Apopka firefighter Vince Indiveri was determined to help earthquake victims in Haiti, so he hopped a plane armed with nothing but a backpack containing eight bottles of water, four bags of beef jerky, some peanuts, and raisins.
          “I was in survival mode,” he said. “I had a water purifier and everything. I wanted to help out, but I didn’t really have the resources. I was sure I’d be able to find someone there. It worked out.”
          He booked a flight to Port-au-Prince, but when he arrived at the Orlando airport, the ticket agent told him the Haiti airport was not open to commercial aircraft. When she told him she could either refund his money or book him to the Dominican Republic, he decided to take his chances there. “I was winging it the whole way,” Indiveri said. “I met up with a missionary group from Chicago in Fort Lauderdale as we were about to board the plane, so I just started talking to them.”
          He arrived in Haiti Monday, January 25, and accompanied the group of about 20 missionaries to an orphanage just outside of Port-au-Prince. “They had water, medical supplies and food, and they took me in,” Indiveri said. “I was their stray for the week.”
          The group set up a health clinic and saw about 500 people in two days before moving on to another orphanage. While the damage was not as severe as that in the capital city, Indiveri said he saw a flattened church and damage to other buildings. “It was pretty messed up and I heard that not much aid had gotten to that section where I was at,” he said. “I noticed some U.N. guys there as security, but supplies weren’t really getting to that area.”
           Many of the children and adults were sick from not having necessary supplies, but there were also some with minor wounds that badly needed attention at the camp. “I remember cleaning the foot of this one girl and it looked like she had a scab, but it was really just so much dirt inside,” Indiveri said. “It was a lot of basic first aid.”
            In the second orphanage, approximately 90 people in the small community were dead or missing, Indiveri said. Despite the losses, the children remained positive. “I guess they were excited to have people in the area,” he said. “We definitely saw some smiles and we were able to play some games with the kids.”
            The firefighter said that there is much more to be done before the clean-up process was complete, but, from the border of the Dominican Republic, he could see dump trucks and more heavy equipment moving around as well as some Blackhawk helicopters in the skies.
            The crime wasn’t as bad as that in the city, Indiveri said. “Most of the people were very mellow. The first night, we showed up on a dark street and we got surrounded by a group of people. They were jumping up on the back of the bus and hanging on the windows, but we drove away with them hanging on our bus. They ended up getting off. They really weren’t that violent, even when they would approach you asking for food or water.”
           Indiveri said what affected him the most were the children. “A lot we saw in the clinic were sick with fevers and colds. A lot of them were walking around with no clothes or shoes. I’ve got some pictures of the kids, and in the angles of the shots, you can tell their eyes are glassy.”
           The firefighter returned to Apopka Friday, January 29, with lots to think about and a desire to return to Haiti. “I’d definitely go there again,” he said. “It’s not exactly a vacation spot, but just helping out with the kids was a big thing.”