Part of the reason I asked Stephanie to share her volunteer experience from last summer is because I know the earthquakes touched her in a personal way. After sharing the positives from her trip, I asked her to share her reaction to news of the devastation.
This is what she had to say:
It’s always eerie when the news is somehow personally relevant. My trip to an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with the mission team makes all the coverage of the recent earthquakes especially difficult to watch. If I hadn’t been to the affected region, I would not be able to compare the “before and after” Port-au-Princes, and see how the disheveled architecture that once comprised the “can-do, make-do” Haitian culture has crashed down so violently into utter debilitation.
Stephanie Schultz with Wislandie, one of the Haitian girls in the orphange.
I tend to be very effected by images of suffering anyway, but to see a culture that recently touched my life altered to the detriment of the peoples’ well-being makes the news largely unwatchable for me lately. However, the media often focuses on the positive that arises from negative events and I’ve loved hearing of the improbable events that have occurred in the wake of the destruction. Hearing of a Haitian person who survived for a week under tons of cement and steel rubble with nothing to eat or drink is incredible, but it doesn’t surprise me. On my trip, I saw how tough Haitians can be. I came away from our mission trip wondering if Haitian children can feel physical pain. I saw a few kids cry emotionally when we were leaving, but they have become accustomed to conditions that we find painful — I never saw them even wince in pain. Because of my experiences with the toughness of Haitian culture, I have faith that the Haitian spirit that I saw will make the country persevere and endure this.
Occurances such as these devastating earthquakes are horrible, but they bring out the best in people, uniting them for a cause. I hope that the this tragedy has shed light on the good that humanity is capable of, and with the global attention on Haiti and the resulting money, love and prayers from around the world, Haiti may improve in the long run.
