PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This undoubtedly will offend Trevor Williams: Haiti is a dump.

This is not a commentary on the people. It is an observation of the surroundings, the earthquake notwithstanding. If you were dropped off blindfolded into one the many city streets choked with garbage, when you open your eyes you would say you were in a landfill.

Williams, an unassuming 20-year-old kid from Azusa, Calif., devoted days to helping Utah Haiti Relief make food drops with the groups' helicopters. On the day the Utahns prepared to leave, there was Williams, picking up trash at the Port-au-Prince airport, just more food wrappers and water bottles blowing in the wind.

Williams is partial to Haiti. He lived in an area called Juvenat just outside Port-au-Prince for several years. He left for a few years but came back 10 days before the earthquake to spend time with his parents and two sisters who still live there. His father, Frank, works as the Haiti director for World Vision, an international Christian relief organization.

Williams understands Haiti. He has helped unload cargo planes and drive food to outlying communities.

"Every time we went out, we had food riots," he said.

Williams' mother and sisters were in their house on the island when the earth rumbled beneath them Jan. 12. Williams was doing volunteer work at an orphanage. His father was at work. They found the house flattened.

"We called for them, but there was no answer. We figured they were either dead or by some miracle that they were trapped in there and unconscious."

Night made it impossible to search, so they left, and waited for the darkness to clear.

Sometime the next day Williams' mother June and his sisters Dawn, 13, and 6-year-old Pria, wandered into his dad's office. June had a badly injured leg and she and Pria were barefoot.

"It was probably the strongest emotion I have ever felt, seeing them again after I thought they had died. Our whole family just held each other and cried."

Williams' mom and sister managed to scramble out just before the walls came down, though a piece of tumbling furniture caught his mom's leg.

"I know God had me here for a specific reason. I needed to be here for my dad when we thought my mom and sisters were gone. I needed to be here when we found out they were OK."

Father and son took them to the U.S. Embassy the next day to board an Air Force plane for the States. Williams stayed behind.

"I told them I was staying. They understood."

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In the earthquake aftermath, Williams hooked up with a World Vision-contracted search-and-rescue team for a few days and then helped provide security for food distributions. Eventually he met up with guys from utahhaitirelief.org and spent hours loading the helicopter for food drops.

As Utah Haiti Relief's pilots and helicopters readied to depart, Williams was seen picking up garbage around the makeshift helipad where the bags of beans and cans of sardines once were stacked.

Upon being complimented for his efforts, he smiled. "I want to do my part to keep Haiti clean, you know?"

e-mail: romboy@desnews.com

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