Haiti through Haisch's lens

Benj Haisch sat for nine uncomfortable hours on 500 tents and 1,000 pounds of medicine in the back of a Delta Daihatsu until he reached Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As the half pick-up, half dump truck crawled into town, Haisch was overwhelmed by the devastating destruction of the 7.0 life-shattering earthquake. He could not escape the sight of rubble. Buildings upon buildings covered the street sides. Everywhere he turned, once massive buildings now laid flat on the ground or were about to crumble. Homes were non-existent. Shelter consisted of thin pieces of wood substituting as walls with a roof made from one or two transparent bed sheets. This is why Haisch was in Haiti. To donate his time. To provide families with adequate shelter. "I felt like I wanted to do whatever I could," Haisch, 24, a senior majoring in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Arts, Media and Culture, said. "I didn't know what to expect. When we first drove into Port-au-Prince I kept saying 'unreal.' Everything looked like it was a war movie. It looked like absolute chaos." On Feb. 5, Haisch and 15 other members of Calvary Community Church arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with 500 tents. Each person had a personal bag and two, 2x2 boxes full of tents that were overweight by 15 pounds each. Delta Airlines waved all the baggage fees. "King 5 News and Komo News 4 showed up at the airport to cover us leaving," Haisch said. "I think that since they were there we got a little more leverage to get all the baggage fees waved. If they hadn't waved all of the fees we would have had to of paid hundreds of dollars." Haisch landed at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on Feb. 6. Haisch, his brother Alex Haisch, 19, and Drew Konzelman continued the journey to Haiti with the tents. Konzelman had contacts in the Dominican Republic Medical Mission. The other 12 church members boarded another flight and headed back to the US. "Me and my brother didn't even know that we were going to Haiti until we got to the Dominican," Haisch said. "I was just focused on making sure that all the tents got through." Haisch is no stranger to catastrophes. He went to India after the tsunami hit. So, he had a sense of what massive disasters could do to a community, but this place was different. "You see all these terrible images on the television, on the internet, and in the newspapers, but you can't grasp it until you are here," Haisch said. "It was so widespread. It was crazy. It was sad. It was rough." The constant images of destruction could have brought Haisch down. One of his comforts was the presence of smiling and laughing children. "They [the kids] loved to see their photos on my camera," Haisch said. "They were really amazed and stoked about me taking a picture and then showing them next. I would take a group picture and then they would all run to me to see the picture. It was cool to see a lot of smiling kids that were laughing which countered what we were seeing around us." It was time to pass out the tents. A compound was set-up to hand them out. "Luckily, we had three officers there for us," Haisch said. "But we had to pay them. We had to pay them with tents. We gave them 12, four each." Local community leaders were asked to hand out tickets. It was requested that tickets be given to women with children, but there was no way to enforce the request. On Feb. 9, bright and early in the morning, tents were distributed. "We had a huge wall with gates for protection," Haisch said. "Half of the people were really excited. There were many thank yous. Others would not even smile. They would just grab a tent and walk out. A couple of the people that took tents left the compound and tried to sell the tents to others that didn't get a ticket." Not everyone abused the service. An elderly lady, who was grateful for receiving a tent, began jumping around and dancing. "It was completely heartwarming," Haisch said. "This is why we were here. We don't know how many people she lost and this one tent completely made her day." There is much to be done with the rebuilding process in Haiti, and some say that it is going to take a very long time. The experience in Haiti taught Haisch not to stress out about the little things in life. "I can go there and then leave," Haisch said. "They are stuck there. I am able to drive my car and sleep in my own bed. All the little stuff, such as homework, deadlines, paying bills, etc. became so insignificant. We are so blessed."