Throwback to Better Times
Every so many days we get notifications of “on this day, this many years ago” and when clicking on them, we get taken back to a specific moment in time, some big moments, some small. They can be every day things, the mundane, pictures of pets, food, screenshots, or, in my case, It’s Cactus products. But every so often, it tends to be bigger things: memories of a trip from years ago, friends/family that are no longer with us, our grown kids as babies. Some of these memories stop us in our tracks, bring up emotions that only a memory would, sometimes these memories show up as a smile on our face, sometimes tears down our cheeks.
About two weeks ago, we had one of those notifications on Facebook, a memory from November 20th, 2014, and boy was it a throwback filled with nostalgia. Two of our beloved artist partners and friends, Cineus and Wiseton, came on a trip to California and hung out with us for a couple weeks. During their time here, they went to the beach, the aquarium, and wasted no time promoting their Haitian metal art. They participated in various markets around Monterey, went to Georgie’s school to have Girl Scouts introduce them and talk about Haitian metal art. Not only did the people there get the unique opportunity to meet the artists and buy art directly from them, but also got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a demonstration of how Haitian metal art is created from the artists themselves. It was truly an incredible time. Thanks to all the support they received, they were able to end their trip with over $3500 apiece. Taking into consideration that in Haiti the average worker was making $2 a day during that time, that was really a small fortune which left them, not only with a great experience, but also with means to improve their lives, and those of their families and communities. We were so happy and honored to have been part of that.
Seeing those pictures and their smiling faces took us down a rabbit hole of thoughts. By no means was their life easy and Haiti was already a struggling country having a hard time coming out of the Earthquake in 2010, but there was opportunity. They were going back to their communities with hope, hope that if they worked hard, they could succeed. Fast-forward 10 years later, and it saddens me to see how their situation has deteriorated. At this moment in time, their lives have been upended by the situation in Haiti and if you have read our recent blogs or kept up with the news in Haiti, you’ll read all about how food scarcity, violence, and corruption have affected the entire population, our artists included. Our artists have been forced to flee from their homes and workshops some even their country, they have been extorted for “protection”, banks have withheld funds for extended periods of time, airports have closed preventing their art and means of living to leave, and, even worse, some have been hurt and some even killed. In the last 20 years that we’ve worked with artists in Haiti, never has the situation been this tragic. Our only hope is that 10 years from now, we might get a notification, “on this day, 10 years ago” and at that time we will just be grateful that the situation took a drastic turn for the better, that it has improved and that we are able to see their smiling, hopeful faces once again.
