Against All Odds I was born in extreme poverty in a tiny village in
Haiti. Haiti is located south of Florida, with the Atlantic Ocean to
the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. While not all people
on the island are poor, the people in my village certainly were. The
village is about two miles long and one mile wide. It is located on th
extreme southside in the backwoods of Haiti.
We had no running water, no plumbing, and no electricity. We didnt hav
access to medical care. I still remember the first time I saw lights.
They were the headlights of an old and battered truck they called
Voici Phane (vwah-see fahn), which means here is Phanethe truck
owners name.
Things were difficult in my village. By the time I was five or six
years old, I was walking long distances on narrow and dangerous
pathways to collect drinking water from a wellspring, and to fetch woo
for cooking. I started climbing coconut and mango trees for survival.
As a little boy, I remember using my hands to eat because we had no
silverware.
For plates, we used half calabashes, which are like big watermelons
grown out of a tree (except they are not edible). The folks would
cut them in half, clean out the inside, and let them dry in the sun
so that they would become the consistency of wood.
Every child in my village was poor; but I was worse offmost of them ha
at least one parent present. When I became aware of my surroundings,
I realized I didnt have my father or mother around me. My father, who
was no help to me, had children all over Haiti.
He traveled from very far to take advantage of young, innocent women;
and he abandoned Maman while she was still pregnant with me. I
learned that my mother left me when I was only nine months old. The
neighbors told me Maman suffered very much because she was so poor.
One morning she decided to venture to the city, Port-au-Prince, to
discover what life had in store for herand to end a lifetime of
poverty. She left me behind with a lady named Betila. They told me
Maman had planned to send for me as soon as she could, but life in
the city was tough and things didnt turn out the way she expected.
It would be a long time before she could send for me.
As soon as Maman took off, I became ill. Many deadly diseases vowed
to end my existence so much so that I often lost all my strength. My
unhealthy diet, which mostly consisted of breadfruit, added to my
misery. Do you know what breadfruit is? It looks like pineapples on
the outside but tastes like extra tough potatoes.
My already weak digestive system could not process this much starch;
but since I survived by eating breadfruit night and day, my stomach wa
always bloated. I had constant indigestion, and parasites were eating
me alive.
