This week has been a productive and challenging week thus far. Members of the team have gradually been installing new water filters in PID families' homes, as well as checking in on those families who have had them for a few months already. The team has continued to stick it out in the heat as they worked construction, and others have been working in the medical clinic shadowing the medical coordinators and local staff. Yesterday some of us had the opportunity to share in moving moment of seeing the ultrasound of one of the Haitian staff members' unborn baby boy. The mother's joy was contagious! We all share with her in her excitement in this moment.

Monday the team presented the newest finished PID home to two families, one family on each side  of a duplex. Some of us went to the local market to buy some start-up groceries for the families, and others stayed back to give a final cleaning to the house. As they worked to sweep and mop the homes, one new home owner, a young man, was beaming as he said in English to one of the team members: "I love this house". A simple declaration that says it all.

This morning the UMass Amherst group as well as Gena pack up to head home after a full and challenging week. Mary will stay for another week, and the UConn team will stay for a few more days.

This afternoon, Mary's team, a team of 5 nurses, arrived. They will be working in the clinic for a week. We are happy to welcome them.

Yesterday a team of 6 from UConn joined the UMass Amherst team here in Haiti. We are happy to welcome them here. They will be helping out with construction.
This morning some of the team walked over to Gertrude's orphanage to do some crafts with the kids there, while the rest of the construction team began digging the foundation for my house. I was so excited, I joined in the fun, shovelling and pickaxing out the beginning of the foundation.
This afternoon, the group went out for a trip downtown, to the museum, and out to eat at Epidor. Marceline, who works in triage in our clinic, is the new group leader on the weekends. She was very helpful, had a great time taking the group out, and the group loved going out with her. She is very excited about her new job.

Home again

Yesterday was a travel day for me. Before I left Haiti I got to visit with Wegenson, a little boy in our emergency program who was dying of malnutrition . He is doing so well. I hadn't seen him for a few months but it is clear that he remembers his time at the clinic. He is well loved by everyone at the clinic. We all worked hard to bring him back to good health. Last thing he asked me for was his car that we used to play with daily. The car was missing, but we played soccer instead.

Fevers , prenatal clinics and construction

Today the clinic was busy. Many fevers
As well as many pregnant woman coming for check ups and ultrasounds .
Students got to shadow with the help of
Mary and Gena.

I am happy because we finished our amended book for the dept of public health. Off it goes tomorrow.

The back wall is almost finished as the UMass students worked so hard today.
It was great to see some of these students who have been traveling with PID for 6 years now as Juniors in College still with such a desire to learn, help and reach out to the world.

Some of the students worked on water filters, visiting some that had been set up and other that need to be set up.

Seems like a great team

Teams, teams and no batteries or

The Antioch team left , small business team left , most of the solar team left. Two from the solar team stayed as we wait for the batteries for the solar power( still stuck in customs) . We are sad because even if we get the batteries , there will not be enough time to train so it will not be operational.
The UMass Amherst team with two of our clinic rotation nurses and a few others who joined the team. We are looking forward to a great work day.
Some will work on water filters, some in the clinic, others on construction and the database.

Water, electricity,solar and Fritz

Well we did water filter training and passed out 15 water filters.
The bunkhouse has all new wiring. Fritz a kind, elderly
Man in our hypertensive program came in on Sat and had no food until he came back on Monday. He is the first
Elderly person that we have sponsored.
One of the professors from UUI is the sponsor.
We are still waiting for the batteries to finish the solar. Two from the team have decided to stay until Friday.

Port-au-Prince Outing

   The counselors completed their research project today and some also were able to do home visit counseling sessions for a few PID clients. The team seemed to get a lot from today's trip to Port-au-Prince and the museum. It was nice for everyone to get off the PID grounds, especially the Solar team, which has been working only on the roof and was glad for the chance to see Haiti outside of the PID clinic roof. One Solar team member said that it helped him make a connection between the hard work they are doing and the reason they are doing it.  

Almost solar

Tonight I was given the honor of
Installing the last solar panel and having my picture taken with the solar team. It was great! They have worked so hard the last two days, and it looks amazing. Hope the batteries get released from customs on Monday.

Tomorrow Allie, Ally , Mr Genois and a few other will start to install 15 more water filters.

PID is growing up

This was an exciting day! The clinic staff did their formal introductions to the team explaining who they were, what they did and what information they could provide team members. They did a fabulous job.

Docs without borders showed up and had a tour of The clinic.

Our first directors and department manager meeting occurred today. We talked about each persons job and Pouchons new title, Manager of Guest Services. The time flew by and two hours later we ended a very gratifying meeting. Guetchine who is now the Head of Administration and in charge of PID legal paperwork, employee issues , ran back to the office
And worked late into the night, finishing her part of the documents for the MSPP.

Met with small business team, and as usual struggled with making sure that our focus remains on the poorest of the poor.

Talked with one of the counselors about one of the patients who was so complicated and about how we can provide services for them.

Talked to Mr Genois for an hour about the child sponsorship program , he is coming in tomorrow to meet with a new family and begin visiting 25 new families from Cite Soliel, Damien and Canaan for the program.

Ended by meeting with the Chris from the Solar team about what it means to be solar- big changes coming. Finally time to sleep. Long but wonderful day.

A diverse day here in Haiti. The Small Business team was in meetings with the staff all day today, working together to survey the incredible progress and possible changes in the Small Business program. Martha is a small business owner with a background in international microfinance. Eric and Kathleen are also professors, Eric of business and Kathleen of English.

Gabby, Allie and Ale (whose name is pronounced “Allie” as well) who also came yesterday, are volunteering  here for three weeks. Gabby, who is a junior in college majoring in business, will be participating in the Small Business team. Allie and Ale are junior nursing majors and will be learning from and shadowing the medical staff. 

The Solar team made great progress today, worked all day on the hot roof, and completed the frame where the solar panels eventually will be mounted. Barbara the physical therapist saw more than 10 patients today, noting how many of their pains come from a lifetime of hard work. The counselors continue to see patients, many of whom were pregnant women from the weekly Prenatal Clinic today.

Leader's Group Classes

Last Monday the older leader girls along with Meli, Alejandra and I began a class learning how to do quilling. The class is once a week for six weeks. This week we just learned the basics, and next week we'll learn how to do flowers! The girls loved it - especially Meli and Alejandra.

Iowa team's final night in Haiti

Tonight the Iowa team shared moving comments during our final meeting together, after their last work day today. However, two members of the Iowa team will stay an additional week in order to help with small business program along with next week’s team. Several in the Iowa team have sponsored children and have had the chance to meet them. This has been a fun-loving, hard-working and caring team and it’s tough to see them go.

The counselors from Antioch University had a very informative training session with their translators about interpreting in a psychological setting. Afterwards they all split up into counseling sessions with patients from the clinic, as well as families in PID programs that are struggling with issues.

Two members of the Solar team also arrived tonight, including Chris, who is leading the rest of the group, which is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

The 7 counselors with Antioch University started their first day of work at the clinic today. They did a self care class for many of our interested staff members, as well as seeing many individual patients for counseling. The word is getting out that there are counselors here and many people are signing up.
The Iowa team continues to work very hard on construction. They are getting so much work done, and John, our construction director, is very impressed. They had already finished the front wall, and just today almost finished the whole back wall laying down the cement in preparation for the blocks. They've also made large quantities of blocks.
Madame Pavelus joined us tonight for our debrief meeting to share some words about the history of Haiti from her perspective with the group.

Leaving for Haiti

On the way to Haiti. Had a fun weekend. Delivered suitcases at the airport Sat at 4 in the morning with the help of two Strong grand children. Hate to admit it but I am getting weaker!
Had a nice lunch for mother day with all my kids. Now off to Haiti.

Weekend update

This weekend included a visit to the dowtown Port-au-Prince area for the Iowa team, followed by a quick souvenir stop. Many of the team members have been reading up on Haiti's history, so the national museum's artifacts and exhibits made the tragic stories of the nation's past more tangible. A team of 7 mental health counselors from Antioch University arrived safely on Saturday as well, and were able to join the Iowa team on the trip to the beach today. The outing was fun but tiring, and all seem to be checked in for the night. The counselor's team will be staying at Gertrude's orphanage until Wednesday, when they will move into PID when the Iowa team leaves. With this new team, we have over 30 people volunteering at PID. Its full, but rewarding.

A day at the US office

Woodeman came for a visit. He met some of the volunteers that work with PID . He worked with Martha, not our regular Martha , a woman who is part of our small business team traveling to Haiti next week to help evaluate the small business loan program. He met two engineers working on the water filtration program in Guatemala. He went And saw the PID warehouse, then headed to NH. It was a very nice day.

Iowa team's first day of work

The Iowa team got off to a great start. This morning they met all PID's staff they will be working with, both in the clinic, at the construction site, and on the clinic grounds. The construction volunteers were working on various projects around the clinic. They are working on building up the wall surrounding the clinic, making blocks, and expanding the once cholera tent, now meeting area/diabetic and hypertension education center. The group worked very well together, they worked extremely hard, and got so much work done. I am excited about how much will get done this week with this large, hardworking team. The volunteers in the clinic also worked hard and learned a lot as well, as working at the clinic here in Haiti is very different from working at home in the US. Mr. Genois came and hared his wise words at this evening's debrief meeting. He explained to the curious group about PID's programs, especially our sponsorship program and how it works to bring children and their families out of bad situations.

Upper Iowa team arrives

This afternoon the team of 22 people from Upper Iowa University arrived safely in Haiti. The team is made up of mostly construction workers, 2 nurses, and 2 CNAs. I look forward to a great week with them. They have several construction projects to keep them busy over the week, and the medical volunteers will be busy in the clinic as well. The team set up a few tents, had dinner, and had an introductory meeting. After a long day of travels, they went to bed early.

Woodeman -open house

Woodman is in the US and will be in the office in Ipswich on Thursday from 2-5 . For all of you that know him and have time please stop by to say hello .

A fun reminder of why we do kids programs

This weekend I went mountain climbing and played in a babbling brook in the white mountains with some of my grandchildren. We had so much fun.
It reminded me of how important PID's kids programs are, taking kids out of the tent cities and homes just to play and have fun. One of my grand kids, after traveling to Guatemala, told me, "Grammy , it is important for those kids to have toothbrushes and toothpaste, but they really need toys. " With all the necessities of life sometimes we forget
One of the most important, the joy of play.

Child Sponsorship Distribution

Today is the day for Child Sponsorship Distribution here in Guatemala. Each child comes in and we record their height and weight. This month all the families in our program will be going home with beans, rice, sugar, 2 dozen eggs, pasta, Incaparina and Maseca (a corn flour used to make tortillas). This month we have two new kids!

Carmen Darlin Vanessa Agustin Toc - Thank you Williams Family!!!

Kevin also came by today for a visit - he now weighs more than 10 1/2 pounds! He just turned four months old a few days ago.

Cinco de Mayo Fundraiser in Newburyport this Thursday!