Jan Term students caught in Haiti disaster
Melissa McBride
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: News
|
"I'd been looking for places to go where I could work with nutrition. I talked to organizations in Africa and Central America, but I wasn't needed," Snider, a senior, said. "Then I talked with Hlaracek, a Canaan spokesperson, over the summer, and decided to go there."
Snider made her first visit to Haiti in the summer of 2009 and stayed for two months. After that trip, she said she felt that she had to go back.
McKoy, a freshman, said she found out about the clinic at Canaan from Snider.
"Katie talked to the freshman nutrition majors about classes, and I remembered that she'd been to Haiti," she said. "I'd wanted to go for years, but just didn't know when I'd be able to."
Scott, a junior, also said she was unsure about when she'd be able to go to Haiti, but knew she wanted to go.
"When I found out about the Jan Term trip, I knew that's when I wanted to go," she said.
Prior to the trip, the girls had meetings with the rest of their
team, which consisted of eight Samford students and one medical student from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
"I also talked to Chris and Elsie, a nurse at the orphanage, and I had to talk to professors about the research we'd be doing and stuff," Snider said.
"There surprisingly wasn't a lot of prep work," McKoy said.
When the girls arrived in Haiti at the end of December, they settled in to life at Canaan quickly.
"We lived at Canaan with the kids. We helped at the clinic, took care of the kids, washed the dishes, did office work. We really just did anything that needed to be done," Snider said.
While working at the clinic, the girls fed the children peanut butter supplements to help them gain weight and keep them full.
"During the first week there, I was one of the main people working with the babies. I really loved that. They'd kiss you in the morning," Scott said. "I loved working with them."
The room where the girls lived was located above to the kids' classroom.
"We'd wake up in the morning to kids belting their hearts out. When we'd come down, they'd be waiting for us," McKoy said.
Snider said she spent a lot of time with the older kids.
Be the first to comment on this story