Imagine laying in bed with your pillow topper, your duvet, snuggled up with your favorite movie on. As my mother says every night as she gets into bed. *sigh* “I LOVE bedtime”.
Now imagine a different scenario your pillow topper some dirt, if you’re lucky cement, your duvet an old hand-me-down blanket, snuggled in with your brothers and sister in one room playing sock puppets before drifting to sleep.
Imagine you wake up for school/work you moan about your alarm clock being too loud you slip out of bed jump into the shower to wake yourself up. You enjoy some warm water and contemplate just going back to bed. You then brush your teeth, wash your face and use the washroom all within 15 mins and get on your way.
Now imagine you’ve woken up to a fly attempting to escape through your window. Bzzbzzbzz. You climb up off the ground, enjoy a quick tinkle in the pot, and go to the fresh water bucket or use bottled water to brush and wash. Unless mom has not grabbed water the day before in which case you’ll need to walk over to the fresh water facility… nearing 2 miles away.
Imagine you walk outside, breathe in, slowly feeling the air fill your lungs. You see trees and green all around you.
Now imagine you walk outside and look in either direction you see lots of soil, browns, and land beyond what you can see. Your island is under such disrepair but indeed life goes on.
These are just some of the examples of why Haiti has made me into who I am today. I am caring, I am giving and more importantly I am humble beyond comprehension because first hand I have seen how the Haitian population lives and they still smile and hold their heads up high every day. “Mwen Kitan ‘ki nan Ayiti” means “I have left my heart in Haiti” and it could not be truer.
Click here to participate in the Fredericton Global 6k for Water or to make a donation.
Go 6k so they don’t have to!
(The average distance children walk for water in developing countries)
