Leaving for Haiti I was so concerned about being disconnected from the world, more specifically the news. But once I arrived in Haiti, I did not think about what was going on in the news because there was so much news going on around me. Being concerned with the pissing match that a bunch of white privileged males were in seemed incredibly insignificant compared to the fact that I was living amongst people who in some cases lived on less than a dollar a day and yet seemed to have so much joy. The experience that I had in Haiti has forever changed me and as I continue to reflect I continue to change. 

 

Since returning from Haiti I have been grappling with one big question, from which many smaller questions stem. This question is, what is color? Color, simply put,  is the aspect of objects that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by said object. But who are we to limit a color to one word, because to each of us the experience of color is completely unique. For everyone, the color pink is an individual experience that evokes different memories and emotions. And once the social construction of what it means to be a color is added a whole new dimension is added to the understanding of color. We’ve come to live in a society where the darkness of your skin determines your access to resources. We live in a society where based on the color of your skin people feel it is acceptable to discriminate and make assumptions. As a white woman I knew that going to Haiti would mean that for the first time in my life, the color of my skin would make me a minority.

 

Similar to my concern about the news everything I was expecting about color was flipped on its head once we arrived in Haiti. In Haiti, color is so important, but not in the way that we (Americans) are used to. The buildings are colorful, the art is colorful, the culture is colorful, and the people’s lives are colorful. Driving along the road, it is easy to be distracted by the colorful “storefronts” decorated with painted art. The art itself is colorful and meaningful. But then again who am I to make this distinction of meaningful? I personally felt it was meaningful because art is so often a way to express oneself beyond what words enable one to do. The buildings of metal work that we walked through on Sunday, brought me closer to the people whose art it was because this is how they have chosen to spend their time and make a living. The color in the paintings of the art museum told a story to me of a people who despite horrendous oppression has chosen to not to back down. The culture is unique and vibrant, with most people finding ways to express themselves in an environment that it would be so easy to simply give up. This realization was strengthened for me again and again by talking to individuals about their lives and faith.  The art, the buildings, and the culture would be nothing without the people. The people are colorful and welcoming. Never before have I met a group of individuals more welcoming than the Haitian people. Our skin may have been a different color, our life experiences extremely different, and even our language worlds apart; but yet we connected on a deeper level. I was struck by the fact that the color of our skin was not a barrier, nor even really a topic of conversation. 

Every day that we were in Haiti I had individuals come up to talk to me. Not asking for anything other than for me to sit down and share a few words. This openness and welcoming continues to strike me as I sit in a crowded eating establishment at school with people I have known for years and yet the conversations we share are so surface it pains me. Never before I have I been able to sit down with a stranger and talk openly about the fact that we both believe in different faiths and yet find a connection in the fact that we both just have a faith. All of the conversations I had transcended color, language, faith, and wealth. We were stripped down to the fact that at the end of the day we are all living and breathing humans, with families, stories, hurts, pains, loves, and triumphs. If I remember this fact my question about color becomes completely obsolete. Haiti taught me so many important things, the biggest being not to bring my preconceived notions into interactions rather remember that at the end of the day we are all humans who experience the color pink differently.