By Shirley Dor, The Lily, August 18, 2021
It’s Aug. 14, 2021, and I wake up to the familiar tone of numerous notifications. WhatsApp notifications are beaming every second. I do my typical routine: ignore the notifications, so I can practice mindfulness. To my dismay, mindfulness goes out the window the moment I pick up my phone and see the first message: “Shirley! Haiti was struck by an earthquake.”
In shock and unprepared to see what I know will traumatize my entire day, I do what my mother always told me to do in situations like this: I drink my Americanized version of te vèvenn. Calmed by the herbs, I prepare myself for the wave of grief I know I’ll soon be hit with. I start to conceptualize the number of lives lost while simultaneously trying to determine the best medium to share this information as a public figure in the Haitian community. I review my WhatsApp notifications, attempting to avoid any pictures and videos that may reveal emotionally taxing images of dead bodies piled on the street, just as they were in 2010.
Haiti makes headlines again. But this time, not for assassinations, political turmoil or riots, but for a natural disaster. As a Haitian American living in Florida, I choose to advocate for my homeland by using my voice. I turn to my online community, Haitians Who Blog, and tweet, repost, share and write as much as I can while trying to get through the day.
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