Claremore Teen Returns Home From Haiti Mission Trip

By Jeffrey Smith, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Claremore teenager is home from Haiti. Liberty Henegar spent the last 10 days on a mission trip near the capital city of Port-au-Prince. 

Liberty Henegar, 18, was on her first overseas mission trip. She says she was prepared for drought and poverty, but not for one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.

More than 100 of Liberty's family and friends packed Tulsa International Airport Saturday. They held signs, but for Liberty's mom, no poster could contain her excitement.

"I am shaking inside. I'm nervous. I'm excited. I can't even describe it," said Valerie Henegar, Liberty's mom.

Liberty Henegar survived one of the deadliest earthquakes in recorded history, then she spent days in the middle of scenes of carnage and devastation.

But after days of worry, Liberty is home. She spent most of her time at a Haitian orphanage, in a small town just outside Port-au-Prince.

Claremore Teen Spent Time at Haiti Orphanage

"(Friday) morning when we left, they were burying a little boy, and there were women beating on the walls, just crying," said Liberty Henegar.

The 7.0 magnitude quake hit the day before Liberty was scheduled to leave. She did what she could to help.

"Whole houses had fallen down; they were flat with the ground. We went around trying to find people. There was a little boy right behind the church. The wall had fallen over on him, but they got him out alive," said Liberty.

Liberty said the hardest moment was hearing about the death of an eight-year-old boy she had worked with just hours before the earthquake.

"A wall had fallen on him and killed him. That was probably one of the hardest things on us in particular, because we had just worked with him the day before. We had his pictures, pictures of him and his mother, and they died," said Liberty.

In the days following the quake, Liberty said the screams never stopped, and the bodies kept piling up.

"They were opening up all the cemeteries and just pushing them in there," said Liberty.

Liberty said she wants to go back to Haiti. She said she was moved by the generosity and hopefulness of the Haitian people, even before the earthquake. And since she saw the devastation, she said she would like to play a role in the rebuilding. Liberty's mom said she is ok with that, but she wants her to wait a few more months.

1/15/2010  Related Story: Tulsa Organizations Gathering Aid For Haiti