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My interest in Haiti shouldn’t be a surprise to regular visitors to this site.  If you’re a new visitor, read my blog from September 2008. At that time, Haiti had been pummeled by back to back hurricanes.  The topography had been decimated by years of stripping and as a result the impact of these storms was even harsher.  Adding insult to injury, the stripping of trees was a survival tactic.  The trees and the charcoal that was made from them were the only products many Haitians had to sell at market.  The very thing that helped them feed their families killed them or left them with even less than they had prior to the storms.

I was at a loss as to what I could do to help.  Fast forward two years and on January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake.  Shortly thereafter, I began meeting with some people who I knew were connected to an Episcopal church that was doing a lot of work in Haiti building schools.  We talked about how we could keep Haiti at top of mind once the telethons were over and the news cameras left.  A member of this group recommended that I read Tracy Kidder’s book to help me understand the conditions there.