By: Nathan (High School Intern)
“It was interesting to see how much joy they had, despite their terrible circumstances.” Senior Ashley Geissler from Tumwater High School just returned home from humanitarian work in Haiti. Geissler is an outstanding student at Tumwater. She has a 4.0 GPA and is involved in the school with activities including orchestra. Along with her great school record, she also has a heart for people in need.
Haiti was Geissler’s destination where she planned to build homes for families and to spend time with the natives. The natural disasters that have struck the island are not foreign knowledge to many Americans. The earthquake destroyed towns and villages, demolishing buildings and homes. Geissler went in hopes of lifting a family’s burden.
Geissler and her team went to a remote village where most of the families lived in small huts to build them homes. They completed one house and started a second. This one house will be a home to four families. Not only will it better the living conditions of the families, but it will keep them out of the floods during the rainy season. Constructing the houses was only one large component of her trip; Ashley was also to learn of about local culture and native communities. She spent a lot of time working with kids and reading to them. “I really enjoyed playing and laughing with them,” Geissler said.
While her trip was eventful and allowed her to leave a meaningful mark on the Haitian community, Geissler was also impacted in a somewhat unexpected way. Every time she was hugged by one of the local women they would “squeeze her butt cheeks. It was very disconcerting because you are just giving them a hug and it’s awkward,” but she was glad to know they appreciated her.
Although she went with selfless reasons, she also came away from the experience changed. Her relationships with the other students on her trip only became stronger as her team unified through this time. She discovered her love for people and the joy it brings her to help those in need. The need for medical help in countries like Haiti has increased Geissler’s passion in a future career in the medical field. She walked away with a newly aware sense of “how blessed we really are, how blessed we are to live in this country, and just how important it is to be grateful for it.”
