Land with No Trees

There were three large oak trees in the yard of my childhood home. Trees that were easily more than 200 years old and more than 100 feet tall. The trunk was so big that I couldn’t wrap my arms around it and have my hands touch. I spent my childhood around trees, and I know what it is like to lay in the shadow of a tree and dreaming of the future.

In my three weeks in Haiti I did not see a single tree that I could not have encircled my arms around. I saw some shrubs, some palm trees, and mango trees but none of them big enough to cast a shade in a yard for children to play under. Day to day I don’t think that much about trees, until I realized that I hadn't really seen one in three weeks. I knew that Haiti was deforested but it is hard to understand what that means until you see it with your own eyes. The trees were cut down for fire wood and to plant sugar cane. Haiti is hilly, even a bit mountainous but the hillsides are bare. All that is on the hills is dirt waiting to turn into mudslides and a general mess when the tropical rainstorms fall. Rains that will wash away nutrients in the soil, destroy ramchackled homes in its path, and block roads making an already difficult situation even worse.

I have long wanted to visit Haiti, long before the earthquake and hurricanes. My grandparents worked in Haiti for a little while over 20 years ago, but I remember their stories and their pictures. Yet my opportunity to visit Haiti took a long time to come, I visited over 15 countries including Haiti’s near identical twin, East Timor, before I made it to Haiti. Last fall when I was in East Timor I kept thinking how it must be like Haiti: a small island cut in half by two countries, with a history of unrest, poverty, and complete deforestation.

In these two countries, there is a whole generation of children, who have never had the opportunity to marvel at the enormity of the earth while lying under a large tree. The opportunity to dream about the future next to a tree that has been around for longer than anyone can remember.

My work helps kids be kids longer, helps keep kids healthy, but who is making sure that they have trees to lay under to stare up at the branches and dream?