Learning to walk

Well, another day and another incredible story from a remarkable individual.
Tonight I had the fortune of meeting a 16-year-old boy named Stevenson Pierre. He is from the island of Ile Gonave. He had just returned from an 8-month stint in the United States where he had a massive surgery to get a prosthetic leg. He was born with his right leg being significantly shorter than his left. So short in fact that a "fully developed" right leg, foot and all, was not even as long as his femur of his left. He had never walked before.
He was found and taken in by a phenomenal organization called WellSpring International of Atlanta. He lived there and had his surgery at St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis.
And today, when I met him, he was proudly standing, Air Jordans and all, with the help of some crutches.

He was upset because he had left "paradise" and had gotten off the plane and suddenly realized he was back in hell. He wanted to stay in America where he could get a good job, make more money, and be able to have a guaranteed dinner every night. Carmel began to talk to him in Creole but I quickly butted in and began speaking in English, which I knew he understood.
I told him about Arkansas and how we have massive brain drain. Everyone wants to move away and get a better job in a better city and make more money. But all that does is make the situation worse and prevents the people who remain stuck in the state from ever being able to have better companies and better jobs come into the state. I told him that this model is the exact same with Haiti. If all of the smart, driven people left, this country would fall into even more disrepair than it is in now. He began to understand. I told him how he should be the best car mechanic (his dream job) in the entire country. And he will be able to feed his family and send his kids to school. But he should also use his knowledge to teach others so that they can do the same. Baby steps.
And then we began to talk about America. He asked me why Southerners ate alligator, possum, and frog legs. I asked him why they loved goat. He loved the TV show Swamp People and enjoyed watching baseball. He found hockey as confusing as I do. And he fell in love with the song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" because his mother's name is Lucy.
Quote of the night, when asked about Chick-Fil-A: "Oh yeah, we used to go there at least twice a week."

Seeing this young man who had suddenly been given the gift to walk made me reflect back upon Ronnie in the wheel chair.
I think many people are looking for Haiti to be sprinting forward with the billions of dollars in aid which is poured into this country. But you can't run if you are just learning how to walk.


On a side note, I realized more today just how amazing Carmel and Pere Val are. They do so many great things for this country. Carmel single-handedly finds all of the children in Haiti who need surgery for WellSpring. They do not get their names in newspapers or on television. But they have changed or saved the lives of thousands of Haitians. They are two people who should be the utmost role models for young Haitians. Damn you FUSE (Haitian MTV) for convincing even more children that the lifestyles of Chris Brown and Lil Wayne are to be desired.