Haiti is a horrible place!

Three separate times now, since being back in our bountiful United States of America someone has said to me "Haiti is a horrible place!" upon learning of my travels. The first guy on my plane actually said "Haiti is an effing disgusting, horrible place!"

To my face.

I suppose if poverty constitutes effing horrible than it's horrible; because Haiti is poor, for sure. 

But, the times in my life where I felt shock and dismay because something was horrible- wasn't ever due to poverty. The times I have observed cruelty, selfishness, racism, ignorance, elitism, and blatant arrogance are the times I would use the word horrible. 

In my opinion, the most horrible thing in this world is love of self and all that goes into it. 

On the contrary, Haitians are generous and selfless in spirit. Though they have so little, they offer you everything they have. 

I remember in July, my boys and I were invited to spend the weekend at a small beach village, I was told by the missionaries that invited us that the people there were extremely poor, as a sort of warning. When we arrived, all the children ran up to greet us; none of them wore shoes, all their clothes were dirty and torn, and most were malnourished. But their welcome was genuine, and they so badly wanted my boys feel comfortable and happy. About 5 minutes into our visit, I looked over to see my boys being fed cheese puffs from one of the village girls. I was so humbled. I am sure her family couldn't afford much more than the 5 goudes it cost for that bag of chico, but she was feeding it to my kids with a beautiful generosity you can only find in horrible poverty. She was loving them before herself, for real. 

The Haiti Mama boys are the same.
Generous, sharing, compassionate, giving, and empathetic at baseline. And remember their baseline was also sleeping on the streets, and begging for food before I met them.

I don't think Haiti is a horrible place. I love this poor culture of selflessness and generosity.