Haiti is Home. By Eli

Eli surprised me with this school essay and agreed to let me share it. Enjoy.


Haiti is home for me.

Northern Haiti holds a special place in my heart, it is home for me.

 The view calms me either from the school room windowsill or from the top of the mountain. You see lush green trees closer to you, and farther on is the mountain ridge. The plants shine with morning dew and a goat bleats on the mountain.

The cat leaps into a mess of weeds pestering a lizard, and the birds sing their morning songs. A slender bird hops from branch to branch on the mulberry tree looking for breakfast. The trees whisper in the breeze. This is home for me.

A puffed up lizard opens his neck sail and bobs his head, claiming the newly washed screen for his territory. I can study another lizard’s skeleton trapped sadly between the two layers of screen. A few small birds pluck at a palm branch for nesting material, and the occasional hawk glides on a thermal.
This is a beautiful land, this is home.

A green humming bird may be seen visiting flowers. The smell of blooms comes from some flowering plant, be it the grass, a blooming fruit tree, or one of Mom’s plants. In rainy season we usually have a thunder storm roll in later in the day.

A man might be seen leading his cow up the mountain to pasture or hoeing his randomly shaped field. A fresh smell fills the air, it rained last night.

The people of Haiti live poorly, yet I think God gave them a land rich with nature, wonderful singing voices, and close family. In the mostly simple houses, the people live close together; they are much closer as a family than many people living in the U.S.

 They may be poor by the world’s standards, yet richer places tend to weaken relationships. Haiti’s riches lie in strong relationships.

Unlike industrialized lands Haiti nourishes a much simpler, slower, and sometimes more enjoyable life style.

Problems exist: less medicine, lots of trash, poverty, hunger, violence, to name a few.

 I have lived here for a long time. I witness a form of family life that Americans enjoy rarely. In some ways I think riches in relationships are better than riches by the world’s standards.

Haiti grabs people’s hearts, this is home for me.

Elijah Thede, 14 years old.