Last summer HDC was forced to shut down from April - August 2020 due to Covid 19 restrictions and a significant loss in orders, also due to Covid 19. A few of our artisans shared their reflections during their time at home during the shut down. Once the workshop was re-opened, a whirlwind of life and new challenges hit us pretty hard and we were so busy trying to get through the remainder of the year that we never shared these thoughtful essays with you all. We also never imagined that this pandemic would last as long as it has, and here we are almost a year later, still battling this pandemic worldwide and still suffering volatile political conditions within Haiti.
As many of you outside of Haiti are snowed in and still living the “socially distanced” lifestyle, we thought it would be a good time to share these Covid shut down reflections with you all from a few of our team members last summer.
To kick us off, we are featuring the essay written by Evans Noel, known as Jerry around our workshop. Jerry has been with HDC since 2015. He is our head of quality control and product development for our leather department.
Hi everyone,
This is Jerry from HDC- I’m sure you have heard from me before at some point!
I wanted to write a quick post to check in with everyone about what this season of life has been like for me in Haiti.
For those of you who don’t know me, I am married and I now have a beautiful daughter, Brianna Rae. During Covid, I feel like I have done a lot of reflecting on my life. I have been thinking about how Corona is almost like a consultant for the world, and is doing inventory for everyone to see what they have and what they don’t have, to see what you should have done and could do better, to see where you were and where you are now. For me, it has reminded me that God is at the door, readying the world for His return, whenever that may be.
Obviously, Covid is quite a sad thing but I also think Covid has offered a lot of opportunities for us. I know it has for me. Whenever I reflect on my life, I often find that hard times usually have unexpected blessings among them.
This time during Covid has brought me some blessings. It has given me a sense of a mini-vacation to spend time with my family, especially with my newborn baby, who was born in February 2020. This extra time spent together has been very special.
Another opportunity I have found during this time, was the time to be creative in trying to start a new business. I first started selling Papadap wholesale, which are phone minutes, so that smaller vendors can then resell minutes. I also began selling Kokiyol in the same way, which is a kind of pastry.
It has been really important for us to start trying to sell different things because of how the world has stopped, and there is a lot of unknown in the future. My wife and I didn’t want to have to stop too, it was a little scary thinking about being home for so long, where we would spend what we had without being able to go to work to earn more.
I have also used my time at home to re-define what it means to be a married man. I began putting in more effort to help around the house- like helping with laundry and cleaning. Sometimes my wife is so tired from breastfeeding and caring for Brianna that I do all I can to help, like with getting her to sleep. Brianna loves to fall asleep on my chest.
With a new baby, I have been very careful to make sure people wash their hands when they arrive at my house, and we are careful to utilize masks when we are out. Even though masks aren’t comfortable or convenient, I think it is nice that we have options to help protect ourselves.
I can’t imagine having to wake up and not be able to see Brianna’s smile, or my wife’s smile. Those two things are the most beautiful sights in my life. Hearing about Covid losses makes my heart weep with those who have lost such precious things in their lives.
But I think it’s important to choose not to remain in fear of what you could lose, but to seek out the hidden blessings that are for us to create and work for.
**NOTE: This post was written in May 2020. HDC re-opened the following August and Haiti is no longer shut down due to Covid.