These neighborhood kids fell in love in Far North Dallas. Now, they’re spreading love as they help rebuild Haiti.
Ben and Katie Kilpatrick’s love story begins as many do. The sweethearts met in junior high at a neighborhood church, in this case at First Baptist Richardson. Ben, a Berkner graduate, and Katie, a JJ Pearce graduate, began a long-distance courtship in college, and four and a half years later, the pair was married.
They both landed jobs, and seemingly, things were falling into place. But Ben and Katie felt something was missing.
“We felt like there was some lack of meaning. We just felt like we were living for ourselves,” Ben explains. “Our jobs were great, but we weren’t making the world a better place.”
And so, the newlyweds took a radical leap of faith.
“Through a lot of prayer, we decided that we would quit our jobs, sell most of our possessions, and move to Haiti to teach.”
Though the couple had done mission work in Latin America, Katie says the decision to leave was not easy for her.
“I struggled with bouts of strong fear. I worried that we would return to Dallas a few years later with nothing: no house, no jobs, no plan. But I knew God would be with us no matter what. It’s not a platitude — God has carried us through horrible seasons in the past, and I knew now would be no different.”
And so, with faith and a couple of cardboard boxes in tow, Ben and Katie left to start a new life as teachers at Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
“We got to Haiti on Dec. 30. New Year’s Eve is the biggest holiday in Haiti,” Katie says. “It’s not only a new year, but also their independence day. It was a madhouse: the honking, the dogs barking, the trash, the smells. I felt so lost. Everybody stared at me. I couldn’t understand a thing anyone said, nor could I read any ads or signs. I instantly became so much more empathetic for the experience of immigrants in America.”
But as the newness of the place washed over them, they eventually caught the rhythm of the foreign city.
“I distinctly remember when I realized I’d be OK here in Haiti,” Ben recalls. “It was the first time I went to the local indoor market. I saw familiar foods, and I realized, ‘I can buy food here, and if I can buy food, I can live here.’ ”
Less than two weeks after the Kilpatricks arrived, just as they were starting to gain their footing, the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12 hit, rattling the place and its people to their core. The 7.0 earthquake flattened entire neighborhoods, claiming more than 217,000 lives and injuring more than 300,000.
Katie still recalls the exact moment the earth began to shake.
“It was 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, and we’d just returned from our first trip alone to the grocery store on foot. We were sitting down in our duplex about to start making lesson plans when the sound started … like a giant truck driving right next to you. Ben figured it out first. He yelled ‘It’s an earthquake!’ and dragged me to the stairwell.”
The two ducked into that nearby stairwell, literally hanging on for dear life.
“Katie and I just sat in that stairwell and held on very tightly to each other,” Ben says. “I remember the sound of the earthquake — just the sound of everything around me shaking — furniture, plates, my building. It’s a very unnatural sound.”
Once the shaking stopped, Ben and Katie emerged to find chaos in the streets.
“There were Haitians streaming out into the creek bed at the end of our street, bleeding and carrying limp children,” Katie says. “I had no idea what to do first.
“We spent the first day at the school, trying to get information and comfort the dozens of kids who were at the school when the quake hit due to after-school sports practice. We spent three days working at a mobile clinic in a church courtyard. Ben carried stretchers, while I worked with another 20-something Quisqueya teacher doing wound care. I would scrub wounds, apply some topical meds, and make a bandage. We saw things I never thought I’d see: insides of feet, arms and heads; gangrene setting in; a stick-thin baby with severe malnutrition. All the hospitals were completely overwhelmed, and it took about a week for us to see the first glimpse of any major aid. It felt so good to be tangibly helping.”
In the months that have followed, things in Haiti “are now ‘the new normal,’ ” Ben says.
“Tent cities cover every soccer field, public park, lawn, and have even taken over some streets,” Katie says. “Four thousand schools are destroyed, and even before the quake, 50 percent of Haitian kids didn’t go to any form of school at all. There’s no mail. Public electricity was only on a few hours a day before the quake, and water is unreliable. All of the public ministries are down — no documents like death certificates, passports or land deeds. There are hour-long lines to go in the banks. Every store has armed guards at the door, and razor wire on every wall. The vast majority of fallen buildings — over 80 or 90 percent of buildings in some areas — haven’t been touched, no rubble moved, yet alone started to build. The scale of the problem is enormous.”
Ben and Katie are now committed to helping rebuild Haiti. They’ve decided to build a new school — something that has become possible with help from neighbors right here in Far North Dallas. Several schools in the Richardson ISD have raised funds for Ben and Katie, collecting more than $12,000 so far. Most recently Berkner, JJ Pearce, Richardson and Lake Highlands high schools competed in the district’s annual country western dance competition. Traditionally, ticket sale proceeds from the competition are donated to a local charity. This year, however, that money went toward helping Ben and Katie rebuild their new school in Haiti.
People in the community where their story began are now helping them write its next chapter. It’s humbling, they say, to have so many people from their hometown helping from afar.
“I’m so proud of the work that RISD students are doing for Haiti,” Ben says. “I want to specifically thank [RISD board member] Luke Davis, Caroline Vanderslice and Kim Caston at Pearce, and Ed Yartym at Berkner.
“Let’s be honest: I was not the most well-behaved student, and I was not the strongest student academically. I would never have been voted ‘Most Likely to Receive Future Humanitarian Aid from Berkner’ as a senior superlative. But here I am, doing my part, proof that God can use anyone.”
In addition to building the new school, Ben and Katie also will use some of the money to sponsor some of the children’s tuition costs, as there are no free schools in Haiti.
“The founder of the group we’re partnering with was a very poor Haitian girl who received a shot at an education and was then able to get a college degree in the U.S. and become a nurse,” Katie says. “She knows that education can transform a person’s entire future, and we’re going to spend the money raised to sponsor more extremely poor kids to attend school. [These RISD students] are changing these kids’ entire lives!”
LESSONS ABROAD
Ben and Katie say their experience in Haiti has taught them lessons not found in any book. Here, they share some of what they have learned:
BEN: “I’ve learned that the world’s population is more alike than we are different.”
KATIE: “I’ve learned how to pluck a chicken, diagnose scabies and bedbug bites, tell if a wound is infected or healing well — and how natural fruits and vegetables are actually very different shapes and colors than the genetically perfected ones we buy in the U.S.”
BEN: “I’ve learned that if you want to put people at ease in a foreign culture, start laughing and playing with the children—instantly you’re accepted.”
KATIE: “I’ve learned that you always compare yourself to those directly around you, not to the truth of what most people’s lives are like in the world. Life in America is the most comfortable, beautiful, incredibly blessed lifestyle around. I didn’t express gratitude even 5 percent of what I should.”
If you would like to help, or follow Ben and Katie’s journey in Haiti, please visit their blog: benandkatieinhaiti.com
