Getro Naissance spent his holiday weekend bandaging wounds and lifting rubble off dead bodies in Haiti.
Naissance, a UF biology junior, met with family in the Dominican Republic Thursday before traveling to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake that struck Jan. 12.
Naissance was born and raised in Haiti and had family that remained unaccounted for after the earthquake.
Sky Georges, the president of Gators United for Haiti and friend of Naissance, said Naissance went to Haiti to find his family and help the victims of the tragedy.
Naissance called Georges Friday night and said he was safe and had found his family.
Naissance told Georges he was sleeping in a park in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, with people who had lost their homes.
“He said he had to eat feet away from dead bodies where the stench was just unbearable,” he said.
Georges said he told Naissance it was not a good idea to travel to Haiti now because the country is still in chaos, but Naissance told him he would not be able to live with himself if he did not go.
“I am actually glad I did because I got a chance to see Haiti through my own two eyes, not from CNN or FOX News,” Naissance wrote to Georges in an e-mail. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help the place where I am from and find out on the whereabouts of my family.”
