For Quanesha Biggs, the scars from the mosquito bites on her arms tell how she spent her 18th birthday.  When Biggs turned 18 a few weeks ago, she was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti helping victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The Chamblee High School senior was part of a nine-member volunteer team who went on the missions trip to the Caribbean country Jan. 30—Feb. 4.

Biggs saw the devastation of the earthquake up close as volunteers from the Deskan Institute and Training, a non-profit organization in Stone Mountain that  was launched by Dr. Joan Liverpool, reached out to help homeless victims.

“It was every bit of roughing it out. I got 13 mosquito scars to prove it,” Biggs said. “We slept in a tent and had to use a garden hose to shower.”

“It was so hot there. It was like summer with temperatures in the 90s everyday we were there.”

Biggs spent time bottle-feeding babies, changing bandages of the wounded and helping to dispense medicine from a makeshift pharmacy.

Biggs said her family paid $400 for her to go on the trip, which was her second missions venture. She spent nine days with a church team last summer in Guyana, South America giving out donations of food, clothes and medicine to the needy.

“I do it because I just like helping people and I want to work in the medical field. This was a great way to put my interests to the test,” said Biggs, who aspires to be an OBGYN.

Biggs currently attends classes at Georgia Perimeter through her high school’s magnet program. Her four professors let her make up her classroom work when she returned from Haiti.

Biggs said the trip to Haiti was a life-changing experience that made her appreciate the smaller things in life.

“The first thing I remember when I got home was finally getting back to my bed and having a choice of what I would eat,” Biggs said. “This kind of experience has made me very appreciative of my mother for the things she has always provided that I once took for granted.”

Biggs said she has been accepted to Georgia State University and plans to pursue pre-medical undergraduate studies in the fall.