Sunset over Haiti

As the sun goes down, the lights come on....The girls decided after some much needed quiet time around the pool we should visit the Montana Hotel for the view.

The sunset was spectacular and we took plenty of photos to capture it.
Sunset at the Montana Hotel. The ambience of sitting on the patio of the hotel and looking over the view hasn't changed but to look behind us at where the main hotel was is a sad empty space reminding us of the devastation that took place. The parking structure newly built supposedly to US standards collapsed as well and was now an empty hole as you drove into the parking circle. Only a dozen or so others were sprinkled around the patio, too early for dinner but having not for a cocktail and internet work. The spirits of those lost in less than a minute lingers as we were lost in thought as the sun descended behind the hills of Port au Prince.
3 crazy girls: Fiona, Judy and me.

SAturday morning we visited Johns house in Delmas 75 neighborhood. I hadn't seen it since it was 'finished' and moved into so it was time. We took Andrew (a visiting PT that is here for a month and agreed to help him paint the inside). Andrew had quite the experience. The house is basically a 2 bedroom with this small kitchen and small bathroom area (no running water but there is a stream below the house) and living room/dining room area and porch. Andrew spent the night for true Haitian experience - he shared a bed space with 2 others, since no electricity and no generator, they had a early to bed night and up early to go to church. Church service is several hours and then they walked to visit some of Johns family before returning to guest house.

Johns Kitchen
the front of Johns' house. It may not be very big by our standards but certainly its a 'nice' home for him and his bride to be.
Upstairs bedroom. Its good to see Johns' house lived in. He is joined by his fiance, his future mother in law and several others but apparently after he is married on the 5th of February, he and Madlyne will live there alone. He said they wanted two children.

We also saw Gracies half sisters about a month old...so cute. but no I won't get another dog.

Us girls did a little shopping at the Giant supermarket then spent the afternoon poolside, repeating the quiet afternoon today. After the past couple of weeks, we were ready for some quiet time.

Living and working in Haiti~

'Baby Doc' Duvalier is back...this disposed dictator has been gone from power and the country for 25 years. Rumors are rampant as to why he is here including thoughts of a coup or civil war but from our observations of the past few days, its seemed only to spark curiosity. Conversation around a dominos game perhaps. None the less it seemed to take everyone by surprise and maybe some even wondered if Aristide could be arriving imenently as well. We were told to take care with out movement, to gauge the reaction before going to work. Driving to the clinic, to work sites around the city, the streets were 'normal'. The streets were 'cool' as our drivers report to me. Teeming as usual with street markets, children walking to school in their crisp little checked uniforms, guys hawking their wares of cell phone charger cords, bottles of soda and Digicel phones cards. The younger generation views the return with indifference, not knowing the reign of terror the dictatorship and its regime of Tonton Macoutes bestowed upon the country. We've heard some people say maybe Haiti should return to a dictatorship- "we had paved roads and electricity. We didn't have cholera' But from what I've read people still starved, they still didn't have jobs. The smallest whisper against the government brought retaliation in the form of prison, beatings or death. They forget that millions upon millions of dollars were lining the pockets of Baby Doc and his mother and his wife as they lived a life of luxury, buying jewelry and clothes from only the best places in New York or Paris, traveling the world as if it were owed to them. In reality, life was no better then than it is now. Time erases the worst of bad memories.

On a brighter note, HHH held its summit board meeting in Haiti. The idea was to support Haiti, our Haitian staff and add a little to the economy. It was 3 days of meetings and hard work of taking our mission and our vision into the next 3 years. Considering it was the anniversary week of the earthquake, the planned date for the election run off which has now been postponed, and rumors of manifestations, all of our planning went very smoothly. We feel positive and strengthened by the support we have received and our organization continues to be dedicated to growth and expansion of services for the disabled citizens of Haiti. I'm very proud to be part of this vision, the love and the dedication we all share for Haiti.

While we wait for the response to the OAS reports of election fraud and Duvaliers' reasons for returning, we continue to do the work we are here to do.

Team Canada for Healing Hands

One of the awesome teams from Canada found some of the broken wheelchairs and spent the afternoon modifying and repairing them for an orphanage they will visit over the next few days on Ile a Vache. The kids will receive 10 "new" chairs matched to them. The original chairs sent by Team Canada in October are still sitting in customs waiting to be released. This is the second team to come down for the chairs in hopes that we would have been successful in getting them out of customs. Some of the chairs modified are new Motivation chairs that we received from the LDS last year. The fact that this team can provide these children with more comfortable seating to allow them some additional mobility proves Healing Hands for Haiti continues to do fantastic work. Thank you TCHH!!!

Andrew,PT and Giles working on w/chairs for kids.
Amanda modifying w/chair
Tools and chairs...
modified chair
Liz putting together Motivation chair for disabled child.
soccer game at Acra tent community
Children at Acra



Singing of hope for Haiti, Acra Camp. Jan 12, 2011
Road to Acra Camp
part of camp

Links to Haiti stories

http://newsone.com/world/newsonestaff4/prosthetic-limbs-give-quake-survivors-chance-to-rise/

http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/LocalNews/story.aspx?ID=1342569

Remembering Haiti- January 12, 2010- January 12, 2011

Haiti one year later....

For me personally, this year has gone by quickly~ I can hardly imagine that if I asked my Haitian friends that they would agree with that feeling. I haven’t had to live in a tent with stifling heat, or protecting my belongings during a rainstorm or blowing away in a hurricane. I haven’t had to worry about finding work, how to feed my kids, I don’t even really have to worry about cholera. I have spent most of the year worrying about them.

Nothing much has changed if you look at the big picture. The National Palace is still sitting broken as a national symbol of January 12. The government buildings are in the same condition. Much of the downtown buildings remain piles of rubble as many areas around the city. There was such an influx of International Aid workers in the beginning that slowly trickled off but when it seems like half of the cars you see in the street have an aid organization logo or name plastered all over them, the aid workers are still here.

All are here to help, some just do it better than others.

Healing Hands for Haiti, in my opinion does it better than most. We are reminded of this when we read the report that our prosthetics and orthotics tech have helped make and fit over 400 prosthesis and nearly 500 orthosis. We are reminded of this as we see more patients come into our clinic everyday to receive therapy and medical care from our Haitian staff. We are reminded of this also because we have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of donations and grant money to re-build and establish our outpatint clinic and prosthetics shop. We were able to keep all of our (Haitian) staff employed.

Tuesday was one of those days. We had received word that a Canadian sports network and some Canadian Footballers wanted to visit our clinic. We wanted it to mean something to the guys, more than just a tour around the clinic. We invited our spinal cord patients to come and meet them and if they were willing, to share their stories.

The football team got a little lost driving around for quite awhile but when they arrived already some of our guest patients had arrived and actually been doing therapy. In the end we had 17 spinal cord injured patients come to our clinic. Some came in private car, some our drivers picked up and some came in tap taps. None of this was easy for them. We rounded up the patients and the team, they played a little ‘ball’ participating in a team game of tossing the ball around. Some of the SCI injured visitors shared their story (very briefly) but mostly they thanked us for being there for them, for the CFL players for coming and they were thankful they survived. Many of the patients were friends, had formed their own support group after being months in a hospital together. For some it was a very emotional reunion. These 16 of these spinal cord injured patients are living in and around Port au Prince but one came from Gonaives, driving in a taptap at least 4 hours to come to the clinic for this occasion.

A very emotionally charged experience that I was proud to be part of.

As we commemorate this day, I hope we all remember Haiti maybe taking baby steps to recovery; may look overwhelming in the big picture but they are surviving everyday during the hardest, longest year of their lives with grace and hope.