Rafer Friedman knew that Haiti would be different, but he was not fully prepared for just how it different it would be from the life that he has always known – as an American and as a student at The Pennington School.
“It was culture shock,” said Rafer, who spent a week in Haiti last month on a medical mission trip coordinated by The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville. Ten students and five adult chaperones – including a doctor and a nurse – spent the week of March 19-25 in the island nation.
“We got off the airplane with our bags, and we piled them up in the back of a pickup truck. It was like a rush. I can barely remember it,” said Rafer, who is a junior at the private, co-educational boarding school in Pennington.
Rafer was one of three Pennington School students who spoke about their trip to members of The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville Sunday morning. The church has had a long-standing relationship with the Rev. Luc Deratus and Harmony Ministries in Haiti that began in the 1980’s.
For many years, The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville has been sending teams of volunteers to Haiti to help the Rev. Deratus – whether it is distributing food, dispensing medical and hygiene supplies at medical clinics or painting classrooms in schools operated by Harmony Ministries.
Seven years ago, students from The Pennington School began to make their own trips to Haiti to help the Rev. Deratus. And each time the students return from a trip, they report back to The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville on their experiences.
This time around, The Pennington School students handed out medicine, painkillers and vitamins at medical clinics organized in conjunction with Harmony Ministries. They also painted classrooms in the schools and distributed rice to families.
Reflecting on his experiences as a first-timer on the trip, Rafer told the congregants that being able to help the Haitians was a “humbling and meaningful” experience for him. He handed out medicine to people who walked for hours to get to the clinics held in the villages of Leogan, Thoman and LaSalle, where Harmony Ministries has established itself.
“I learned how we are all the same people, even if we come from different cultures,” Rafer said. “You see they are exactly the same people as us, but they do not have the same opportunities as us.”
Emily Moini, who is a junior at The Pennington School and who is a veteran of the mission trips to Haiti, agreed that the Haitian children do not have the same opportunities that she and her classmates enjoy. Last month’s trip to Haiti was her second one.
“Last year, I was upset and confused. Fundamentally, it didn’t make sense to me,” Emily said, adding that she felt “super, super privileged.” Her way of handling that feeling was to go back to Haiti and help some more.
Quoting author Paulo Coelho, Emily said that “when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” For Emily, the trip was all about relationships – what it means to serve, and finding her place within the context of serving others.
Emily admitted to some ambivalence about taking part in a return trip to Haiti, because she thought that maybe she should give up her place so that someone else could go on the trip and have that experience. But in the end, she decided to go on the trip again.
Graham Davies, who is a senior at The Pennington School, said the trip last month was much easier than his first trip last year. He said he felt as though he had been “thrown into the deep end” last year, especially when he was helping out at the medical clinic to distribute vitamins and other medication. The pace was fast.
This year’s trip was similar to the one last year – giving out drugs, vitamins and painkillers – to the Haitians who had lined up even before the medical clinic opened early in the morning, Graham said. It’s a great feeling, he added.
“It is also the sense of empowerment. They say, ‘Thank you, Lord’ (at Harmony Ministries’ church services). That’s what keeps me going back – the strength and the faith of the people. You just have to go back.”
For Blair Thompson, who was one of the five adult chaperones, what keeps him going back to Haiti is watching the students struggle to adjust as they move outside of their comfort zone. He has participated in several trips.
“You see how they adjust,” said Thompson, who teaches English at The Pennington School.
“They are lost at sea (when they arrive), but then they get to working together. They see how much of the world lives,” Thompson said.
About 1,500 Haitians visited the medical clinics set up by the students and adults this year. While the numbers may seem overwhelming, “we made a personal connection with each person,” Thompson said.
“We want to help people. We want the people to know that they matter,” he said.
Thompson said that what struck him on his first trip several years ago was the fact that the Haitians walk everywhere. “It made me realize, their world is circumscribed by where they can walk,” he said.
While the images one sees on television and the articles that one reads in newspapers and magazines portray Haiti as a country full of poverty, despair and hopelessness, those images are wrong.
“Yes, there is poverty,” Thompson said, but the notion that people feel despair and hopelessness “couldn’t be more false.” The Haitian people would like to take control of their own lives and they want to be self-sufficient, he said, adding that they are doing things for themselves.
