Only in Haiti

So tonight we decided to hire an armed security guy for the night shift. He is a member of our Church. We met with him and feel really great about it. Nothing really has changed, we just feel like we would never forgive ourselves if something happened and we did not take all the precautions we could have.

So we told our current unarmed security guard that we wanted him to start working the day shift and have the other guy do the night. His feelings were very hurt and he said "It is because I am black right?" Now mind you every person who has ever been in or out of this house save our family and 2 friends is Haitian and therefore "black". My daughter is "black". We have chosen to live in this country full of "black" people. And the new security guy is "black". I almost laughed out loud.

However, I will admit I had a little taste of racism the other day when we were at the beach. We were one of two "white" families that I saw anyway. The people who worked there were blatantly rude to us. Our room was "not ready" until 4 hours after "check-in" time. While people all around me got rooms quickly. They would not give us the internet code, rolled their eyes about giving us towels then only to give us 4 for our party of 11, they would not give us water, etc. It was so blatant it got to the point of comical. I imagine living with it day in and day our in your home country, however, it would not be comical. Again another thing I needed to see first hand and learn in Haiti.

Class Notes

(I forgot to post last weeks notes, so scroll back if you want to see them)

Dear class,

How are you? Is school good? What are you learning about? My Aunt Katie left and its 3 days after my b day[February 23]. I’m at church ad I can feel the spirit so strongly in these people. Right now were singing Hymn #3. In Creole it’s called Vivons Ce Bonheur. Aww, a cute baby just walked by. Alright now what I have done this week, after my Aunt Katie left, my grandparents came and we went to a hotel called Moulin Sur Mer. Here are the 3 funniest things: 1^st we went canoeing in the ocean and Breckin threw his crock in the ocean. 2^nd when we went canoeing BJ shouted “I’m freaking out.”3^rd TJ told BJ the deep blue sea swallowed his shoe. I really wish you could be here.

Sincerely, CT

Dear Class,

I am having a grate time. My Aunt Kaitlyn left and my Grandma and Grandpa came. I got some presents. We went to a beach for 3 days that was verry fun. We went to Fort Jacques there was a pond they took bathes and drank it. It was 16 feed verry deep. There was a lot of dark rooms. We went to an orphanage that was relly fun.

Love, Izzy

Hi, I miss you, I am coming back in 40 days.

I got a cool wood turtle that has a top that is wood and I put my key in it and a wood machete for my b-day from Haiti.

The rhino beetle we had for a pet, but Roselie dumped it out. Then we caught a leaf bug, but we let it go.

That is what our car looks like. It is like a truck and it is a beast to turn around. That is our only car.

The picture of my by the tunnel, was an army tunnel and soon I am going to send you a picture of BJ by the army door.

The other picture is a view from the top of Fort Jacques. It is a view of the prettiest sky in Haiti.

I went to the beach for like 3 days. I had a shower, it was the first one I had since I was in Haiti.

Soon I am going to send you a picture of the sunset.

Bye Bye-

TJ

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

One lesson that we are learning here is the concept of "Ask and Ye Shall Receive". I can not tell you how many things we have specifically prayed for with answers coming almost immediately. I think I have mentioned our most recent quest to find the avenue God would have us use to donate money to Haiti. After seeing a lot of the organizations here, I have been uncomfortable donating to them because I feel a lot of the money goes to the people working here. I did not want to spend a lot of money on stuff that would be disposable although very necessary in the short term, like diapers and shoes.
Then last week after specifically praying about what to use the money on we were asked by our Bishop and his wife to set up an organization that would sponsor children to go to school with the idea of eventually building a school that would have a part time volunteer clinic. We are still working out details and will keep you posted. Any ideas would be welcome!
This week our "ask and ye shall receive moment" came in suitcases with my in-laws. I put out a blog post about the critical urgent needs here at the moment and many came through for us with diapers, shoes, money, and clothes from some friends who came to the rescue last week at the drop of a hat. THANK YOU! And thank you to the kind notes that were written. I love and miss you all. Thank you for your continued support of "our adventure".

Only in Haiti

So Justin and I have this beautiful furniture in our room. But like a lot of things in Haiti it is beautiful on the outside and really poorly constructed on the inside. So today we both sat on the same side of the bed. Big mistake. The bed had no bars that went across it cross ways and we ended up on the floor. Now I am not saying we are lightweights, but really how long was this bed going to hold us with only a tiny piece of wood on either side?

Only in Haiti

When we came out of Fort Jacques today to see the cannons, this is what we were greeted with. Some kids having a "Haitian Shower" right on the cannons we were looking at. One had nothing but his birthday suit on.
The kids carried on with their "shower" (not a "Haitian shower" as IS pointed out because they were Haitian) and seemed totally unphased by us standing right next to them while they showered.

Us looking at the cannons.

And a closer look

Fort Jacques

Today we toured Fort Jacques. It made me want to see more of Haiti and learn more about the history of Haiti. It was first built in 1804 after Haiti had declared its independence from France. It was built to look over the bay as the French would have to arrive by boat.

The view from the top.

Fort Jacques was built about 3 KM away from Fort Alexandr, this tunnel connected the two. It fell in the first earthquake that hit Haiti in 1842.
BJ at the gate. This was the only "real size" door at the whole place.
The water source. A 16 ft. well that served as drinking and bathing water. I am glad to see some things have not changed in Haiti in the last 200+ years.
CT was really excited to see the jail, but he was disappointed there were no handcuffs, etc. inside.

More Creatures

This guy looks fake, I assure you he is not. This is CT with a rhinoceros horn beetle. The kids have captured it and put it in a cage to keep as a pet. Do you think customs will let us through?

The Orphanage

The orphanage today-
We took Grandma & Grandpa to the orphanage today. Grandma got lots of baby loves.

We brought suckers, they were a big hit. Next time we will hand them out as we are leaving as they keep the kids busy for a long time.

Grandpa and all the boys.

This is how CT wanted to spend his special day.

I had to play nurse today. I love helping kids feel better, but hate when they hate me for doing it!

We were there early today and were able to help get some of the kids up, dressed, and fed. It was nice to feel helpful. These kids can eat!

The Beach

Justin's parents arrived on Monday and we made a brief stop in Kanaan to show them the tent city and then the beach. I am not sure you could have two more different ends of the spectrum here in Haiti.

The kids again had a blast hanging out in the sand and playing.

This picture reminds me of a Grandma duck and her ducklings out for a swim.

This beach had Kayaks which was really fun. Both nights we were there we watched the sunset from the water in a Kayak. It again reminded me how beautiful Haiti can be.

It also made me reconsider the passenger van we have been debating about. I think we may just move to the beach and use a Kayak instead. Look it fits all 6 kids.

BT was cracking us up. He was covered in dirt/sand in his typical Linus look. So we told him to go wash off in the ocean. He would go over and dip his face near the water until a wave came to wash him off.

BJ was obsessed about "the deep blue sea" and wanted to know if it had eyes, etc. He was convinced it was a real huge monster or something.

Class Notes

Notes to their school classes-

Dear class,

How are you? Is class good? What do you have to learn about? We have done a ton of stuff this week. Like it was my brothers birthday. We also went to the feeding clinic. They had the same things beans and rice, sausage and a vitamen .they made bracelets. Then we went to indigo there was a buffe that you could eat all you want for free. It was awesome. I miss you so much.

Sincerely

Houdini

Somehow we missed IS this week.

I miss you. I don't want to come home, I want you to come here. We went to a new beach called Indigo and we saw green fish. We saw a naked man and a bunch of naked babies onthe way home from Indigo. I had my Birthday I got a turtle and a machete. I had a really good cake we lit all 6 matches because we did not have candles. My Aunt Katie came to visit. We made braclets at the feeding clinic this week. Sincerely, TJ

Notes to their church classes-

Church is really different everybody speaks French or Creole. The Sacrament is in French and the talking is in French. Everything else is incredible. You can really feel the spirit. They sing really fast and the people there are all black. It is about 3 miles from our house. It starts at 6am and finishes at 9am.
Sincerely, CT

Dear Class-
Church is very fun. I was going to go to primary today but we woke up late because the power was out again and it was still very dark. So we did not. My Mom is the Piano player. It is very small. Baby's just walk around. It is weird. The piano is very quiet, but the do have a microphone and it is loud and working. Everybody wears nice clothes. As you can see church is great.
Love, IS

Church is different from Colorado church because it is smaller, it is made of cinder blocks, and all the people here are black. We were squished today because lots of extra people were on our seats. I hope I see you next Sunday.
Love, TJ

Humbled Again

Last week we went to our Bishop and his family's house. As I see them at church I feel as though they are some of the more wealthy members. Of course this is hard to tell by looks so just a guess. There are probably about 150 members that attend our ward. We are one of four that meets in the building. We drive one of the two or three cars that is parked in the parking lot every Sunday.
Our Bishop's house is the first Haitian house I have been in. It is a nice decent size house and is clean. But it has 4 bedrooms and the Bishop and his wife have 13 orphans living with them. So there are 17 people total who live in this house. There is no kitchen inside. The bishop, his family, wife and 2 kids share 1 small bedroom.
There are an estimated 700 orphanages in Haiti and an estimated 500,000 orphans. Many of the orphans have parents, but they can not take care of them so they are put into these orphanages. The orphanages are not funded by the government. Many people like our Bishop are just good people taking kids off the street.

Last week we visited them and asked how we could help. They said they did not have enough clothes for all the kids for church. I called two of my BFF's at home with daughters who sent clothes over with Kait. Tonight we brought the clothes over to their home and talked to them for awhile.

This was the most humbling part. As we were talking they told me they want me to start an organization. They want people to sponsor children so they can go to school. They want to eventually build a school that will cost less money for the kids to go to. I assumed they were talking about their own kids so I asked if it was just for the 13. Imagine my surprise when they told me they were "okay", it was for another "town" so we were talking about a ton of kids. I felt overwhelmed. While I think this is a great idea and much needed, I am not even sure where to start. Rachel on the other hand is pretty excited so I think we will see where this goes.

I do not believe in spiritual coincidences. Some people have donated on this site, Thank-you. Yesterday we were given a very large donation. Justin and I were praying last night to know how best to use the money that has been donated. There is SO much need here it is hard to know where to start or what will make the most difference. Then today this fell in our laps.

Back to our knees, again! Thank You God for giving us these opportunities.

Some of the kids at the Bishops house. The girl and boy in the front are theirs.

The boys room at the orphanage. 5-6 boys sleep in here.

Clinic Day

We were able to go back up the clinic again and this time IS joined us. She says she wants to be a nurse and after watching her today, I think she may have the guts and heart for it. Silly HIPPA, I wish she could work alongside me in the States. I feel like she is learning a lot.

The not so fun part of the day, telling a woman she is pregnant. She has sickle cell anemia and she does not want to be pregnant. She is not excited at all! Not fun.

My happy place. The Mom was in for her first check-up 18 days after giving birth at home. She walked hours to get to the clinic with her newborn. These women are AMAZING!

Seeing this picture makes me laugh. People asked me all weekend if Kait was my daughter. People ask me if Rachel is my daughter too. As you can see, Haiti is aging me. Oh well.

Kanaan Clinic

Kait, Rachel, and I were able to go out and do a clinic in the tent city on Friday. Justin was able to work from home because "Carnival" (aka Mardi Gras) starts here on Tuesday so traffic is bad. We battled traffic and did the clinic. It was really rewarding and fulfilling.

The group "Awaken Haiti" is working in a small section of this tent city. They are partnered with a pastor and built a school which functions as a church on Sunday and a small building they are using as a clinic at times right now. They are planning to build a larger clinic this summer.

One thing that was different about working in this clinic and where I worked at home, is praying with the patients. I have to admit at first the ER nurse in me thought this would only slow down the number of people we could see, but then I did it.

I prayed only with two this time. One sticks out as it was a lady who was there in poor health due to lack of water and food. She had high blood pressure and some other issues. I asked her what specifically we could pray for her about. She said "please pray I will have enough water to be healthy, enough food to fill my belly, and that I will have a house soon so I can get out of my tent." Ugh, let me just tell you it was tough to choke these words out. I have never asked for these things in a prayer, only offered gratitude that I have them. How blessed we are.

Counseling with patients.

This little girl found me while I was eating lunch, something I feel guilty doing as I have been seeing people all morning who are sick because they do not have enough food. She was begging for my chips.

The team that Awaken Haiti had in this weekend will build 2 of these houses in 3 days.

The city of Kanaan. You can see our "truck" parked by one of the buildings they built.

Some of the "nicer tents" here. You can see a Mama and her children outside trying to stay cool in the shade of the tent.

A typical tent house.

The other side of Haiti

Today, we took Kait to see the other side of Haiti.

After taking over 3.5 hours to get there we were finally at the beach and it was worth every annoying, noisy, traffic filled moment it took to get there. Driving here is like a giant game of chicken with a carful of your unseatbelted children. But, we made it. And had a great day.

My favorite picture of the day, maybe the week. These kids love playing in the sand and it keeps them busy for hours.
IS vs The Beach
The "big kids" in the ocean.
IS and SF relaxing a little. Of the three babies, she is the most adventurous swimmer.
Kait getting some R&R, she was worried we would just stay home while she visited, silly girl!

Victims of Circumstance

Ever consider yourself a victim of circumstance? That statement has been rolling around my head the last few weeks, as I have considered how blessed I am to be born and live in the United States. What did I do to have all of the blessings that surround me?

What would life be like for me now if I had been born in Haiti? Where would I be living, what would I be doing? It is sometimes an overwhelming concept to wrap your mind around. I don't know if I would have been tough enough to make it.

What has been very interesting to me is to observe the general state of people in Haiti. They appear to be content with their situation and, in general, seem to be very happy. Most of them don't know what they are missing, or do they.

I wonder if they hear news about life in America (reality TV, drug abuse, politics) and just think about how silly it all is. The things that I viewed as being blessings before coming down here (the wants of life) aren't necessarily considered blessings any more. I am not saying that I want to live a minimalist lifestyle, but my life could certainly be made simpler. (I wonder what Whitney would think if I told her we were getting rid of our washing machine and dishwasher and doing laundry and dishes by hand? If you know Whitney, you probably know the answer to that question.)

Our lives can get so clouded by the distractions around us. What if all we had to do everyday was sit outside our home and ponder the meaning of life. I could have become a great philosopher. Anyways, I am thankful for all that I have, and most thankful for this opportunity to recognize the "things" of life that I don't necessarily need, those that don't contribute to lasting joy or happiness. Ponder that in between episodes of "Jersey Shore."

A Day in Haiti

The last few weeks I have spent the majority of my days walking through a few of the local communities evaluating the condition of the homes and retaining walls. I have had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what life is like in these shanty town neighborhoods. I have seen the following:

• Naked children running through the neighborhoods without a care in the world.
• A young father and his young son (about the age of our babies) living in a severly damaged one room house with little, if any, furniture or belongings. I can only imagine where mom is.
• Older gentlemen sitting on the footpath outside their homes for the entire day, greeting people as they stroll by.
• The chorus of children shouting, "blan, blan" (white), every time I walk by. The only Justin these kids have ever known is Justin Bieber and it seems to be an easy name to remember, as a few of the kids have started calling me by name. Whenever I introduce myself as Justin Bieber, it always elicits a few laughs.
• The small open markets within these communities that sell a little bit of everything, from used shoes and clothes to 50 lb. bags of rice with an American flag (I am sure they were donated after the earthquake and ended up on black market) to an array of fruits and vegetables, many of which are unfamiliar to me.
• Most of the locals drink water that is sold in little plastic bags (imagine 6 ounces of water in a clear plastic bag). Rip open a corner of the bag with your teeth, guzzle it down, throw the bag on the ground and keep walking. The funny thing is that the name of the water company is Alaska. There isn't one thing in Haiti that reminds me of home, but I wonder if Alaska is some unihabitable, ice-locked land to Haitians.
• Lines of Haitian women along a shallow stream washing their clothes, day in and day out. Do your clothes get as clean as the person upstream from you? In fact, with all the trash, pit toilets, and what not, the water probably isn't very clean when it comes out of ground (natural springs feed the stream), and it only gets worse as it moves downstream.
• A single lady living in a tent canopy while waiting for her home to be reconstructed. A dirty mattress on the dirt floor, with her minimal belongings strewn about on the floor.
• The stench of open sewers running through the neighborhoods.
• The smiles and greetings from everyone.
• The joy of a family once they find out that we are engineers and are coming to inspect their home.
• 300 lb pigs rooting through the trash and always finding something to eat, whether it is truly edible or not.
• Everyone wanting to write their name and phone number in my log book to see if I can get them a job.
• All the kids returning from school early in the afternoon. I really enjoy seeing all the different uniforms that these kids wear. Apparently each school has different colors and uniforms and there must be many schools, because I see dozens, if not hundreds of different uniforms.
• While not necessarily in the communities, one word on traffic. Traffic is horrible, it can take an hour to go a few miles. If there are traffic rules, nobody follows them. Your side of a four lane divided highway can be overtaken by oncoming traffic. For the most part you never travel over 20 mph, which is a good thing I found out. When a Haitian driver hits a stretch of open road, the get after it. They get up to 60 mph over a stretch of a couple hundred yards and then slam on brakes when they hit traffic again. If your car breaks down, don't worry about getting it out of traffic, change that tire or walk to the gas station for gas, while car is sitting in middle of road backing up traffic for miles.

As I have mentioned before, life in Haiti is hard. It's sad to say, but you almost become numb to what you see everyday. What was so eye-opening the first few days is everyday life now. Although I always see something everyday that makes me chuckle and say "only in Haiti."

The people here live life every day just to make it to the next day. In these neighborhoods, few if any have any kind of steady employment. About all they can do is sell whatever wares they can get their hands on. But in spite of all the adveristy they face, they make it to the next day and that means everything to them.

Haiti Today

"Haiti in a week" is going to be tough. But we are determined to fit in as much as we can possibly can with Kait.

Today we went to the orphanage first thing. Here are some children Potty Training in Haiti. This cracked me up and made me ponder doing the same thing with my 3 little ones.

The kids were a little sleepy today.

Giselle was asleep when we got there.

This is the little guy who was dropped off last week whom to the best of my knowledge has not found his forever home yet. It kind of broke my heart that last week he was probably getting held to sleep regularly at home with his bio-parents and while the nanny's are great, it is just not possible at the orphanage. I held and rocked him for all of 5 min and he was out.

Alex was super smiley, interactive, and adorable today.

I think Rachel found a new best friend in Grace. She was really open, cute, and playful today. Then she cried when Rachel left. Truth be told, so did Rachel. It is a heartbreaking situation every time we go actually. On one hand, we love being there and hope our presence is good for the kids. On the other hand, we leave every time and they cry. I wonder if showing someone something they can not have long term, at least until they go home, is good or not?

Kait had a fun time getting loves and playing games with the kids.

We did a lot of shopping, the Mache, the street market by the Baptist mission, the Apparent Project.
Lastly onto the feeding clinic. Today they had a group in who was helping. They brought bracelets for the kids to make. They brought them in these snack size ziplock bags. Some of the children cried when the baggies were collected. It made me remember just how little they must have to make a ziplock so cool.

Again, the picture does not do the situation justice. This is TJ's hand he is almost 6. The other boys were at least 9-10. Their wrists were as small as my 2 year old's.

We were a little more involved in actually feeding some of the little kids who did not have big sister's looking after them like this one did.

Kait "rescued" this little one from some boys who were trying to take her food away.

I tried to coerce this little one into eating for quite some time. It killed me to see her throw food and water away because I am not sure she has more at home.