The day after Haiti's earthquake nightmare began, I wandered to the Haitian embassy in Mexico City to see what was happening. At first, I watched as a smattering of Haitians and Mexicans darted back and forth from the building to the street, hauling bottled water and boxes of food. The embassy had been quickly converted into a makeshift donation center, and a steady stream of cars was lined up outside, ready to unload their trunks.

Volunteers in Mexico City load relief supplies for distribution to quake survivors in Haiti. Photo/Grant Fuller

One Haitian man who seemed to be in charge would rush up to each new car's trunk, chomping at the bit to transfer the goods inside. His sense of urgency spoke to the severity of the tragedy that had just struck his homeland. Every time, he would yell in Spanish, "The chain! The chain!" and whoever was in the vicinity would hurry over, form a line, and start passing the donated items down this human chain from the road to the inside of the embassy.

He grabbed a pack of water from the trunk and pivoted to hand it off ... but no one was there. "The chain!" I found myself watching this happen just a few feet in front of me, and then I snapped out of it. What am I doing? Even though I am a journalist, I do also have two hands and an able body. Step up there and help the man! So I jumped into the empty spot. "Gracias, mi amigo," he said as he swung the water into my open arms.

The same thing happened later at the downtown donation center. Standing with my recording gear and camera in the middle of a sidewalk swarming with volunteers and packed with stacks of donated water, I felt like I was in the way. So I took off my journalist's hat for a while, hopped up into the 18-wheeler they were loading, and experienced a bit of the solidarity so common in the wake of this disaster. Humans in Mexico helping humans in Haiti. At times like this, setting down the microphone and pitching in is the very least we can do.

Have you ever had the opportunity to be a part of a "human chain" delivering help to people who desperately needed it? What kind of perspective did that experience add to your own life?