My
name is Gabriel Thélus and I was born and raised in a small rural village most
recently named Jacsonville in Haiti.
Jacsonville is located between the northern and the central parts of Haiti – equidistant between the larger cities of
Cap-Haitien and Hinche and only two miles from the city of Pignon – and was named in memorial to my
father Jacsonne Thélus who died a few years ago. He married my mother, Sylfica
Christanie Prophete, many years ago and she lives down the road from me in
Jacsonville. I have two brothers and two sisters still living today but my
parents originally had 11 children. Farming was our way of life and we mostly
grew sugarcane to provide for ourselves.
I am now 42 years and have a wonderful family. Back in 1996, I married Maricile
Victorin. Although she did not grow up in Jacsonville, we are originally from
the same area. We have three children, two girls and a boy. Marie-Gabrielle
Simeon, the oldest daughter is affectionately known as Ti-Gabie and will be
eleven years old in September. Garel Jack, the second child and our only son will
be ten years old in December. Our youngest daughter Dominica Erinn just turned
six this June.
When I was growing up my family was very poor and it was difficult for me to go
to school. Both of my parents were illiterate and neither of them ever went to
school. By the grace of God, however, I was able to attend school and perform
very well. In the beginning, I went to a Catholic elementary school – Ecole St.
Joseph de Pignon – run by the priest of my home parish three miles from my
house. I was sixteen when I advanced to secondary school (high school). Unfortunately,
the closest Catholic secondary school in my area was St. Martin de Porres in
Hinche which was 20 miles from my house. St. Martin de Porres de Hinche was run
by the bishop of the Diocese of Hinche and it was the only school I could go to
and still have a chance to attend the university. Even though it was very
difficult, I completed seven years of secondary school and graduated. Because St.
Martin de Porres was so far from my house, I had to walk back and forth every
weekend to get money and food to survive. I did not have enough money to pay
for a truck to drive me from Hinche to Jacsonville so I walked the 20 miles to
get home. I did it because I had no other choice and the future of my family
and community depended on it. I always performed well in school and in the end someone
finally noticed.
I knew that I was intelligent enough to attend the university but the only one
in Haiti at that time was
the State University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince,
our capital city. University was a very expensive endeavor and only the very
wealthy elite attended. After four years of applying, I met Brother Cosmas
Rubencamp, an American missionary from the community of the Xaverian Brothers
based in Baltimore, Maryland. Brother Cosmas saw how hard I
worked and knew I could handle the academic rigors of university. He suggested
that maybe I could attend Virginia Tech in the United States and earn a two-year
associate’s degree. With the help of Americans living and working in Haiti
including David A. Goy, Brother Harry Eccles, and Brother John Mahoney, I began
learning how to speak English. I eventually took the TOEFL exam and passed! It
was a very hard test and it was very difficult to obtain a visa to come to the United States
because I was Haitian. Many people at that time were seeking political asylum
in the United States because
there was political oppression occurring in Haiti. I tried to get to the United States from the Dominican Republic with no success.
Finally, a renowned Virginia Tech professor spoke with a Washington
D.C. official in order to have the consulate
in Port-au-Prince notified of my need to come to
the U.S.
to attend Virginia Tech. I was granted a visa and arrived in Blacksburg, Virginia
on December 12, 1992.
I will never forget that day.
Being
from Haiti where the weather
is very hot, I was shocked by the winter temperature in Blacksburg. On the second day I was in Blacksburg, it snowed and
the temperature dropped below zero. I began classes in January 1993 and a whole
new world was opened to me. I had a lot to learn including how to stay warm,
how the traffic system worked, how to go shopping, and many other things. At
the beginning of the semester, I could listen to my teachers only for the first
30 minutes before I became very tired. I persisted. I had to get help from my
classmates and I worked extremely hard. I passed all my classes first semester
and second semester I made the Dean’s List!
Being in Blacksburg
was very interesting but I missed my family very much. I understood that it
would be difficult and that I did not have enough money to go back and visit
them during my two years at Virginia Tech. Even though it was only two years,
it was not like two days and it seemed like a long time. At the end of 1994, I
graduated and received my associate’s degree in plant agriculture from Virginia
Tech. I was very proud and two days later I was on the airplane back to Port-au-Prince. I was
eager to see my home village, my family, and my friends. I was ready to become involved
in my church again and especially to continue on with the association of young
adults I spearheaded before coming to Virginia Tech. I wanted to bring the
knowledge back to others. It was so nice and joyful to be back.
I went straight to work. In order to pass on skills to others, the people need
a level of understanding, so, an education program was needed. I reformed the association
of young adults and we named ourselves AJAK – Asosyasyon Jèn Avni Kretyen. In
English, this stands for Christian Young Adult Association for the Future. With
its members we set up a program not only to do farming but to develop the
entire area. We started an elementary school for children in the area. We were
hoping that we could have nine grade levels in order to teach small skills. We
were thinking that at that level they would be able to comprehend themes that would
help to develop the area in any domain. We had to do this because the need was
there. For the first 5 to 10 years, we worked on agriculture, youth activity,
education, church activity, rural development, and many other needs of the
people.
The education program was necessary because we knew that later on we would need
skilled people to be involved in our community’s development. Our country has
been devastated by a cancer for the last quarter century – a cancer called deforestation.
People do not want to cut down the trees, but they have to so that they can cook
food for their children. Farming is a bigger challenge here as well because the
soils have lost their fertility and the entire population is migrating to the
cities. Moreover Matabonite (Jacsonville’s catchment zone) represents 1/6 of the
greater Pignon population, or almost 5,400 people (Pignon’s population is
estimated around 32,000 people). We are in dire need of development aid. We are
doing all we can with the little we have. Currently, we are opening streets,
building parks, helping the population to build homes, implanting professional
schools, creating jobs, and projecting to bring running water and electricity
to the community. It will be so nice when we finish the first 40 houses so that
our association members will give a face to our community. The homes will build
now are built from loans that I give out to each one of my employees that they
pay back slowly. As a community we must learn that things do not come freely
but through hard work. But we still need capital to continue to build our area up
and make a place we can all call home.
Nowadays, Jacsonville is the center of our vibrant community. As I said, we
named this village after my father Jacsonne Thélus because he was the pioneer
who wanted a future for the Matabonite area. I mentioned above that he did not
receive any formal education, but he was genius. He tried and did a lot with little
in return. His first goal was the development of Matabonite. He often passed
his message to us children, “I don’t have an education to develop Matabonite, so
I am sending you to school to do it. If you can’t do it, then make your
children do it.” For me, I find no greater honor than to follow my father’s
ideals.
My goals today are still the same although things have changed. We need to
improve the living conditions of the people. We are trying to build bridges and
irrigation canals so that people will have more access to goods and water.
There is no way I could even have dreamed of doing these things without the
prayerful and financial support of my friends in the U.S. and the cooperation of my
friends and family in Matabonite. We depend on our friends from the U.S.
for many types of support and I believe this is why God sent me to Virginia
Tech.
My life and history are by no means a fairy tale. I think most of the time life is more challenging than it supposes to be. Sometimes I have to ask myself why I continue on. On the other hand, I like to see progress. I do know that if my life is difficult then I must be making a positive change in the people around me. I hope that you and your loved ones will consider helping me help the people of Haiti. We ask only to live with dignity and the same human rights that you enjoy.
God bless you,
Gabriel Thélus
haiticsr@yahoo.fr