Its Kinda Like That Movie Psycho But Instead of a Knife Its a Camera

Imagine yourself taking a shower. You are minding your own business, rinsing, repeating, rinsing, repeating, when out of nowhere a rowdy bunch of foreigners walks into your bathroom and start taking pictures. With a few expletives you ask why these people are taking pictures of you in your most vulnerable moment. “Do not worry,” they reply. “We are not taking pictures of you bathing, we are simply taking pictures of your beautiful shower and bathroom.” Well much to the photographer’s dismay you decide that their excuses are not good enough and then decide to dislike that particular group of foreigners for the rest of your life. You may be thinking to yourself that this is a ridiculous situation that would never happen. I disagree.

Every time we take a group to the bay, we have to cross a river. Upon arrival to said river, cameras appear and the photo shoot begins out of the big white truck with the three crosses on it. Now let me clue you in on what this particular river, and a typical river in Haiti, looks like. There are usually several hundred people gathered there, washing, their cars, swimming in the river, and yes bathing. I should also note that yes there are some beautiful mountains and scenery around this river, and so there are some legitimate shots to take. However, one must be conscious of the fact that there are people bathing, and so in my opinion (again I speak for nobody else) the best thing to do would be to leave your camera in your pocket. It is great to have pictures to take back home to family, but is it worth angering some of the very people that we are trying to help? If we ever get a truck my first rule is going to be no pictures when crossing the river, and probably no pictures from the truck at all, but that is another story. Anyways, think about this next time you take a picture, whether it is on the river or not. Haiti’s poverty is not an exhibit at a zoo or museum, it is real life, and I do understand that pictures can be powerful weapons to raise funds and do other good things, but maybe next time you decide to take a picture you should ask the person, get to know them, and then maybe we can avoid invading people’s privacy and potentially angering some of our Haitian brothers and sisters.

New Pictures

Check out the new pictures by clicking on the Flickr link to the bottom left.

Read This Article

Haiti hardly ever receives attention when it comes to the American political sphere, so I found this article surprising, and it is also an argument, or idea, that I have thought about for a while. Have a look.

Child Slavery In Haiti

Several people have sent us links about child slavery in Haiti. This has been a problem for a long time both in the country, as well as actually sending children outside the country to work as domestic and or sexual slaves. We encourage you to read some of our previous posts on child slavery in Haiti, and also check out some of the news reports that have come out as of late. This is a huge problem, not only in Haiti, but also in many countries all over the world, including America.

Well That’s Just Like… Your Opinion, Man.

In an effort to be more opinionated and therefore more “Livesayish,” “Petieish,” and “Whalenish,” (see the links list) I (Curtis) have decided to introduce something that I will affectionately call “Curtis’ Soapbox.” Upon this box I will offer some of my more personal opinions on certain issues, as opposed to our more common updates and stories. Please let it be known that anything written under this section solely reflects my opinion and not necessarily that of the mission, friends, family or even Danielle. Also, please remember that I may simply say things for no other reason than to bother Bubba, Janeil, or someone else as the case may be, but I will let you know in those instances. Seriously though, I would love to stimulate some serious dialogue with these posts so please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.

With that in mind, the first installment is a paper that I wrote in college. You can find it here. I am not claiming that it is well written and I did not even take the time to correct the errors that were picked up in grading it because of our electricity limitations here at the Bay. Anyways, I am often the object of ridicule because Danielle and I have chosen not to give our money to certain companies as a result of human rights abuses. Since most of the companies are extremely popular, we have become accustomed to strange looks and the question “Why?” This paper somewhat attempts to answer that question. Feel free to leave comments and make us aware of companies that you feel should be added to our list.

By The Way

Our internet at the Bay works now, thanks to Jose. So hopefully we will be able to update the site more often.

4th of July Party

So we celebrated the 4th by all going to the beach for the afternoon. When we returned we had a bonfire and cooked marshmallows (some of the people had never had them before) and hotdogs.




Then we cranked up the generator that Matt and Becca brought with them (see their Blog below) and watched Jurassic Park.



In my opinion all holidays should be celebrated by a viewing of Jurassic Park.

Seeya

We are getting ready to go back to the Bay (we have been in St. Louis for the weekend.) With groups and the lack of internet/electricity in the Bay we may not be able to get to emails as quickly as we would like. However, the internet should be up and running soon and we hope to acquire some more batteries, a solar panel, and a wind generator, so that we will have more electricity. In the meantime check out the new pictures and the rest of our website, including the “Needs,” “Videos,” and “About Haiti” pages.

Also, please remember that we are still looking for financial support, as well as several other things to help our ministry (see the “needs” page. We are excited about what God has done so far and we look forward to what he is going to do in the future. We cannot thank everyone enough for the interest and support in the work being done here in Haiti.

Some More Articles

Article #1: About American Funding to Haiti- Whether or not this articles is true, too many times foreign aid comes with many strings attached.

Article #2- A New Prime Minister Nominee- Haiti desperately needs to appoint a new PM.

Article #3- About the State of the World’s (including Haiti’s) Children.

A Great Idea

We spent some time in a place called Chansolme the past week. We went there with a group from Northside Christian Church in New Albany Indiana. While we were there they had the kids from the area paint pictures that they will then sell in the States to raise money to build a church in the area. This is a great idea and the pictures turned out really cool. Contact Barb Enata or Brent Bramer through the Church website for more info.