http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/world/haitian-spirit-takes-first-steps-on-new-prosthetic-771423.html

Cheers!

Ok I can start thinking about my vacation that will be coming up July 9th. Three weeks vacation...time enough to attend a couple of weddings, have a nurses night out with my friends at Providence, a BBQ with team Portland and see all of my family.

This weekend gave me inspiration to take days off! Saturday, Al, Kay (a volunteer PT), Yasmine and I spent several hours at the Metal Market. This is an area of town where most all of the metal work is made called Croix des Bouquet. We turned off the main street onto a rough, pot-holed road- not unusual in Haiti of course but as we drove down the street there were 'cinder block house after house with metal work being made or hanging for sale. After a drive to the end, we got out and walked from place to place, trying to decide what we liked best or who did the best work.

The metal work is made from the big 50 gallon oil drums. the are cut opened and flattened. Patterns of intricate designs to simple designs are then laid out and then cut out. The artists then using different tools pounds details into them to make a lovely mirror, or wall hanging, picture frames or lanterns, nativity scenes and on and on. There were hundreds of 'bare' gecko shapes laying in the sun. Young artists were sitting on porches 'stamping' the designs with paint to make the geckos that are seen hanging on the walls and art shops in Port au Prince. (The real geckos that crawl on our walls and ceilings don't have so much color- they try to blend into the wall so to better catch the bugs and moths).

This was quite enjoyable to see and I did buy a rooster to hang in the guest house and I put a down payment on a specific design I'm having made for Healing Hands for Haiti Klinic Kay Kapab. The young artist, Delpe said it would take 22 days to make and would be ready by July 18th. It will be pretty big.

After leaving the metal area, we all went up to Muncheez - a fast food place in Petion-ville to watch the US soccer match with another group of people from American Refugee Center- Al's wife Deb works for this organization and the group consisted of about 9 people from all around the globe. Most in the room not rooting for US but for Ghana. I don't follow soccer (futbol) so I'm pretty naive as to the why they choose a team or root for one over the other except that most Haitians either root for Brazil or Argentina first then depending on their alliance who they will cheer for after that. It was fun but the air-conditioning was soooo cold that when the soccer match went into over time, I thought I would be an ice cube.

Today we all went to the beach- Indigo Beach is just under a 2 hour drive up the north coast of the Island. It was formerly a Club Med back in the 80's and in resort style has a hotel with swimming pools, an entertainment stage, restaraunt, bar and a wonderful big beach. Today it was a glorious respite of sun, sand, sea and a bit of rhum in a raspberry slushy. Its such a far away place from the Monday through Friday part of our life- literally stepping into another world outside of the Haiti we see everyday. There is no rubble, no crumbled houses, no broken people. There are artists wanting to sell you a painting, a conch shell the size of a football (American style), jewelry or even a live lobster to snack on until its time for the big buffet lunch. Waiters are a wave of a hand away to bring you a drink on the white sand beach. The hot white sand that scorches your feet as you try to make your way quickly to the 'Caribbean Blue' sea. It was clear and warm and calm- its salty buoyancy beckons you to come in and stay for hours. The warmth of the sun stays with me now as I write this hours after returning home (mostly because I got a bit of a sunburn). The Pieces in me comes out when I am at the sea and its hard to leave.

The funny thing is that we ran into people we knew- Shaun and Shiri, and people from Handicap International. We had heard thunder throughout the afternoon in the distance but as we were driving home, it wasn't long before we were in the middle of the thunderstorm and pouring down rain but we had our day in the sun so could not complain at all.

PS. I did buy a necklace with a shell pendant for $5 and 3 drink coupons.

chief security officer at Jean's house
Officer Baby Duck
view from Jeans future bedroom
Jean in doorway of new wood home.
Front entrence to Jean's house

Yellow and green "Brasil" bottles hanging over Delmas.

Two weddings and a funeral

I bought my tickets to return to Portland in time for my friends weddings- Jodi & Kathleen, and my grandma's graveside service (and my dad's). and some r& r...a little time on the river I hope. Its a vacation destination that I hate to miss and I hope it is as hot there as it is here, that the river, the Mike's hard lemonade and the company of cousins restores me as they have every summer for forever.

We (some of the team members that have been here this past week) and I went out last night. We had planned to go hear some jazz music at Presse Cafe but because two of the guys had on shorts, we weren't allowed in. So we went to Bar Del`air to dance to some kompas music of Coupe Cloue. The name of the place didn't mean much to me at the time but when we pulled up to park, I had a spark of deja vous~ I had been here back in 2003 on my first trip. A flood of memories came back to me. Some of us wanted to go out to a bar and Belamy who was working for HHH took us out that first Saturday night of our arrival. By the time he arrived to pick us up in a jeep it was raining pretty hard. Because there were 6 of us wanting to go, we had to go in two trips. The jeep had broken side windows so the rain came in on us. Haitians always beep the horn when they get to an intersection or corner as the many high cement walls prevent the driver from seeing a car coming and every time Bellamy beeped the horn, the headlights would go off, every time he turned on the wipers, the headlights would go off which made for an interesting ride. We made it to the bar as the rain stopped, we had a few beers and as we had told Matt, our team leader we would be home by 11 we started watching for our driver....and it started to rain again even harder. Now you have to know Haitians do not like to be out in the rain, even in a car so we had to wait...and wait....and wait some more but finally at midnight, he came for us. The first 3 of us piled in the jeep and started on the road to home. With the rain still pounding down, the streets were filled with inches of water like a river and no less exciting with the lights going out when the wipers were turned on. Of course there was no traffic but also a pretty powerless jeep that could not make it up the hills. Every time we turned a corner up, we would go backwards with the water forcing us to find a way to climb laterally then make our way down and over if that makes sense. Just as we pulled in after a 30 minute drive that should take 5 minutes, the jeep died. Matt was happy to see us until he realized we had left 3 people still at the bar. Belamy left to find another car. The girls at the bar didn't know what happened to us but didn't want to allow the bar owner take them home, if Belamy was returning to get them and they weren't there so they waited and waited some more- laying on the tables sleeping because they were the only people left. In the end they made it home just after one...just one of the reasons Matt does not want to be the team leader any more.

Back to last night...by 11 pm the place was packed with Haitians~ some of them even thanking us for coming to Haiti to help their people. One of them had been living in Seattle and Portland but because the music was so very loud, I couldn't really get his story. There was no rain but we were as wet with sweat as if we had been in the rain. The bar is on the second floor and open all around with a thatched roof. A little bit Tiki~ and a very rare bit of air would move through the people but not enough so by midnight everyone was pretty much ready to leave. Our van does not have the problem of the headlights going off when the wipers come on and all the windows are intact but it wasn't an issue since there was any rain. In fact, its only rained a little this past week. Once good downpour that thankfully didn't last long.

World Cup has been the main focus of all Haitians this past week- with the early morning game, traffic is a breeze. Its a fine time to make trips to the bank, the store, the airport. I only had to stand in line at the bank for about 30 minutes, maybe a little less. On Delmas the median cement in one area is painted blue (Argentina) and above hundreds of bottles are hanging over the street all painted yellow and green for Brazil.

When Brazil won on tuesday, you could actually hear the cheers.

Yep, Haiti loves futbol and World Cup!

5 months later...

The Pool now
the pile of rubble decreases substantially today


Haitians who favor Argentina as their TEAM, celebrate a 1-0 victory over Nigeria. On this day I will celebrate the removal of rubble from our patio area. 1 day closer to the pool party. I have the feeling most Haitians don't know this is a 5 month anniversary day. Certainly its not really a day to celebrate because so very very much remains to be done.

Except today the Haitian son of my friends, Al and Deb will walking across the stage to receive his high school diploma in Minnesota. He was in a car accident and lost both of his legs. He walks across the stage because of his determination and because of Al, a prosthetist that made Patrick's legs. This is a celebration for Patrick, for Al and Deb, for Patrick's family in Haiti, for his Healing Hands for Haiti family and friends and for the many many many young people in Haiti that now share Patrick's disability of being an amputee. We can celebrate Patrick's success and bright future with the hope that all of these newly disabled people will have an equal opportunity for success. With the hope that the new Haiti will not see its people viewed differently but will offer everyone of them the opportunity to attend school, to be able to walk down newly built sidewalks on new prosthetic legs, to have an opportunity for employment.

5 months later there is a reason to celebrate....

Congratulations Patrick upon your graduation this day.

Pierre and his new tent.
Luna's birthday- champagne and cake for lunch.
site of the former Klinik Kay Kapab
remains of clinic and apartment
our precious pool water

Storm warnings

The thunder rolls, the lightening flashes and the wind kicks up...here comes the rain.

We’ve only had about one day this week without rain at some point...yesterday. It certainly cools things down but its not worth the down side for the people in the tents. The tents fill up and the possibilities for mud/ land slides increases considerably. Some people have been moved from some areas of the worst danger to flat land filled with mosquitos. Quite the trade off- risk mudslides in the city or malaria in the flatlands. Live in the city to be close to possible job opportunities or an hour or more of bus/ tap taps to return to city. Its still a tent either way. Live in the city and get free medical care, water and food ~ or stand in line for a tent shower only to find out, there is no water. Tough call to make isn't it?

Speaking of tents, ours fell down on Tuesday a week ago now. Not completely down but one end collapsed and I thought it was time to close it down. But the guys put it back up and said "its better than ever" so to my disappointment we continued for another week. Wednesday the therapists came up and said its too hard to work down there- the ground it saturated and muddy. At the same time the demolition company was breaking down the cement gate surround- a huge concrete bridge like thing across the top of gate necessary to get the big trucks in to continue removing rubble from another level. Its just too unsafe to have patients entering and leaving with trucks coming and going and the muddy roads so now its really time. They will spend the rest of the week letting patients know that the tent is closed and that we well make radio announcements when the new clinic is open for business.

I've pretty much figured out that the small frustrations that I tackle on a daily basis are the basis of the big picture of Haiti's infrastructure. But I also know given the chance and opportunity, Haiti can move forward to building something better. Take garbage for instance. I bought ~finally~ 2 very expensive garbage cans. One is for 'wet' garbage for composting and the other is for paper/ plastic burnables. I do spot checks every couple mornings and have to remind the cooks of the rules and they are getting it. Now I will have to get the compost area set up and get the boys to comprehend the difference. Now that I write this, a couple of things occur to me...one is that any compost pile we start is going to be dinner for the pigs. and the rats. and the chicken. and maybe even the kids looking for something edible. So how do I solve this problem? Most likely it will end up in the river bed for the pigs, goats, chickens and rats. But I hope not the kids.

We ran out of water yesterday afternoon...apparently a water pipe up by the neighbor has broken and its one of two feeding city water to our cistern. I don't know what happened to the secondary pipe- most likely the same fate. The point is some one knew but waited until we ran out to let me know what was going on. So a day and a half without water and 20 some people here is a little frustration. We bought one truck load of expensive water and then found some less expensive water- its all good now. But a little foresight knowing the pipes was broken and not likely to be fixed soon, we could have bought and filled the tank before it became dry as a bone. Using some type of metal pipe would probably help prevent another problem but I doubt that will be the case. On the bright side, we had enough rain water in the pool to pull buckets of water to flush the toilets this morning.

Let the thunder roll...