Kenscoft
Last Sunday I went with Fr. Rick, another sister, a volunteer from Ireland, a man who is from Mexico who oversees the Angels of Light program, a man from Haiti, and a driver to a place called Kenscoft, which is in the mountains, where NPH has had an orphanage for many years. The drive was long and beautiful. It was considerably cooler up there, I borrowed a jacket from a long term volunteer to wear during the liturgy. I enjoyed meeting some of the children and especially some of the children and young adults who have disabilities. After the liturgy we had a lunch which consisted of popcorn, then soup and lastly chicken. On the way home we stopped at a place that sold statues , and Fr. Rick bought the only two that did not appear to me to be broken, both statues of the Blessed Mother, one was placed in front of the crematorium which is behind the children's hospital, the other is for St. Luke, which is the adult hospital.
Ministry
Well my ministry is evolving. After observing at the school for several days and having discussions about what I might be able to do to address the needs of the school, it was decided that I would implement a pscychoeducational program, beginning with kindergarten. I will teach skills such as conflict resolution. In the afternoons I am still going to Kay St. Anne to do activities with the children there. Eventually I will probably do activities and lessons to reinforce the psychoeducational program in the afternoons at both orphanages. I am excited about this idea. I will be using ideas and adapting concepts from a curriculum used at my previous ministry. I am quite excited about this. Since I knew the classes were large, I decided I will work with the kindergarten classes in groups, taking half of the class at at a time. Then when I get the list of the names of the children in the four year old class, I thought I wish I had said I would divide them into eighths when I saw 97 names of the enrollment list!
Cholera
There is a cholera epidemic in Haiti. The region where it began is a distance from here, but it is likely it will reach the Portaprince area quiet soon, if it has not already. The children's hospital is planning for it. I worry about the children at the orphanages and school here as there are certain conditions that I think could cause an illness like that to spread easily. On the radio, the government UNICEF and others are reminding people to wash their hands. The fear is that cholera will spread quickly and be especially devastating for the thousands of people living in crowded tent communities. You can probably get better details by watching the news and reading newspapers and websites, than I can tell you.
Child's surgery
There is a child who was sent to the United States for open heart surgery last week. He is doing quite well, surgery went smoothly and he will be discharged soon. When the volunteer who is with him goes to Nicargua for a meeting, I will go to Florida to stay with the child. I will be state side from November first through the sixth.
Kay mwen
The other day air conditioners with remote controls were installed in our houses! This is very exciting, although we can't use them yet, because we don't have electricity, but we expect to get both electricity and running water in the next few weeks.
Province Gathering
Today, thanks to the technology of webcams and internet (SKYPE) I was able to sit at a kitchen table in Tabarre Haiti, while attending a pre-chapter province gathering in Huntingdon Valley Pennsylvania. It was a pleasure to see so many of my sisters!
Well, as you can see there is a lot going on here.
Please keep Haiti in your prayers.
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