“Chemen long pa touye ou.”
Translation: “The long road doesn’t kill you. Meaning, perseverance is good.”
Last week I was in Fermathe, a large village a bit further down the mountain from here (where the Baptist Mission is located) and I saw the older sister of Losentia and Marie Elande. I had met her during our time at the hospital with Marie Elande a few months ago. Her resemblance to her mother is remarkable so I recognized her right away even though our single prior encounter was brief. I greeted her, asked of her mother, and told her that her sisters were doing well. She was walking down the main mountain road with a basket of homemade molasses cookies balanced on her head. As she walked she sold the 5 gourde a piece cookies to passersby in need of a quick snack. This young woman in her late teens/early twenties takes a taxi to the mountain village of Fermathe and spends her entire day walking back down to Port au Prince (or at least to Petionville to catch a taxi home but this is still quite a ways away) returning home to her baby and her mother. I don’t even know how many miles e walk is but it is far. Farther than most people would walk for a meager wage. But she perseveres. The long road won’t kill her and in the end it provides money to buy a meal for her family.
This is true for so many Haitians. Jobs are scarce but they persevere, using their will and skills and determination to sell what they can whether cookies or produce or used clothing or small kitchen wares, in order to survive, in order for them and their families to live.
Perseverance is an amazing attribute. James 1:4 is a verse I look to often: Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This young Haitian woman, like so many of her countrymen, perseveres out of necessity.
Most of us would never be able to relate to her situation. But perseverance can be a choice of lesser magnitude as well. We may start down a path God has laid out for us but find ourselves stumbling from time to time. Turning back would be easy and save us from getting hurt, frustrated, upset, etc. But we pray for perseverance, a gift from God that allows us to continue despite obstacles or doubt or fear. Marie Elande’s sister could easily give up her trek down the mountain, resign herself to begging or worse. But she perseveres. God gives her strength everyday to get up and keep living the life He has given her.
When we feel like giving up, like perseverance isn’t even an option (I know I have had these days) we should remember this young woman. If she can walk miles and miles everyday carrying a load of cookies on her head, surely we can continue down our long road as well.
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