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.