6/27/2011
By MICHAEL STRAND Salina Journal

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

-- Helmuth von Moltke

Sure, the McPherson College students who just returned from Haiti were there to help, not to conquer -- but once on the ground, it didn't take them long to realize most of their plans wouldn't work.

The five students ¬­-- Tori Carder, Melisa Grandison, Steve Butcher, Nate Coppernoll and Ryan Stauffer -- along with provost Kent Eaton and history professor Ken Yohn, spent the first week of June in Haiti as part of the college's first "Global Enterprise Challenge."

The project started last fall, when groups of students put together proposals for helping the people of Haiti following last year's massive earthquake.

The winning proposal was to help the people of one community, Aux Plaines, set up a local market and an online market to sell locally produced goods worldwide, plus increase educational opportunities for the local children.

Once in Haiti, however, that plan saw "plenty of change. We made no headway on the market at all," Grandison said. "I think dreaming big is a good idea but going there and seeing the environment and the level of poverty was incredible. I just don't think a market would work."

The most basic reason a community market wouldn't work, Carder explained, is that everyone had essentially the same stuff.

"Everybody grows the same types of things at a subsistence level -- enough for their family -- so there was really nothing to sell," she said.

Where's the electricity?

As for selling products online, the students also found several necessary components missing -- such as computers, Internet connections and electricity.

"The wiring and Internet connectivity is just not there," Grandison said. "Until you're able to connect those dots, it's not going to happen."

Haiti also has a "weird mix of cultures," Carder said. For example, "it's easy to get a cell phone there, but access to electricity to charge it is a different thing. If you want something, you just wander around until you find the right person."

They barely had shovels

The students said they did accomplish some things, including helping the village build a pond, and building relationships.

"The guys mostly helped build the pond," Carder said. "They were carrying 30-pound buckets of dirt on their heads; that's a third of my body weight."

Even a task like that was far more low-tech than expected.

It wasn't just that the village didn't have bulldozers and backhoes, Grandison said.

"They barely had shovels. Mostly they were using sticks and bare hands to dig with," Grandison said.

Providing for themselves

It was the start of building a long-term relationship between the college and Haitian people that was the most valuable part of the trip, students said.

"We had a chance to talk with them about what they have on the island, and how their way of life works," Grandison said. "Starting the conversation and the relationship was important. I was really interested in connecting with the people, rather than being a solution for them."

"We have to teach them to provide for themselves, without just giving to them," Carder said. "Just giving to them isn't a long-term solution, and it doesn't lead to a sense of self-worth."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by email at mstrand@salina.com.

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