Students bond with locals while volunteering in Haiti

Sitting on a green bench in the shade of a large mango tree, Christell Ponquiet flashed a bashful smile for the camera. With colorful feathers in her tightly braided hair, Christell, a young teenager, seemed complacent as she colored on a piece of paper.

Christell's innocent smile does not suggest that both her parents were killed during the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. Her peaceful stance does not indicate that she is in any pain, even though her right foot has been amputated after severe injuries. Looking at this image, one would never know that this 15-year-old girl has been recently orphaned, has been separated from her only sister and will spend the rest of her childhood in an orphanage.

Junior Eric Rudofker and freshman Alex Carrier, two University of Richmond students who went on a relief mission to Haiti from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23, bonded with Christell and other children at a small orphanage in Haiti, where they, along with 120 other volunteers, devoted their time to humanitarian relief efforts.

"I did not mentally prepare for emotional interactions," Rudofker said. "I expected to get my hands dirty, and do physical work. Having life-changing emotional interactions within the first five minutes of the trip was not on my agenda."

Rudofker and Carrier traveled to Haiti with the Relieving and Embracing Lives Interrupted by Earth's Forces foundation, founded by Peter Groverman, Rudofker's family friend and neighbor. R.E.L.I.E.F. traveled to the island with a diverse group of doctors, students, documentary film crews and others.

When Rudofker and Carrier took their first steps in Port-au-Prince around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, they were already more than 12 hours behind schedule. When they arrived they were unexpectedly greeted by a gun-wielding Haitian.

The volunteers were skeptical when the man approached them in the damaged terminal, claiming to be an immigration officer and demanding five American dollars.

"All of a sudden someone yelled: 'GET ON THE TRUCK! GET ON THE TRUCK!'" Rudofker said. "So we all ran out of the terminal, got into the back of the truck and waited until the guy with the gun left."

It was Carrier's first time out of the States - welcome to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

The volunteers arrived at the orphanage, and, after sleeping for only three hours in tents, they began to explore the grounds. More than 20 post-operative children were scattered on cots and blankets on the floor of a church, which had been converted into a makeshift hospital.

Rudofker said there had been 13 handicapped kids at the orphanage, and workers had often gone into the mountains to look for abandoned handicapped children.

"They have found mentally challenged children literally bound to trees and beaten by the townspeople," Rudofker said. "There isn't really a place for them in Haitian society. These kids don't have a fighting chance of surviving."

The orphanage was relatively small, so Rudofker and Carrier were able to connect with the children, such as Christell, on very intimate levels.

"There was this little 6-year-old girl who fell in love with me," said Carrier, who used her French skills to communicate with the kids. "All she wanted to do was hold my hand and sing and dance with me. They wanted a connection so bad."

Later during the day, the volunteers split into six groups, doing different projects around the island, Rudofker and Carrier said.

One group went to the town of Carrefour, one of the poorest towns in Haiti and located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. A volunteer walked into a 100-square-foot room - the size of a Gray Court dorm - where a 65-year-old woman lived with 10 kids.

"He handed her a $5 bill, and he could see tears streaming down her face," Rudofker said solemnly. "She was crying because she had never ... in her life ... held that much money in her hand."

Rudofker and Carrier's eyes locked, engaged in a moment that only they could understand. Although physically in apartment 1607, they were both mentally in Haiti.

"Ugh," Carrier sighed. "This is so weird."

The next morning, after another night of tremors and earthquakes, everyone at the orphanage gathered for a church service in the shade of a mango tree. The preacher was, in so many ways, thankful for the earthquake, because it had destroyed all the political corruption, and it was now possible to rebuild Haiti, Carrier said.

"The people were so positive," Carrier said. "They were so passionate about our presence and the positive changes being made in Haiti."

Rudofker said: "This mindset shows such strength and hope and faith and spirituality. This was one of the most moving moments for me, because it was the first time I saw the earthquake from the Haitian point of view."

After the service, Rudofker and Carrier left the orphanage to work on a severely damaged school located in the western end of Port-au-Prince. The drive was heart-wrenching: rotting and burning trash polluted the air; fallen power lines twisted like vines around collapsed buildings; goats, pigs and dogs wandered through the narrow, unpaved streets; sheets of tarp served as homes for thousands; naked children were walking around, some crying.

The bus arrived at the school, which had educated more than 800 Haitian students. But when they arrived, they saw a building with collapsed third and fourth floors. The building was not structurally sound, and the volunteers' job was to remove the debris from classrooms.

A little girl stuck her head through a hole in the wall, inquisitive about the strangers' presence. "L'eau," she begged. "L'eau." The little girl pleaded for water in French.

"The smile on her face, just from receiving a bottle of water ... I, I hadn't seen anything like it before," Rudofker said. "That bottle of water cost less than 20 cents, and I wish that people realized that they could give 20 cents and save a child's life."

On one of the walls of the decrepit classroom, a calendar hung. The last date marked on the calendar was Jan. 12, 2010 - the morning of the earthquake. The students of this classroom had no idea that they would never mark Jan. 13. They were unaware that this would be their last day of school for one to three years.

"When you look at the calendar, you truly realize the implications of this disaster," Rudofker said. "The entire education system will be suspended for years. This is critical."

After hours of clearing rubble on Sunday, Rudofker and Carrier rode back to the orphanage to say their goodbyes.

Before they got on the plane on Tuesday, a day later than expected, the Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive, thanked them for their efforts and welcomed them to return.

"As good as it feels to be back in America right now," Rudofker said, "I'd almost rather be in an over-crowded bus riding through the slums of Port-au-Prince right now."

After landing in the United States, Rudofker and Carrier were riding in a cab in Miami and noticed that the driver was black and listening to a French radio station. "Where are you from, sir?" Rudofker inquired.

"Haiti," the cab driver responded in a thick Creole accent. "Eh-tee."

"That was a very special thing for us," Rudofker said. "Needless to say, we gave him an extra tip."

The cab driver thanked Rudofker and Carrier and told them that later that day he would be sending money to his family in Haiti.

"Once you're there and you understand ... you can't stop," Rudofker said. "This trip has really changed our lives, and we are already planning future trips. If we accomplished this much in two days, think of how much we could accomplish in one week."

Contact staff writer Fred Shaia at fred.shaia@richmond.edu.