shift homes, like out cardboard. And people lining the street corners. There was no hope there.
And that was the single most powerful memory I took of the whole trip. I was on vacation and felt sick to my stomach with guilt, and I really did not know what to do with what I was seeing. And now it all came back to me.
So lucky, so lucky just to be born here.
I was in the massive quake in SF/Oakland/Santa Cruz in 1989. For the most part, things withstood the earthquake so well it was hard to believe what had happened the day before. Sure there was destruction with the Cypress Structure (a freeway section that led to the Bay Bridge) the whole upper section just crumbled into the bottom section--it was an incredible site--I think the worst of the whole quake. I was on that freeway every day, commuting, always at 5:05 going back home. But on Tuesdays, I had just started a Tai Chi class with my mom, and was leaving at 4:00 instead of 5:00--it is possible the class saved me. And there was quite a bit of destruction in Santa Cruz, and parts of the Marina in SF..but for the most part, life went on, we were overall.. fine. And I recall being somewhat awestruck by it all.
I don't know what it is like to see dead bodies on the street, children lying under plastic sheets. It is beyond the life I grew up in. There certainly is no "finding Saratoga" for most people in Haiti.
No comments:
Post a Comment