Haiti Trip - Kids, Trash, and a Hug before Dinner - Feb 2013, Month 20 in the D.R.

As promised, now in February, I will share some photos from my Thanksgiving Week 2012 trip to Haiti!  (Sorry it took so long to get these posted!)  Below is a little section of the City of Cap Haitian, Haiti that lies in a valley at the feet of these mountains.  You'll see more photos of Cap Haitian in a minute.  On the mountain on the right, and the very top, you can see that the top of the mountain appears square. That Square is not actually a part of the mountain, but rather, it's a giant stone fortress on the top of the mountain, called the Citadel - definitely worth a visit!

I went to Haiti with my housemate, Julienne LeBrun, who is a missionary with "A Heart For Haiti Missions."  In her work as a missionary there she helps support an orphanage near Cap Haitian, and several churches in the area. A Heart for Haiti also supports young people who want to study English or other trades, and pastors wanting to go to Seminary.  I went with Julienne for 5 days in November, to visit the area around Cap Haitian, and to participate in the work that she does.

Here are more photos of life in Cap Haitian...

The houses of Cap Haitian, as seen from the slopes above the city, where we visited some very impoverished neighborhoods.

VISITING THE HOUSES ON THE HILL ABOVE CAP HAITIAN

We visited families on the slopes above Cap Haitian, which consist of poorer slums, with cement houses clinging to the mountain sides, seemingly stacked up one almost on top of the other.

Everyone was very friendly. This woman's house (the front, where she is sitting,) was about 4 feet from the edge of a cliff. 

While in Haiti I got to try out my meager Kreyol skills -- which basically consist of `Good morning,' `good afternoon,' `pardon me, madamoiselle,' `thank you,' and "M'pa pale Kreyol" which means "I don't speak Kreyol." : )!   

Julienne sharing packs of crackers with the neighborhood kids.  The girls with yellow uniforms had just come home from school.

This is the "road" that families walk down to get to town. You have to be a bit careful in narrower places so that you don't fall off the cliff. But the children don't seem to be worried. This was definitely one of the more low-income sections of town that we visited, and one mother tried to give me her small son (as sometimes happens in the D.R. as well,) because she couldn't afford to take as good of care of him as I could, and she hoped that by giving him to me, she could give him a better life.

THE HOUSES AT THE RIVER

(Photos above and below) We spent parts of 2 days down at the river that flows through the middle of Cap Haitian.  We visited with some families there.  You can see that there's an unfortunate trash problem in the river because the trash collection is generally lacking in the city, and most people have to just throw their trash along the roads and rivers.  Reportedly the government is in the process now of developing a more comprehensive sanitation system, and we did see 1 trash truck picking up trash from bins while we were there. So that was a hopeful sign!  

See the two sweet little girls who live at the house just beyond the tire (above)?  The metal box on stilts to the right of the girls is their bathroom. It drains straight into the river.

Here's a closer look at the girls outside their home.  Again, the rusted metal room on stilts is the bathroom.  My heart really was drawn to the problem of trash and the dangers it causes to the rivers and the health of the people living near them. This is certainly a prayer request that I hope you will lift before God with me, that the government of Haiti (and others working with that government,) and the people of Haiti will be able to create a better sanitation and trash pick-up system in their country soon -- for everyone's health.

Here I am with kids and families we met down at the river.

ROSAMUND'S ORPHANAGE IN CAP HAITIAN

After the Earthquake in 2010 in Haiti a number of children who had lost families were brought by friends and relatives to the home of Rosamund, a Haitian school teacher who attended a local church.

Unwilling to turn them away, Rosamund took them all in -- all 20 of them, children of various ages, from toddlers through elementary school.  When "A Heart For Haiti Missions," (Julienne) who were already supporting the church where Rosamund attended saw the tiny house she was trying to care for 20 children in, they helped her rent a bigger home, which she now runs (and lives in full time) as an orphanage, now housing 21 kids.  A Heart for Haiti Missions" has found pen-pals in the U.S. to help financially support the kids, and send them school supplies, Christmas gifts, and clothes. I had a great time at the kids at the orphanage, and enjoyed watching how much Rosamund loves them all.  I was reminded of my friends at "Hearts and Hands for Haiti," based in Raleigh, N.C, and the work they do in Haiti, too, empowering local communities to help many similar children in need!

Julienne and I spent Thanksgiving at the Orphanage.  We helped set up for a special dinner, delivered suprise gifts of clothes, dolls and trucks, from the "pen-pals" in the states, and played games.  We also got to do chalk-art with the kids all over the orphanage outside walls.  It was fun, and it was great to see the loving atmosphere in the orphanage, and how all the kids love and listen to Rosamund. 

Here are some photos.

 This is a photo of the kids from 1 year ago. So they're 1 year bigger now, : ), and there have been a few extras kids welcomed into the home. 

Here are photos from our Thanksgiving together:

Jump-Rope on the Orphanage Roof 

Chalk- Art on the orphanage walls.

A hug before dinner

It was a great trip, and I got to see a lot of the work that God is doing in Haiti, and also a lot of areas where it seems there is still lots of room for growth and change.  I met a lot of wonderful Haitian people who are going out of their way to help others, and Pastors and Pastor's wives, and others, who are serving as amazing leaders in their communities.

Doctors, Churches, and Candles -- Jan 2013, Month 19 in the D.R.

A lot of things have happened here in the D.R. this past month and a half. But I'm mostly just going to post a few photos under this "list a "top 5" things that occurred. :) Then I'll post the photos from my November Trip to Haiti in the February Blog, I promise!

TOP 5 HIGHLIGHTS of Life and Work in the D.R. this Month (In no particular order.)

NUMBER 1:

We had a team of 5 Doctors, 7 Medical Students, and 1 Librarian come from the U.S. to volunteer in our Field Clinics in 4 communities.  Together with our 19 Dominican Community Health Workers, the combined team treated several hundred patients in 4 communities in just 4 days, including clinic and home-visits.

NUMBER 2:

Right now I'm Super, Super proud of all the Community Health Workers - photos directly above and below.  Many of them have as limited as a 4th grade primary formal education, but they have taken the opportunity to be trained by HHI as Health Workers in their communities and they are now expanding their work even more into leadership roles in ALL areas of the HHI field clinics-- from documenting patient medical histories in the charts at intake, to running the lab and training U.S. medical students on lab protocal, to finding charts in medical records, to managing clinic flow, to working in the pharmacy counting meds, and of course, they're continuing in their initial job of taking heights, weights, and vitals on all patients. Go team! It's my job to train and supervise these great women and men -- and I'm excited to see the growth in the CHW program!  But I definitely can't take credit for how awesome they all are!  Teach a man or a woman to fish.... and then they can take it from there! I love working with this amazing team, and I am forever honored to know them!

 Here CHW's (Community Health Workers) Dania and Claudia are organizing the clinic patient flow in the doctor's waiting area in our 2-day-long makeshift clinic at the local Haitian church, in Pancho Mateo, Dominican Republic. We treated approximately 200 patients in 2 days there, from children through adults.

Here CHWs Ribe and Elisa are locating patient medical records while CHWs Genesis and Larikza document patient information in charts at the Intake table before patients can pass on to the station where they can get their vitals taken, then consult with the Doctors.

NUMBER 3:

I have been invited to be a part of the newly-formed Pastoral Search Committee, to seek a new pastor at New Life (Missionary) Church, in Sosua, Dominican Republic. Our prior pastor had to return to the United States. Please join us in prayer for God to lead a new English-Speaking pastor -- with a love for the D.R. and a heart for pastoring foreigners living in the Dominican Republic -- to this church of approximately 100 international (U.S., Canadian, and European & Eastern European) missionaries, humanitarian workers, retirees, and other foreigners living and serving in the Dominican Republic! 

Here are some photos of life at the church

New Life Church 

NUMBER 4:

Highlight # 4 is: THE FUN STUFF!  

This month...

We've laughed and blown bubbles with the staff children at the end of a hot medical clinic day in Negro Melo (above - thank you Dr.Sandra for bringing the bubbles!)...

...and we've danced around the patient charts on the office floor still waiting for our attention that day, as the Dominican "Office-Team" fare-welled a medical student from the U.S. whose time had come to return home to finish school (Below).

NUMBER 5:

And the final special things to report this month actually came in late December (right before and right after my wonderful trip home to the U.S to visit my parents and other family in Pennsylvania for Christmas! What a great trip! Love you all!)

But -- since this blog shows my life on the D.R, here are the highlights of the Christmas and New Years Holidays for me in the Dominican Republic.

A.) The birth of two of my co-workers' (CHWs Carlito and Claudia)'s first little grand-baby - adoreable Manuel, (a derivative of Emmanuel, and born right before Christmas)! Here he is laying under the family's pink mosquito net, safely home from the local hospital and surrounded by his Mom and Grandparents who just couldn't stop smiling at him. It was a beautiful moment!

B.) I also loved seeing my good friend Carmen's college-student daughter representing Mary in their local church's live Nativity. It was great to see a young woman who's studying for her engineering degree and who is sure to become a leader in her community, like her parents, still taking the time to remember the reason for the season.

C.) And, finally, I attended a beautiful candle-light service here in Montellano, filled with friends I've met in my work at the local hospital, friends I've met in my neighborhood, friends I've met paying my cell phone bill downtown, and friends from all over this community.  It was a wonderful moment of feeling like -- `hey, this town is as much my home now as my other home towns are.'  It was great to light my candle among friends and neighbors, and to pray with them for people in all the other nations of the world (including my home country)...

It was a wonderful time, 

and a wonderful place 

and a wonderful month 

to raise a candle.