I'm going to Haiti this summer!!

This is exciting! I'm going to be a member of the first volunteer team to go back there since the earthquake in January of 2010, and I couldn't be more thrilled! And also, completely overwhelmed with the enormity of the task.

I remember when I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, back on January 12, 2010. I don't remember what I was getting ready for, but I was doing my hair in my bathroom, and listening to NPR on my little radio. A breaking news story came through to say that an earthquake of some huge magnitude had just hit Haiti, and I looked at myself in the mirror and said "Oh, F**K." My stomach actually twisted, something in me knew immediately that it was going to be a disaster of gigantic proportions. [Note: I don't talk to myself out loud in my bathroom very often, only when something really really big happens.] I remember my mind thought something along the lines of 'way to kick 'em when they're already down, way down.' I have never been to Haiti, but what I knew of it there was that the poverty there is worse, much worse, than poverty in other places. I've seen poverty around the world - in Guatemala, Nepal, Colombia, Jordan, the Dominican Republic, and to a first world degree, in some of the neighborhoods my students come from; but Haiti has always stood out to me as a place where hope is much harder to come by, where the poverty is so far-reaching and devastating that even on their very best days as a country, they're still really, really struggling.

So when this earthquake hit, I, like just about everyone else around the world, wanted to help. I went to the Habitat website and made a big $50 donation to Habitat (in my world, $50 is a big donation, my own personal standard donation for big disasters - other compelling causes get $20-30 if they're lucky. Someday I'll be a big donor of dollars, for now it's more like effort and manual labor...), and signed up for the email list of possible future volunteers, when they would be ready.

I followed Habitat's relief efforts over the interweb, and was so impressed with the multi-phase plan that they created within days of the earthquake. After the immediate rescue efforts to recover victims, of course, they set to work on the long-term rebuilding plan. First they wanted to clean up and salvage reusable materials in Haiti, so they assembled local Haitians and trained them in how to do this task. Simultaneously, they put together a plan to make emergency housing kits to send down there. They had huge assembly operations in Georgia and the Dominican Republic where they put together these giant plastic bins with essential items to create a temporary shelter: Plastic sheeting, hammers, nails, duck tape, buckets etc - like MacGuiver in a box. It was an amazingly efficient way to get stuff in the hands of people within weeks of the earthquake. Then they set to work with the permanent housing solution. Their plan is ambitious - to help 50,000 families over the next 5 years. This represents nearly 25% of all of the 190,000 homes that were destroyed (105,000 of the total) or damaged by the quake. Wow.

So while the Habitat disaster relief gurus were hatching this master plan, I waited for my chance to go help out. And waited. And pestered them a little bit, but I understood that to put in place a well-thought-out plan, an organization must be very planful and deliberate. I busied myself with other Habitat trips- to Jordan, Guatemala, and planning a trip to the Dominican Republic. Then finally, I heard the call - one of my Top 5 Favorite Habitat Folks, Steph Banas, announced that she's leading a trip to Haiti! Now I had someone specific to pester! Woo hoo!

I'm absolutely thrilled to be a member of the team, and I can't wait to start my fundraising efforts leading up to this adventure! Stay tuned, because this girl is going to be planful and deliberate...and hopefully a little creative...
See my fundraising appeal at Many Hands Make The Load Lighter.

Thanks for coming along! Many hands will make the load lighter...