What the Children of Saint Marc Taught Her

When I was first approached about resharing my blog, I honestly did not remember writing it at all. When I look at what I wrote, a rush of emotions came flooding back to me, not only from writing the blog post, but from my time in Haiti.

I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I was able to share my skills with the children of Haiti. I felt love not only for the kids I worked with but also for the community of San Marc, and for Dr. Mortel for creating these opportunities for Haiti. And I felt an increase in not only my call to serve the children and people of Haiti but to serve the underprivileged and overlooked communities in my own town and state!

When writing the blog post, I recalled the passion for educating underprivileged children and communities that was instilled in me through this experience. At the time, I was finishing my undergraduate degree in special education, and it reminded me of the impact that I wanted to have on my community. Looking back, it still lights a fire under me to continue helping underprivileged and underserved communities.

I think this experience shaped me in several ways. It instilled the importance of education and how it can change lives for young people. It also instilled in me the importance of my own education and the blessing of being able to pursue the degrees I want. Education not only shaped my educational success but also the career fields I pursued!

When I traveled to Haiti for this mission trip, I was on a trajectory to become an elementary special education teacher, but through this experience, I realized that I wanted to work with an underprivileged and underserved community. I decided then to pursue my master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis with a focus on children with Autism.

Upon achieving my master’s degree, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Kwadwo Britwum. Dr. Britwum often reminded me to focus on my values and what was important to me in life, and this always brought me back to Haiti, the call I felt to serve, and the importance of education. Upon earning my master’s degree, I took a position at Southern Illinois University as a doctoral student working toward my Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis. The drive to achieve this doctoral degree stems from my time in Haiti!

If I had not had the experiences I had in Haiti, I would not feel the drive to serve underprivileged and overlooked communities, nor would I have valued my education as much or realized how much of an impact an education can have! Dr. Mortel and others, such as Dr. Jim Taneyhill, DDS, have inspired the dream of one day bringing applied behavior analysis and autism education to Haiti!

Day 7

By Lynn Schumacher – July 17, 2020

To me, there has always been an unexplainable call from God to serve.

Since I was 8 years old, I have had a soft spot in my heart for Haiti, leaving me with an urge to travel and serve the Haitian community, but not in an educational way, at first. I was more interested in the physical part of service when it came to my service work. When I was informed that this trip would be a summer camp and not building housing and cleaning up, I will admit, I was a bit hesitant. The first day of camp wiped away all hesitation.

At first, I observed the children playing. The children would play soccer with rocks and bottle caps before the balls were brought out in the morning. Some of the girls would play games that involved clapping or singing, or the children would read and draw in their notebooks. All of the children were so excited to be there that day, even if they were learning during the summer. On the first day, while I was observing the children play, it wasn’t long before I was asked to join a game of soccer. The children just wanted to play with us; they didn’t care that we were strangers. Playing with them brought me back to my youth innocence during that week.

In awe, I would observe them sharing what little they had with each other every day. Some of the children would arrive with frozen drinks, while others would arrive with thawed drinks. They would then huddle up and pour the drinks back and forth and share the drinks to get the most out of it and to be able to share with more children.

It didn’t take but two days for the children to remember you and grow to love you. One little girl would come find me every morning so we could play some form of a clapping game, which would evolve into all of her friends swarming around wanting to play, too. The little boys would get so into their soccer game that whatever team I wasn’t on would accuse the other team of cheating. To these kids, it didn’t matter if you were kicking a bottle cap or a soccer ball: as long as they had your attention, they were the happiest little campers.

No matter where I found myself in Haiti, I was always greeted with a smile, whether it was the children at the camp, the Haitian community in their street market, the refugees at their home, or the children of the Our Lady of Fatima shrine. I remember walking up to the beach of Saint Marc and seeing four to five children run to greet us and proceed to kick a bottle cap around with us. There is a lot to learn from these children.

While we were exploring the Fatima shrine, the children who lived there were far from shy. When we arrived, they ran up to us and were extremely proud to show us around their home and the shrine. There were so many children that I will never forget from that community. A group of children took turns sharing a pair of flip-flops while we walked around the mountain. Two little boys took my hands and walked with me around the mountain, and when I tripped on a rock, I had never seen a child look more concerned for a stranger’s well-being than I saw these children look.

Although our trip did not end as planned (because the July 2018 riots delayed our departure), the extra four days we spent there had a positive impact on both my daily life and my choice of career. The entire trip reminded me why I wanted to be an educator and spend my life helping children, but the last four days made me realize that my calling in life is to help underprivileged children and communities.

That week alone, I felt as though the children brought me back to the simplicities of life. They showed me what it was like to love without hesitation, and they reminded me that God made us all of his children, and we should always show each other the same love, compassion, and generosity that Jesus demonstrated so perfectly for us to follow.

With this being said, Haiti needs our help more than ever right now. We have seen what COVID-19 has done to our own nation. Now, imagine how it is affecting underdeveloped nations. This is our time to stand up and help them, because if they were in the position to help us, they would do it without hesitation. It is the way that Jesus would want us to behave.

If you can donate, please

do. Haiti needs extreme help for COVID-19 relief, and every little bit helps! Please help this beautiful community!