Published On:Monday, February 15, 2010

IT takes 22 seconds for me to tie both shoe laces on my school shoes. And it took 30 seconds to completely destroy the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. I never knew what an earthquake was before January 12, 2010. But by the end of that day I knew all too well what it was and what it could do.

It was at the top of the hour of the 7pm radio news when I first learned of what happened in Haiti. Although I had no clue why my mom's expression changed so quickly when she received a call from my auntie Reese, when she hung up the telephone, I asked her what was the matter and why she looked as if she had seen a ghost?

She said to me: "There was an earthquake in Haiti and that the Bahamas was under a tsunami watch". I guess I didn't give the reaction she expected or maybe I seemed uninterested, so she went on to tell me how serious this notice was!

She explained to me right away what an earthquake and tsunami was, and how dangerous they can be.

I instantly knew that this was no joke or my mom overreacting as I think she sometimes can be - like the time I left my lunchbox at school and she made me believe it was the end of the world as I knew it, that I would never be able to carry lunch from home again, as I had nothing now to put it in - this was not like that episode - this was serious business.

I could tell from my auntie Reese's tone over the phone that she too was scared - and I only know my auntie Reese to be afraid of cats!

And so I began to watch the news reports with my mom to understand more of what actually happened. I learnt so much that night and just before bedtime my mother reminded me to say my prayers as she always did, but she had something extra to add - and it was that I also remember to pray for the Haitian people.

And so I did, and have done so ever since without reminder.

The next day at school I asked my Haitian friend, who is younger than I am, only kindergarten, how he and his family were doing. He said fine, but I didn't think he knew or understood why I was asking.

So I decided to speak to my classmates and friends about it. I asked them how they felt about what happened in Haiti. They also didn't understood why I asked as they laughed at the fact I was even asking. So I knew I couldn't speak to them either on this particular matter.

Later, because I did so well on my Christmas term report card my nana's best friend gave me a gift of $10. I was so happy and proud of myself. Soon after receiving it, I gave it to my mom for safekeeping and she said to me: Do you see what hard work and a little focus can award you? What will you do with your money? And I thought for a moment and said: "I want to donate it to Haiti."

She gave me the biggest hug and said how thoughtful and unselfish it was for me to do such a kind thing.

I believed she said it was my first act of charity and I should be proud of myself. I also learnt the meaning of the word charity that night too.

Did I mention that my mom is very big on vocabulary?

My mom went on to tell me how poor the country of Haiti is and that more than half of the population survives on about a dollar per day, and that my donation of $10 would probably give those people water, food and even hope for the future for ten days!

I was so surprised, at seven almost eight years old, I sometimes get $2 now and again as a bonus to my packed lunch. Even to me a dollar per day is way too low to make any kind of a difference. So I told my mom, I wanted her to be sure that whoever receives my donation split the single 10 dollar bill into ten single $1 bills so that 10 little boys or 10 little girls would have at least $1 per day which can equal to 10 days of food, water and even give hope. She smiled and said okay.

I learnt later that she matched my $10 donation and said now 20 people can have water and food.

My family and I continue to watch and listen to the news reports about Haiti and we often talk about how easily it could have been our country that was affected by this disaster. And how we would hope that there would be someone like us to make a donation toward our food, water and even hope for our future.

Hello Haiti, my family and I are listening & praying for you!

- Dylan Russell