If you follow any missions or organization in Haiti, you may have already heard that many of us are gearing up for wide spread political unrest this month. You may be wondering how we know this unrest is coming? Who is behind it? And how will it affect us?
Let me give you a little modern day Haiti history lesson. Five years ago Haiti held a presidential election and candidate Jovenel Moise won. The other political party claimed there was too much fraud for the election to be considered valid. It was decided to put a temporary government/president in place for one year while they prepped to do a second election. A year later a second election was held and Jovenel Moise once again won. His opponent swore that if he didn’t win he would burn the country to the ground. He and his party have spent the last three years doing exactly that. There have been several coup attempts as well as countless violent and deadly riots across the country, the largest of which is referred to as “Peyi Lok” (country wide lockdown). In this time an exponential number of guns have been illegally imported to the country and the gangs are not only thriving but out power the small police force. Crime has gone up as a whole and kidnappings are happening daily (mostly in Port au Prince).
The Haitian constitution says that every five years a new presidential election will take place. The opposition is claiming that since the first election was five years ago that this February 7th is time to have a new one. President Jovenel is of course saying that the five years starts when he took office, and therefore the next elections should be February 2022. The opposition is demanding that he leave office immediately and Jovenel insists on staying for yet another year. Thus the opposition is calling for another “movement” on February 7th lasting at least a week. The most recent schedule of events (yes these protests or scheduled and planned), calls for it starting as early as tomorrow February 1st.
Everyone in Haiti is waiting anxiously to see what will come of next week. We have had no choice but to prepare for the worse, or that is, those of us who have the means to do so are stocking up on necessary supplies. It’s still questionable whether or not anything will actually happen. In January the opposition had called for nation wide protests, but, thankfully nothing came of those calls. Some people are saying that the opposition is out of money and can’t afford to pay people to take to the streets again. Others feel that this could get as bad as it was during Peyi Lok. No one knows.
That being said, there has definitely been an increase in “dezoid” (trouble making) this past week. The opposition is doing what they can to fire up the population and try and get people on their side. The police are doing what they can to keep things in control and there are reports of significantly more police on the streets than normal. However, as I said before, the police are far out gunned.
Cap Haitian has been experiencing a gas shortage for a month now. It doesn’t fully make sense as Port of Prince has gas, but we don’t here. Or at least the gas stations are saying they don’t. Tet believes withholding gas is a way to put everybody on edge and help get them riled up for the fight. He has seen tanker trucks pull into a gas station, only to then see the police shooing customers away an hour later claiming there is no gas. Stations open for a few days here and there, but haven’t consistently been open for weeks. When they are open, people sit in line for HOURS to be able to get gas. The large majority of the gas we have gotten this past month has been off the black market, individuals selling it on the street for $6-10 a gallon. Thankfully, most of our vehicles and compound runs on diesel. Our biggest gas consumption is for the delivery moto and the generator on our home.
I personally feel that since we have been dealing with gas shortages for so long (almost 2 years), that it’s just become everyones new normal. Something that used to bring about a lot of stress, is now just dealt with as part of every day life. People have put the needed systems in place to get through it. Therefore, I am HOPING that this won’t have any affect on peoples decision to or not to join the fight.
Now you may be wondering how exactly will all of this affect New Roots and our family. For years I’ve always said that these things only happen in the city, not in rural Haiti where we are located. Unfortunately, over the past eighteen months we have for the first time ever had gang issues in our village. Although the police never arrested any of the men causing us problems a few months ago, most of the leaders were afraid it would happen and left the area. Some fled to the Dominican Republic. A few of these trouble makers are still around and we see them daily. In fact, they hang out right next to our soccer field. For a long time after our issues they would just glare at us. They have now started to wave back and say hi to me when I take my kids to practice. Although they remain here, they were not the owners of the guns and are (hopefully) unarmed at the moment. Without their leader supporting them, they don’t really have much reason to cause us trouble.
Although the troubles we’ve faced are disheartening and put us on edge, it’s a completely separate problem than what the country is facing as a whole. In other words, even if there are problems in town this week, it likely won’t reach us way out here. And for that, we are thankful.
We have stocked up on gas and groceries. As it is, we hardly ever leave the farm, so staying put for a week or two while things are unstable will be nothing new to our family. The biggest effect it will have is that if roads are blocked Watson might not be able to deliver chicken for a few days. We of course are not the only ones preparing, so likely a lot of our customer base stocked up last week as well.
Tonight we ask for prayers. We ask specifically that Haiti will remain calm. That the opposition won’t have a big turn out and therefore people don’t take to the streets. Prayers for those who aren’t able to stock up and prepare during this time. For the kids who either won’t be able to go to school this week if things get “hot”, or will be on edge during their journey to and from school due to past threats agains students. And for those who will need medical care, but if things get bad, will be unable to navigate their way to hospitals and clinics. We are still holding on to hope that nothing comes of all of this.