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WHS Teacher and Student Have Life Changing Experience in Haiti

Earth Science teacher, Sara Soriente, and Senior, Tara Wyant, spent a week at a Haitian tent camp building a school for displaced children who lost their homes in the Earthquake.

When Westfield High School teacher Sara Soriente, 27, saw the devastation in Haiti from the earthquake back in January, she felt compelled to help.

And she finally got her opportunity two months later, during her spring break.  

Through an organization called Foundation For Peace (FFP), she spent a week at a tent camp outside of Port-au-Prince with a group of thirteen volunteers from all over the east coast. "It was a huge relief to finally be there and do something," she said.

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Tara Wyant, an 18-year old member of WHS' Class of 2010, agreed. She too took the trip, along with older brother Christopher, 26. "It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was eye opening, life changing," said Tara.

Going into the experience, neither Sara nor Tara knew what to expect. . "I was so nervous. I went with an open-mind. I had no expectations because I didn't want my expectations to be shattered," said Tara.

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Sara said her trip, which originally got rescheduled, couldn't come soon enough. "It seemed like I had waited for months for that moment," she said. "It was a huge relief to finally be there and do something."

The group flew into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR) and drove six hours to the town of Jimani in the DR. Camp Hope, run by the American Refugee Committee (ARC) was right across the border.

The village had 600 people, half of them children. "There were children flying between tents," said the Earth Science teacher. "We were complete strangers and they came running up to us and hugged us and wanted to be held."

"I will remember those smiles and their eyes."

Day one, the group got to tour the camp and hear how it was run. The Community Council that governs the camp met with them and introduced them to the pastor and translator who would work with them. "He (the translator) was teaching us how to sing songs in Creole, so when the bus pulled up we were singing in Creole."

Sara said she was most amazed by the "simple pleasures" of the people there. "This one kid had made a kite out of sticks and a plastic bag he probably found in the trash."

Seeing that, she said, put things into perspective. "Happiness doesn't mean you have stuff, doesn't mean you have money. You're just happy."

The group spent the week working on a new local school being built to include the 300 kids at the camp. "The group before us broke all the ground and built trenches for the foundation." Their group continued the effort by mixing up concrete using piles of gravel and sand, bags of cement and buckets of water. "Bucket by bucket you pour it into the foundation."

She said in 105 degree heat and no shade, it was a challenge. "It was definitely physically demanding work. At any moment when you felt 'I'm tired,' you'd think 'you're only there for a couple of days.'"

Sara said she always found more strength from within. And during the highest heat of the day, around 1 pm, they spent time with the children "letting them be kids."

"We'd sing songs, do an art project … just do things to let them be kids."

Before she left for Haiti, Sara had all of her WHS students draw picture outlines. "The Haitian children colored them in. I brought them back, laminated them and gave them back to my kids."

"I felt like I was so honored to be able to be a part of it. The more people I could touch in the process, the better."

She also brought two bags of carry on items, many collected by students, to disperse. "The people that are in the village, they don't want things from you. They just want your attention and to spend time with you."

She said the language barrier wasn't an issue. "You don't need to speak the same language to communicate. It's amazing what you can do with gestures."

Sara, a Cranford High School alum, said at one point, she was gluing puzzle pieces onto a picture and she had glue all over her hands. When she started to peel the glue off of her hands, a little girl stopped playing and came to help her with each and every nail. "I didn't know what to do other than tears welled up in my eyes."

"Anything they could have been doing, and they just wanted to help me," she said. "It was very touching."

She also recalled another young girl, in her late teens, who showed up every day to help. "The first day she showed up with no shoes," said Sara. "We taped paper bags onto her feet so she wouldn't get hurt."

The next day she showed up in shoes that were "five sizes too big."

And yet the next day "her feet were hanging off the back" of her shoes.

"I took off my shoes, walked barefoot over to her and gave them to her," said Sara. "It was a perfect fit. It was like Cinderella."

Tara agreed that communication came in other forms. "There's such a language barrier between us but we all worked so well together and I thought that was amazing."

She said they worked in unison with the natives to fill, pass and pour buckets. "It was just so great."

"We worked a lot with the children," said Tara. "They're so polite and they're just so happy for everything. They thank god for everything they've been blessed with even though they've been displaced out of their homes and into a tent city."

She said right before they left, the group did a Palm Sunday procession because it was close to Easter. "We had all the kids follow me throughout the camp and to the campsite. We were all singing. We all gathered at the foundation of the school that we were filling in. The little kids were singing, then the older kids were singing, then the adults were singing. It was a song in Creole."

She continued, "Everybody was so happy and they were jumping up and down. I looked into one of the children's eyes and I just saw hope."

She said Camp Hope "is such the right name for this camp," adding "being surrounded by everybody in the camp singing and happy and joyous, that was really emotional for me."

 "It was a lot easier with the younger kids because we didn't speak the same language but we could just have fun and play games together."

Sara said she knew from prior experience, helping out in the DR, that her least favorite part was leaving. She knew the next group would finish what they started, which made the goodbye bitter-sweet.

She recalled a story told by their translator about his 11-year-old daughter whose leg was trapped under a cinderblock wall after the earthquake. "His 2-year-old daughter, Stelcey, got up and started singing. The next day, he knew from then on he had to start helping. He got hooked up with FFP and has been working with them ever since."

Sara said his story touched her deeply. "Hearing his story and seeing his passion for what he was doing, I don't think I've ever been so inspired."

She asked him to write the word "strength" in her journal in Creole. "I got it tattooed on my foot when I got back."

"I really want to use it as a way to keep me grounded and remind me of this experience, whether it be 70 years from now or tomorrow."

Sara said since she's been back, she has spent a lot of time speaking to students and faculty at WHS about her trip, "to let them know it's possible to do something like this."

Tara, who will attend Syracuse in the fall, said she did her senior project on her trip. "A big part of Syracuse is the diversity there," she said. "I'm glad that I can bring my experience to the table."

Her project included an essay and a 20-minute slide show. "I got good feedback afterwards."

"I'd totally recommend it to anybody," said Tara, adding the trip had a positive affect on her brother. "I think he's really happy to say that he's done something like this."

Tara said the trip definitely changed her for the better too. She no longer takes for granted what she has. "There are people who have so much less and they're so happy. It's still affecting me today … my social life and what I do…"I don't just spend money to spend money."

She added, "I'm definitely a lot more thankful for what I have." 

Sara, too, said her view on "the simple things in life" changed for the better. "You readjust how you prioritize things."

"I got back and took garbage bags of clothes and put them in a Red Cross bin," she added. "I want to make someone else happy."

And she gave advice for anyone who wants to take the trip. "I would say go with an open heart. Do whatever's asked of you. I'm not a construction worker. I was out there with shovels and pick axes. You do what you need to do to get it done."

Sara said an alternative program she teaches at WHS called Project 79, for at risk kids, raised money for her airfare. Planet Honda also donated $12,000 for the trip, some of which went to her stay expenses and to the program itself.

As for the school they were building, it's already done. "We finished the foundation. The next group did all the walls." With the help of local Haitians, who get paid, "the school is up and running."

For more information, or to make a donation, go to www.foundationforpeace.org

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