Saturday, January 21, 2012
ti lion yo!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
day of firsts
Marvens took his first steps today!!! We were walking, well running, around the floor of the hospital and he let go of my hand so he could go grab this little gate outside one of the other wards. There were only about four steps and they were super wobbly, but he did it! Then he took about four more steps to another gate, and then I got jealous so I stood in front of him and he came and walked to me! And the entire time, he was blowing raspberries. Adorbs.
Also, check out these awesome videos of our organization on Vanity Fair! We're so famous.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/healing-in-haiti-201201
That's about it for the interesting things that are going on around here. Although, today was the first day of new lunch! After six months of: monday- greesy mac & cheese, tuesday- akra blech, etc... we have new food! Today was delish- rice and sauce pwa (beans) with some crazy veggie thing.
I bet you thought this "day of firsts" was gonna be way cooler, huh? Sorry charlie.
Also, check out these awesome videos of our organization on Vanity Fair! We're so famous.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/healing-in-haiti-201201
That's about it for the interesting things that are going on around here. Although, today was the first day of new lunch! After six months of: monday- greesy mac & cheese, tuesday- akra blech, etc... we have new food! Today was delish- rice and sauce pwa (beans) with some crazy veggie thing.
I bet you thought this "day of firsts" was gonna be way cooler, huh? Sorry charlie.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
the anniversary
Man, this has been an emotional week.
I just got back from mass at St. Damien's. The service was beautiful and the perfect compliment to the mass we had last night.
Last night a huge group of us went out to Titanye, the same place we went on All Souls Day in November. Titanye is a city/area (labels are never definite around here) of rolling hills, not more than 20 feet from the beautiful blue Caribbean sea. It is about an hour's drive from our hospital, about 30 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince. This is the land where the Haitian government and hospitals took all the bodies of those who died in the earthquake to bury them. The bodies are buried in mass graves sprawled over the land, which you can only recognize by the upturned earth. There are no gravestones, no crosses, nothing. Since the earthquake, Father Rick has been going to the morgue at the General Hospital and burying there dead out here in Titanye. He feels very passionate about giving these people a dignified burial. He has spoken many times about the humility of poverty and that burying the dead in a proper ceremony is a last effort of grace we can give to them. It is a thankless job and one I was even critical of. I always thought-- why spend your time and energy here, when we have so many people who are still living to take care of? But when you hear Father Rick speak about this work, you realize this is what he is called to do. And you can't be critical of work like that. Anyways, we went out to Titanye around 4pm, so it was cooler and there was a great breeze coming off the ocean. The group was primarily Americans and Europeans, although I brought my Haitian coworker and we brought a small group of our kids from FWAL. Father Rick gave the mass in English, with a beautiful homily about our human nature and the desire to care for others. Tons of people recorded it, so if I can find a copy I'll post it on my blog.
After yesterday's mass, I was hoping to hear him speak in Creole and for people who experienced the earthquake to tell their stories. For many, many people I've encountered today, this day is too emotional and they are trying not to think about it. But today at mass, there were many hospital employees and other people who work from our organization. There was lots of singing in French and Creole and Father Rick gave the mass entirely in Creole. It was so nice to be there, to listen to him speak about moving forward and how we can all grow from the disaster.
I came home (and straight to Facebook, obviously) and found an awesome article written by a political strategist who came to visit with us a few weeks ago. The article is hilarious and definitely worth a read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-mudcat-saunders/haiti-usaid-reconstruction_b_1199254.html
I just got back from mass at St. Damien's. The service was beautiful and the perfect compliment to the mass we had last night.
Last night a huge group of us went out to Titanye, the same place we went on All Souls Day in November. Titanye is a city/area (labels are never definite around here) of rolling hills, not more than 20 feet from the beautiful blue Caribbean sea. It is about an hour's drive from our hospital, about 30 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince. This is the land where the Haitian government and hospitals took all the bodies of those who died in the earthquake to bury them. The bodies are buried in mass graves sprawled over the land, which you can only recognize by the upturned earth. There are no gravestones, no crosses, nothing. Since the earthquake, Father Rick has been going to the morgue at the General Hospital and burying there dead out here in Titanye. He feels very passionate about giving these people a dignified burial. He has spoken many times about the humility of poverty and that burying the dead in a proper ceremony is a last effort of grace we can give to them. It is a thankless job and one I was even critical of. I always thought-- why spend your time and energy here, when we have so many people who are still living to take care of? But when you hear Father Rick speak about this work, you realize this is what he is called to do. And you can't be critical of work like that. Anyways, we went out to Titanye around 4pm, so it was cooler and there was a great breeze coming off the ocean. The group was primarily Americans and Europeans, although I brought my Haitian coworker and we brought a small group of our kids from FWAL. Father Rick gave the mass in English, with a beautiful homily about our human nature and the desire to care for others. Tons of people recorded it, so if I can find a copy I'll post it on my blog.
After yesterday's mass, I was hoping to hear him speak in Creole and for people who experienced the earthquake to tell their stories. For many, many people I've encountered today, this day is too emotional and they are trying not to think about it. But today at mass, there were many hospital employees and other people who work from our organization. There was lots of singing in French and Creole and Father Rick gave the mass entirely in Creole. It was so nice to be there, to listen to him speak about moving forward and how we can all grow from the disaster.
I came home (and straight to Facebook, obviously) and found an awesome article written by a political strategist who came to visit with us a few weeks ago. The article is hilarious and definitely worth a read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-mudcat-saunders/haiti-usaid-reconstruction_b_1199254.html
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Didine
I feel like I could in no way write anything that would do justice to Didine's life, personality and spirit, so I still don't have much to say about it. But Kevin wrote me a really nice email last night about Didine that I'm going to repost.
"Haiti has shown you the extreme sides of this life. The worst of man and the best. The innocent and the righteous opposed to the wicked and the damned. I can tell you without a doubt that Didine was a glimmer of hope in this world of ours. I only met her for a week, as well as a short conversation of her yelling at me on the phone when I got home, but I knew without a doubt she was amazing. She was graceful but hilarious. She was strong but fragile. She was everything a four year old shouldn't have to be, but she accepted her life and made it hers. She had...has... an incredible spirit, and for what she had been through, to go the way she did with her family, is the way she would have wanted. You said it yourself. She was where she needed to be, and for a life full of tragedy, that's a pretty amazing thing to have had happened. You and Ivy only made her life better. She loved you both. She loved you completely and endlessly as only a child can, and you both showed her nothing but the same. I'm so grateful to have witnessed how the human spirit can endure even under the most guttural of conditions, and I'm so proud of you for showing the best of us all. Dani, you truly made a difference in someone's life. Not someone's life, but Didine's life. She was herself around you and Ivy. She let you both in, when the world only taught her to raise every possible defense. She was still willing to trust you both, and God was she a beautiful little girl. She even made a hell of an impact on me. She is without a doubt my most vivid memory of Haiti, and she will always make me smile.
"Haiti has shown you the extreme sides of this life. The worst of man and the best. The innocent and the righteous opposed to the wicked and the damned. I can tell you without a doubt that Didine was a glimmer of hope in this world of ours. I only met her for a week, as well as a short conversation of her yelling at me on the phone when I got home, but I knew without a doubt she was amazing. She was graceful but hilarious. She was strong but fragile. She was everything a four year old shouldn't have to be, but she accepted her life and made it hers. She had...has... an incredible spirit, and for what she had been through, to go the way she did with her family, is the way she would have wanted. You said it yourself. She was where she needed to be, and for a life full of tragedy, that's a pretty amazing thing to have had happened. You and Ivy only made her life better. She loved you both. She loved you completely and endlessly as only a child can, and you both showed her nothing but the same. I'm so grateful to have witnessed how the human spirit can endure even under the most guttural of conditions, and I'm so proud of you for showing the best of us all. Dani, you truly made a difference in someone's life. Not someone's life, but Didine's life. She was herself around you and Ivy. She let you both in, when the world only taught her to raise every possible defense. She was still willing to trust you both, and God was she a beautiful little girl. She even made a hell of an impact on me. She is without a doubt my most vivid memory of Haiti, and she will always make me smile.
So eat a cupcake and smile, because that was Didine. A big, messy, loud, beautiful smile."
Saturday, January 7, 2012
unpredictable
I had intended to write a blog post today about being back in the US, with friends, family, hot showers, presents, etc.
But this morning was Family Day at FWAL, so I went over to play with the children whose families don't come, like I try to do each month. The party was great, and a lot more parents than usual showed up. I got to meet one of my favorite little girl's father which was nice and eye-opening all at the same time. She can be rough around the edges pushy, but she's a very sweet girl and I really like talking with her. I was shocked by how old her father seemed-- whether in years or just because life has been hard on him. I brought over a button-maker which ended up being a great project with the kids whose families didn't come.
After Family Day, I came back to my house and found a text-message saying that we were getting a medical donation, 45 minutes before I saw the text. So I ran over to Fransis vil to make sure everything was brought in correctly and to sign for it. It was great medicine and supplies, exactly what we needed which was so nice for a change. Thanks Direct Relief! I then did an impromptu tour of the hospital for a donor group and finally had some lunch.
I was pretty tired after a morning like that, but I had told some kids at St. Damien's that I would visit them yesterday, and I never made it up, so I was determined to go back today. After lunch I loaded up my bag with coloring books and diapers to go give to the different rooms. My first stop was oncology to visit a 9-year old girl there. While I was there, I asked her about Didine, the little girl who had been abandoned for 5 months but whose mother came to pick her up a little over a month ago. She told me that Didine died a couple days ago. After a few phone calls, her father confirmed the news. She was back in the provence with her family and she got sick and her family didn't have the money to bring her back to the hospital.
I'm still kind of in shock because I only found out about this an hour ago. I'm still not ready to look through the hundreds (seriously) of pictures I have of her. Instead I'm realizing, for the countless time, how enormous the problems are. A four-year old girl in the provence of Haiti has cancer. Her chance of survival is bad, to say the least. But she gets to our hospital which amazingly enough, has an oncology department, which gives us hope for her. But she is only 2/3 done with her treatment-- she still needs radiation-- and she goes back to the provence without it. To her mother who is 20 year's old, with a brand new baby and what I can only imagine is extremely little means. We can give her hope and health for a little while, but with nothing to go home too... for some kids it's not enough. Life is fragile, especially for a four year old with retinoblastoma. It is some consolation that when she passed away, Didine was exactly where she wanted to be-- with her mother.
I'll write more about her after a little time has passed.
But this morning was Family Day at FWAL, so I went over to play with the children whose families don't come, like I try to do each month. The party was great, and a lot more parents than usual showed up. I got to meet one of my favorite little girl's father which was nice and eye-opening all at the same time. She can be rough around the edges pushy, but she's a very sweet girl and I really like talking with her. I was shocked by how old her father seemed-- whether in years or just because life has been hard on him. I brought over a button-maker which ended up being a great project with the kids whose families didn't come.
After Family Day, I came back to my house and found a text-message saying that we were getting a medical donation, 45 minutes before I saw the text. So I ran over to Fransis vil to make sure everything was brought in correctly and to sign for it. It was great medicine and supplies, exactly what we needed which was so nice for a change. Thanks Direct Relief! I then did an impromptu tour of the hospital for a donor group and finally had some lunch.
I was pretty tired after a morning like that, but I had told some kids at St. Damien's that I would visit them yesterday, and I never made it up, so I was determined to go back today. After lunch I loaded up my bag with coloring books and diapers to go give to the different rooms. My first stop was oncology to visit a 9-year old girl there. While I was there, I asked her about Didine, the little girl who had been abandoned for 5 months but whose mother came to pick her up a little over a month ago. She told me that Didine died a couple days ago. After a few phone calls, her father confirmed the news. She was back in the provence with her family and she got sick and her family didn't have the money to bring her back to the hospital.
I'm still kind of in shock because I only found out about this an hour ago. I'm still not ready to look through the hundreds (seriously) of pictures I have of her. Instead I'm realizing, for the countless time, how enormous the problems are. A four-year old girl in the provence of Haiti has cancer. Her chance of survival is bad, to say the least. But she gets to our hospital which amazingly enough, has an oncology department, which gives us hope for her. But she is only 2/3 done with her treatment-- she still needs radiation-- and she goes back to the provence without it. To her mother who is 20 year's old, with a brand new baby and what I can only imagine is extremely little means. We can give her hope and health for a little while, but with nothing to go home too... for some kids it's not enough. Life is fragile, especially for a four year old with retinoblastoma. It is some consolation that when she passed away, Didine was exactly where she wanted to be-- with her mother.
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