PART THREE Early on Wednesday morning we took off in our bus for Cite Soleil (City of the Sun), a place that experiences horrendous poverty that has often manifested itself in violence and unrest. This gigantic seaside slum is home to almost 400,000 inhabitants of Port au Prince. The first place we visited there is […]
Year: 2021
Beloved Haiti
“Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, for they are no more.” (Mat. 2:28b) Oh Haiti, your tears burn into my heart like fire,Your mountains stand naked like your children,Without hands, unable to hide their shame. Yet, despite orange hair and swollen bellies,Despite hunger and hardship,Their beauty cannot be hidden. Oh mother […]
Hush, Ayiti’m – A Prose Poem For Haiti
I cannot forget you, Haiti.As I depart from your weeping shores,I steal your salty air in my greedy lungs.I smell nothingbut the scent of your sorrow and suffering.The memory of your unique cuisineresides permanently in my mouth.Your sovereign soildeeply embedded beneath my nails. Home… I’m home…yet you continue to haunt me.The lines of my ageing […]
Our Drums of Hope
Nations of rice and rum, of drought and storms,Let us hear your song! Let us hear your song!Nations of beans and corn,Let us hear your song!Nations of breadfruit and yams,Let us hear your song! The guitar is wounded with five sharp swords.Oh, what a sad song! What a sad song!A song of hunger and thirst,What […]
Mothers
“A sword will pierce your heart.” Those words, spoken to Mary by the aged Simeon, ring true for all mothers. With the discomforts of pregnancy, when features swell with gained weight, a once graceful walk becomes a waddle, and the excruciating pain of the last stages of labor make her scream in agony, a mother […]
Haiti Diary: After the earthquake
THE BEGINNING About two hours before the “sinister” hit Haiti, I was on my way to the Miami Airport to take a flight to the Dominican Republic (DR) to meet with the country’s president. On my way there, I received a call advising that he would not be able to meet with me. I decided […]
Guatemala — After the floods
In early June 2010, after severe flooding occurred in Guatemala, a small team from Food For The Poor (FFP) – including Alice Marino, Director of Marketing, and Mark Khouri, Director of Goods In Kind – traveled with me there to meet with our partners, Caritas Arquediocesana. The purpose of our trip was to visit some […]
Guyana adventure
It is quite an adventure just traveling to Guyana. First, we boarded a flight from Miami to Trinidad, having a layover in “Trini” of about seven hours. A late-night flight from there brought us to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana – a little after 11:00 PM. Then, after an hour’s drive from the airport, we […]
Hope For Honduras
The Beginning Our group of 32 excited pilgrims departed for the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa (Tegus), on Tuesday, June 29th, to share our love with the poor of that beautiful nation along with our partners there who, like ourselves, want to transform the suffering that exists into dignity and hope. Vicki Kaufmann, our director of […]
Report from the field: Haiti mission trip
On Tuesday, April 17, a group of 10 Food For The Poor staff members traveled to Haiti to get updates on various projects the charity has underway to improve the lives of the hungry, homeless and thirsty. Lyndsay Mendez and Michael Chin Quee of FFP’s Donor Relations team report from the field: Lyndsay Mendez: What […]