Cholera Continues

People in Haiti continue to get Cholera.  There is not the same energy around it as when the illness first arrived. It has been quite a long time since volunteers here who were working in other programs were asked to also help out in the Cholera tents.  Now, buildings have replaced the tents and there is sufficient Haitian staff working there.  In the past several days though I was reminded several times that the problem has not gone away.  Several days this past week, daily liturgy was a funeral mass for victims of cholera.  A couple of the bodies on the chapel floor were quite small (babies or young children.)  

At the end of last week a young child, who I think may have significant disabilities, was brought over to Kay St. Anne.  While being treated for Cholera apparently the child was abandoned.  We do not know his age, only his name.  I think he could be about three or four, since when we stand him up he is about the height of some of our children who are that age, but it is hard to tell.  Since we don't know his age it is hard to get a sense of how delayed or disabled he is.  He is pretty much non verbal, although one day when I was playing with him when he grabbed my telephone, after I said "alo" (hello) many times and held it to his ear he eventually repeated the word clearly.  He does not walk, but does scoot around on the floor a bit.  Someone is trying to find a better placement for this child, where there are lower ratios of children to adults and where staff have received training  in serving children with significant special needs.  The organization I work with has one home at the orphanage in Kenskoft for children with disabilities, but it is full and not likely to have any spaces soon; many of the "children" who were placed there because of the degree of disability are now young adults who continue to reside there as they are not able to live independently.  The organization has some out-patient programs providing services to children who have disabilities as well.  I imagine it is challenging for any family anywhere to care well for a child with a severe disability, but here in Haiti, where there is so much extreme poverty, so few resources, where even non-disabled poor children are not given the right to a free and appropriate education, and subsidies like social security disability are non existent, it is a far greater challenge.  A family who abandons such a child may believe that an organization that can run a hospital must have access to resources to care for the child in a way that the family can't. While this Haitian child who likely has significant disabilities who was abandoned in a Cholera camp,  seems to have so much going against him in life; I must say his smile is brighter and more frequent than the smiles of most people I know.           

Today is Mother's Day in Haiti; so, Happy Mother's Day again.  I am also aware that it is Memorial Day weekend in the states, so Happy Memorial Day, too.  I always think of Memorial weekend as the beginning of the summer season.  In Haiti it always feels like summer; the past week or so has felt to me like an August heat wave, although fortunately it is not so very hot here today.  

A month from now, I will be heading home for Erin (my younger sister's) wedding, followed by vacation, provincial chapter and retreat.  I look forward to catching up with family and friends. 

      

Chicken Pox, Fet Drapo, and New Arrivals

When we had only a handful of children left at Kay Ste. Anne who did not have the chicken pox and all of the other children who were sick including some of the youngest ones, were in the containers at Kay Ste. Louie, it was decided that all of the children should just return to Kay Ste. Anne.  I suspect some of the children who did not get chicken pox may have had it when they were younger.  One child is still away, due to other health problems; it was decided to keep her away from the other children, until the chicken pox are gone.  When the children are itchy and terribly uncomfortable the workers turn on the hose and water the children, which does seem to provide relief for a while. 

On Tuesday the school had a celebration for Fet Drapo (flag day.)  A group of talented musicians came with trumpets, a trombone and drums and led most of the children in a parade around a few nearby blocks.  The younger children stayed behind and danced and played.  Wednesday was the offical Hatian Flag Day.  Schools were closed for the holdiay.  I spent the day at Kay Ste. Anne mostly attendingn to sick children, and organizing some activities for those that were up to it.  The workers turned on the generator and the television and the children watched a program of flag day festitvites which was occuring live somehere in Haiti. Haitian music and dance is reallly beautiful. 

The Haitian people really do take pride in their flag and in their history and in their culture.  I think I can respect that such days are importnat to them and even enjoyed wishing people "Bon Fet Drapo,"  even though, for me something like Flag Day in the United States is not particularrly important. Although thinking about it did spark a memory for me. In all my  life, I only remember ever doing anything to celebrate Flag Day in the United States one time; that was when I was in second grade and the entire elementary school walked to Narragansett Pier (the center of town) singining patriotic songs (we practiced so much that to this day, whenever I hear the song America the Beautiful finish, in my head I start singning You're a Grand Old Flag.) 

On Thursday we had five new children move into Kay Ste. Anne. One new little girl, problaby under two sat silently eating her lunch while tears rolled down her face.  It is so hard for me to imagine what it must be like for these children when they first arrive.  At times, I tend to wish there were fewer children in the home, because I tend to beleive that it is hard for staff to meet their emotional needs well when there are so many.  As each new child comes, I find that they are such delightful individuals, I can't help but love them. Often I need to remind myself that this situaiton, is probably much better in many ways from the situations they are coming from. 

 Please excuse spelling errors, I am using a different computer that is not my own, and it seems to be set to spell check in French.  Thanks.

chicken pox and ti krapo (little frog)

The current challenge here is that several of the children in our program have, or recently have had chicken pox, and it seems likely more will get it.  At least in my mind chicken pox seems like a normal childhood illness that children typically recover from without problem, unlike other illness children in Haiti often get.  Once the children are diagnosed with it they are staying in one container at St. Louie to avoid contact with others.  The children do seem to handle these things fairly well.

On a lighter note, the other morning when I was almost awake, trying to recall my dreams before opening my eyes and beginning the day, I suddenly felt something land on me.  I yelped and jumped up immediately at which point I noticed a frog sitting on the floor next to my bed, which is where he landed when I sprang to my feet.  At seeing this little creature I laughed out loud.  I think it is some kind of a tree frog; they are pretty common around here.  These frogs amaze me with their ability to climb walls and to jump great distances for such little animals.  Sometimes you see them sitting very still for a long time waiting for a bug to go by.  This frog however was not very still; I think that is why I liked him and was quickly able to forgive him for getting me out of bed a couple minutes earlier than usual.  Since the internal walls in our home do not go all the way up the ceiling this frog was able to scale the wall a few times while I was getting ready for work, eating breakfast and praying.  When I was ready to leave for the day, the frog was by the door.  I opened it and gently guided the frog out.  While I don't mind an occasional little frog or small lizard in the house since they eat bugs, I prefer them not be on my bed most especially while I am in it! I was glad the frog left since the woman I share a house with was staying home because she was ill  that day and I was not sure if she would appreciate a frog landing on her resting body.

In national news the new president was inaugurated yesterday. I received an email from the professor of Creole I had in Miami last summer with a link to an article/letter he wrote encouraging the president to use Creole, the language of the people rather than French which many Haitians not fortunate enough to have been well educated can not really understand.   It is of course written in Creole, I decided to include the link if anyone is interested:
 http://www.alterpresse.org/spip?page=kr     

Have a good week.  Watch out for jumping frogs!
Take care.  

Here is the frog as it is climbing the wall of the bedroom.  A view of the face would have been more flattering perhaps, but this frog was just not sitting still! 

Happy Mother's Day to my mother, grandmothers, aunts, and all mothers and mother figures.

Today I was a God mother.  Well, in this program our children's sponsors, (generous people in the US and Europe who agree to send regular payments to help our children who are assigned a child to sponsor,) are often referred to as God parents.  Today though since those God parents do not come, I was considered a Maren (God mother.)  I had the privilege of holding a child in my arms arms, a child who needs assistance to walk because of a physical disability, while he was baptized.  He is a grateful young child with a beautiful smile.  The children were all dressed up, girls in while dresses, and the boys from St. Louie all had little bow ties.  Several truckloads, and small bus trips took the children, some of their family members and workers to a parish church about a half an hour away.  Many children were baptized, and some of the children from St. Louie received first communion,  some even received both sacraments today.  It was a long, (especially for the toddlers) liturgy, but a beautiful one.  The children were attentive and seemed to understand the importance of the day, except for the toddlers, who were very well behaved for toddlers.
Afterwards everyone returned to St. Louie for a fet (party.)  It was fun.  The children and family members who came really seemed to enjoy themselves.  My job was cutting the large, beautiful cake into a couple hundred pieces for all of the children, guests and workers.
It was a good day.  I hope you had a good one as well.      

Storm and norm

On Thursday, as I was on my way home from work, suddenly a very bad thunderstorm, with unusually strong winds arrived.  I was in a tap-tap with a co-worker, and I called my supervisor asking her, to meet me where I get off the tap-tap, so that I would not have to walk even the short distance home.  Just running quickly from one vehicle to the other I got drenched and most of the contents in my back pack were at least damp too.  When I arrived at my little house, I put towels on the floor to soak up the water that had come in, mostly from under the front door.  

When I arrived at the school the next morning, a few of the tents that are used as classrooms had blown down almost completely.  Workers had moved benches from the classrooms to a space near the containers that has a roof over it, so the children would be in the shade. Classes resumed normally.  There was too much water on the floor of the tent I use for my groups, so I found a different place to work.  In between groups I swept the floor, and by the end of the day it was dried out so I was able to use it for a therapy appointment I had with a child.  Assistant teachers and other workers, worked all day to reassemble the tents that are used as classrooms.  When such things happen people do what they need to do and keep going.  Here, in Haiti, there are still so many people who are living in tents.  Tents of course are not designed to be lived in for long periods of time.  I am sure many of those were blown down or flooded with water.     

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go for a long scenic ride to a clinic in a rural area.  As we passed dwelling places without electricity or running water, people working the land with simple tools, women selling fruits and vegetables in crowded marketplaces, I thought for most of history and even now in many places most people have lived more like this than how we in the United States live today.  Sometimes I forget this, and act as though having so many comforts and conveniences is the norm, rather than the exception.      

This week I also began to help prepare some of the children at St. Anne for baptism; I am at least helping the older ones to understand what it means and what to expect.  Next Sunday many children in the program will receive sacraments.

Please excuse my slow response to emails and things, the internet has been unreliable, but I am very grateful it is working quite well at the moment!  

Have a good week.  

Take care, 

Kathleen 

Happy Easter!

Recently, I was asked to incorporate some religious education into what I am doing with the children at St. Anne.  I began doing this on Holy Thursday, meeting with small groups of the children telling them the story of these holy days.  When I spoke of Jesus washing the feet of the apostles, in order to make it a little more concrete for them, I decided to wash their feet.  When I was nearly finished with the first group, a child asked to wash mine; I was very touched by this gesture of such a young child.

On Good Friday I went with another sister to liturgy at the local parish since we were not having mass at the little chapel here on the grounds of St. Damien Hospital.  We found seats in the church. There were also some people sitting outside in plastic chairs, who could here the liturgy.  I had not realized how many people were present until the veneration of the cross when so many of varying ages, and probably different classes processed into the church to kiss the cross.  This went on for nearly an hour, while people sang beautifully and solemnly.  There is such great faith among the people here, many of whom have experienced Good Friday suffering throughout their lives.

On Easter Sunday there was mass at St. Louie.  In the evening volunteers gathered for a party and spaghetti dinner.  It always a gift to celebrate with people.

Hopefully you had a Happy Easter as well, and will experience Easter joy everyday!


 

Here is a picture I took in the mountains yesterday.  Haiti really is a beautiful country. Although I also saw a lot of suffering and difficult sights as well like earth quake rubble and the faces of people living in extreme poverty.  Yesterday I went with a sister who works here at the hospital, who used to work in the mountains in a place called Fondwa.   We drove through the crowded city of Portaprince and then into the mountains.  

Today we had a Palm Sunday Liturgy at St. Louie.  The oldest of the children from St. Anne came.  Eight of them moved into St. Louie today.  One seemed sad, a couple seemed happy since they have siblings there already.

May you have a blessed Holy Week!  

Updates and Thoughts

There was no school on Monday, although by the time they actually announced the election results the children would have long since returned home.  Martelly is the name of the next president of Haiti; his stage name as a singer is "Sweet Mickey."  His campaign slogan was "tet kale" literally means "bald head," figuratively it means something like the "the real thing.  " If I remember correctly, last summer in Kreyol class when we were learning about music, before he declared his desire to be president, the professor talked about Sweet Mickey, saying something like, "all of his songs are nasty."  I don't know what to expect and never felt I had enough information about actual issues to form an opinion regarding the election.  We shall see what happens.  The week was peaceful, no major manifestations or protests that I am aware of following the results.

I was saddened by the news that a sister in my congregation, Sr. Helen died this week.  My prayers went out to her, her family and the other sisters in our small province. Please pray for all of us who will miss her.

A few of the children who reside at St. Anne who are already six years old will be transitioning to St. Louie next weekend.  I am working with them to prepare them.  When told they will be moving, they seemed mostly excited.  A few of them having siblings there already.  I felt a little sad that they will be leaving Kay St. Anne to live with the older children.  Soon after they move out more little ones will be joining the baby house.  The needs here are endless.  

If a security guard, or a stranger on the street asks me how I am in French, Spanish, Creole or sometimes even in English, I respond in Haitian Creole.  

The children are really enjoying the books my relatives bought.  I enjoy reading with them and some of the workers do too.  They love being read to.  Some of the books I will use when I do the psychosocial program with the children at the school. Thanks again to all my family members who chipped in!

Well, I am off to St. Louie this evening where they children will be praying the Stations of the Cross.
Have a good week.
 Take care,
Kathleen
 

  

Dlo

On Monday it was unclear as to whether or not there would be school since there was supposed to be a strike and the tap-tap drivers were not going to take their trucks and buses out to provide transportation.  It turns out that some did not work and others did.  When I arrived at the school, there were not many children at all.  The children who live at St. Louie, which is where the resident children who are over the age of six live, were there since the school and their home are on the same grounds.  There were about 11 kindergarten children present but none of the kindergarten teachers or assistants had arrived.  For two hours on Monday morning, I was the kindergarten teacher.  Since there were not many children, I used the tent I normally use for the psychoeducational groups and for play therapy.  I reviewed a lesson I had done with the kindergarten children during a recent group.  Then I used some of the play therapy toys put them in different areas of the tent, as well as basic art supplies and allowed the children to play, or draw.  The tent is hot..  After a while the children some of whom had sweat dripping off their faces, started to ask for water.  They say, "Mwen swaf, dlo" literally "I am thirsty, water."  Normally the teachers have a large blue water jug and plastic cups with each child's name written on it.  I did not have this.  I asked the director of the school how I could get drinking water and cups for the children. I had to wait.  The children continued to ask.  I felt so helpless.  I was unable to provide such young children with something as basic as drinking water on a hot day.  This was frustrating for me; I felt powerless. Perhaps this is at least a little bit like how parents who live in extreme poverty feel when unable to adequately provide for the basic needs for their children.  After several minutes passed with continued requests for "dlo," and my growing impatience I marched to the converted shipping container called "Direksyon" to say that the children needed water, when I was told that I could send the children home, they were about to close the school since there were so few children.  Because all of the children in my little make shift kindergarten class that morning, live at St. Louie which is adjacent to the school, I knew they would get water very soon.  We do have enough water for the children, this day it was more of a logistics issue since there was confusion as to whether or not there would actually be school; the children were not at real risk of dying of dehydration.  Yet, I know that there are many places in Haiti and in the world where good drinking water is not readily available.  Later I reflected on my impatience and sense of powerlessness at not being able to provide water for the children.  I had to ask myself if my anger was righteous anger in the face of injustice, or if I was simply being an impatient entitled American?

The Haitian  presidential election results have yet to be announced.  The day of the announcement keeps changing.  Now it is supposed to be Monday, tomorrow.  School has already been cancelled, as there is always the possibility that there will be protests and manifestations when an announcement is made.

Have a good week. Take care,
Kathleen

 

Mango

mango

Today is Sunday.  On Sundays when they are in season as they have been for the past few months, we get mangoes for dessert.  On the property of Kay Ste. Anne and houses nearby there are mango trees. I think mango trees are fascinatingly beautiful.  It amazes me how many mangoes you can see hanging off the branches of a single tree.  These trees tend to be tall, give good shade and seem very fruitful.  Each Sunday I try to cut my mango open a different way telling myself that if I am careful I can eat this mango without making a mess; I've had little success with this, but I guess that only makes it all the more fun.  


On Monday there was no school, because it was the day after the election so I spent the day with the children at Kay Ste. Anne.  These are busy days.  Sometimes I feel like I just go from one activity to another, sometimes trying to multitask.  One child is asking for water, while I am holding a toddler who I know will have a tantrum if I put her down, and while I am on my way to get someone a glass of water someone else needs toilet paper, which is sometimes hard to find and the workers are busy with diapers, mopping and other childcare tasks.  Sometimes though there are calmer moments, when I can really enjoy the children.  One little girl, a young three year old was singing the other day.  I recognized the tune and that the sounds she was making were actually supposed to be English words which she did not understand.  She must have heard the song at the Karnival party a couple of weeks ago.  When she finished I told her in Creole that I did not know, and then in Creole I asked her who let the dogs out?  She thought this was pretty funny.  We both laughed.      

Haiti's presidential election results have yet to be announced, maybe Thursday.  There are talks of a possible transportation strike tomorrow to protest the rising cost of gasoline.  So the week ahead could be interesting.

Hope you are well.  Take care.