Longmeadow native thankful after trip to Haiti

Jan. 31, 2013


Megan Anderson pauses to take pictures with Haitian children while helping build a home in the town of Blanchard during her recent service excursion to Haiti. Reminder Publications submitted photo

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — When Longmeadow resident Megan Anderson was preparing for her service trip to Haiti, she didn't believe it when people told her the experience would change her life.

After spending a week building a home and working in a Haitian hospital, however, she now can't believe how wrong she was.

Anderson, a 2010 graduate of Longmeadow High School, was one of 13 students from St. Joseph's College of Maine, accompanied by two professors, who took part in a humanitarian effort to build a home and offer medical help in the town of Blanchard, north of Port-au-Prince with the service organization Partners in Development from Dec. 27, 2012 through Jan. 3.

"I think that the entire trip seemed surreal while I was down there but I have a very distinct memory that will forever stick with me," Anderson said. "My 'wow moment' was when I walking to the construction site on the first day. While we were walking through Blanchard, the children were running up to us and grabbing our hands and walking with us. They had the biggest smiles on their faces and they would say, 'Hey you!' which they thought just meant 'hello.'

"Some had no pants and almost all had no shoes. I think this moment stuck with me because the children were just so adorable and they were all so incredibly happy to see us. To think that we are complete strangers to them and they feel so comfortable to run up to us and play with us just takes me back," she continued.

Already an impoverished country, the people of Haiti have continued to attempt to rebuild their homes and their lives in the wake of a massive earthquake that decimated parts of the island nation in 2010.

"The clean up from the disaster is not finished at all. It actually looks like some parts of the city were untouched," Anderson said. "One afternoon we went into Port-au-Prince where the earthquake in 2010 hit the hardest. There are still ruins in the middle of the streets, countless buildings that are half fallen down, puddles and ditches right in the middle of the streets and there is a thick layer of smog that covers the streets of Port-au-Prince."

The major impediments to progress, Anderson said, revolve around a lack of resources, including machinery.

"There are no forklifts at their [disposal] to lift heavy things or cherry pickers to put the final touches on the tops of buildings," she said. "These Haitians are doing this by their own bodies and skills using the limited amount of resources that are available to them."

That lack of heavy machinery, she added, contributed to the widespread destruction because many buildings were not built strong enough to withstand the impact of the earthquake.

One thing working in the Haitians favor, Anderson noted, was their spirit.

"They are the happiest people on the earth and yet they have the smallest amount of things," she said. "They are so proud of their country and I think that is something I will take away from this experience. It has taught me that it doesn't matter what kinds of things you have but what kind of person you are inside."

Also a benefit to the Haitian people is help from outside groups, such as Partners in Development. One of the primary tasks the students undertook with Partners in Development was laying the foundation for a modest house being built for a local family.

"The house will have one floor and two rooms for a family of seven-plus. We had to make the cement by hand using shovels, five-gallon pails, sand and a small bag of material that had the contents of cement," she said. "We had to mix the cement with the shovels and then carry it via the five-gallon pails to the trenches that were dug out by hand. We also had to transport rocks, or 'wash' as they call them, into the trenches to accompany the cement to keep the stilts in place."

Anderson, an exercise science major who hopes to become a physician's assistant, also spent significant time in a local medical clinic, working alongside an American physician's assistant, nurse practitioner, physician and cardio fellow, as well as a Haitian doctor. The clinic served anywhere between 15 and 150 patients a day.

"We were challenged to think on our toes and find solutions to their medical problems using only the resources that we had available, which is minimal. There was a tiny pharmacy in a room that was no bigger than a small bedroom that held all of the resources we had available to us," she said. "We were able to start and remove IV fluids, change dressings, take part in sonograms, check and recheck vital signs and triage patients to figure out which ones were more medically urgent than others.

"We were also responsible for monitoring the patients in the emergency room, which was a room that was 10 feet by 15 feet with three beds in the small and crowded area. We saw a variety of medical cases while we were there. We saw anywhere from children and adults with chronic headaches and a lack of appetite to a very bad case of strep throat all the way up to a brain/C-spine injury in motorcycle accident and a malnourished infant that was 9 months old and weighed five kilograms," she continued.

In addition to the formal parts of the service, Anderson said interacting with Haitian children that greeted them so enthusiastically became a big part of their experience.

"While we were in Haiti, there were also a number of children that came around to hang out with us at the Partners in Development compound where we lived for the week. They loved to practice their English with us and loved to teach us Creole," Anderson said, adding that the children proved to be terrific athletes.

Pledging to return to Haiti next year, Anderson said the experience has also helped her appreciate what she has as well as the struggles she doesn't have to deal with on a daily basis.

"When I'm having a bad day, I think twice now because I have a roof over my head, shoes on my feet, I can sleep when it rains without water flooding onto my floor and I am able to go drink a glass of water from the tap in my bathroom [that has] a toilet," she said. "All of the little things in life that you take for granted you appreciate a lot more when you come home.

"The biggest thing I appreciated coming back into the states is that I didn't have to sleep with a bug net over me to keep out the mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches. I also didn't have to check for tarantulas while I was showering at home. I think that this trip has taught me to not feel guilty for what I have, but to embrace it and take advantage of the privileges that I get and to never forget to give back just as much as you take," she continued.

Comments From Our Readers: