McMurry students Paige Wachsmann and Matt Bell with a smiling Haitian child from January 2011.
Greg Kendall-Ball/Reporter-News Tim Kennedy (from left), Lindsey Lowry and Tim Palmer visit the Religious Life Office at McMurry University. The three are part of a group of McMurry students headed to Haiti this summer on a mission trip.
Contributed photos A tent that houses a family in Petit Goave, Haiti. More than a year after the earthquake in Haiti, nearly 800,000 people are still living in tents.
Lindsey Lowry, 22, a McMurry University senior, is headed back to Haiti in July for her second trip.
It is not a vacation, as some students will enjoy in the summer. Lowry, like 15 other McMurry students and five sponsors, will be on a mission to help the people of Haiti in their struggles to get their country back to some normalcy after the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010. The team will be going to a tent city near Port au-Prince.
When Lowry went to Haiti in January 2011, she saw children and adults alike living in tents and sometimes having only one meal a day.
“Even the workers sometimes did without lunch,” said Tim Palmer, an assistant chaplain at McMurry and leader of the group.
After Lowry’s trip in January, she was determined to go back and work with the people of Haiti again.
“We organized a ‘city of Hope’ on campus at McMurry and set up tents,” she said. “We took donations to raise money to help the people of Haiti.”
Lowry said about 30 people lived in tents for a week to see what life was like for the Haitians. Lowry said they had raised over $5,000 so far and it would go into building houses for the Haitians this summer.
“It really made an impression on a lot of people,” she said.
“We will build cinder block houses,” Palmer said. “But the houses will be much better than the tents that are set up all over the country.”
When the team goes back to Haiti this summer, they will need to take work clothes and be ready for long days.
Palmer said the team will work with an ecumenical group called Partners In Development, which will plan the work days.
Tim Kennedy, chaplain at McMurry, said each student will raise about $1,500 for the trip. He said letters were sent to families, churches, and friends to help sponsor the students.
Martha Chace, 18, will be going to Haiti for her first trip this summer.
“When I was home recently, people at church gave me envelopes of money to help finance my trip,” she said.
Lowry said the team would be interacting with the children in playing games, teaching Bible school, and having devotionals.
Palmer said the typical day would start early with breakfast at 7 a.m.
“Team members can get with a local citizen and study the Creole language,” Lowry said. “We teach them English and they teach us Creole.”
The students will eat lunch at their worksite where they are building houses.
“We will have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” Palmer said.
He said when the team went in January, they learned that some of the local construction workers did not stop for lunch.
“There was no lunch break, because there was no lunch,” Palmer said. He said there was an 80 percent unemployment rate in Haiti.
“It is almost impossible to go to Haiti and not have it affect you,” said Zach Kerzee, 22. “When I was there in January, I played with the kids and helped with a building project.”
Palmer said some of the streets still had rubble in them and the government did not function well in picking up garbage or providing basic needs.
“The people are destitute and living in extreme poverty,” Palmer said.
Lowry said the Haitians’ attitude is good, despite the poverty.
“They are a proud and beautiful people,” she said.
Lowry said she was looking forward to going back to Haiti. She also has done mission work in China and Australia.
“My life was changed forever,” Lowry said. “I saw children living in tents, and they had no shoes or food. I could see some of the hurt in their eyes.”
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