Tour of Port au Prince and more VBS

Today VBS continued on with the same routine. The kids sang songs and some fun activites. The two doctors worked hard in the clinic and managed very well. After that, some of the team members went with Holly for a day of crafts at a local orphanage, which replaced the usual English class. In addition everyone went to downtown Port au Prince for a tour of the capital. Those who had previously been here, were impressed with the improvements: much of the garbage has been cleaned up, and the tent cities cleared out. These changes bring hope that the Haitian government is finally gaining back some stability after years of political unrest. Once the team returned for a late dinner, most were tired, and went to bed early in preperation for what looks to be another exciting day of VBS tomorrow.

Good of Day of VBS and Goodbye to Sandra

Today the VBS team started the program with local Blanchard kids, as well as those from Cite Soleil. They held English classes, sang, and played soccer around the compound. All the kids were so excited to be involved and they all received a hot meal. Today the team celebrated Sandra's work in Haiti for the last year with a dinner attended by the team and employees. There was a unique dynamic of integration because the Haitians, Americans, and interns all joined together in a dinner routine usually reserved for guests only. All of Sandra's efforts and irreplaceable work throughout Haiti will be missed by everyone. Her work is also a testament to the innate and welcoming spirit so vivid and visible in Haitian culture. Seeing the love everyone shared over just one individual inspired many of the team members to realize the potential of this nation. So, we say goodbye to a great intern, and mirror image of what PID looks for in a volunteer, and continue along with VBS. It is definitely an emotional evening in Haiti.

VBS Preparation & Beach Day

Today the Emory Church group went to church and then the beach. After returning a new team member arrived, Terry. She is a doctor, who will help in the clinic alongside another nurse who came with the Emory Group. In the evening supplies were organized for tomorrow's VBS. Other members practiced their songs for the kids with Brian, who brought a guitar. Meanwhile, Showty was busy translating the music for tomorrow. It is great to have a group so inspired and ready to become involved in the community.

Emory Church Group Arrives

Today the Emory Church team arrived. Holly, the intern, was reunited with her Mom and other fellow parishioners. Many team members plan to hold a vacation bible school on PID grounds with local children, in addition to those from Citi Soleil. The others will participate in construction. Most of the group members were here last year and did a VBS program in Canaan. They have a myriad of clothing and other items to distribute throughout the week to the VBS participants.

Lizzy back from the US

Its been a pretty good week here, Holly and Jimmy continue to persevere with English classes for the kids, enjoying the games (Banagrams) as well as the songs and vocabulary. The interns have also started helping out with English classes at a local orphanage for older kids. Lizzy also arrived tonight from the US, glad to have her back! Mr. Genois and other staff came by to see her and welcome her back with big hugs and smiles.

Making Chocolate

This morning Julie, Rachael and I left our house early to meet up with a woman from the village to learn how to make chocolate!

First we drove to the mill in downtown San Antonio. After we had the cocoa powder we went back to her house to form the little chocolate disks. Her mother was there to help and although they are professionals, they let the gringas give it a try.

Rachael, Julie and I with the chocolate patties

Art Classes Out Back

We have been getting a lot of new applicants for the child sponsorship program. There are now more than 50 kids in Guatemala waiting to be sponsored. The hardest part is when a mother comes into the clinic and asks if her child has been sponsored yet. Some have been waiting for over a year. It's hard to have to tell them no, and explain that it's not in any particular order that kids get sponsored. Some get frustrated that families who just signed up get a sponsor a few weeks later where as others are waiting months and even years. 

If you are interested in sponsorship, check out the PID website:
http://www.pidonline.org/programs/child-sponsorships

In Guatemala the following kids have been waiting for more than one year for sponsors:
1002 Brendi Julissa
1033 Francisca Elizabeth
178 Jilmar Elias
2A Eber Micael Soc
851 Milsa Yohaaris


Julie and Rachael continue gathering samples from the school in Desierto. This afternoon I walked into the English room where Julie and Rachael spend their time working and saw that some of the kids from the village found their way in and are currently coloring on the floor.

We three interns

Don, Cinda and Lauren all got off safely right after breakfast, they are off to more adventures in Haiti. Sarah, Cindy and Jacki also left later in the morning. All will be missed. Its just we three interns left behind: English class in the afternoon, followed by individual tutoring sessions for some local friends.

Special connections in Haiti

We debriefed on the roof tonight, a final debrief for most team members: all but Jimmy, Holly and myself (Sandra) will be heading off tomorrow. Earlier this evening, Lauren received an unexpected visit from her sponsored child, Michelda, and her parents. Lauren, who was here doing children's programs at PID, met Michelda while during a children's program here last summer, became her sponsor through PID Child Spronsorship program, and has since raised all of the funds to build a PID house for Michelda's family. Tonight, after some time visiting together, we walked over to the location where Michelda's new home will be. The house is about half complete, and mom, dad and child stood in the open frame of the doorway, surrounded by their soon-to-be neighbors. The next time that Lauren comes to Haiti she will hopefully be visiting little Michelda and her family in their new home!

PA Sarah also had an experience this morning that is too meaningful for words. She had the opportunity to visit the orphanage from which her adopted daughter came 6 years ago. Tonight Sarah told us that Haiti has given her the greatest gift anyone can receive, her daughter. She says that in coming back to Haiti she making an effort to connect with the land, the culture and the people from which that priceless gift originated.

Windy Monday

Kids program guru Don arrived this morning, coming from another location in Haiti. Lauren who was originally supposed to come last week, arrived this morning as well, but both of them were a little too late to help with Cinda's morning program for Cite Soleil kids. Shorty translated and seemed to genuinely enjoy himself doing the animal imitations and the stretches. The afternoon kids program (with local children) was interrupted somewhat by some strange weather: strong gusts of wind caught everyone at PID off-guard: kids, team members, patients in the clinic. The storm (if you can call it that) passed and the afternoon continued as usual. The overcast weather that followed fortunately meant that it wasn't blazing hot outside. We took advantage of the fresh air with a quick walk through a market to a local church before dinner. 

Weekend update and Cinda's arrival

A good weekend for the group. A full English class on Friday afternoon, attendance and enthusiasm are going strong. Yesterday the team worked on site (construction, clinic, database, you name it) until noon, and then had an afternoon out in Port-au-Prince. Its always interesting for those who have come to Haiti before to see the progression of the downtown area. Today was a day-off enjoying the shade and water at the beach. And this evening a new arrival Cinda came, who has come to PID Haiti already last year. Both the last trip and this one she will be doing children's programs. The local kids are already excited! With the English classes and the children's programs, there is a lot going on for children this week.

Picking Up and Dropping Off in Desierto

Today Julie, Rachel and I met up with Meli at the entrance to Desierto. We walked in to the school to pick up fecal samples and drop off more cups. As we were walking in we were greeted by many of the students walking out on their way to an activity in the center of San Antonio. So when we got to the school not all the classes where there. But Julie and Rachel were able to leave new cups with one class and pick up samples that they had dropped off yesterday.

Rachel and Julie explaining to the teacher and kids in first grade

some of the kids in the kindergarten class

Back in the US

Today Natalie , one of the intern, worked hard on gathering more information for a grant she is working on. Alex worked on completing a comprehensive medical paper on the clinic in Haiti . Martha dealt with the team that was stuck in NJ because of mechanical failure, who sadly gave up and went home after learning they couldn't leave until Saturday. The warehouse packers , packed and sorted. I sat in my office amid my
piles of papers answering texts and email , grateful to work with so many
Dedicated and totally amazing people.

Visit from Bon Repos team

Today the team had a good day. A visiting team of 8 Americans came with Kerline from Bon Repos and after a tour of PID, they started paiting the outside of the clinic, while Cindy had a busy day continuing her project on the database. Sarah and Dr. Sem had a busy and full day in the clinic. Also, Jimmy and Holly had an English tutoring session for kids from their class who wanted to come for extra help. Its great to see the neighborhood kids so involved!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

A routine clinic day for Sarah and Cindy, they saw many patients today, including several consultations wth sick employees. Interns Jimmy and Holly helped Cindy with her database projects by counting tons of inventory for her today: lots and lots of medications in the medical depot. The children's English class attendance rate today was a little too good, but the kids had a ton of enthusiasm and continue to demonstrate an interest in learning English. Today's subject was learnin family members and parts of the body. Holly did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with the kids, which was very fun as well as effective.
Also tonight a new team member safely arrived today: it is Jiashu's first time in Haiti. She will be working construction along with interns.

Wednesday afternoon

It's clinic day here in Guatemala. I'm currently sitting out back because the internet works better when I'm outside. Julie and Rachel got a lot accomplished yesterday at the preschool in the upper section of the village. They were able to do some teaching and training with the parents and some mothers thanked them for their hard work. The director of the school was easy to work with and knows how to get things done.

Yesterday we stumbled upon a lab in San Antonio and were able to find out where we can get some coverslips for microscope slides so that they can continue to do fecal samples.

Julie and Rachel have been accompanied the past few days by ten-year-old Gustavo. He shows them around the village and helps them find different houses. They thank him by buying him a choco-banano (frozen banana dipped in chocolate). Today they even let him look through the microscope at some parasites.

Julie, Angie and Rachel

Angie and her little sister who had a seizure at the clinic a few weeks ago.

Start of the week in Haiti

   Today Sarah, the visiting PA, shadowed by Cindy, saw almost all children patients, plus a parent or two. Sarah has been reconnecting with staff members from her last trip here in September. Cindy also spent more time today counting medical supply inventory, and organizing for the database. Jimmy and Holly spent the morning sorting items that came down in PID suitcases, and then moved into the kitchen to make the medical peanut butter mixture (mamba) we give out to malnourished kids. They spread out the ingredients on the kitchen table and worked on making the mushy cookies for what must have been 3 hours. Both of them continue to work on their Creole, which is helpful since they will both be here for more than a month! In the afternoon they lesson-planned and then did their first children's Engilsh class together, although Jimmy did the first official class on his own last Friday. Holly teaches 4th grade back home in the US, so is a great asset to the team. This time the kids learned how to say and write numbers -- up to a million! They also did the names of colors, and then wrote all of their new vocabulary in a notebook that they will take home and study. The kids learned a lot and seemed to really enjoy the class! Those of us who were not teaching definitely enjoyed overhearing what was going on in the class -- they kids are adorable and they all seemed to learn the words quickly.

Eventful weekend

Its been busy here this weekend. Friday launched the beginning of Jimmy's English class for  the kids. Saturday was a full work day for the team. Over 40 kids from the Child Sponsorship program came in for a head-to-toe check up with the practitioners here ( who saw no shortage of cute babies), while the construction team continued to work on PID's education center. It is located right on the property and is really starting to come together.

 After the check-up's were done a few team members hopped onto the construction team's work. Afterwards, a local pastor walked us all to his church where some church members sang traditional Creole songs and prayed for us. A really moving gesture -- and really lively music! This morning was full of goodbye's as last week's team prepared to leave. They are a team that cares a lot about the population of people they serve. Physician's assistant Sarah and her assistant Cindy, as well as intern Jimmy are still here at PID, and earlier this evening Holly arrived from the US to join the team. She is also an intern for this month who will be teaching English in a children's program, among other things. We are settling in for the night before the workweek starts tomorrow.

From June 29...Guatemala Trip

Dear family and friends back home.  Please enjoy this entry as it will most likely be the last.  We are very busy here, are working on building a home and on water filtration.  The hotel is great, food delicious, a pool we have enjoyed, (water is much warmer than our showers.  I am the only one who is having trouble with that!  Right now the kids are taking a walk to the main river through the village and sugar fields and I stayed back to blog.  Our day starts at the village about 8:15 and we finish up and head back to the hotel about 4:00.  The kids have been getting together every night to sing, play the guitar and laugh.  Us adults are in bed by 9:00.

I'll tell about the jobs we are doing this week.  We are taking turns doing both jobs so that we  can experience as much as we can.  On the construction end we have dug a foundation for a one room home with a small bath room attached.  The digging is slow, we use a mattocks and shovels to dig a trench 20 in. deep by 2 feet across.  This we finished in one day!!!  Today we moved about 400 cinder blocks (by making a line of people and passing the blocks down).   These remain stacked in the middle of our "home" for now.  We used the same method to place boulders into the foundation. Dad, this made me think of how you used to work when you first started laying tile.  And made me wonder if this is how you lived growing up, doing everything with out modern tools.  We than wheel barreled two different kinds of stone with white powder and cement. We mixed this by shoveling it from one pile to another then came the water.  Anyhow, the cement went over the large folders and this is how far we have got in 1 and 1/2 days!  It looks beautiful!  The home is for a family who is currently living on another's porch.  PID is an amazing organization.
The kids took about 1/2 day to warm up and we have so many photos to show you when we get home.
Onto the water filtration.  A big part of this is washing sand.  Over and over until it is clean.  Norm (from Maine) came up with a super simple design for use in the village.  A cylindrical tube about 4 ft tall and 8 in wide is filled with two layers of sand with a filter on top.  Once assembled it works by putting in 1 gallon of water at a time and the water filters through the sand and comes our clean.  These filters last 5+ years!  Of course moving all the parts to the home in which will be using the filter is no easy task.  After the sand has been washed it is carried by bucket through the village to its resting place.  Along with the filter which is mounted to a cement base.  Not to mention old filters that need to come back to the village, Being too heavy to move sand  has to be removed from it before it can be moved.

The kids are all fine, no one has been ill.  Our base camp, so to speak is the clinic, we are in the village around the clinic and in one across the road.  No computers at the hotel and we are just to busy to write.  We are all enjoying the children  and the families here in Conception.

Adios, Gina

A rainy Friday evening

Rachael arrived on Tuesday evening after spending a LONG time in traffic coming back from Guatemala City with Sergio. She and Julie have been working hard on getting fecal samples from all the kids in five different schools and trying to set up meetings with teachers and parents to teach about basic hygiene and how to prevent and treat parasites.

Yesterday was the child sponsorship distribution for the month of July. We are up to 155 kids sponsored in Guatemala! We also took photos and filled out brief questionnaires that will be sent out to the sponsors.

Construction continues on the house for Cesi Sucely and her family.

Prenatal day and an afternoon tour of Port-au-Prince

Thursdays are prenatal day in the PID clinic. Dr Sem as well as the visiting practitioners saw many, many pregnant women, as well as other patients. The students worked in triage and the construction team continued the sifting and mixing work they have been doing. Lizzy left today for a visit to the US, we will see her back in Haiti before the end of the month.  Right after work, everybody piled into the tap-tap for a driving tour of Port-au-Prince, led by Marcy. While the team was gone a new team member arrived at PID: a Physician's Assistant who has worked with PID in Haiti before, so she is happy to start her first day of work tomorrow. We had our debrief meeting on the roof to take advantage of the breeze, and hear evenone's reflections from the day.

Beach trip and a new arrival in Haiti

The team worked for a short time in the morning before packing up and going to the beach today, to relax and enjoy the sunshine. It was a great mid-week break for everyone. We also had a new arrival today, she will shadow the medical staff and also be helping with the inventory of medicine and supplies. Gale left for the airport shortly after, heading for home in the US.

Team's second day of work

Today the two doctors continued working in the clinic, seeing many patients. The RN has been working as discharge nurse, and reports that most patients understand the proper way to take their meds. The students helped with construction on the Blanchard house, and jimmy worked on setting up the English classes he will be teaching some of the local kids. For this evening's meeting, Madame pavelis came to give the group a history lesson.

Last day

Yesterday was the team's last day in the village. They got three new filters installed and did more work on the emergency house for the family of a little girl in our sponsorship program named Cesi Sucely.

After some sad goodbyes and getting walked to the bus by a bunch of kids the team headed back to the hotel. Then they were up at 5:30 this morning to drive to the airport.

Sergio is on his way back from Guatemala City with another intern named Rachael who will be working with Julie on the parasite study and Public Health Initiative.

In Haiti

Today I went to look for a new tap tap
. We will be selling the bus and the old tap tap , the red car and if all goes we will be buying a new vehicle.

A new team in Haiti

A new team arrived this afternoon: a combination medical and construction team, including a doctor and his two daughters, who have been to PID Guatemala before. Also in the group is Jimmy, a high school senior who is planning on spending 5 weeks interning with us here helping with construction teams, and conducting English programs and crafts programs for local kids as well. We all took a tour of Blanchard and local PID houses, and meeting some PID people by chance along the way. Gale arrived a few hours after the team as well, welcomed by the kitchen staff with a chocolate cake that we all enjoyed! We practiced some beginner Creole phrases at dinner (nurse Marceline happened to be here, and she helped us along). Everybody seems settled in for the night, and we're looking forward to the beginning of the work week tomorrow!