Summer camp oasis at SAKALA

News for a Better World at the SAKALA community center in Cité Soleil, Haiti

Whenever I read the news from Haiti, which is almost always dire, I try to reconcile it with the pictures of joy coming out of SAKALA.

Like this one from the start of SAKALA’s summer camp in July.

I did this as well when I was blessed to live in SAKALA’s guest room for months at a time a few years ago.

Only then, the bad news I was trying to reconcile was physically only blocks away, signaled maybe by the sound of gunfire in the distance.

But the joyful children were right there, jumping rope, playing chess, working in the garden or just enjoying the shade there.

Sharing a laugh with friends. (A favorite of mine from 2021.)

I think before I knew about SAKALA if someone described a place as an oasis, I would think it probably overblown, a cliché.

But the kids and staff at SAKALA have shown me that the oasis they have made there can be as real as the harsh reality just outside.

I say they made the oasis (with the help of friends like you) because that is another thing SAKALA and Haitians in general have taught me over the years.

They don’t wait for the bad news to end to create their own oasis out of the gifts they have already in abundance – their talents, imaginations, spirits, communities.

They bring their joy, their love, and their hope.

So I while I fret and seethe at the dire news that shows the world outside is not the just, beautiful one they deserve (yet), they are not waiting to make the world they have an oasis.

Please, enjoy some scenes from SAKALA’s summer camp oasis, which wraps up this week as they look forward to another school year filled with learning.

With gratitude for your solidarity and kindness.

Wishing you much peace, happiness, and health (and an oasis of your own).