Thursday, January 14, 2010

awakening

Last night the news was on and my heart was breaking as I heard about the major earthquake in Haiti that has left possibly half a million people dead. Sometimes I can't watch the news because it hurts me. I feel like I can't handle hearing about so many awful things happening in the world.

Tragic. My mind immediately went to thoughts of those precious people I met in the Dominican Republic, some of them Haitian Dominicans. Haiti and the DR share the island Hispanola, and so I wondered how such a huge earthquake could be so detrimental to Haiti and not have effected the DR.

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Today at school my regular Clinic Instructor was sick and unable to be there, and so we had another CI come to fill his spot. She happened to be the CI at our school that is from the DR. I finished early (which never happens) and I started chatting with her. She is the sweetest woman. I asked if she had heard about the earthquake, and she said she was up all night watching and trying to get in touch with her family, because (like me) she wondered if it had effected the DR. I told her I was also curious to hear about the DR because of the time I spent there, and then we began talking about the DREAM project and what it was all about.

She told me she was overjoyed to hear about the volunteers offering their time and help to the Dominican children. She began to sob softly and just looked at me and said thank you, thank you.

She didn't know how much that meant to me. I'm surprised I didn't start crying.

Instead I just said that I love those children and all the people there and that I hope to go back to offer more help after I graduate.

Sometimes I need to watch the news. I need to be reminded that there is so much more to do, because I have so much more love to give.

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*I have heard that the Dominican felt the quake but there was no reported damage*

6 comments:

Natalie Bergin said...

I look at online news sites like msnbc and abc...for awhile I couldn't read the articles because it made me so sad. I have been wondering what it is I could do. Do you know if the church humanitarian aid is helping out?

taryn said...

They are! They have sent thousands of water purifiers and personal hygiene kits. I know they are taking donations and doing what they can.

AmyJ said...

Wow, Tare, great post! I forgot that you went there. I'm glad you did this post and shared your feelings about it again.

The church website was one of the first places I went online after I heard about the quake, and I was glad (but not surprised) to hear about the humanitarian aid they've ALREADY sent. It makes me proud to belong to such a great church and organization. Makes you wonder why the govt. can't work that well.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Taryn for this beautiful post! Dad and I had just been talking about how close the DR is to Haiti and we were wondering about the people there and about you (we know how tender your feelings are toward the people of the DR). I am glad they are good. I also appreciated Carrie's post and the link to helping. The church is wonderful at their ability to mobilize fast and quickly get goods and food to those in need. These wonderful people are in our prayers.
~mom

Scottie and Angie said...

Tare I have tears in my eyes now. I love that you went to the DR. And what a neat experince with that teacher!!!

Kristi said...

This post made me cry. You are too sweet Taryn. That was a neat story, I didn't know you had spent time there. I'm glad the DR wasn't affected but the Haiti damage breaks my heart. I want to help more than just give $10 to the Red Cross though a text! Sometimes I feel so helpless and small in this big world. Someday maybe I can help in a larger way. For now I guess it will be prayers and $10 text donations.