Strength

The emotional and spiritual strength of the people of Haiti always impresses me. I have said this many times.   I wanted to share some pictures of the physical strength. These are just some of the images I have caught.

Some other images that I have not caught, but have seen

- 4 men carrying a full size refrigerator up our hill. I have told you about our hill. When we walk on it, the kids crawl like bears because it is so steep, yet these men were carrying a refrigerator up the hill.

- One day on our walkabout, a man was walking in front of us with a large machete. We watched as he quickly cut down a large tree, threw it over his shoulder, and walked back up the hill towards home.

- Yesterday we were driving on yet another bumpy Haitian road and a bundle of 2x4's fell off a truck. The passenger quickly got out and threw the whole bundle over his shoulder and ran back up the hill towards the truck.

- One of my favorite times was when we went to buy the rice for the feeding clinic. We bought five 50 lb bags of rice, 250lbs total. The man we bought it from had another guy load the bags, bag by bag onto the top of his back (where your neck meets your shoulders) he carry it to our car. The most crazy part is that I do not think they guy could have weighed more than 150 lbs.

Feeding Clinic

This was week 2 of the feeding clinic for us. It went very well. I love that there was no need for us to be there. I truly feel that if we decided not to show up, it would all have worked out just as well. 

A picture of some of the 140 kids who showed up this week.

Our oldest 3 delivering plates to the kids with Roselie in the foreground.

IS in her happy place, helping a little girl eat. 

This is another thing the cooks have just set up on their own. They ask different girls each week to help with the clean up. They also ask different boys each week to help cart the water up to the place where they cook as there is not water near where they cook. I love the initiative the people we are working with are taking, how they run with it and how it is just getting done!

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Tent City Nursing

I was able to go out again this week to Kanaan, the tent city, to do another clinic. The theme this week was scabies and teen pregnancy. No comment.

The team that Awaken Haiti had in this month was from Canada. They built this blue building which will serve as a Kindergarten.  It was literally built it in 4 days. All that was in place before they came was the cement floor. They do such amazing work. The large brown building in the background serves as the church/school for some of the citizens on Kanaan. 

Some of the Kindergartners who will be profitted from all the hard work.

This is one of the patients who came in to the clinic. She has 1 year old twins with some of the worst asthma I have seen and I have seen a lot here. The allergies are horrible and then the tent city is located in an are with NO trees or any other kind of green stuff. There is dust everywhere.

Anyways, as we were walking to lunch she called us over to her house, this tent is about 8x8. I am not sure who else lives there besides her and her two babies. But I do know I would probably consider it too small for our family to even camp in (that is if I went camping and after this 6 months I will not be for a while, if ever). Anyways, she wanted money for milk for her kids. It was heart breaking. Here is this poor woman in dire circumstances asking for money for milk to feed her kids. I wish I could have given her something more sustainable. The worst part is at the time I did not give her anything, but then I went home and felt so badly about it we stopped there the next day to give her some.

 Now, remember these circumstances and check out the look on this womans face. Pure happiness. This is what I see over and over when I am seeing people in their real lives. Life is hard here, circumstances are not only "not ideal" they are bad, very bad. But despite it all people are happy.

The Orphanage

I posted this picture once, but it got deleted. Not sure what happened there. Anyway the babies again...

Baby Julian

Johnny's wife had her baby on Friday. Here is Baby Julian, his wife Jeanine, his daughter Julie, and Johnny.

A close-up. He is super tiny. Although the baby was born at the hospital on Friday. He will not be weighed until his first Dr. appointment on Wed.

And the baby lover with probably one of the youngest and for sure one of the smallest babies she has ever held.

Tent City Nursing

Saturday Rachel and I were able to go out to the city of Kanaan again and do a medical clinic. It is always a humbling experience to "play a  doctor on TV". Luckily the patients are pre-screened and most people are there with colds or allergies (imagine living in a dust filled tent). On Saturday we saw 33 people. It was a busy day. Awaken Haiti tries to run the clinic when they have teams in. Most of the teams help with the building and the rest help in the clinic. One time there was even another medical person there that was great. 

This is the view from the "clinic" (they are going to begin construction on a real clinic in June.  Until then, we use one of their houses they are currently constructing). The house pictured is one of the nicer houses as it has a tin roof. That is really great as we are not in rainy season. You can not believe some of the houses in these tent cities. 

This is the inside of one of the nicest houses. As you can see, it is big enough for a queen size bed and a table and chairs. There is a story behind this picture which I have debated about telling for sometime. But in the spirit of telling about Haiti, I feel that I need to share. 

This is the home of Suzette. Suzette is dying of ovarian cancer. There is nothing to be done here which is the most frustrating part of doing medicine here. There is no money to pay for the care that is needed and even if there was, there are not the services that are so needed. (As I write this President Martally is in a Miami hospital.  Now if there is not even a place that the president can go for good medical care within his country, the country has a problem).

Anyway Suzette, Deb (one of the founders of Awaken Haiti) wanted to introduce me to her. So we walked to her house. All the kids were with us as we were on our way to the beach so we brought them. Suzette talked about how God spoke to her in her dreams. She talked about how he had guided her on how to work with her pain. The things God has told her to do were text book medicine. 

She also told us how she had dreamed we would visit. She knew she would be seeing "ti moun blan" (white children) in her home. I imagine this would stand out in a dream. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life to hear this woman talk about how God talks to her in her dreams. It reminded me of Joseph in the Old Testament. 

As we were getting ready to leave, I was the last one out the door with BJ in hand. As those of you who know BJ know he is about as friendly as a Komodo Dragon. But I felt really prompted that I should tell BJ to give Suzette a hug. This was a little like asking a horse to fly, but he willingly ran over and hugged her. She very kindly said to me "I knew he would do that, I saw it in my dream." I am not sure it gets anymore powerful than that. 

Again, you go into these situations and think you are going to be the one serving and end up with these kinds of experiences for you and your family. 

Class Notes

Dear Class-

How are you? What have you been doing since I left? I really miss you. And am excited to come back. This week I have been learning Michael Jackson moves.I'll keep them for a surprice you for when we have facetime. This week we started our feeding clinic. It was really good and we even got to have some beans and rice with them. Then they played music ad I danced the hula with an old man (don't ask). And I shook his hand and his fingers didn't bend. It made me feel happy to be there. I really miss you guys and can't wait to see you again.

Sincerely

CT

Dear Class-

I miss you so much. I am having a grate time heir. I wish you were heir. We did a feeding clinic yesterday. That was so fun. I got to put the medisin on. I fed a little girl. She was 3 years old. Johnny our guard and his daughter came too. My bishops wife came, Roselie and her sister came and my whole family, it was a lot of people in the car. The kids at the feeding clnic were really hungry, cuz they ate very quick. It took an hour for them to get there. We waited and waited and then Johnny told them a spirital message. And then they ate. I ate some of the food too, it was very good. It was rice and sauce pwa. 

I go swimming a lot heir. I will see you in 3 months. 

Love, IS

Ms. Lee-

Hi! I miss you. I want to come back. 

We started a feeding clinic. We served rice and beans. The kids liked it. I saw a kid as fat as Mom who had worms in her belly. (Does he seriously expect me to transcribe this?) I ate the food, it was good. It was an hour away. 

Bye Bye-

TJ

Feeding Clinic

We held the first "feeding clinic" today. I have to say that it far exceeded my expectations. In every way. The food was awesome, the cooks were awesome, the kids were really well behaved and polite and reverent and hungry and grateful, the location was great, etc. I wanted to share some pictures from our day.

The menu. Diri avek Sauce Pwa, Salami and Sauce Creole. (Translation rice and beans with salami and red sauce with onions in it). All with a vitamin and water on the side. Today about 140 of the 175 kids who have signed up were in attendance. It was a large amount of food!

Friends.

It would be tough to beat the people I am lucky enough to call friends in the US. But I love Roselie. She brought her sister with us today and helped in every way. She is one of those women who just sees what needs to be done and does it.

Johnny. Justin often says "he is the one Haitian I can trust." Here he is walking with the cassek, who is "king" of the area, we are working in. They walk hand in hand. I see this a lot with men here who are friends.

I love how Cal just jumps in there. In fact, I love how he is here in general. Still himself and totally comfortable with it. This friend is Cal's age.

The cooks. Check out that batch of rice, that was only about 1/2 the rice that was cooked. These women worked from 6am and did a wonderful job. I have no worries that when we leave they will take over beautifully.

My ever faithful, best helper, IS. She was in charge of putting a vitamin on every plate and she played her role very well. She also helped feed some of the younger children and all the kids including the babies helped pass water. 

The important part. The kids being fed. I can not tell you how rewarding yet how heartbreaking it is to feed these babies. I helped two babies eat today. One little boy who was younger than my babies ate his adult size plate in under 2 min. I am sure it was his only meal today. The other little girl had a huge worm belly. I was so sad as I fed her knowing that the worms were going to eat the most nutritious part of her meal. 

Two little guys with their quickly cleaned plates.

"Where is the blan?" In Creole, blan means white. You will have to blow the picture up to play the game. I think we are going to have a hard time when we get home with this one. While we were visiting the states we took the kids to a park. He was wandering around looking lost until he found a beautiful brown baby to play with.  He quickly grabbed her hand and was off like he was at home. Here you can see, if you blow the picture up, how at home he is here. 

It is rude not to eat what you asked to be made, so we did. I hope they used clean water. The food was amazing. How can you cook for 200 and still have it taste so good?

Check out this mug. He fights us on eating most things. But beans and rice is never a fight. 

St.Rock

We plan to have our first "feeding clinic" this Sunday in the community of St.Rock. For those unaware of the term "Feeding Clinic", basically we will have a group of children, 175 exactly, that we will be feeding one meal weekly to begin with. We hope as time goes on that we will be able to increase the times per week we will be able to feed these children. We have purchased many tools and supplies all with money that has been donated.  Again, thank you to those who have donated. We will also be sharing a message of hope with these children, as we feel it is as important to feed children spiritually as well as physically. We want these children to know they are loved and of supreme worth.

Buying the supplies was an experience. TJ, Roselie, and I hit the streets of Petionville and came home with 1 50 lb bag of rice, about 30 lbs of beans, 10 cloves of garlic, a tub of lard, a bag of salt, 25 bullion cubes, 6 packages of Salami, vinegar, 3 coconuts, 1 can tomato paste and assorted fresh herbs.

The Bishops wife and I were able to collect the supplies needed to cook and feed such a meal. 2 giant pots (don't you wish you had those in your home), 2 very big pots, 2 strainers, 2 serving spoons, 1 ladle, 1 knife and 1 pillion (what they use to mash herbs), 180 bowls and spoons, charcoal, 3 rechoud's (used to set the charcoal in to cook with).

Today we dropped all the supplies off to St.Rock. We are now in the process off trying to find cooks and set up our non-profit. It is all coming together and getting very exciting. 

Haiti

We are feeling happy to be back. 

A few things are different; 

1- the power is fixed and we have electricity, except when we don't. 

2- Roselie lives with us. I am still not sure how this happened. We have always had a room for her and apparently now she is ready to live in it? We love it!

3- The dog and cat are getting along, except when they are not.

Most things are the same;

1- The roads are still closed whenever they want to be.

2- Most of the time they should be closed, but are not.

3- The kids still love to Harass, I mean help Roselie.

4- The water is still the best place to be.

5- Still having trust issues. Our brand new IPod was stolen out of our car, which was in our locked gate, within 12 hours of first using it. It could really have only been one of two people, neither are good situations. Still trying to decide what to do about this situation, except be mad, sad, and frustrated.

America

Haitians have this thing where whenever a plane lands they all clap and cheer loudly. I was tempted to join in when we landed in NYC.

We recently enjoyed a trip to America. I can not tell you how excited we were to be back in the US of A
NYC was a good first stop for us. It was amazing how walking the streets of Times Square suddenly seemed extremely mild except when Justin and TJ lost the rest of us. They were terrified at the idea of us "wandering NYC" alone. We were at the American Doll store totally fine. He underestimated my ability to walk there with the 3 babies, IS, and CT. He does not see what we do day in and day out here in Haiti.
The kids had a good time. BJ was surprised at the roads "Wow this is a nice, new road" and the bathrooms "Hey Mom, this church has toilet paper!" The kids asked us regularly if they could drink the water. Despite some major overestimation, lots of change, and a few major meltdowns they adjusted fine and were happy to be "home" and see family and friends. Our visit included many celebrations, a new cousin, Easter, a visit from out of town cousins, 3 Easter egg hunts, 4 family birthdays and 3 birthday parties. Also eating lots of eating!

A picture in NYC with the Flag. Seriously seeing the flag brought tears to my eyes.

IS and some cousins. Rebecca, this one is for you.

More Cousins-

There are 11 grandkids on my side. The kids are expecting their first on Justin's side in August.

One of my favorite stops, "Costcotopia" and the tire center. I just sat and watched the guys change the tires although I did not have a tire to be changed. In fact, I can not remember ever changing a tire in the US. But, I fantasized about having one changed there while eating churro and shopping around Costco.

We are surrounded with amazing, charitable people in our lives. We ended up bringing 4 bags full of hygiene kits for the kids at the feeding program, shoes that my Grandpa sent and other goodies people donated. I can not even begin to tell you how overwhelmed I am at peoples' generosity. The people at Frontier Airlines checked all these items for free. I love being able to witness the good in those that surround us! Thank You! I will post pictures when we deliver the stuff.

Some thoughts on America:

You will never hear me say anything Anti-American. It just won't happen. I am more and more thankful everyday that God chose to send me there. I realize our government is not perfect, but I do not think any man-run organization ever could be. I just know that if Haiti could have even the "most imperfect parts" of our government it would help the common people so much. I wish there was a good social services, WIC, and Medicaid program here. I just know I will never take for granted the working government we have.

But the question we got asked the most while we were home was "Are you sad you have to go back?" I am sorry if I have ever sent that impression on this blog. The truth is we LOVE it here. It is hard, it is hot, it is dirty, it is stinky. But the people are amazing, serving is rewarding, being with the kids 24/7 is even okay, learning a new culture and a new language is awesome. Bottom line, I like the person I am here more.

So my goal is to take back what I have learned and continue to try and be the person Haiti has molded me into (believe me there was a lot of molding and still is a lot more to be done) while at "home".

Thank you to all who read this blog, after so many people from our life at home shared that they have been reading it made me a little intimated to write. But here I am and this is our life...

The Orphanage

Rachel returned to us last night so of course the first thing we did today was make our trip to the O. Grace was elated to see her.

Some of the children who have been MIA in the throws of potty training returned to us today. It was great to see them. IS and Giselle whom we have been missing.

CT playing peek-a-boo with Nora.

TJ helping a little friend walk.

Today we brought a parachute for the kids to play with. I am quite sure they had never seen one and were staring at us like we were nuts (a look I get A LOT here) then they saw how fun it was and a few of the kids joined in.