The Contrasts of Haiti

Anyone who has ever visited Haiti knows that it is a land of contrasts: Wealth and poverty, fertile land and desert, celebration and sadness.  Perhaps at no time during the year is this more apparent than the Mardi Gras season (leading up to Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent).  This is the season of Carnival, a four-to-six-week-long time of riotous drinking, rowdy parades and partying (especially on Sundays leading up to and the weekend before Mardi Gras or “Fat Tuesday”).   At this time, massive trailers packed with giant speakers and a large generator (all towed by semi-tractors) block roads and deafen residents.  Young men cover their bodies with black residue from rum distillation and march on the streets, cracking whips and harassing passers-by.  Sometimes groups of voodoo practitioners organize ra ras, or parades, where they dress as gods or spirits and play special drums and trumpets.  On the other hand, churches organize camps and concerts to provide a positive alternative to Carnival.  Children that grow up in Christian homes love this season because of the time they spend friends doing youth activities instead of school.  Adults will hold evangelistic services and visit community members in there homes.  Carnival is also the season of planting in Haiti, where farmers turn the soil over on the hillsides by hand, planting their cherished seeds conserved since the last growing season.  Normally, the first rains of the year fall in late February or March.  Please pray that people would take pleasure in God and his grace instead of self-destruction.