Babies!

Toddlers, actually.

Being away from my nephew Noah has been the most difficult part of being in Haiti. The last many many months of his life, before I came to MOH, I spent 2 or 3 days a month with him. Just the two of us building our relationship and bond. It is amazing to chat with people online, to Skype, to email, to text even. Noah's not so into those things though. He will be two in July and I will miss his birthday and that already feels like a roundhouse to my left kidney (I've been doing kickboxing here... which may merit another post).
I can not replace that missed time with Noah but I can at least be distracted by the 5 babies here. I say babies because they're still in the baby group room, but really they are toddlers. And they are amazing and crazy and full of joy and strong opinions and they are starting to have things to say!
It seems like everyone here does a blog post at some point about the babies. I guess it's unavoidable!
Each one has a different story, well, except for the twins - their story is very similar... but I'll get to that.
Pierre is a boy who is maybe 3... we're not sure as he was left here over a year ago. If I am recalling info correctly (as a disclaimer, the following facts are to my best knowledge and with a heart of love for these kids) he was abandoned at the mission following the earthquake. Angelie was also left at our gate after Jan 12/10. Pierre's age is not known as he is very underdeveloped in pretty much every area. We guess that he is 3 or more by the full set of teeth he has. He has cysts in his brain that have prevented brain development and prevented growth. His body is frail, his immune system is very weak, and he has difficulty even holding his head up. When I first came in January Pierre would lay around all day. He was in a crib or in the arms of adults or older children, but he just lay there on his back, waving arms or legs awkwardly. Currently, with the love and attention of dozens of Haitians and North Americans Pierre is longer and stronger. His grip has improved, he can be propped up in a seated position and hold his head up for short amounts of time, he is more responsive to facial expressions and touch, and last week I saw him wave - back! He was laying in church and one of his Mommies was waving at him and Pierre waved back at her. It's now my most favourite game. He will likely never walk, be toilet-trained or have a converstaion. He will likely need to be fed, transported, cared for as an infant for the rest of his life. He is a boy who brings such joy to others, including his siblings in the baby room. They call him Ti Pye (little Pierre) and they love him to bits - like the rest of us.
Angelie, as I mentioned, was also abandoned here after the earthquake. She is probably 2 and is the craziest baby of all. She could not walk when she arrived but had learned to scoot herself around on the floor in a seated position, legs out in front. She started to walk just before I came in January, but, at the time, still preferred the scoot. She now, with her wee bowed legs, runs around with the rest of the babies. She is the biggest, a fact I realized in church when she fell asleep in my arms during worship (Haitian babies sleep through anything). She enjoys singing anything, including Justin Bieber's 'baby, baby, baby, ooooooooh'! and has the best laugh.
Matthew is a boy of maybe 2.5 years. He was brought from another nearby orphanage when some American MOH supporters were touring local ministries. They found him in a corner of the orphanage nearly dead and brought him here. He is now healthy, strong, sometimes bossy, often hilarious with his little jokes, and has the most developed vocabulary. He says my name without missing a beat when we ask him to - and lots of adults struggle to say my name here.
That leaves the twins: Jeremiah and Hannah. These are two more miracle babies. They're the youngest at almost 2 years and have been here almost from birth. Their story is amazing and heart breaking as they were born to a very young mother who refused to care for them and made it difficult for the mission to officially bring them into the orphanage, but they came and were named and are now chubby, joyful, healthy little 'nugs' as my friend Abby calls them.
I could go on about all of these sweet babes, but I'll leave it at that for today and just give you some snaps.


Hannah and Pierre



Clockwise from rear left: Angelie, Jeremiah, Matthew, Hannah

2 Things

1. She came back. Jeff removed her and I'm working on a chicken-proofing plan. Adding this photo is against my better judgement but if it placates her, maybe she'll get out of my hair...

2. Decided to white-wash the blog... it felt cluttered. One can't wear the same thing for ever.

An Office!

OK, I have to preface this post with the following: IT WILL BE DISGUSTING. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT YUCKY STUFF, THEN DON'T READ THIS POST.
Seriously.
I wanted to share about my new office space the minute I was told I it was mine (except for 2 weeks in May when I will have to move out and let some team use it to sleep because we are overbooked - sigh of frustration here).
Previously I had been meeting with young people in Rachel's office or in Abby's classroom (whichever was free at the time I needed it). Things here require lots of adaptation on a daily basis.
Anyhow, I was told 2 weeks ago I could finally start to use my office. Unfortunately, there was no key for the lock on the door so I waited another week for a new lock and then, in the middle of last week, began moving stuff into the room.
I had gone in the week before to clean the washroom, sweep the floors, re-arrange the bulky bunk beds that have to remain there until after May. It was dusty but not so bad. In the washroom I found a chicken who seems to enjoy room 14. She has been known to lay eggs on the beds. I decided she would make a suitable secretary.

I was given the new key to room 14 and excitedly gathered my first load of art supplies for the office. As happens in an area with any of 61 kids wandering around, I quickly had some helpers who wanted to carry items to the new office. We opened the door and found a pile of animal poop. Rotting in the heat as though it had been there a while.

Please note the stain from liquid run-off. This will help you to imagine the smell of this welcoming sight.

I remember thinking wow, this poop smells really bad. Almost like a dead animal. Then I remembered Mdme Poul, my creepy washroom secretary, and went to look for her. She was sitting on her shelf, looking, frankly, quite stupid, and on the floor below were the remains of 3 eggs that she had, I can only surmise, laid and then let roll off the shelf. Another layer of the odor in the office.

I recall thinking wow, it smells like a sketchy dairy aisle... but somehow worse... and not just because I could still smell poop.

By this time the kids were squealing and laughing at the discoveries. I was deep in thought, formulating a plan of action that included firing Mdme Poul, when, as I walked back into the main area in the room, I sensed an intense cloud of decay. I was pretty much right between the washroom and the entrance, smack in the middle of rotten eggs and nasty poop... but the air was just a little bit thicker in a way that eggs and feces just don't add up to. For some reason, probably the Spirit's leading, I thought to look under the shelves in the main room. And that's where I found it, deep in the darkest corner of the room, lifeless in the shadows, a dead rat.

Now I'm going to post a picture of the rat. It is still in the trap and doesn't look too big in the photo. Using a broom one of the girls got it outside and that's where I took the picture, so you could get a better sense of the decay. You're welcome. Keep in mind that the rat trap is as big as my shoe - it's not little like a mouse trap.

What you can't see in this photo are the tufts of fur that were scattered around the rat under the shelves. Many thanks to our plentiful ants who will, within minutes, find anything dead and begin to disassemble it - promoting the decay process. Apparently they don't want the fur, and so leave it behind, scattered around the carcass.

And so, that is how my move into my new office began. Under the heavy cover of stank, and with the trills of kids (me included) losing it at each new discovery of grossness, I began my move in :)

A couple of end notes:

- Photos were taken on my blackberry and so have lower resolution. You're welcome again.

- I hired 7 kids for 4 candies a piece to do the cleaning (those who followed through got 6 candies each). It's true, labour is one of Haiti's greatest resources.

- Mdme Poul was removed by brave, but slightly nauseous (note the face covering), Monsado using a Mickey Mouse sheet. Apparently she belongs to Jeanson. She was asked not to return to the office. We will have her belongings sent to her new address. I considered adding a photo of her but decided not to give her the satisfaction.

*this post is dedicated to Jenn Mitchell. Jenn, please use your considerable library on poop to help us determine who left the 'gift' - if possible. Keep in mind we have many wandering goats and dogs around the orphanage. I know because they, and the roosters, yell at each other all night.

Another Stamp on the Passport of Reality (quite possibly the lamest blog title ever - You're Welcome!)

A couple of weeks ago I planned and executed a solo expedition to the wild and unpredictable land next door.
I took a bus to the Dominican Republic.
It was an adventure and I definitely added a lot more bullet points to my list of "Rookie Mistakes" (to be embarassingly published at a later date, I suspect), but it was a good time and a good thing for me to do.
I won't go into all the ups and downs of the trip, but I will say that I found the Dominican people to be exceedingly patient, kind and generous. I used the phones of 3 strangers in the first day of my trip and none of them wanted to be reimbursed for used minutes. I don't speak Spanish and almost everyone I met had no English, yet I enjoyed multiple interactions with people I met.
I was there to visit 2 friends (one planned visit didn't work out), but also to visit the countryside of the Island of Hispaniola. I saw a lot of the country, many towns and some of Santo Domingo from my bus. I landed in a town called Higuey for a couple of nights and saw a few things like:La Basilica de Higuey Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia (a church and shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary), and met Haitian children begging for pesos in the streets. I had fresh fruit and juice and burritos and even a Domino's calzone. It was just good to get away for a bit. To have time alone to reflect, to pause and listen to what's been running around in my head these last many weeks, to sort out those racing thoughts, and then to return to MOH having had an experience separate from what is happening here - and there is always a lot happening here.
This week I've been house-sitting for a family who live at MOH full-time. The Van Der Mark's (there should be a link to their blog in the column to the right) went on their yearly vacation to the Dominican Republic. It's been kind of surreal to stay in their house because it's actually like a house. It has a kitchen and living room with appliances and couches and televisions. It has bedrooms without bunk beds and washrooms with hot water and without a million mosquitoes or a family of mice, and a washing machine(!), and power all the time. It's quite luxurious actually. I'm anticipating it will be difficult to move back down to my mosquito-netted bunk in the room without floor to ceiling walls, where there is zero silence (seriously, if the noise ever stops there, between the 61 kids and teams living in Hope Village and the dogs that howl at night and roosters that crow any hour of the day or night and the giant generator that powers this place roaring in a nearby building... well, I'd worry that I'd missed the Rapture or something!). It has been like a mini-vacation while staying on campus. A break from reality.
I'm not sure if you've had this experience before, a break from reality is often a good thing spiced with a little not-so-good. I'm going to have to fight again for quiet and peace, but there have been a bunch of days together where it's been easy to access those things - so maybe it will be easier...
I think life should be sprinkled with little escapes from our regular life, time-outs from our realities, alternate endings of our usual days. I hope we don't have to fight too hard for them because they are refreshing and have such potential to help us re-set for getting back to all that's waiting to be done - and there is much to do!
Working to do it well and praying you are too, KL

Roomies!

Just wanted to introduce you to the lovely ladies I share a room and loo with:

Abby and a puppy -- "It's so FLUFFY!"

Abby is from Jacksonville, Florida and teaches English to the Hope Village Kids and Mommies. She also works with the ladies at *3**Cords (see new link at right), and is developing a Young Life program here at MOH.

Clockwise from top left: Star, KL, Megan, Blaire

Star is from Witchita, Kansas and is part of the team who takes care of and leads the groups of North Americans who come to work here for a week or two at a time.
Blaire is from North Carolina and also helps with the groups.
Megan is from Toronto and is a Nurse who is finishing up her Master's in Community Health. She's been writing the curriculum for the MOH Community Health program while she's been here. Sadly she leaves on the 22nd of March.

Those are the girls I live with!
:)