49 pages • 1 hour read
Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family
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Historical-Cultural Context: Haiti
Content Warning: The source material and this guide include extensive discussion of terminal illness in a child.
Haiti has a unique and rich culture with a long, complex history. Haiti gained independence from French colonialism in 1804 and was the second country in the Americas to achieve independence from a European nation, following only the United States. Prior to independence, most Haitians were enslaved people. Haitian Creole, a dialect of French, developed through the colonial period and continues to be the country’s primary language.
In the 20th century, Haiti experienced numerous significant periods of political and economic upheaval, including US occupation from 1915 to 1934. Since then, Haiti has continued to experience political instability, though Albom describes the Haitian people as full of hope and the country as “a place of beauty and laughter and unshakable faith” (10). Haitian culture strongly emphasizes religion and community, as well as music and food. Albom describes the Haitian children at the mission as joyful and resilient, connecting them to the book’s theme of The Wonder of Childhood, and their enduring love for Chika illustrates the theme of Parenting and Familial Bonds.
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, followed by over 50 smaller earthquakes, killing over 200,000 people. The earthquake destroyed thousands of commercial buildings and homes, leaving people trapped for weeks and many without a home or place to go. People around the world, including Albom, banded together to aid in Haiti’s recovery and help to rebuild the country. Albom traveled to Haiti after the earthquake, where he took over an orphanage and turned it into the Have Faith Haiti mission. Born three days before this earthquake, Chika is exemplary of Haitian people’s struggles during this time. Though her family managed to survive the earthquake, they lived in a field for weeks afterward, and Chika’s mother died several years later in childbirth—the result of poor health services in the country. The fact that nobody in Haiti could help Chika when she became sick is further testament to lack of healthcare in Haiti.
Authorial Context: Mitch Albom
Born in New Jersey in 1958, Mitch Albom is a writer, musician, and journalist. Through his Hole in the Roof Foundation, he also runs the Have Faith Haiti mission and other charities. Albom has written 10 books of fiction and nonfiction, including his breakout memoir Tuesdays with Morrie, and numerous sports articles. His work tends to consider ideas from his faith, using it to make sense of his problems and issues that trouble him.
Albom’s writing life plays an important role in Finding Chika. Several times, he connects his devotion to his career to his lack of children, setting up the theme of Sharing Time. He describes worrying that children would reduce his time to work, which led him to wait until late in life to get married and then to delay having children until it was too late.
Albom also wrestles with his faith throughout the memoir, unable to understand why God cut Chika’s life short and angry that she died so young. Albom took over the orphanage in Port-au-Prince in 2010 and renamed it the Have Faith Haiti mission, inspired in part by his book Have a Little Faith, a series of nonfiction interviews with faith leaders. When Albom and his wife, Janine, took legal guardianship of Chika after her diagnosis with DIPG, he reassessed his priorities, devoting all his time to Chika’s treatment and exploring the theme of Parental and Familial Bonds. Even after Chika’s death, Albom’s identity as a writer plays a major role in the book, which follows his process as he works through his grief by writing a memoir about Chika, which he hopes will ensure her memory stays alive.
Medical Context: Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare but aggressive form of malignant brain tumor that begins in the pons, the region of the brain stem that links the brain and the spinal cord. As the tumor grows, it affects the spinal cord, leading to motor control issues, as illustrated by Chika’s physical deterioration: first crawling and then needing a wheelchair. The disease is most often diagnosed in children between five and nine; Chika was diagnosed at five. As of March 2024, no cure exists for DIPG, although doctors around the world are studying the disease and testing new treatments, some of which Chika experienced.
There is no known cause of DIPG. Initial symptoms, which Chika exhibited in the early stages of her condition, include drooping of half the face, slurred speech, and wobbly movements. As in Chika’s case, doctors usually use MRI imaging and a biopsy to diagnose and confirm cases of DIPG. While treatments may extend a patient’s life for a short while, as in Chika’s case, no patient has recovered from the disease. The fact of Chika’s short life expectancy lends an immediacy to the theme of Sharing Time, as the Alboms cherish every moment they spend with Chika, knowing her life will be short. Still, many families, like the Alboms, hope that through new treatments and a better understanding of the disease’s origins, a cure will soon be found.
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