Pursue Your Haitian Passion

Pursue Your Passion We live in a time where obstacles in the path of the journey of our life come like wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they sometimes/often times appear in our mirrors although we may not see or recognize their reflections.

Our hopes and dreams and our desires when we started off as starry-eyed children in Haiti or here in the United States, these hopes and dreams were always changing, always mobile, sometimes infantile, but always we aspired to go higher, higher than our own one-story roof, further than the galri front yard, further than the front porch, further than la ville (downtown and capital).

Years ago many had dreams of being doctors and lawyers, and some children, while playing lago kache, woslè and dominoes, they looked up at the stars and dreamt with eyes wide open of being astronauts.

Others wanted to become surgeons and engineers, race car drivers, Olympic divers and soccer stars…they weaved their dreams upon their personal stars…and at an early age, kicked a ball around a school yard, read books on medicine, played doctor, ran bicycles like they were in the Indy 500…some sat on top of their roofs and dreamt of walking on the moon, circling Mars, seeing the earth from above, inventing life-saving medicines or become the most world renowned detective…their minds raced across countries and jungles escaping and fighting evil, fixing cars and building airplanes, being airmen in the Airforce…and of course, being President.

But something always seems to happen…some obstacle always seems to rear its head within their vision…a voice always seems to drown out the sound of their wishes being made as their dreams are played out on the stages of their mind.

Parents force them to stop thinking about being a chef, a cook and focus on being a doctor or lawyer.

Parents and society team up together and deter them from even thinking about being a doctor or lawyer and focus on running the family business…or resigning themselves to believing the words that are echoed in their ears and minds constantly, jack hammered into their soul:

If the ones who came before you are still doing things the old fashioned way…if they are not truly making a difference and if they are hurting more than helping the community when you know you can and will do more…PURSUE YOUR PASSION, no matter the obstacles.

no matter if they own the city, no matter if they have the city officials, radios or television stations in their pockets…PURSUE YOUR PASSION and do…DO!

The little Haitian girl with dreams of being an actress is told that she better learn how to be a good maid because that’s all she’ll ever be.

And so, she steals glimpses of her role models on TV and dreams until one day her dreams get deferred somewhere between the outside tub where she washes her employer’s clothes and the inside kitchen where she cooks for her employer and has to wait until they are finished eating and no longer need for her to serve them before she can have her own meal.

The little Haitian boy who was told that a musician is a vagabond…and will never amount to anything, will never be respected, his dream was also deferred…deferred by stereotypes and negativity, even jealousy.

And although he could play a guitar very adeptly at age 6 and was writing music by age 8…although he dreamt of playing in his country’s palace for international dignitaries, and had dreams of Carnegie and Radio City, he followed the OTHER path that he was sent on and went to work in the family business…went to college and got his degree in something…started working for someone.

Many have a passion for cooking, for fashion, for writing, modeling or dancing, law or medicine…maybe even art…yet are forced by various reasons and chains of events (pregnancy, money, loss of partner or family members, self-deprecation, marriage, divorce) to just “get a job” and make ends meet, not realizing that the ends are not really meeting mentally and emotionally.

Their PASSION was created, fed by their dreams, hopes, desires and aspirations…and then starved by family and society until these same passions and dreams were deferred and finally locked away in some dusty trunk in the back of their mind.

Later on in their years, they will let their thoughts open that trunk where they discarded their passions and dreams, and look at what could have been.

Why not shun what your family thinks is best if you feel, think, know, love and are happy with the inner you and what you THINK your inner you and you can accomplish.

Follow your path and your dream, so that when you rise like the sun and shine in the sky, you can look at the darkness that wanted to hold you and smile with pride!

Just because you are poor or middle class…or your parents may be semi-literate and you come from a supposed poor nation…just because you are labeled as “moun monn”, moun andeyo” or your adolescent years were that of farming…HERE YOU ARE NOW…with the same dreams still in your mind being weaved, dreams of going to college, being the first of 5, 10, 15 siblings…and entire family to walk through the doors of University…PURSUE YOUR PASSION!

Pursue it with intensity and tenacity like Dumarsais Simeus, the eldest son of peasant rice farmers from Pont Sonde in the Artibonite, Haiti.

In 1961 His family sold some land so he could fly to the United States to pursue a college education at Florida A&M University and an MBA from the University of Chicago…although society and life and negativity could have made him just continue in the footsteps of his parents and those around him, casting his dreams and his hopes and aspirations aside for that of status quo.

No…he pursued his passion and let his passion be the catalyst that he needed to become the President and CEO of Simeus Foods, Inc providing food products for national multi-chain restaurants and large institutions like El Pollo Loco, Denny's, T.G.I.

Friday's and Burger King in the United States and Canada.[5] generating $155 million a year.

So the next time you have a Burger King burger, know that it probably was seasoned with the dreams and passion of a little boy from Pont Sonde, Haiti.

Like the preacher’s son who was told to stay in the church, when his passion was in hip hop.

Now, he’s a world ambassador for Haiti and pursuing his passion, loving the moment and enjoying his life!

And still telling people to pronounce his name correctly, not “Jeen” but Jean!

Do not fall into the trap that anyen pap janm chanje (nothing will ever change).

Pursue your passion and make a difference like Marleine Bastien did, organizing to help Haitian women and families in South Florida and becoming a household name not only in Haitian homes, but in government too!

Pursue you passion like Edwidge Danticat…work for it, live for it, work for and with it!

Pursue your passion, pursue your dreams, pursue your pen, your violin, your dance steps, your lyrics, your rhyme, your rhythm, your poetry, your culinary desires, your business savvy, your fashion designs, your communication skills...LIFE IS THE ARMY WHERE YOU SHOULD BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE!

Be that business owner, spa owner, restaurant owner, multi-million dollar real estate broker, singer, song writer, guitarist!

Don’t let anyone, anything or any stereotype, status quo or past history….nor the color of your skin, no handicap or class notation stop you from aspiring to be YOU or accomplish what you have been dreaming about ever since you were a child, looking up at the ceiling at night before you went to sleep or day-dreaming in your backyard while playing marbles or staring out into the sea and skies.

Become the chef that you want to be…never mind what Haitian society might think!

If Emeril listened to negativity, there’d be no “Bam!” on TV, no Emeril…and we have Cordon Bleu Emeril’s in the making in Haiti…soon-to-be chefs who are turning maymoulin, legumes or lanbi into exotic meals…future Emeril’s and future Betty Crockers who will have their own food show on Comcast cable!

Pursue it the same way that little boy many years ago pursued his jump shot and alley-oops…pursue it the way he pursued his dribble and fakes…and do not let anyone tell you ke Ayisien pa jwe basketball, se futbol ke nou jwe…because if that were true, Olden Polyniece wouldn’t have been signed to the Utah Jazz , Samuel Dalembert wouldn’t have come from port Au prince to play for Seton hall and be drafted by the 76’ers 1st round draft pick babyyy!

PURSUE YOUR PASSION, never giving up, the same way that mario Antoine Elie never gave up trying and failing and trying and failing to get into the NBA…his passion was basketball, and he pursued it…pursued it in Europe until finally in 1991, Elie played his first NBA game, first for the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers before being traded to the Houston Rockets in 1993.

He went on to pursue and feed his passion and won NBA championships with the Rockets first in 1993-1994 and again in 1994-1995, making some incredible three-point field goals and getting the nickname Super Mario and "Junkyard Dog." doors will be closed, failing once, twice and a third time is a possibility…but the biggest failure is TO NOT PURSUE YOUR PASSION OR TO GIVE UP!

About The Author: Makendal Multi-lingual Spoken Word Poet, Motivational Speaker, Teen Mentor (makendal30@yahoo.com)

greetings my people, it is with tears in my eyes i type this letter. i am not sure if this will truly get posted or not. it is my first time on this site. although i ran into your site by mistake and don’t know much about it; i am so happy to read some of the material you guys have; particular the ones speaking about pursuing my haitian passion. i too often times don’t believe in myself and get discouraged big time. they say god sends you what you need when you need it; and that is the truth. i needed to be on your site just now. my name is luceanna altino-moore and i am the president of a non-profit organization by the name of a oasis for children, inc. we seek out the most impoverished children in haiti and provide them with everything they need. along with the orphanage, we pay tuition for children as well as have an adult literacy program and also do mass feedings, etc., but that is not why i am sending this letter. i have been very discouraged, defeated, stressed, and overwhelmed due to the lack of support i have been getting for this organization for some time. it has been so bad that i have actually considered closing down the organization. it is like everyone family or not has turned their backs on me and this ministry. i never imagined trying to save some children would cost me so much. it caused me a lot of money, time, energy, relationships, etc. although the children at the orphanage are doing great; funding has dwindled almost to nothing. there have been more and more days when i find myself asking why should i continue to pour everything that i have into this work; i ask am i really making a difference? then the image of one of the children’s faces and their smiles comes to my mind or when i go to see them and hear them call me “mama luce”, i feel that they are worth it. then shortly after that, i get discouraged again. the icing on the cake is the lack of support that i have gotten from the haitian community. it is bananas how selfish and uncompassionate the haitian community is. i think that alone is mostly the source of my discouragement. it is heart breaking to see so many haitians, so-called haitian-americans, and diasporas go on and live their lives, partying, and living like they have no idea about the devastation and suffering they have left behind back in haiti. but yet and still those same people walk around talking about “haiti cherie” and “proud to be haitian”, while our children are dying by the thousands every day. that is crazy and ridiculous. if even half of the haitian community would decide to help an organizations like ours to succeed and grow to make a bigger impact, what a big difference it would make. i just wanted to tell you that after reading some of your articles; it has encouraged me to continue to make a difference in these children's lives; even if i have to do it one child at a time. we are a small organization and have struggled since we have opened, but at the end of the day, after all is said and done; those children are worth every tear i have shed, every discouragement and set back i have had and worth all the pain and suffering i have endured during this journey. i just wanted to let you guys (fouyemotivation) know that because of your site, i have found the strength, the motivation, and love that i needed to move forward with oasis for children, inc. i guess you can that is your way of doing your part. sincerely appreciative, luceanna altino-moore luceanna altino- moore oasis for children, inc. president ph# 908-208-1311 fax: 732-227-0846 godsoasis at hotmail.com www.oasisforchildren.org ; www.myspace,com/oasisforchildren p.o. box 5231 somerset, nj 08874-5231