Haitian Election

i've been desperate to blog today. and i've totally forgot what i was so eager to etch into the world-wide-web-twitterverse-facebooksphere. but i know it had to do with greatness. the following will be lackluster in comparison.

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in another one of God's divine appointments, i've been placed at a wonderful school in which we have two custodians from haiti. lucita and pierre have lived here for 10 years after hailing from port-au-prince. each day, i have the blessing of speaking to each of them, in french, and about the on-goings in their country. i remember breaking the news to lucita about the cholera epidemic as reports slowly came out of the artibonite valley (in the same villages that ywam was working with to establish housing for internally displaced) about a quick-killing water-born disease.

this week, we've been speaking a lot about the state of affairs involving the election of a new president. with the former president in exile and unable to help rebuild a desperate nation after the devastating earthquake-- oh my gosh moment: almost a year ago already. WOW. i can't handle that-- the nation is in desperate need for a leader that is for the people and uninvolved in any corruption, etc. with many polling places filing reports of corruption, ballot stuffing, and all-out chaos, it did not surprise anyone when one of the run-off candidates (because no one won by a majority) was both not a front runner or favorite and related to former (and corrupt) president preval.

my heart breaks for a nation that has experienced SO much turmoil in a few short months. first, a devastating earthquake. then droughts and famine. next, hurricanes, floods, cholera. now riots and manifestations (i even typed that with the french accents in my head) and all hell breaking loose due to the rigged elections.

buried beneath the rubble of the earthquake and deep in their generational poverty, Haitians have long ago learned that they have no voice. who hears their cries? the cries of the people, the citizens, the dying malnourished? a country credited with the only successful slave revolt has its history deep-rooted in rebellion. who can blame them? when no one listens, and rebellion is the only way to get the attention of those in control, it seems like a logical step.

my prayer for haiti tonight is that they choose to be heard in their protests through peaceable assemblage; that they would not wreck havoc and violence on an already crippled country in the name of being heard. i pray that the Lord would hear their cries. that He would meet the corruption with justice, removing the chains from a nation that needs to reap in His already-granted Freedom.