Day 24: We have no money

Today we (I mean I) got up early and went to the clinic at the boys orphanage to meet the doctor for the girls "lady health." 22 girls had appointments so it was a big day. I was in the room for all of the appointments because the doctor didn't bring his female nurse with him. Most of the girls have infections and malnourishment. He gave us a TON of prescriptions and papers for tests that need to be done for almost all the girls which will probably cost us more than we have. We told him we may not have enough to pay for all of them and he is going to give us two tests for free since they are in his specialty and he can do them for us. He also told us about a place in Port-Au-Prince where we can buy some of the medications in bulk which will help with the price. Even with all his help I don't think we are going to have enough to cover it all since we already spent $300 on the class and consultations. If you feel like you want to help you can email or call Rodrigo at tabletennisfool@gmail.com/925-961-7142 or you can call Extollo (extollointernational.org) We are also a little stressed about time because we are leaving Haiti on the 3rd and don't have much time to get everything done.

Thanks for reading!

Oh and Amy didn't wake up early with me not because she was being lazy but because she wasn't feeilng good. Haha

-Becca

Day 23: Girls get a class!

Today the coolest thing happened. We had a meeting at 7 a.m. to meet with a gynocologist to talk about him coming to talk with our girls. He said he could come if we waited for an hour. He talked with them today and it was awesome!! Sunday, all the older girls will be getting exams. Praise the Lord.
amybecca

Day 22: Dokte Dokte

As all our posts and all our days start out we woke up today. We had to get up early to get the workers started on planting the trees. We had Tou Tou, Emmanuel, Enel, and Mackinson working. Coi-Cou made the decisions with us about where the trees should go. It was good to see him leading the boys. An even better part was when Becca and I were pasing things off for measurements and they wanted a measuring tape. Not just a regualr measuring tape but a long rope like one. This boys have learned so much and it seems the are putting their skills to use! We left them to work and headed to the doctor.

Renette, Chirbyne, Chabine(newer girl, Wichmie, Charley, Becca, and I went to the Doctor today. As we previously mentioned that doctor has been so helpful to us in the past year. Its so crazy to me that everytime Charley and I go to that Doctor its like he really remembers me. I feel very connected to him when we go there. He always reaches for me, and when he cries he doesnt want anyone else to hold him. The doctor said today, "He knows you" Those are big words for me. I struggle with my attatchment to Charley. I have seen the negative effects of me growing too close to him. When I came in September I spent all day everyday holding him. Then when I would give him to someone else he would scream and cry for me. Part of me was happy that he was so attatched to me, but the other half felt aweful for forming that attatchment only to rip it away. I try to love him and hold him but not too much so that it becomes hard for him. It is VERY hard for me. When I am home I sometimes find myself asking God why he has put Charley in my life, why He has given me so much love for that baby when I cannot bring him home and care for him, I don't know the answer is but I trust God knows what he is doing. Anyway we had a good visit at the doctor. Charley got an antibiotic for his eye and some fluid in his ear. Chirbyne and Wichmie have worms, and Chabine has an abcess near her hip that the doctor is concerned about. The doctor is also helping us figure the Gynocologist situation. We will be meeting with the gyno tomorrow at 7am! No sleeps for me. One intersting thing that happened was the surprised and happy looks on peoples faces when they saw us carrying kids through the streetes to the doctor. I think that most "white people" who come here have cars. Sadly we do not. Its good for our legs, good for getting to know the community, and keeping in touch with reality to ride tap taps and walk rather than be closed off in an a/c car. Don't get me wrong though I love cars with a/c!

I need to mention that I have the worst sunburn EVER on my head right now. I can't even touch it. Last night when it rained it felt like needles were stabbing my head. OW!

After the doctor we wet to find a Haitian Flag, get some food, then head back to the orphanage. We couldn't find the flag, the food wasn;t ready.....but we did find some mirrors for the girls! Happy surprise for us. We then headed back to the orphanage. When we got back we saw that the trees were planted amd they looked great! We payed the guys for their work then headed out again. We went with Mackenson and Junior(brothers that live in the village next door) to go see Juniors dads farming area. We went because Becca wanted to go buy Coconuts today and junior said no we can go see my father. It was so INCREDIBLE! We walked down a road to where his dad was. A guy climbed way up a tree and knocked down a ton of coconuts. The used a machete and opened one for each of us. We drank the coconut water, and then they cut them in half so we could eat the coconut "meat". Yum Yum Yum! They also cut up 4 coconuts to go! yay. After that we were very full. But we weren't done. His dad wanted to give us Sugar Cane also. We got that "to go" as we were very full. it was so nice to recieve these free gift. Not that we should be getting all kinds of gift or anything but when it happens it is sooooo nice. After we got that stuff we went to go back to Leogane. On the tap tap was our friend that we buy drinks from a lot. She had a BIG basket with a lot of salt. I commented on how much salt she had. Awhile later she nudged me to pass me a salt. I said oh thank you but no, She kept nudging so I took it. Then she gave me another for Becca. Its like a BIG ol salt container like you buy at the grocery store to refill your shaker. I was so touched. I cant wait to bring it home and think of her when I use it. Oh no...now I'm getting sad again about leaving Erg. So we went to town got some food.Of course we hit up Miglise! We forced her to take a picture with us today. She actually totally loves us and was resistent but happy to pose for a photo. She is one hard working lady. After we ate we walked down the street to go see about the flag. Earlier in the morning I had walked down the same street and my gauge(earing) had fallen out of my ear. I was really sad because I lost a different one the other day. So I told Junior, Mackenson, and Becca to keep their eyes open for my gauge. I asked 3 people if they had seen it and showed them my other one. That last girl I asked said no. Then a couple minutes later said she thought she had. She started looking around and spotted it on the street! I was overjoyed! YAY!! Sadly the flag was not a success. So we will see about it tomorrow. We did passby a guy wearing a digicell shirt and we have plans to get one for each of us tomorrow!

While we were walking back to the edge of town to catch a tap tap a moto drove by and i thought I heard my name. So I turned around. I told the guy I dont know you. Turns out I did. Hello Pooshon. haha. Its funny because he seemed shy and quiet. Maybe he is sad that Becca doesnt love him. Earlier when we walked into town Becca held on to Mackensons arm when we passed Pooshons families place so it would look like she was taken. Poor Pooshon.

So we headed back to Leogane on the tap tap. The tap tap where some lady was staring at my ears angrily the whole time and where becca got ripped off. The tap tap costs 20gds for both of us to ride. That is equal to $0.50. Today they gave her back the wrong change and when she told them this they told her she didnt understand Creole and drove away. Mackenson was very upset and gave Becca 5gds. Now we are at the Internet Cafe where we spend our time talking to you.

Our time here is coming to an end and it is very sad. I want a picture of everything and everyone. There have been so many wonderful things that happened this trip. Progress above and beyond ecpectation. Friends bonded tighter, new friendships growing, and people loving each other. I know it may sound cheesy but it is so true. Its hard to judge the progress of relationships from an outside perspective....but to see and feel that growth is life changing. The love I feel here is so great my heart my explode. For real :)

Mwen renemn ou Ayiti. ANPIL

Amy

Day 21

We woke up early to go to Yveline’s nursing school Carrefour. We were surprised how long it took us to get there. We were wayyyyy tired, and were surprised that she can do this every day. We asked the students to pay their fees because we want to go to Yveline’s graduation but they won’t hold it if people don’t pay their fees. We spent a while visiting with some of Jeans friends since he has a house right near the nursing school. Amy bought a giant avocado. We then took a taptap with Jean to go to his friend’s house to buy some trees to plant at the orphanage. Amy and I got 12 trees. 8 mango trees and 4 Qennepp trees. Qennepps are a little fruit with a green peel that is slimy on the inside with a big pit and come in a bunch. Both kinds of trees are big so they will provide a lot of shade for the orphanage. Amy and I carried all 12 trees (they are babies so they are pretty tiny though) back to the orphanage on a taptap like true Haitians. We put the trees in the boys side of the container to keep them out of the sun until the next day when we’d have some of the boys plant them. It was a REAL hot day and we didn’t really eat or drink much so we decided to go get some food at that place we discovered by the internet café. It was really nice to sit and enjoy our cold cokes. One Haitian man told us he was happy to see people taking a minute to relax and enjoy his country and not just be on the run all the time. Ketianne also told us that she likes us when we relax and spend time with them instead of working all the time. I think spending time with other people is very important to people in Haiti. Amy and I would rather be sitting around “getting nothing done” if “getting nothing done” means building relationships with people. So anyway, as we were sitting waiting for the food we ordered we saw a white guy walk out of the internet café so as always, Amy and I yelled “hey blan!” and he came over to say hello. His name is Kyle and he moved here because he loves Haiti and does construction projects. He stays with his Haitian friend Mario who was with him. Right now he is building a church in the mountains. He told us about a place in Leogane where we can get delicious French fries so we were pretty excited about that. We were also really impressed because he has a new truck with air conditioning. I’m saving his number just in case I ever need a ride somewhere far away.. Haha! But for real, he gave us a ride to the church so we could re-take pictures of the roof for Pastor Kelly because we took the wrong ones before. (don’t worry Sherman, we didn’t die!) Kyle and Mario then drove us back to the orphanage where he gave all the girls lollipops so they fell instantly in love.

We went to visit the boys orphanage when it started to rain really hard! All the little boys were running around naked in the rain and it was funny. It’s something I think a lot of American kids miss out on. Haha! Amy and I were only there for like an hour and boy are those kids CRAZY! They were running around like little monkeys, bouncing off the walls, doing handstands and cartwheels, beating each other up and climbing all over us. WHEW! One little boy smashed his finger in the door and got a HUGE cut which was bleeding quite a bit. One Band-Aid could not keep it from bleeding. I held him because he was so tiny and seemed so sad. He didn’t cry but I could tell he was holding back tears. He was about 4 years old. I asked one of the workers to get him a new Band-Aid because he was dripping blood on the floor and she went and got some hand sanitizer and a new Band-Aid. I let her do her thing and SQUIRT HAND SANITIZER on his cut to wash it out. OW!! He still didn’t cry but I almost did. I cry if I get that stuff on a paper cut. Those boys sure are tough. It was starting to get dark so as soon as the rain eased off a bit we went home.

We went into our container where we tried to turn the air on but it was barely blowing out any air. We were scared it was broken. Haiti power was on so we decided to turn the pump on to fill the water tank. However, it was spurting out barely any water. We turned it off and were getting nervous that the pump AND the air conditioning were broken. We finally figured out that the problem was the Haiti power. We had talked with Kyle earlier about how the amount of power fluctuates. It must have been running too low to make anything other than the lights work. Glad both things aren’t broken!!

We hung out with the girls for a while in their house. I prayed in English and Andrise prayed in Creole which was nice. We got Amy’s video camera out to show the girls some video’s we took of the VBS in Jacmel to see if they knew any of the songs to teach us. We ended up showing them all the video’s we had and they LOVED it. It was really touching when it got to the video’s we took of the orphanage in La Gonave of the kids singing. The girls all started to sing along and it made us teary-eyed to hear kids from our orphanage singing along with kids from a different orphanage across the country.

It was getting late and Amy and I had to get up early to tell the boys where to plant the trees the next day. We also had to figure out WHERE we thought they should go. So we said good night to the girls and went to our container. We couldn’t just let the boys plant the trees wherever because there may be more buildings going into the property later. Amy and I had to look at the plans for the orphanage grounds and chose a spot where they wouldn’t get in the way. Then we went to sleep.

Becca

La Gonave Boat Trip

Went to the clinic then ate some coconuts

We went to the doctor on day 22 with Charly and three of the girls. This is a picture taken with the Doctor that took good care of Charly. She's wonderful! The second picture is of me eating a delicious coconut from Junior's dad. I LOVED it.

Day 20: Thoughts

We woke up in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy. We were so happy we got to drink coffee today. Becca has been NEEDING coffee. We had made a plan to go with Renette(The Dezman Fleury secretary/records keeper who speaks English) to a couple Doctors to see about getting the girls a class about their bodies, and also to set up some exams for them. Many of them have been having problems but are embarrassed to talk about it. We want them to know what is normal and what is not. We want a gynecologist to give them the right info, rather than heresy from their friends.

As things in Haiti always go we did not leave on time. This morning was really hard for me because everyone was expecting me to pay for everything. Becca and I are realizing we have created a monster. Every time Americans come here we/they are always paying for everything, giving gifts, and acting like money bags. This all happens unintentionally. Its very hard because you want to help. You want to use money that people gave you to help the kids to benefit them. The thing is I think we are crippling them and those in charge by the way we have gone about "helping" Anytime anyone is sick, they come tell us. Anytime someone is hungry...they come tell us. This trip Becca and I came without an organizations money to spend, so we are really realizing a lot of things as far as money goes. Even before this trip we were talking about how everything we do has an impact even when we think what we are doing is helpful it may not be in the long run. This isn't just happening at our orphanage, or even just in Haiti. An example in Haiti is the show "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain. You should look up the episode he did in Haiti on youtube. He is trying some food when he sees that all around him people are hungry. He decided he wants to buy out the food that the cook has made and feed all the people around. Watch to see what happens. Another good resource for this is the book "When helping Hurts" Becca and I's approach to Haiti lines up very well with what this book says. You can't just think about right now. You have to think about the long term. You can't just say here is the solution without knowing the people you are finding a solution for. (Jill this is what we have been learning and MUCH more)

Back to what was happening. We went to a new doctor place because we met a guy on the flight over who worked there. We brought Renette with us which was good because our guy had already left Haiti and there were only people there who spoke Creole. The new place we went to was a different branch of a clinic that we frequently go to in Leogane. They were nice. We asked about having a doctor or nurse come talk to our girls and get exams. They told us how much it would cost per exam and it was way out of our price range. We went to the clinic that we normally go to since we know the doctor who works there, hoping we could get a deal. She's helped us a lot in the past and given us free medicine and pedialite for Charly when he was really sick last summer. She asked how Charly was and was really concerned when we told her about the skin problems that the kids have been having. She told us that she would be working in the clinic this Thursday and that she'd see two kids for free for us! We really love her not just because she gives us free things but because she really has a heart for helping people and is gentle with the kids we bring in. Amy feels really connected to that place because a lot of emotional things have happened there. We took kids there every day on our first trip last summer. Charly got free medicine from that doctor every day for two weeks. This is also the clinic that Amy took Charly to when she came alone in September. In January we took Charly there and he took some of his first steps in the waiting room. There's lots of emotions and memories connected with that place and they all come rushing back every time we go. Anyway, we plan on taking two girls there this Thursday and we will talk to her then about setting up something for all the older girls.

Judith was supposed to take Yvrose and a little boy from the boys orphanage who was sick to Doctors Without Borders but the wait was too long so she took them to a different clinic. She was going to ask the people at Doctors Without Borders about getting a class for the older girls but since she didn't go she couldn't ask. Amy, Renette and I went to ask instead. While we waited to talk to them in the waiting area we met a woman named "Kob" which means money in Creole. We thought that was awesome. The people at Doctors Without Borders were nice but told us they don't have enough doctors to lend us one for a day. Bummer.

We went and got food from our favorite cook Miglise, Amy borrowed a loudspeaker from a dude and said some sweet things in Creole and had the biggest smile in the world after. It's the happiest I've seen her in my whole life. Right next door to the Internet cafe is a place to buy food and drinks and we've never been there before so we decided to try it out and see if they are in the running for coldest cokes in Haiti. They are. I'd say they are definitely number one. In case you didn't know, this is definitely one of the most important things we want to learn about Haiti. It's like in the Bible how the word "love" is in there more than any other word. In our blog, the word coke is used more than any other word. Most important business for reals. Seriously.

We tried to upload pictures but the Internet is too slow. Sorry!

Love,

Rebecca and Amy