Imagine walking for three years through foreign lands with different languages and different cultures. You’re not part of a reality show nor part of a forced foreign military campaign, but you were indeed forced into this journey, you are traveling against your will, as if you’d fallen in a raging river, a river of poverty, and you’re being swept downstream.

Haiti is many things, but one thing it is NOT, a lost cause. For every American who looks a lot like me and who has a similar ancestry as I do, our ancestors likely played a small role in stacking the deck against this small Caribbean island. But all of our families’ small roles cabined had an enormous impact.