The neighborhood zoo

Goat in a tree


Pig on the path


Horses on the top of the mountain

Deschapelles is a very funny little town. Very rural and farming is one of the few ways to make a living. There are all these animals in town but none are actually tied up or contained at all. Goats, chickens, cows, pigs and horses just sort of wander around trying not to get hit by the kotosnas they fly by. Apparently they all belong to someone and apparently everyone knows which belongs to whom but beats me how they figure any of that out! Its spring so there are lots of little ones around as well.

I hike up the mountain behind the town almost every day. Sunrise is around 5:30 now so I usually leave at 5. It's a beautiful climb and I'm always humbled by the haitians who scramble past me in their bare feet and flip-flops. The mountain changes every morning. It rained last night so this morning the air is damp and smokey instead of the usually dusty dry. From the top you can see down to he hospital grounds but all of the artibonite river valley as well. I can see most of the area covered by two of the two rural dispensaries as well. There are often people up here praying and singing in the morning though Sunday it is always quiet as people are mostly preparing to go to church.


Kim and sila on the mountain last week

You will all laugh to know that I spent the rest of the morning before church planting vegetables. The other Kim is here for a year and brought some seeds with her. We started them in various random containers and this morning we replanted what came up and is looking good!


Transplanted vegetables

Amazing to think that in a week I'll be sleeping in my own bed! A month goes faster than it feels like it will. Our two new teachers arrive on Monday night for two weeks. Saying goodbye to the students will be hard. They are really a magnificent group to work with.

Deye mon gen mon
Beyond the mountains more mountains

Nanowen mon Jezi pa replace
There is no mountain that Jesus can not move.

Language

A lot of people have asked about the language here. The language that all people speak is kreyol. It is based in French so a lot of the words are the same but very fast and contracted with a different order to the wording. The official language for medicine is French though most of the people don't speak or understand it so that is yet another barrier to medical care. The medical morning report is usually in French, sometimes with French sides, sometimes English, sometimes with a translator sometimes not. I'm getting much better at understanding what is being said. I went on pediatric rounds yesterday and at least could get the gist of the cases. Amazing the children who survive here. Lots of prematurity, Pre-eclampsia is rampant. There are no ventilators here those they do have a 2 isolettes (usually a couple children in each) as well as oxygen. I don't know what we'd do without our translator Nahoum for the class. Many of the students are practicing or studying English but for the coursework he's essential. He translates into kreyol and their notes have (mostly) been translated into French. We are taking kreyol lessons two nights a week. Pretty funny actually! Professor Wesley would prefer we practice writing but we keep sidetracking him wig all that we need to learn how to SAY to communicate with Edith and basic conversations with patients. The students are great to practice with as well.

Hard to believe this is my full weekend already. There are no big plans for this weekend which is kind of nice. There was a group of orthopedic surgeons from Atlanta here this week so there are a lot of patients in the hospital that need treatment so we will help out for a couple hours this morning. Kind of a lot like home - but very different. They are so stoic about pain and so grateful for everything.

Teaching continues

The classroom work continues to go well. We finished our section on therapeutic play and now are on the section about acquired brain injury The curriculum is designed for us but we can only get in about an hour a day of lecturing since it is so hot it's too hard for them to concentrate. Instead we turn he meterial into lots of games and do lots of lab and practice on one another. Most days we get to the clinic to have them observe a patient as well. We try to mix in other fun stuff too. Yesterday we had a speaker who presented on the use of dance with the disabled. The students are very interested and ask good questions about his kind of meterial nthey ask the hard questions too about life expectancy and the availability of special kinds of surgery. Its hard to explain the dichotomy between what the patient might need and what is available to them here. We are so blessed!

Today is my coteacher Kim's last day in the classroom so we are inviting the students to the house for a breakfast of north American pancakes. Should be fun. She has been great to teach with and I will certainly miss her.

A few shots from teaching. Practicing transfer techniques in the classroom and observing in the clinic with Kim.


Kim working with one of patients in the clinic as our students observe



Students practicing transfers in the classroom

Easter Morning

Sunrise - 5:30am

Juxtaposition

It is a bit fortuitous to have a long weekend smack in the middle of my stay. Yesterday we went to the coast to Saint Marc, where there is a beach club you can go to for the day. A beautiful spot, wonderful to relax on the beach under the trees (sun is sooooo hot here) though a bit other worldly considering what our day to day is like in Deschapelles. Today we met up with one of our friends from the hospital to make the trip to petite rivière to go to the Saturday market. A beautiful old city with a lot of the disintegrating remnants from the European colonization slowly falling into the ground.


Lots of walking and a ride through the rice and corn fields to get there. So many here have choice but to walk for several hours to and from the market, enormous loads to sell and buy in baskets on their heads. Their strength and poise and determination is incredible. Juxtaposition with the luxury of Saint Marc (or even our very comfortable home) is a little difficult to get my arms around.



The markets here are an amazing experience. Everything you could need from shoes and clothes to machinery and every fruit and vegetable, grain and bean you could imagine (no apples, berries or grapes of course!). How each individual can make it when there are a dozen selling each item is astounding. You can also buy any kind of toiletry or medication (a huge problem) as well as goats and chicken (alive or not) and parts thereof. It's quite an amazingly overwhelming experience and makes me realize how we take our modern conveniences for granted. We are so blessed. Wishing you all a joyous Easter tomorrow.

Trading traditions and Learning Exchange

It is a short week this week due to the Easter holiday. The students took and did well on their therapeutic play exam yesterday so we thought we'd have a little fun this morning. We explained the Easter Egg hunt concept to them this week and they thought it was so funny. So this morning we started class at our house. We took small bunches of jell beans (thanks Mom!) and wrapped them in tinfoil into egg-like shapes and hid them all around the yard. They had a blast - very funny really and I think we found them all so we don't have any goat casualties later!



One of the other teachers had taught the students a T'ai chi routine which is how we start class every morning out under the mango trees. They've been asking me about teaching them a new routine but since I don't know any T'ai chi I taught them a yoga moon salutation. Quite funny at first but now they are quite good.



It's really wonderful to share stories and traditions of culture. They have taught us a lot about raising children and culture around kids here. Gives us better perspective for teaching for sure. They have also continued teaching us provebs, not all of which I'm sure I really understand.

Today's was:
Nan tan' grangou patat pa gen po - in times of famine the potatoes have no peels
Something about being grateful for everything you have ...thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

Kay 7

Our house is known as Kay set (house 7) and we are very privileged to live in one of the nicest houses on campus. Denise went back to the states today so it is now just the four of us here. Edit, is our wonderful housekeeper who is an excellent cook. She is here during the week to prepare meals and keep the house tidy. Duval, our Gardner, is here for a few hours weekday mornings to tend to the yard and an endless quest to keep the goats at bay! We have a rotating guard staff who watch the property as well so its a pretty busy place. We have a resident cat Dino who is a bit of a beggar and generally a pain but keeps our pests at bay. The house has it's quirks, like running out of propane for the stove while trying to cook dinner tonight... We are lucky to have electricity by generator all the time. Water is on from 6-7am, 12-1 and 6-7pm. We get by in the in-between with buckets for what we need which really isn't much. Always amazing to realize how easy it is to waste! We use hospital water which is slightly chlorinated and then terra cotta filtered for drinking. It's a wonderfully funny place and I am lucky to share it with a bunch of wonderful people.

Bon weekend

The weekend begins after the rehab meeting finishes around 5 on Friday. The students were ready for the weekend break after finishing their second exam on Friday so we watched the 'Babies' DVD Friday afternoon - we even scrounged up some comes and trail mix to make it feel like the movies which they really enjoyed! The rehab meeting brings together the techs in the hospital clinic with the techs in the mountain dispensaries to recap the week and plan for the next. It was good to hear their plans and incorporate using the students to observe patients. My French I think is improving daily. :)


Weekends here are a great time to rest, meditate and prepare for the week to come. Saturday we went on a mountain hike to the waterfalls in Verettes, the next town over. We came back through the Saturday market which was pretty well closing up for the day. Maybe we'll go earlier next weekend. We had some of our colleagues over for dinner here at the house last night.


This morning we hiked the deschappelles mountain early, coming down in time to get dressed for church. We went with the physio from the hospital to his church for a beautiful service with lots of singing and enthusiastic prayers. We understood what we could and the other ladies were very helpful where they could be. The hope and humility of the spirit here is really amazing! This afternoon is quite hot so we'll lay low - read and write and prepare for week to come. Loads of love, L

Class

A picture of this years Rehab Tech class with their teachers. Hard to read the board in the background but looks like they're covering muscle structure and tone... in French!! A challenge for both teachers and students!

Hard to believe we are nearing the end of our first week of class already. My canadian teaching colleague Kim is brilliant and a lot of fun to teach with. We usually start teaching at 8:30 and go until 3 or 3:30. Ended a half hour early today as it was threatening to pour and 2 of our students ride their bikes 45-60 minutes to class each day. The rest are close enough to walk. The afternoons are the hardest because it gets so hot so we try to keep them moving around and play lots of games to keep it interesting. Kim had started the normal development section before I came so we finished that up together and the students did very well on their exam on Wednesday. We have now moved on to the section cerebral palsy. Sila is working in the clinic at the hospital sonshe often lets us know if there is an interesting pediatric patient we can see which is great! It really helps the students to have the practical observations mixed in.

Our students are a very sweet bunch. 2 girls - Gerti and Suze, and 4 boys - John, Willien, Franzo and Edner. Nahoum was our translator last year as well and he dies a great job of keeping us understanding one another. They like to practice their English with us as much as we like to practice our Kreyol with them. Funny all around! They are teaching us a Haitian Proverb each day. Today's:
Evite mi yo' pa se Mande pardon
It is better to prevent than to have to heal.

Lapli koumanse - the rain begins. Always, L

Arrived safely

A bit of a delay in leaving JFK but made in to PAP, through customs with all bags accounted for to meet transportation waiting there. I met Sila, the Swiss physio here for 3 months as well as Kim, a Canadian physio I will team teach with for the next 3 weeks. We had a beautifully uneventful ride to HAS and settled in to Kay 7 last night. Typical Haitian caucauphony starts around 4am so I was able to get up and do some swimming before morning report at the hospital at 7. Kim had started teaching normal development last week so we built on that today punctuated by a few patients to observe in the hAS clinic. No rain today, not too hot though I forget how strong the sun is. Continue to wish id spent more time practicing Kreyol but oh well. Sila has been taking lessons here so I may join in. Thanks formall your prayers. Love to all!

Waiting to depart

I sit this morning in the JFK terminal waiting for the flight to depart for Port Au Prince. An amazing day yesterday with the women of the ELCA. A very uplifting worship service, with the opportunity to share afterwards my experiences on reflection from my previous trips and meditate on the time to come. It was a wonderful time to look back on what we have learned through the years - what we've done well, where we've struggled and where we can continue to grow. I know that these next 4 weeks are going to fly by so it is good to have this time to reflect and anticipate what God has in store for me. The generosity of outpouring was humbling - tons of school supplies to take to Zion's children with the team going in August and a wonderful love offering as well. We are so blessed! Thanks for all the support and prayers. Nits the only reason I can do this at all! Always, L