A matter of Perspective

I think life is about perspective. As we were driving to the feeding clinic today, I tried to look at Haiti as a "newcomer". My parents are coming to visit in a few weeks and I wondered what they would see, what would stand out, and how it would make them feel to know that we are here. Would their minds be eased at seeing where we are is not as horrible as the media sees it or would they feel more unsettled seeing giant UN tanks like this one. 

I finally decided it just depends on the person. For some people, well lets face it... for everyone who writes anything about Haiti, this is how they view Haiti. Dirty, Dangerous, and frankly full of the Devil.

For us, this is how we view Haiti. Full of future, happiness and beauty.

And how often can you literally walk out your back door and be in a place like this. Beauty beyond words. That is how we see Haiti. 

Friends

Friday night we had two families over who have become good friends here. In fact, without them we would not be surviving here. We also had a couple who is planning to move to Haiti with their family later this summer. It was great to listen to them have questions about moving here, I remember feeling the same way with the same questions not too long ago.

 The girls plus some babies.

 The boys eating outside.

My Personal Hell

I do not really believe in "Hell" in the traditional sense. 

But, I do know this is what my personal Hell would look like. It would include babies who were literally "thrown out" for whatever reason. My personal Hell would include mothers who feel they have no other choice, but to leave their babies to die. It would also include a system where the only medical care goes to those who have money, lots of money, but serve a population where historically people have little money, very little money.  I know it would not include people like Heather and Steve. This I know for sure. 

Heather and Steve founded and help to run the Creche that takes in the most severe of the severe cases of neglect, abuse, severe malnutrition, disease and birth defects. Not only do they do this for the people of Haiti, but also in their personal lives. 

They are my new heros. I want the pictures of them to be on a happy post so read on . . . later.

Our friend Eric holding a sweet baby girl with Hydrocephalus. 

This is an 11 month old baby boy. Yes, eleven months old. Literally starving to death.

The Beach

This last week we had the chance to go to the beach, twice. We met this amazing couple, post to follow I promise, who run a Creche out near the beach. I can't wait to share pictures. 

CT "caught" a jelly fish. We have a " bug hospital" at our home. I was just waiting for them to ask to start an "aquatic stinging menace hospital".

 SF and BJ building in the sand.

 This girl has so much fun in the water. And I have to say she is quite the little swimmer. This week I put her on the water tubes and she was off. She was swimming all around the pool and trying to sneak off on her own much to the Haitians dismay. 

This one is for you Grandma. Grandma Diane made these adorable shirts for the boys. 

The Orphanage Today

A sweet, new baby girl at the O. She is 3 months old.

 Baby Nicholas, every time I hold him he falls asleep in my arms. I love this kid.

 Rachel, the woman who runs to O, holding the new baby.

 Baby Patrick after he was taking steps to us. He was so proud of himself.

Surgery at Home

***WARNING, THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE WEAK IN STOMACH***

Translation: if you are not in medicine, you may not want to read on.

Okay, maybe the fact that I even took pictures is gross. What can I say, I am a nurse.

I have had this "who knows what" growing on my arm since some mystery bite I received about a week ago. It continued to get more swollen, more red, and more irritated until I started running a low grade fever. So it was time to take action. Because I do have great access to medical equipment, Rachel is not squmish, and I have to say I am pretty tough; we decided to cut it out ourselves. Not fun, but now it is over and I have some antibiotics to clean up the mess. 

Slaughter Day

So this is not an official Haiti thing that I know of, but I swear every Friday we see tons and tons of animals out for slaughter. We have a "slaughter house" right near our home and we have seen many interesting things on a Friday there. One time we saw a large truck with cattle in it. There was one cow laying on the ground behind the truck. The Haitians were literally lighting a fire under his butt trying to get him to stand up. One thing is for sure, all of this animal slaughtering is making me think I may want to become a vegetarian.

These are images I have always wanted to capture. A bunch of sheep being loaded into a tap tap (aka taxi).

Here they all are shoved in there. Looks full right?

Oh no, not full; there is still room for you to tie some onto the side. This is an image we see often that I am so glad I finally caught as it will never leave my mind.