“Grangou” was all he said to me when I first met him. He opened his shirt to show me his thin figure and his belt which had 6 or more extra holes punched in the leather. I didn’t need to see his emaciated figure to understand the word “grangou.” The week before I had been learning basic Creole with some software and that word popped up in one of the first lessons. It was mixed right in with “Alo (Hello)”, “Kòman ou ye? (How are you?)”, and “Mwen regrèt sa (I’m sorry)”.
Even before Haiti’s devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake, the word “Grangou (Hungry)” was a common response to “Kòman ou ye?” Now it is even more and more common – especially among the oldest of Haitians.
In West African culture, the elderly are well-respected and cared for by their children and grandchildren. Haiti is no different but the earthquake has made food hard enough to come by for one’s own immediate family, much less to provide for one’s elderly relatives.
This grangou man lived in a small, wooden shack with is wife and sister-in-law in the village of Paskèt, just outside of Jacmel. They hadn’t eaten for days and it was obvious. The man was so weak that after walking down the hill to attend our clinic he nearly passed out from exhaustion. We had to carry him back up to his house in a chair.
As a medical team we were not equipped to distribute large quantities of food to this neglected community. We did however purchase $800 of rice & beans (that’s still a lot) and the doctors treated the food like medication – prescribing it to those that needed it most.
This family was one of the grateful recipients of the food. “Halleluiah, Peace from Jesus” the sister-in-law proclaimed when I visited them again later in the afternoon. The food was already cooking in a tiny pot on an open fire on the dirt floor of their kitchen. When I told her I would pray for their family she held her hands up to the sky and said that we would meet again in heaven.
The rice and beans we shared will only sustain them for a week or two, but their faith in Christ will sustain them for eternity.
William your work is awesome and so are you!!!!
*UPDATE* March 8, 2010
I heard from a friend in Haiti that this family is doing fine but still having trouble getting food. The Haitihelpers group has sent some donations to buy more rice & beans for them and their community.