Have You Ever Cut Your Grass With Scissors?

 

I know this sounds like a crazy question, and before I travelled to Haiti in 2000 I would have agreed. But there I was, on a tap-tap (Haitian bus transportation), and looked down to see this:

I witnessed two Haitians, on their hands and knees, cutting grass with scissors outside of the presidential palace. The palace has since been destroyed in the 2010 earthquake but the image was forever branded in my head.

Our church’s mission group travelled to Haiti, which consisted of high school students and adult leaders, to assist in building fish ponds and to teach basic English to a school on the barren mountainside outside of Port-au-Prince.

While travelling outside the city limits, on a tap-tap, I truly had an eye-opening experience. In addition to observing two Haitians cutting grass with scissors, I also witnessed individuals washing their clothes and bathing in pools of filthy water on the side of the road. Then, as we continued our journey, I saw live goats and chickens tied to the front of other tap-taps as we passed each other on the dirt highway. This was a firsthand experience of poverty unlike anything I had ever been exposed to in the United States.

Before meeting a local, I thought to myself; how can anyone live like this?

In my first encounter with a local Haitian, we were welcomed into his home located on the side of a mountain. Enthusiastically, he showed us the inside of his house and talked about how thankful he was to have a tin roof over his head.  This residence, not much bigger than my bedroom, was shared with 5 other members of his family. He was proud of this house and did not dwell on the dozens of holes in the roof. As we ventured back to our compound, our leader reached into his bag and handed over a few t-shirts to this man who had graciously invited us into his home. I will never forget the look on this man’s face as his smile reached ear to ear, happy and thankful for the gift of a couple of t-shirts.

I was only 18 years old but my trip to Haiti changed my life. If an individual, living in poverty, can almost be brought to tears because of a few t-shirts, I need to be more thankful of the many blessings in my life. We are all blessed. We are blessed to have access to the internet. We are blessed to be able to connect to the internet and to be able to read this blog post. We are blessed to live in America.

This holiday season, reflect on how blessed you are. Give thanks for everything that you have; your health, your family, your friends, the roof over your head and the shirt on your back.