Yesterday it was Jean Gaudy’s birthday. Jean Gaudy (pronounced Goody) is my best friend here in Haiti. He is a good man. He is a man that loves God. From the moment I saw him I knew that there was something extremely special about this man, something that looked so humble and gentle and it drew me in. I couldn’t wait to be his friend. He had just been hired at HOM, and as I admired his quiet demeanor, someone expressed annoyance that Jean Gaudy had been hired without being consulted about it. I am not involved in the hiring that takes place here but I was offended at this remark. From what I observed, they just made a once in a lifetime hire, the best man that I had never even met yet.
Jean Gaudy is educated. He has a degree in Sociology. He speaks four languages and that includes his intermediate English, which I am helping him out with. Jean Gaudy has never had a job that was permanent, nor did he ever land a job in his field, much like many educated Haitians in this country, a perpetual problem. When he was hired by HOM, I can guarantee it wasn’t for a lot of money, certainly not what he would be worth, if we are forced to measure the human spirit in monetary terms. Jean Gaudy came to work a month early. He came to work on his English so that he could do a better job serving here. He came even though he wouldn’t be paid until his official start date a month later.
When Jean Gaudy celebrated his 36th birthday, he wore a homemade party hat with an array of balloon drawings. Too bad we didn’t have real balloons. He read a homemade card that was signed by various people that live and work here. He picked it up and read it again. And again. I asked him if he understand what everyone had written. He nodded. Every word. Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t stop reading it.
I do not celebrate birthdays well, either for myself or others. Perhaps this is a personality flaw though my wife would never let me hide behind that poor excuse. Celebrating Jean Gaudy’s birthday was of great importance for me though (and Stacey). To celebrate his birthday meant to acknowledge him as a person, express appreciation for his friendship, honor the man that he is. It didn’t matter if it was his birthday or not, it needed to be said! Because truthfully, it probably rarely if has.
As transparently as I can encourage people at home, without feeling silly or strange, in Haiti, this is a foreign practice among people. When presented with the card that read Happy Birthday Jean Gaudy Estor and the words inset We Love You, his roommate on the compound, another Haitian man didn’t want to sign it. What would I say to him, is what he said. I was saddened, but not all to surprised. Forget birthdays going unnoticed, think about your life going disregarded for long stretches, maybe your whole existence. What I have noticed in Haiti is a failure for the common man to communicate love to his neighbor, and yes I know we can observe this at home but we still know it happens. What if you never even saw “good friends” practice it?
In Haiti I have observed people in great physical need, but the spiritual needs are much greater. If people do not start loving each other with the love of God that so, so many of them are aware of, this country will never change. Many people lose loved ones all the time and life has ceased to hold value. Many die without knowing that they were loved, and if the love of God is not expressed through God’s people, even the love that we inherently know God bestows on us, can be forgotten.
There’s multiple layers to this cultural problem and I am not doing it justice in a couple paragraphs. I hope you can begin to see what I am addressing and I hope to expand more, at least in my own writing, so that I can examine my own heart and what this means for me as a Canadian living in Haiti and how it will affect what I do about it, in what little or big ways I can. I believe we were at a birthday party though.
Next week we’re going to a soccer game, so we drew a ticket on the back of Jean Gaudy’s birthday card. Today he learned what the word REDEEM meant. What do you buy for someone who has so little and expected nothing to begin with? This is a truly humbling conundrum to encounter and you feel stupid trying to think of anything that would even remotely suffice. A ticket to a soccer game is a good gift for a Haitian, but the truth is that the best present was what was written inside that card, the message that was read several times before the night’s end, and will hopefully resound deep within him for his truly special life. Happy Birthday Jean Gaudy Estor. We Love You.
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