Daily life

Having Lauren here meant that I now have photos of virtually every aspect of my daily life in Haiti, from the mundane to the exciting.

We have the simple projects around the Shoebox, such as hanging new curtains that my mother sewed for my room, creating makeshift couch cushions from discarded foam, and hauling water from my cistern for bathing and doing dishes.



I walk on average 4 miles every day to get to my various jobs and friends' houses. Port-au-Prince is a dusty, dry, barren wasteland but here and there along my route, these flowers bloom radiantly and offer a little escape from the gray. Sometimes Marc walks with me, on our way to youth group or feeding program, and we frequently have small children following us. Sort of like the Pied Piper...



In my neighborhood, I've been too busy lately to spend much time with the kids, but at least once a week, we watch a movie or bake cupcakes or do homework together. Frantz is still the darling of my heart, even when he skips school and I have to publicly reprimand him.



Quisqueya Christian School, the English school where I have subbed in the past, still offers one of my few outside entertainments in the form of a basketball or soccer game. It's fun to cheer the kids on and to just laugh with my friends.


We recently hired a Haitian nurse named Myrlande. I am training her in preparation for my 2 month furlough at summer camp from early June to August. She has been a great addition to our team and I have high hopes for her.


Things are moving extremely slowly with medical visas, both on the Haitian end and the US Embassy end, so I'm seeing less new patients than I normally do. Despite that, my mornings can still look like this: me, in my Au Bon Pain pajamas, creating a file on a plastic surgery case while my assistant Sendhie chats with the family.


The young woman who used to lead the feeding program at the orphanage in Delmas 75 recently left for school in the Dominican, so they are in a bit of a pinch, especially to find people who can translate when teams are there. I've been trying to go every Monday afternoon and some Wednesdays too, functioning as a translator and facilitator as needed.


Perhaps my favorite part of the week is Bible study. Twelve to thirty teenagers meet with us for an hour and a half, read scripture and ask questions. How should we pray? Is is wrong for us to cheat on exams when everyone else is doing it? God says that we shouldn't sin in our anger - isn't that basically impossible? I love it!


I try to make it down to Dorothy's house to visit with the babies and the animals.



Clinic at Delmas 24 has been hopping! We frequently see more than the 50 patients I allot slots for and we generally have to turn a few away when closing time arrives. Sendhie, Myrlande, and Lucson continue to do a marvelous job running the show. I've been particularly impressed with our blood pressure program - more than half of our patients actually come regularly to receive their meds and their check-ups. For Haiti, that's pretty good.



Construction continues next door at St Joe's and in the house directly behind mine. Sometimes I come home at the end of the day to find the way to my house completely blocked by sand piles. Fortunately, Frantz and the other kids will eagerly help me clear the way whenever we can get our hands on a shovel and a broom.

The ravine is still the ravine. A few of my families recently got kicked out of their tent homes and property owners are threatening to move over a hundred tents next month. It's frustrating because there is no real solution. These people need jobs; from jobs they could earn enough to not be homeless. But where are the jobs going to come from? At least I can assure that their children are healthy. And healthy they are!

A new obsession!

Youth group in Haiti has always consisted of a lot of praying, Bible studying, singing and guitar playing, teasing friends, and lots of soccer.





And now, bursting on the scene, a new youth obsession: BASEBALL!!



When Marc's brother, Eric, came to Haiti for a 5 month stint starting in December, he brought his baseball gloves with him, so I brought mine too. For the first day, it was just me and him, but to my surprise, the kids began clamoring to play too. And to my even greater surprise, they were really good! A little erratic and a little prone to overthrow, but for 16, 17 and 20 year olds, they have picked it up very quickly. Of course, I haven't trusted them with a bat; all we do is play catch all over the field, but with a few more months of practice and a few more gloves, we might be able to build a proper team.




Baseball. You don't really how much you miss it until it suddenly returns to your life!

Mackenzie

Meet Mackenzie.


Mackenzie is one of the street children who comes to the feeding program in Delmas 75 where I help on Monday afternoons. He's probably 11 years old and is hands-down the most impossible child I have ever worked with. He's stubborn, he's defiant, he's moody, he's sharp-tempered, he's a bully, he's simply out of control. Short of beating him (and frankly, I'm not much bigger or stronger than he, so I don't forsee that going well) there isn't much we can do to discipline him. Our only hope for the past year has been to overwhelm him with love and surround him with people who can show him better examples of who he can be.

Last Monday, Mackenzie ran up to me and tried to yank the bracelet off my wrist. Instinctively, I pulled my hand up and away and when he made a second lunge for the bracelet, he missed and punched me in the eye. He ran off and I was left with an aching, watering eye.


A little while later, I saw him steal a ball from a smaller child. Chasing him down is counterproductive so I yelled to him that I would be sitting on the stairs, waiting for him to come give me the ball. I sat down, eye still watering, and waited. Amazingly, within 2 minutes, he brought me the ball and sat quietly beside me. "How are you doing, Kez?" he asked me.

"I'm doing great, Mackenzie," I responded. "My only problem is that my eye hurts a lot because a boy punched me today."

His smile faded. "That was me, wasn't it?" he asked.

I nodded.

To my surprise, Mackenzie reached up and started to gently rub my eye lid. I sat there, both eyes shut, slightly on edge, expecting the real Mackenzie to come back at any moment. His hand was still on my eye, so I peeked with the other and saw an incredible thing: Mackenzie, trouble-maker extraordinaire, had his head bowed and was praying for my eye!!

When he was done, he rubbed the eye a little more, then looked up at me with bright eyes and asked, "How does it feel now?"


"Better, Mackenzie. A million times better!"

Lauren's visit

Lauren and I had a great time during her week-long stay at the Shoebox. Some highlights were a pancake party with a lot of music and neighborhood boys...


Gifts for all the kids including a sticky bubble-blowing kit that...ahem...we may have stolen from the goody bag and used with my Haitian staff and American friends. In our defense, I don't think the little kids could have mastered the technique...



Playing with little kids at feeding program...


I think her favorite was our time at Dorothy's. Lauren is a baby FANATIC and if there had been any way to smuggle these twins into her suitcases, she would have done it.




If I was super excited to have my friend here, Frantz was just a step behind me. He remembered Lauren from her visit in March 2010 and he spent long hours at the Shoebox with us.

Friendly visit

My dear friend from nursing school, Lauren, visited me this week. She lived my normal life with me and made it not normal. It's funny how the mundane things of life become so much more fun when a good friend comes along for the ride!

Johnny J

My Johnny J is doing great! He's on his ARVs to keep his HIV under control and he is going to school every day. His lisp is still very noticeable but he is starting to speak in full sentences! He likes to sing a little song that he learned at school and he can count and recite the days of the week. He's also become a little flirt that all the visitors to Dorothy's immediately fall in love with and sometimes he steals food, with encouragement from Cha-Cha. But he's so stinkingly cute that it's hard to get angry with him. His favorite nanny, Rose, is his Maman RoRo, and I am still his Maman Keziah. Isn't he adorable?

My mother

My mother came to Haiti at the end of January and spent 5 days with me. We're horrible at remembering to take photos, so I have very few to show from her stay, but it was a good one. She got to come along to youth group, a work day on the church property, feeding program, medical visa appointments, lunch at Epi D'Or with Marc's kids (their first hamburger ever!), and a day of peace and quiet at Baptist Haiti Mission. It's was her second trip to Haiti but her first visit since the earthquake and her first time seeing the Shoebox and meeting most of the people who are my community. Coincidentally, my mom was there for the 26th anniversary of St. Joseph's and take part in the celebration and service with Bill, Walnes, Michael, the boys, and many guests. She got to see Bill drum and Patrick dance and taste a little of St Joe's hospitality.

(My mom and I are sitting together on the left in the below photo of the celebration at St Joe's)



One of the great things about my mom's visit was having her do some interior design touches to my Shoebox: reorganizing my shelves and my kitchen, a new bedside table, and a full length mirror so that I don't have to stand on a box anymore to see if my pants match my tops in the little mirror on my walk. Best of all, she was able to transform my exam table into a proper couch with cushions and everything. How pleasant it is to be able to sit somewhere other than my bed to read and relax!



Of course, the best part was just having her here. I love talking to my mother on the phone and during my visits to the US, but to have her in Haiti in person to meet the people from my stories and see the places where I've walked and worked...it was fantastic! Thanks for coming, Mom :)