Worst speaker ever!

Two weeks ago I got home from the
Circle K (University Service Club, thing I've been calling "rotary thing") District Convention where I was accidentally the main speaker. Or something. I forgot to tell the
Governor that I have no concept of time, there was no clock in the
room, and I didn't have a watch myself. So, after breakfast (10 ish?)
I started to speak, supposed to do the first workshop. But then I
forgot my lines and couldn't remember how to get to the important
information except by doing a verbal dump of all the information I've
absorbed since leaving for Haiti. So instead of a
workshop, these poor folks volunteered for an example of cataclysmic
word diarrhea. If only the cure were as simple as for the regular
gastro-enteric diarrhea I've become expert in: wash hands, cook food.
(Although washing mouths with soap and cooking the books do exist as
treatments, they're not for this problem)

I have no idea how long I spoke for, but it was noon by the time I
finally moved off centre stage… and then kept talking through part of
lunch break. This at least wasn't entirely my fault, someone asked me a
question, and everyone else started listening. Probably I was talking
too loud, as I tend to do that when I'm speaking about something
important to me. The weird thing is, I actually wanted to try this whole "speaker" thing again.

and friends of family members have invited me to do so.

but i have spent two weeks now, trying to create some sort of plan for what I want to say, and I'd have done better to research lavatory construction in the middle ages, for I have naught to show.

I know i should introduce myself, the country (Haiti is bigger than Israel and has more people than Switzerland) and the problem (Finland has better water than Canada, but EVERYONE has better water than Haiti- , and most countries have better EVERYTHING than Haiti

But I don’t really know enough to talk about that concretely, not enough that I’d want someone quoting me. I thought Haiti was in the bottom 5 on the Human development Index, but it’s actually 25th from the bottom. It’s still, by far, the poorest in Western Hempisphere, but worldwide, 24 other country’s citizens have it crappier than Haitians.

woohowait...

That is not actually something to celebrate.
I’ve realized since returning to Canada that my world view has not gotten bigger with travel. I tried to explain this to an honoured guest at the conference banquet: I went to Haiti because I cared about justice, about people everywhere being equal. I also used to care about the environment, about the military; I even cared a little about Micro Breweries. Now all I care about is Haiti.

I can’t talk about hockey or the problems in Iraq or Uganda , or even water related problems in other countries. The only thing I know is Haiti, and most of that is third hand or subjective. I don’t think I can offer much as a speaker other than explanations of my pictures, and maybe shout down fears that keep people from traveling. Again, it is subjective, I know there are real gangs, but here is a picture of the only gang (“posse”) I remember from my eight months in Haiti:



Ti Cheri, mwen sonje nou anpil!