I hate tragedies. I am more of a want-to-be-happy-all-the-time person. I hate having to witness sad events. I particularly hate burials. Most of the time, when someone I know has lost a loved one, I find myself almost avoiding that person because I just feel so inadequate and helpless and wouldn’t know what to say/ do. I know it probably doesn’t make much sense, but usually, that is my first response. Of course, after talking to myself and rationalizing, I usually get enough courage to approach the person and offer whatever support I can.
This has been the case with the Haiti earthquake incident for me. It’s been 12 days now and even though I’ve been following the events and developments of the rescue and stuff, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it on TV until maybe the 5th or 6th day. This was definitely intentional. I didn’t want to see the sight of the dead bodies lying all over the streets, limbs protruding from under the rubble or to hear the groans of people buried under the heap of bricks and mortar that had been houses. I could see it all in my mind’s eye and I felt I didn’t need the television graphics to confirm it or make it anymore worse than it already was.
What make the whole Haiti earthquake so tragic is when you think of where they are coming from. Haiti is like the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The average Haitian lives on less than $2 a day (which, if I must add is almost equivalent to 2 bars of chocolate that you don’t think of when buying). 80% of the Haitian population are living under the poverty line and two-thirds of the labor force do not have formal jobs.
Why would God let something this terrible happen to a country that’s striving? And this is not the first earthquake in Haiti. There have been several of them. It’s like trying to understand why God would let a woman lose a baby she’s waited years to have. We can’t understand His ways, probably never will.
It is so disheartening just thinking of people who have lost family or friends in this earthquake. It is even more disheartening when you think of those whose family or friends are missing. The not-knowing what happened to them or where they could be can rip your heart apart. We can only pray that God gives them the strength to get through this tragedy and come out stronger.
Watching the events on TV, however made a bigger and stronger impression on me. I am more grateful for the little things I have. For everyday that passes by, I give thanks that we are healthy and have the basic things of life and much more. I also thank God for Nigeria. Natural disasters like this don’t happen over there. At least that is one less thing to worry about.
