KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Lucma Adolphe, a 28-year-old Haitian, was in his home-nation when the earthquake hit on January 12. Lucma is a student at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, Missouri. He was in Haiti as part of a Mission trip with a group from the Heartland and decided to stay longer to visit with family.
"It was around 4:30 and I was talking to a friend of mine and we felt there was a big noise coming on the ground and I did not understand what was going on” said Lucma. “We felt that the house was shaking and I and asked him if he understood what is going on. He said, well that is an earthquake I think."
Lucma was in Gonaives, about 50 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, when the earthquake hit.
"We decided the next day to go to Port-au-Prince so when we went there it was very bad, awful, and horrible. I couldn't believe what I saw but it was true. We could walk over dead people you know, just there's no way to explain."
"We picked up some water and some crackers, that's all that we could do at the time” said Lucma. "If we saw a crowd of people, we would give them some water. The other group we'd given them some crackers.”
When distributing the food, Lucma said they would not give crackers and water to the same people, but would split them up to ensure everyone would have received some form of aid.
Upon returning to America, Lucma had mix emotions.
“I would say I really didn't want to come back. I was thinking about staying to help, but somehow, people here advised me to come rather than to stay because they could find other people to help. Being here is good, but if I was home, it would be good too."
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