Back in Canada

The team made it back to Canada safely - despite a bit of a gong show at the airport in Port-au-Prince! Never ceases to amaze me the confusion and chaos there - yet I look upon it nostalgically now!!!  We were delayed leaving PAP and therefore missed my flight from Montreal to Ottawa, but thankfully there was a later flight which I was able to get on!  Made for a very long day...

People were looking at me a little strange walking around in flip flops in -2C weather...lol!
Woke up bright and early this morning to a newly fallen snow... was so not prepared for that! All I could think of was "I'm not in Haiti anymore!".

I miss Haiti already and can't wait to go back...

It was a GREAT trip with a GREAT team who did GREAT work and who experienced some GREAT social and cultural events.  I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to live this life and this experience!

I am sad that I won't be there for another year now... who knows what will happen between now and then!

Until then... bon bagay! (I will try to post some pics soon)

K.

Back in Port-au-Prince!

We made it back to Port-au-Prince in good time! Two and a half hours to get over the mountains with a small house (gear) on top of our van! Hero was a wonderful driver and we felt completely safe with him - always a good thing!

Spent the day at Kabik beach yesterday - body surfing and then eating fresh caught seafood overlooking the ocean was wonderful! Managed to purchase a few more things too! (big surprise!)  Was sad to leave Jacmel - Mwen fou pou ou Jakmel... mwen fou pou ou!

Tonight is a relaxed evening - had supper at the Guesthouse, some of us are blogging, some of us are playing Sultan of Katan...not sure what that game's all about - the extent of my game playing is Rummikube!

Tomorrow - we will spend time promoting Haitian economy and artists... yes - shopping is on the agenda! I will be assessing a kiddo tomorrow, but the day's plan is to shop then write report!

Really don't want to be heading back...but...must get back to reality soon!  Until then - I will enjoy the next couple of days in the Capital!

Bon bagay!
K.

Saturday morning in Jacmel

Lazing around in bed catching up on my blog on this early Saturday morning!

We spent Thursday at Bellevue where to my surprise and delight there were 18 kids needing speech and language assessments!!! I was very happy to have Michaelle with me and she did a fantastic job at helping me get through all of the munchkins!

After seeing all the speech and language kiddos we headed back down the mountain...such a lovely view, they've named the community appropriately - Bellevue!







While we were doing our speech stuff, part of the team went on a home visit to bring a wheelchair we had promised a lovely young girl that we assessed in May! Very happy that got done! It WILL make a difference in her life!










 
Thursday night, Marika - the Director of Pazapa and Dr. Fred - orthopod from Virginia dropped by the Cyvadier for dinner!  It was great having a social evening with these wonderful people!

Friday we drove up a different set of mountains to Lafont.  Here we saw a number of kids who were seen last May and it was so wonderful to see that the speech/language, OT and PT exercises that we'd given the parents had been done - and that we'd seen some progress.

Heartbreak moments of the day:
1:  5 year old boy with a physical disability to his mom and Melissa: "will anyone love me like this when I'm an adult?"
2:  Awesome little guy with Rickets - after a number of questions... team comes to the realization that parents abandonded him because of his disability...

Such a difficult part of this job... we have seen so much improvement with regards to the acceptance of disabilities in this country, but the fact still remains that having a disability in this country is something that continues to require our help with training and education to help people realize that these wonderful kids and people still have worth and value!

Very humbling day...and so very appreciative for the opportunity to be able to help even just a little!

So today...promotion of Haitian artists and economy... Shopping in Jacmel.  Then an attempt will be made at working on my tan! :-)  Off to Kabik beach this afternoon!

Bon bagay!
K.

Last Day at Pazapa

Today was our last day at Pazapa!  We did lots of work - we were able to update all the munchkins' programs and give teachers and parents some strategies to work with their children!  Such a well run organization - love that every single child I saw had improved in some way over the past 6 months!

We were supposed to go visit a film school here called Cine Institute, however we managed to be late and missed the visit! Hopefully we'll be able to get there another time!!

A photographer joined our team tonight - he will be coming up to Bellevue with us tomorrow.  Bellevue is the place we went to last year where we met a great family who sent us all into tears when she walked off into the hills on a mule - with one parent on each side! Hope to see her there tomorrow!

Our awesome driver Hero left today and he was replaced by another awesome driver Solage!

Early night this evening - early morning tomorrow!

Stay tuned...
Bonwi

Another great day!!

Another great day was had at Pazapa!  Once again, I continued with training Michaelle in  becoming a speech assistant! I am truly impressed with this young woman's abilities!!! It's exciting to see!!!  The kids were seen for OT and Speech today!  I really do love going to Pazapa! The recommendations that I made in May had been followed and you could see the improvements with the kids!  This is the reward!!!

We visited CCH rehab clinic where we helped establish the first Rehab Clinic in Jacmel immediately post earthquake! They've got a lovely facility! They have one PT, 2 PT techs and they see about 25 people per day!  Glad I got to see the results of our hard work immediately post earthquake!

We ended our day with some shopping and a swim in the ocean (along with a Prestige of course).  Another great supper at The Cyvadier was had and now early evening to bed!  Hopefully will get a good night's sleep tonight!  The mosquito bites I've sustained since arriving in Haiti are pretty impressive! You could totally do a connect the dots picture with all of the bites! SO ITCHY!!!

Ok - must get some sleep!

Bonwi tout moun!
K.

Jacmel - Day 2

Waiting for our driver to return from dropping off 2 of our team mates. Caryn is heading up in the mountains today to do some outreach with an  American orthopod, Michele is heading back to CCH to do some nursing and the rest of us will be heading back to Pazapa to continue working with the kids!

Yesterday was a very busy day at Pazapa, I'm training Michaelle a beautiful and intelligent Haitian woman to be a Speech Assistant! I'm very impressed with her ability to integrate information that was taught to her by my colleagues a few weeks ago!  It's very exciting to see her learn and grow!

We went window shopping yesterday for a few minutes while Caryn was doing PT work... looking forward to doing actual shopping!

Ok driver is here! Gotta dash - Melissa just came with soaked pants and shoes as she was trying to take the perfect shot on the beach! Hahaha!

Bon bagay!

In Jacmel

We have arrived safely in Jacmel!  The drive was fortunately uneventful!  After a very late night playing games and sipping on rhum sours... everyone was pretty quiet on the ride from Ile-a-Vache to Jacmel!

We hadn't been at the hotel for more than an hour and we were already taking care of injured people! Thankfully it wasn't any of our team - rather a young film maker and his girlfriend got thrown from their moto-taxi.  Guy's leg is probably broken, girl is going to have some wicked road burn pain tomorrow.


Happy to be in Jacmel again and looking forward to working at Pazapa tomorrow and the physiotherapy clinic in the afternoon!

First meal at The Cyvadier = Langouste a l'aile! YUMMY!!!!

Must hit the hay - bonwi tout moun!

Vodoo ceremony tonight!

Yesterday was spent at Sr. Flora’s working on wheelchairs, providing some updates to the therapy programs, checking up the kids and sitting in on school with some of the higher functioning kids! I was very impressed with the teacher and her ability to engage the kids!  My main man Enrico is so incredibly smart! I’m impressed at his intelligence!  Tada is a lovely young lady who has started to write since I was here last May! 

One of the kids we work with here – Sanson – has no use of his legs, but that doesn’t stop him from doing anything! He’s amazing! Has so much upper body strength and so much rhythm! Wow!!! He’s a little dare devil he zooms around in his wheelchair like a stuntman!  If I can I’ll post a video of him getting himself up onto a bench from the ground!

As much as I love Ile-a-Vache, I really could do without all of the bug bites I get when I’m here – I look like I’ve got huge chicken pox…soooooo itchy OMG!!! And I’ve been lathering in bug spray! Will have to get 100% DEET next time!

Melissa and Caryn were troopers last night and slept at the orphanage to get a better understanding of the evening and morning routines!  I’m sure I would have been one huge bug bite had I slept there!

Damien from Soul of Haiti joined us last night! Very exciting partnership! They have done some amazing work training and educating Haitians to be their own entrepreneurs! We visited the medical clinic that they will be helping re-develop along with the cholera center and 4 new schools that they built. Very impressive work they've done so far.  All the work is done by Haitians as well!

Off for another day of work at the orphanage! Tonight – VODOO ceremony! 

Bon Bagay!

TIH

Port Morgan - Ile-à-Vache

TIH - This Is Haiti!

Our trip to Ile-a-Vache yesterday went very quickly and without any problems!

We worked at the orphanage in the afternoon and then went for a swim at Ile-des-Amoureux, however the ile was under water, regardless, it was beautiful swim with the starfish... off to Anse Dufour after that for a sunset swim.

Today - our boat is an hour late, but Gerald our driver has just arrived... so will sign off and add some more later!

Happy to be in this wonderful country!

Na we pita

Arrived in Haiti safely!

We arrived in Haiti and got through customs in record time! It was great to see Gail, Noel, Andy and the ladies at the guesthouse!

Driving through the streets from the airport to the Guesthouse, I was happy to see that there had been some more clean up done... and also new construction going up.

Our clinic now has a third floor. Looking forward to seeing it in the day light!

We managed to get to Giant Market and purchased coffee, vanilla and coffee to bring back home.  We managed to go through all of our bags and re-organzied them and they are all ready to go to Ile-a-Vache in the morning.  Plan on leaving bright and early and getting there early afternoon.

Hopefully there will be internet coverage while we're there... so hopefully will be able to blog while there!

Happy to be here!

K.

Another trip soon approaching...

And so... time is fast approaching for my next trip to Haiti.  I'll be leading a team of seasoned volunteers to Haiti from November 8th to 22nd.  

On this trip, we will be heading to Ile-à-Vache to work at Orphelinat St. François again and then to Jacmel where we'll be working at Pazapa,the Physiotherapy/Psychology Clinic and Potay Leogane with CCH.

Stay tuned...

Bon Bagay,
K.

Back in Canada

Well, I'm back in Canada! I've been home for 2 weeks now and I'm still having a hard time re-adjusting! Funny how it gets harder and harder every time I come back!

Internet access was impossible while at Ile-à-Vache, so I will take this opportunity to fill in the blanks since my last post.

May 18th was a National Holiday in Haiti - Flag Day.  We took this opportunity to make it a travel day and headed to Ile-à-Vache, South-West of the country.  Surprise of all surprises, we crossed yet another river!!! We weren't supposed to, but there was an accident on the mountain (remember this) so we were escorted through the river!  Hero (our driver) was very concerned...but we managed to make it through without difficulties and a $5 tip!



We arrived at Port Morgan and were welcomed by some teenagers we'd met on trips past, Jasmin and Wilik!  They announced to us that there was a "football" (soccer) game going on with music and dancing a short ways away (10 minutes) and we should go.  So off we went, we brought with us Levon, a man we'd met on the boat from Habitat for Humanity - who needs Julie McCoy when you've got Team Canada! :-)

Ten minutes was actually 45 minutes uphill in 40C weather! But the hike was worth every second! We showed up at the football game where we were the only 4 blan there! Picture it... 500 Haitians, 4 blan... can you guess who the half-time show was? Yup - that's right, blan yo! It was interesting to see the children gather round and gawk at us... then adults with their kids came and gawked...then the music started playing and I asked the kids to dance, they looked at me like I was crazy (blan dancing!!! HA) so I started to dance... I could see the ladies and men in the back giggle then nod with a smile... this blan can dance! :-) So the kids joined in and it was lots of fun!  

We headed back to the hotel as the sun was setting, the second we exited the field they scored... much to the others' disappointment.  I was just wanting us to get back to the hotel while there was still daylight! Safety first!

We spent the next day at Orphelinat St. François where there were at least 11 new kiddos since the last time we'd been there! So we did a lot of initial assessments and provided recommendations.  It was nice to see the facility which the Irish (Soul of Haiti) had built! The new quarters for the disabled kiddos was lovely and a huge improvement from previous facility.  The ramp was a little to steep but Damien assures me this will be fixed in the fall.  

After our first day at St. François, we went to watch the sun set at Abaka Bay. Such a lovely sight...

Friday was our second and last day at the orphanage and the team was an efficient machine! The rest of the new kiddos got seen and some wheelchairs got fixed.  I managed to do some meal observations and recommendations with the kids and also worked with the older kiddos.  

Our team had our heart ripped out for the 2nd (or so) time on this trip, when a mom had to make the difficult decision - one made from love - to let Sr. Flora take care of this child as she was no longer able to take care of her.  She will do well at the orphanage with the other kids.  She was very intelligent and had some great potential.  Nevertheless - a difficult difficult thing to experience by us blan!

 

To help balance the heartbreak we went to watch another sunset - this time at Ile des Amoureux.  A little sandy 20 foot diameter island in the middle of the Carribean.  We played with giant starfish and swam our broken hearts away into joy of experiencing this unbelievable place and sunset.  A little impromptu Kreyol lesson was had with our tour guides writing in the sand.  Bon Bagay!

We headed back to Port-au-Prince on Saturday where our drive home was slightly interesting (to say the least) first as we pull out of the dock area, our driver nearly hit a bicycle (not too unusual)... then we were driving and it started to rain, so out we jump to re-arrange our hockey bags in the back of the truck to avoid the soaking (didn't really work).  We arrived in a small town of Miragoane where our driver kinda got lost, took him about 15 minutes of driving around before stopping to ask for directions, I ended up telling him how to get back on the highway (kinda funny no?).  After that is where it gets frightening - remember the roads are wet - a car cut us off as we were driving about 60kms/hr our driver swerved to avoid getting hit, and slammed on the breaks - I literally was saying to myself "you've GOT to be kidding me... I survive a fall off a cliff in Haiti to go THIS way?" Our truck stopped about 6 inches from two big poles...phew!!!! As my hands are shaking and my heart is pounding loudly, we head back onto the road... where we're going through windy mountain road (remember last river crossing) well, because the roads were slippery, our truck continued going straight instead of turning... again, I was 6 inches from a not so good outcome...this time we would've rolled down the mountain.  Kudos to our driver for keeping his cool - but man I wasn't... 3 women in a truck for 3 hours and NOT ONE WORD was spoken!!!

And so - I guess I'm not supposed to die in Haiti... I guess I'm supposed to be here!

We made it back to Port-au-Prince and went shopping at Giant Market for goodies such as Haitian Vanilla and coffee.  Saturday night was spent at Montana watching yet another sunset, then we went dancing the night away! 

Sunday morning the girls (and Andy)went through the wheelchair pile that had been held hostage for 6 months...reward was definitely needed after that - so they went shopping for Iron work, I'll have to go next time...I spent the day in the pool and debriefing with Fi.

Monday morning we went shopping and then packed our treasures to be brought back to Canada. 

We made it safely home as did all our artwork and memories. 

Already planning my next trip! Is it November yet???

You can check out my pics here ! Remember - Haiti is all about balance... it's imperative that one balances the frustrations, sadness and heartbreaks with the joy, beauty and love!  Work hard and play hard!

Bon Bagay!!! 

Last full day in Jacmel

We had a lovely weekend of R&R...we went to Bassin Bleu on Saturday where I got over my fear of cliffs... Jumped from the first rock also known as the mouth of the gorilla into the crystal blue bassin! It was such a freeing experience! Funny how trauma works!!!

After Bassin Bleu we went to the Hotel de la Place for some lunch, where I had Pwason Gwo Sel (poisson gros sel), it was delish! We also watched the inauguration of President Martelly on TV with some Haitians! Glad I got to experience that!

We had some sick team mates, so we forewent the promoting of Haitian economy (aka shopping) and headed back to the hotel for a swim in the ocean.

Sunday we went shopping in the morning and then headed to Kabik beach (aka paradise).  We were laughed at by the locals as we were wearing market hats swimming in water that was body temperature. We were called blan blan and blan ak chapo... followed by bel femme! Love Haiti! lol!!! We also enjoyed a lovely meal of pwason griye  (grilled parrot fish) with very cold Prestige.  We could've stayed here forever...


We returned to the hotel to say goodbye to two team mates and hello to two others...

Monday was spent doing a second outreach clinic in the mountains which required travel through the river (again) and over the most bumpy terrain I've ever experienced sitting sideways and backwards in the back of a pick up truck... I've never been car sick before, but I was yesterday! ugh!!!

Despite the car sickness, the clinic was amazing.  Working under a thatched roof with no walls, families with their disabled kiddos lined up and sat waiting to see us patiently for up to 3 hours in very hot weather...I can not imagine us "north americans" doing that back home! We'd be complaining and kids would be going batty!  Not here... everyone waits quietly and patiently! Another testament of the resilience and strength of these wonderful people!

We were the only ones at the hotel last night! Very quiet...

Today we head back to Pazapa to do more assessment and therapy education with the teachers and then to the physiotherapy/psychology clinic and then shopping! :)

If I haven't mentioned it before - I love this place! As one of the T-Shirts say: Jacmel mwen fou pou ou! (Jacmel I'm crazy for you)

Stay tuned...

Friday the 13th!

I meant to write more, but internet is jammed with all the expats staying here! So here it is 2:30 in the morning and I'm blogging!

Wednesday we spent the day at Pazapa, the OT and PT got lots of work done, but I spent the day organizing the week!  The MD taught a first aid course at Trinity House and the RN worked at the hospital.

On Thursday, another great canadian adventure was had - we went to do a triage outpatient clinic high up in the mountains... this required us to take a taptap up the mountain.  To get to where we were going, it was necessary to cross a river a couple of times.  The first time, we got stuck - smack dab in the middle of the river.  All of a sudden their were eight men in their boxers pushing us out of the river!!!

We then saw a kiddo at a school and then went to Bellevue Klinik.  We saw about 40 kids, all of whom had disabilities and needed rehab.  It was such an amazing experience!  And not without tears.  We had a 20 year old girl with stroke paired with malaria, typhoid and jaundice.  Her mom and dad were A-MAZ-ING!!! They took such good care of her it was remarkable!  Tears were shed after I watched Mom fall with her daughter trying to get her down the stairs.  After asking how far she lived from the klinik, she said not far - 2kms... this kid was a 2 person assist!!! Then Dad showed up with the mule and they loaded her on... as they walked off one parent on each side assuring her safety!  Did I mention there were tears? An extraordinary family!!! Reminded me of how lucky I am!!!! And how lucky I am to have experienced this!

Today we went to Pazapa where I assessed a bunch of language kiddos, then we went to assess a 3 month old baby who was VERY unwell....our team I think was in shock and the PT from Pazapa was amazing at putting everything into perspective for the young mother... I don't think this kiddo is going to survive.

After we pulled ourselve together, we went to the physiotherapy klinik owned and subsidized by Dr. Leon Paul.  We saw many stroke patients and did a multidisciplinary assessment.  I am very fortunate to have such a great team with me.

Our RN went to Friends of the Children of Haiti clinic and triaged about 200 kiddos!  Our MD went to the CCH clinic at Potay Leogane and saw many patients.

Tonight we went for some Barbencourt and some dancing! Fun FUN FUN!

Tomorrow - Bassin Bleu!

Bon Bagay!

We have arrived safe and sound!

So we arrived in Port-au-Prince yesterday without any difficulties.  The team met up in Montreal and then we flew to Haiti together!  It was nice seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

We went directly to Giant Market to pick up supplies for Jacmel and Ile-a-Vache.  Then Gail had planned for us to meet up with some others from HHHI and HI at The Montana.  We watched the sun set and then headed to the Guesthouse!  It was lovely seeing Sultane and were treated to griot, acra, pikliz and banan peze! All my faves! How lucky am I?!

We gave going through the wheelchairs that had been recently released from being held hostage for 7 months in customs, unfortunately, after such a long time in customs, the identifiers for who the chairs were assigned to had faded! :(

But we will go through them when we get back from Ile-a-Vache and Jacmel and have the chairs sent to Ile-a-Vache with Irish team next time they go.

We arrived in Jacmel today around 1pm.  Hero our driver was amazing and got us here in record time in one piece!  I was very impressed by the work being done on the road through Carrefour, where Haitians are working to build sewage system!  Then while we were driving through the mountains we saw a number of new houses built out of wood!  Another interesting note was that the tents that had been in the median since the earthquake were no longer there.

Driving through Port-au-Prince, there was much less rubble in the streets!

Happy to be here and so fortunate to have the opportunity!

Stay tuned - hopefully will continue to have access to internet (none yesterday)

Bon Bagay!

T-19 hours...

Well, I've done it! I've managed to pack my hockey bags and stay under the allowed 50lbs per bag! :-) I'm getting pretty good at figuring out what 50lbs looks like, only had to take 3 toys out!

I was able to bring some of the things the OMS donated yesterday, the rest will have to wait til another trip.

 
NQ was supervising my packing and was quite concerned when her ball ended up in my hockey bag!

Haiti here we come!

Bon Bagay!!!

Less than 48 hours to go...

Well, less than 48 hours to go before I'm off to Haiti.  You'd think by now I'd be an expert packer! Alas, I'm definitely not!!! I will have to purge some of my personal stuff that I've tentatively packed.  I haven't even tackled the hockey bag packing yet!

One of my teammates and I will be going to Ontario Medical Supply today to pick out some supplies - a BIG thank you to OMS for their donation.

Last week I picked up over 300 backpacks and bags from the Canadian Medical Association to be distributed to the disabled in Haiti! BIG thank you to the CMA for their kind donation.







If you'd like to make a donation please feel free to click here I'd appreciate if you can indicate my name so that I can keep track of donations! 


Stay tuned for updates...


Bon Bagay!


K.

 

The countdown is officially on!

Well, the countdown is officially on for my next trip to Haiti!  This trip will see a small team of six people being split between three places, Jacmel, Port-au-Prince and Ile-à-Vache.  We are hoping to continue with the education and training that was done in November and again by another Canadian Team in January.

I am still looking for donations so please feel free to donate online http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s90105 

Stay tuned...
Bon bagay!