by KIM HILSENBECK
A trip to a third-world country can bring new perspective to someone used to a solidly built home, electricity and clean drinking water.
For Carpenter Hill Principal Jason Certain it brought that – and more.
Along with about a dozen other members of Austin New Church on Manchaca Road, Certain spent a week in Haiti helping build homes and visiting orphanages.
He said the massive scale of the destruction from the 2010 earthquake that killed 316,000 people is still visible everywhere. It is estimated that about 350,000 of the country’s residents are living in temporary camps.
“Some days you feel you just can’t do enough to help people – it’s so overwhelming,” Certain said.
He added that most of the people who went on the trip, coordinated by a nonprofit called Help One Now, felt the same way. Yet they left the comfort and safety of life in America to spend a little time helping others in need.
Certain said his wife, Kim, took this same trip last year. It was his turn to do good.
Haiti, which occupies about a third of the island of Hispaniola it shares with the Dominican Republic, is one of – if not the – poorest countries in the world. More than half of its population lives below the poverty line.
At 27,750 square kilometers (or about 10,700 square miles), Haiti is slightly smaller than Maryland. Basic infrastructure – roads, hospitals, schools – is severely lacking.
Certain said it was evident everywhere the group traveled. He said he also spoke with people who explained more about Haiti’s government, so rife with corruption and greed that it keeps most of its citizens poor.
The job of the volunteers with Help One Now was building new homes for Haitian citizens.
“We helped with the construction of housing,” Certain said.
He and his crew helped build several cinder-block houses. Certain estimated the homes were between 600 and 700 square feet. Even the building process was primitive by American standards.
“We literally sifted rock and added cement to create the mortar.”
Certain said during their stay, his group ate lots of chicken, goat, rice, eggplant and mangoes. He also said he learned that produce export, such as mangoes and bananas, is a relatively large and profitable business in Haiti.
As a school administrator, Certain said he was asked to talk with educators in Haiti.
“They asked me if I would sit down with teachers and principals,” he said.
They just wanted me to talk with them.”
It was an eye-opening experience for Certain.
“They are teaching in a tarp tent, they have no supplies,” he said. “I don’t know that I really taught them anything but I learned a lot.”
Certain’s group bunked at a pastor’s house. He appeared wealthy; Certain said the man had three cars and his children go to a private school.
“But he is a businessman, too. He purchased land and built three orphanages,” Certain said.
The group visited several orphanages during its week-long stay. Certain and his fellow volunteers had the chance to just play and talk with children.
“We went to four different orphanage facilities,” he said. “I have a feeling there is a lot more need than is being serviced.”
