Billings News

Out of tragedy comes triumph, for Haitian student

Posted: Jan 11, 2011 6:13 PM by Amanda Venegas
Updated: Jan 11, 2011 6:18 PM

BILLINGS - On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 Magnitude earthquake changed the lives of many Haitians forever.

"And I felt the earth shaking. That was horrible," said Peterson Fussaint, a Haitian and a current student at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.

It also altered life for Peterson as well. He says that Tuesday started out like any other day. Peterson was walking down the street with a friend, when the quake toppled over buildings and caused widespread chaos. He lost many friends in the tragedy.

"I began to see dead people around me, about a hundred dead people. So everywhere," Peterson said.

After the earthquake, Peterson worked as an English translator at a local hospital. He became steadfast friends with a doctor and nurse from Montana. That friendship lead him to Rocky Mountain College and a future he'd only dreamed of.

"My dream to study outside Haiti because I need a good education," Peterson said.

Thanks to the generosity of Rocky Mountain College and his two Montana friends, Peterson is now studying aviation with the hopes of becoming an air traffic controller.

Though he is thousands of miles away on the anniversary of the earthquake that shattered his nation, his heart is still in his homeland and with the people who have lost soo much.

"I am Haitian. People living in the tent city are my brother and sister you know. We have the same nationality."

Although he's come to Montana for an education, he's already learned an important lesson.

"So there is something very very important and it's life. But I know what is life after I saw tragedy like that in Haiti."

Peterson says he plans to live his life to the fullest, as a memorial to those whose lives were cut short on that tragic day.

Peterson is studying aviation management and hopes to become an air traffic controller in the future.He'll be studying at Rocky for the next four years and says he is enjoying Montana, but is still learning how to deal with the cold weather.

Topics: billings, haitian, Haiti, earthquake, rocky, rmc, montana, amanda venegas