http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/world/americas/15cholera.html
The hospital where Beverly is right now is Ground Zero for the cholera outbreak. Their blog is here:
http://www.hashaiti.org/blog
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Beverly is back in Haiti
Beverly is the nurse from our team; she's back in Haiti right now, working at the Artibonite Valley Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, where the center of the cholera outbreak is.
That hospital's blog is here:
http://hashaiti.blogspot.com
...they seem to update it about every other day, so it's a good place to keep track of the Cholera outbreak.
And Bev's personal blog is here:
http://lyneglobalhealth.blogspot.com
She told me she'll do her best to update it, but of course internet access in Haiti can be iffy.
-Mike.
That hospital's blog is here:
http://hashaiti.blogspot.com
...they seem to update it about every other day, so it's a good place to keep track of the Cholera outbreak.
And Bev's personal blog is here:
http://lyneglobalhealth.blogspot.com
She told me she'll do her best to update it, but of course internet access in Haiti can be iffy.
-Mike.
ps:
Tropical storm Tomas is expected to hit Haiti on Friday. Meanwhile, $500 million in US aid- your tax dollars- are being held up by a single Republicans senator from Oklahoma. He's been blocking that money since May.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90835
Bothered by that fact? Call your own senator 202-224-3121
Friday, September 17, 2010
A psychologist's perspective on Port-au-Prince
This is an interview with Sandrine, a woman we met in Pétionville, which is the neighborhood in Port-au-Prince where Mercy Corps is located (incidentally, also where Sean Penn's camp is).
http://www.mercycorps.org/lisahoashi/blog/22060?source=9840
Click here for a previous blog post with a picture of Sandrine, and the "bus school" she took us to!
http://www.mercycorps.org/lisahoashi/blog/22060?source=9840
Click here for a previous blog post with a picture of Sandrine, and the "bus school" she took us to!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Lauri is going to Zimbabwe
Lauri Benblatt was part of our June 2010 Mental Health Mission. She is a gifted psychotherapist in Boulder who specializes in art therapy. She is also an alum of Harvard's Program For Refugee Trauma.
Lauri is now raising funds for an upcoming trauma education trip to Zimbabwe, a land racked by the destructive earthquake known as the dictator Robert Mugabe. She's going with a group called Tariro:
http://www.tariro.org
If you'd like to help Lauri, please write LAURI BENBLATT in the memo line of your tax-deductable check, made out to:
Tariro
P.O. box 50273
Eugene, Oregon 97405
-Mike.
Lauri is now raising funds for an upcoming trauma education trip to Zimbabwe, a land racked by the destructive earthquake known as the dictator Robert Mugabe. She's going with a group called Tariro:
http://www.tariro.org
If you'd like to help Lauri, please write LAURI BENBLATT in the memo line of your tax-deductable check, made out to:
Tariro
P.O. box 50273
Eugene, Oregon 97405
-Mike.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Art from Colorado kids to Haiti kids
During the June Trauma and Medical mission, we brought a big stack of art made by kids in Colorado to give to the kids of St. Paul's school in Petit Trou. Some of the Colorado kids even wrote some phrases in French on their masterpieces. We snuck out at night to tape the imported children's art up all over the school walls, so the school would be decorated upon everyone's arrival.
After Lauri's art therapy session with the first grade class, we handed the rest of them out individually. The Haitian kids were thrilled to get art from other faraway kids and compared and traded with one another.
Here's some pictures.
-Mike.
After Lauri's art therapy session with the first grade class, we handed the rest of them out individually. The Haitian kids were thrilled to get art from other faraway kids and compared and traded with one another.
Here's some pictures.
-Mike.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Art therapy with first-graders from Port-au-Prince
While in Petit-Trou, we all (including the first grade teachers from St Paul's school there) helped Lauri to run an art therapy session with the first grade kids. A lot of them are "new arrivals" - coming to St Paul's since the earthquakes for various reasons. Some are orphans, some had their house destroyed and now live with relatives in or near Petit-Trou, etc. The first-graders are the ones with the most behavioral problems, so we singled them out.
The first picture is the response to the question, "How many of you lost a loved one in the earthquakes"? You can see that many of the kids drew houses in the first project, "Draw something that makes you feel good." We all thought it was really telling that many of the kids also drew a picture of the school.
The teachers thought it was such a success that they plan on doing this with the kids every Friday!
-Mike
The first picture is the response to the question, "How many of you lost a loved one in the earthquakes"? You can see that many of the kids drew houses in the first project, "Draw something that makes you feel good." We all thought it was really telling that many of the kids also drew a picture of the school.
The teachers thought it was such a success that they plan on doing this with the kids every Friday!
-Mike
Monday, June 21, 2010
Olafson 21 June Monday
At the Olafson by the POOL in Port au Prince.
From Beverly
Short report here. I woke Sunday morning at 4:30 to thunder! It had been dry all week and we were optimistic about the river staying low enough for our 2nd car to make it from PaP and would leave with both vehicles Monday morning. Short story: We decided to leave as the weather in PaP was lots of rain and the clouds mounted even as we deliberated about our options. Our driver, Fednar, took the first 3 gals and all of the duffles, including our donations for the Visitation Clinic in Petite Riviere. He was back to St. Paul's in 2 ½ hours and the rest of us loaded up and blasted. The first “bigger” river crossing was fine. Such relief. BUT the second river had Class 4 rapids! We waited for about 2 hours with 2 other cars and lots of people. Banana trees and a huge coconut palm fell from the saturated banks. The first 3 attempts found the truck stuck and needed help from 9 Haitian men to push and lift it out. Eventually, they came up with a strategy of lifting and pushing it through the first 15 yards of the deepest section and he made it! The team walked across a foot bridge, ever so grateful to be on the east side! Mind you, our Haitian interpreter and her 5 month old baby were still with us, too!
Shorter version of the rest of the story. Our driver's gasoline engine got water in one of the small river crossings (this was the guy who had driven out from PaP Sunday morning and he hadn't crossed the 2 big rivers). We choked along at about 20 MPH to Miragoane where he and the other driver worked on the engine. No good. It was getting dark and beginning to rain...he thought we would be able to make it to PaP, usually about 2 hours from there, but this was also where we started into a mountain pass. Miraculously, as we dropped into the flatlands, the car healed! Our driver said it hadn't wanted to go to Jacqmel, which had been our plan. So we made it into PaP just before 10 pm, not knowing if we'd find rooms.
Here I sit, poolside at the Olafson Hotel. (It was the site of the Comedians, if you know that book). I was able to sleep in – didn't wake til 5:10 today! The team is scheduled to depart Tues morning. They may try to stand by today, but no decision has been made on that.
For me, as surreal as it seems, my focus is shifting to playing cello. I even had to cut my fingernails yesterday! I anticipate moving to the guest room in Petionville this afternoon and beginning playing and coaching tomorrow. I'm going to start using my own blog now, so here is the link: LyneGlobalHealth.blogspot.com.
From Beverly
Short report here. I woke Sunday morning at 4:30 to thunder! It had been dry all week and we were optimistic about the river staying low enough for our 2nd car to make it from PaP and would leave with both vehicles Monday morning. Short story: We decided to leave as the weather in PaP was lots of rain and the clouds mounted even as we deliberated about our options. Our driver, Fednar, took the first 3 gals and all of the duffles, including our donations for the Visitation Clinic in Petite Riviere. He was back to St. Paul's in 2 ½ hours and the rest of us loaded up and blasted. The first “bigger” river crossing was fine. Such relief. BUT the second river had Class 4 rapids! We waited for about 2 hours with 2 other cars and lots of people. Banana trees and a huge coconut palm fell from the saturated banks. The first 3 attempts found the truck stuck and needed help from 9 Haitian men to push and lift it out. Eventually, they came up with a strategy of lifting and pushing it through the first 15 yards of the deepest section and he made it! The team walked across a foot bridge, ever so grateful to be on the east side! Mind you, our Haitian interpreter and her 5 month old baby were still with us, too!
Shorter version of the rest of the story. Our driver's gasoline engine got water in one of the small river crossings (this was the guy who had driven out from PaP Sunday morning and he hadn't crossed the 2 big rivers). We choked along at about 20 MPH to Miragoane where he and the other driver worked on the engine. No good. It was getting dark and beginning to rain...he thought we would be able to make it to PaP, usually about 2 hours from there, but this was also where we started into a mountain pass. Miraculously, as we dropped into the flatlands, the car healed! Our driver said it hadn't wanted to go to Jacqmel, which had been our plan. So we made it into PaP just before 10 pm, not knowing if we'd find rooms.
Here I sit, poolside at the Olafson Hotel. (It was the site of the Comedians, if you know that book). I was able to sleep in – didn't wake til 5:10 today! The team is scheduled to depart Tues morning. They may try to stand by today, but no decision has been made on that.
For me, as surreal as it seems, my focus is shifting to playing cello. I even had to cut my fingernails yesterday! I anticipate moving to the guest room in Petionville this afternoon and beginning playing and coaching tomorrow. I'm going to start using my own blog now, so here is the link: LyneGlobalHealth.blogspot.com.
Clinic Day 4 18 June Friday 2010
End of our fourth day of clinic. We've now had our 2nd day at St. Paul's facility. We have seen almost 100 women from the communities west of the school/church. It's a mountainous, rugged area...probably some of the women walked 2 hours to arrive at the clinic. Today began a bit more efficiently as we left the exam tables, pharmacy and lab (microscope and urine dip sticks) in place. Only had to set up the fans and start registering patients. All of our morning patients had arrived by 9 am and we had registered, taken histories and blood pressures for 10 of them even before 9!
Yesterday, we had probably 10 women with blood pressures in the hypertensive range (210-120!! Young women, too). Even considering the stress for many of the women for walking so far and anticipating their first pelvic exam...the blood pressures really didn't come down. We referred many to a clinic in Petit Riviere - one that will see our referred patients and provide free care. There is so little here in Petit Trou...if you go to the government clinic, they most often do not have medications to dispense. And I stopped counting how many women told me they had never had their blood pressures taken. WOW!
NOTE to the Mental Health Team: I have made several referrals for these patients to meet with the Women Volunteers to learn the "Relaxation Prayer" (mindfulness meditation technique) that Mike taught in the first day of Trauma training. And we also referred a patient who was clearly depressed...Thank you MIke for that gift.
We are hearing from lots of people that the "appointment card" system is working so well. There have been NO CROWDS pressing to be seen. We have had only a couple of women each day showing up without cards, asking to be seen. And we have been able to see them. Seems to be more efficient for us and has shortened the patient wait time. We are all pleased. The press has begun, though, as we approach the last clinic day...Anita was approached by at least 8 people from the St. Paul's school to see if we would see the teachers. When we asked the manager to triage and prioritize the most extremely needy of the employees, we got a list of about 14. That was to add to our already full days! We compromised, with great angst among our team members, by giving the manager 3 appointment cards for today and 3 for Saturday and letting it go at that.
We haven't done any sort of statistical analysis, but there certainly are plenty of women whose presenting complaint is "lower abdomen pain when my period starts". Guess there may be room for education. We were pleased when the school nurse, Natacha, showed up to observe Pam's practice this afternoon. I had mentioned to Mr. Kesner that she would be welcome, but never thought it would happen. Pam focused on much teaching about NORMAL women's health, hoping that will help with some issues of concern about her practice.
Our day was saddened with 2 pregnant women presenting with "I haven't felt the baby move". One was almost at term and hasn't felt movement for 2 months...and no fetal heart tones...life is really, really hard. The 3 Women Volunteers who had organized the patients for the west side (Wilda, Fanette and Chantale) told me how much they had enjoyed spending these 2 days with us...we hugged and kissed and I managed to not cry. What a gift, how lucky am I to be so richly blessed by working side by side these beautiful, lively, caring Haitian women to bring care to their friends, families and neighbors that they have never receive.
Well, I've taken more blood pressures in the last 4 days than I have in the past 10 years. Probably 50 more tomorrow! I gotta end this as the mosquitoes in the computer room are eating me alive!
-Beverly
Yesterday, we had probably 10 women with blood pressures in the hypertensive range (210-120!! Young women, too). Even considering the stress for many of the women for walking so far and anticipating their first pelvic exam...the blood pressures really didn't come down. We referred many to a clinic in Petit Riviere - one that will see our referred patients and provide free care. There is so little here in Petit Trou...if you go to the government clinic, they most often do not have medications to dispense. And I stopped counting how many women told me they had never had their blood pressures taken. WOW!
NOTE to the Mental Health Team: I have made several referrals for these patients to meet with the Women Volunteers to learn the "Relaxation Prayer" (mindfulness meditation technique) that Mike taught in the first day of Trauma training. And we also referred a patient who was clearly depressed...Thank you MIke for that gift.
We are hearing from lots of people that the "appointment card" system is working so well. There have been NO CROWDS pressing to be seen. We have had only a couple of women each day showing up without cards, asking to be seen. And we have been able to see them. Seems to be more efficient for us and has shortened the patient wait time. We are all pleased. The press has begun, though, as we approach the last clinic day...Anita was approached by at least 8 people from the St. Paul's school to see if we would see the teachers. When we asked the manager to triage and prioritize the most extremely needy of the employees, we got a list of about 14. That was to add to our already full days! We compromised, with great angst among our team members, by giving the manager 3 appointment cards for today and 3 for Saturday and letting it go at that.
We haven't done any sort of statistical analysis, but there certainly are plenty of women whose presenting complaint is "lower abdomen pain when my period starts". Guess there may be room for education. We were pleased when the school nurse, Natacha, showed up to observe Pam's practice this afternoon. I had mentioned to Mr. Kesner that she would be welcome, but never thought it would happen. Pam focused on much teaching about NORMAL women's health, hoping that will help with some issues of concern about her practice.
Our day was saddened with 2 pregnant women presenting with "I haven't felt the baby move". One was almost at term and hasn't felt movement for 2 months...and no fetal heart tones...life is really, really hard. The 3 Women Volunteers who had organized the patients for the west side (Wilda, Fanette and Chantale) told me how much they had enjoyed spending these 2 days with us...we hugged and kissed and I managed to not cry. What a gift, how lucky am I to be so richly blessed by working side by side these beautiful, lively, caring Haitian women to bring care to their friends, families and neighbors that they have never receive.
Well, I've taken more blood pressures in the last 4 days than I have in the past 10 years. Probably 50 more tomorrow! I gotta end this as the mosquitoes in the computer room are eating me alive!
-Beverly
Sunday, June 20, 2010
3 photos of a girl practicing her cello
These 3 photos were taken the day we dropped off the cello at the destroyed music school. This girl- impeccably dressed- was sitting on her own, playing her cello with striking skill and poise.
If you don't see her in the last photo, look in the lower left.
-Mike.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sainte Terese clinic
17 June Thursday morning
Sainte Therese clinic for women
The first 2 days of remote clinic have concluded more successfully than we could have dreamed. A short first night's sleep for the team that arrived from Port au Prince exhausted Monday night was rewarded by strong coffee and loading the truck! Our mission is to see women who have complaints of vaginal problems or “female” problems, to try to diagnose what is causing so many women to have complaints and to provide treatment.
It is a new model for CHP delegations. Most prior groups provided primary health care for the community and the clinics were held at St. Paul's Church. Often 15-20 Coloradans came to make the clinics happen and they saw people who showed up each day, triaging for the most sick, but basically first come, first served. The delegations felt a lot of pressure to get everyone in, even though there just wasn't the capacity to do that. We also felt terrible for the people who came and WAITED in the blazing heat or storming rain.
Our clinics are piloting 3 changes. 1) we are only seeing women with women's problems. 2) we have trained key Women Volunteers to identify appropriate patients and to educate the other women volunteers to then educate their communities. They also are distributing APPOINTMENT cards – so that the women come “Tuesday morning” or Wednesday afternoon. We emphasized that we will only see women with cards. The team had also agreed to allow a 5 more patients, if some showed up without cards IF they were appropriate. 3) We held clinic in a community about 20 minute's drive from St. Paul's in order to be more accessible to the patients, hoping to reach women who might not otherwise be able to make the lengthy hike to St. Paul's.
To report briefly, we feel very pleased with this first effort. Each day we saw the allotted patients and a few more. The Women Volunteers made a list of the patients as they arrived, they let me know when the few arrived without cards & the women totally understood that they might not be seen (we saw everyone who came – I think a total of 6 for both days!) The team did pelvic exams with women practitioners (Pam and Mary Beth) and women interpreters (Anita and Nadia). They had a microscope to definitively id the organisms and prescribe the treatments. Kathy gave out the prescriptions (in CREOLE!!) and did a ton of teaching. She evolved into the lab, as she also did urine dip stick tests. I did intake with an interpreter (Jean Pierre) and we also had an interpreter (Patrick) who helped with crowd control and who is bringing us the freshly baked bread this morning.
Wednesday we packed up to return to St. Paul's learning that our driver (from Port au Prince) reported that the timing belt was almost gone on the $%& truck he had rented to bring the team out from PaP...he left on public transport around 1 am to get a part in PaP and come back to fix the car. We are driverless for now...at least we know none of the team will need a c-section! Pray for good health for us all, ok?
This morning we begin clinic at St. Paul's for women from the Raymond area. Fr. Kesner asked us to not have clinic there, as it is extremely remote and the road produced serious “white knuckle” reaction in me. So, 2 days for the Raymond gals and then Saturday we see women from around St. Paul's.
An added “fun” note. One of our patients told me she had moved to Petit Trou from PaP with her family to live with her Mom after the earthquake. She had beautifully manicured toenails – of course, I commented. Short story: she's coming to do pedicures for Anita and me Sunday morning for 150 gds each!! We are excited!
Sainte Therese clinic for women
The first 2 days of remote clinic have concluded more successfully than we could have dreamed. A short first night's sleep for the team that arrived from Port au Prince exhausted Monday night was rewarded by strong coffee and loading the truck! Our mission is to see women who have complaints of vaginal problems or “female” problems, to try to diagnose what is causing so many women to have complaints and to provide treatment.
It is a new model for CHP delegations. Most prior groups provided primary health care for the community and the clinics were held at St. Paul's Church. Often 15-20 Coloradans came to make the clinics happen and they saw people who showed up each day, triaging for the most sick, but basically first come, first served. The delegations felt a lot of pressure to get everyone in, even though there just wasn't the capacity to do that. We also felt terrible for the people who came and WAITED in the blazing heat or storming rain.
Our clinics are piloting 3 changes. 1) we are only seeing women with women's problems. 2) we have trained key Women Volunteers to identify appropriate patients and to educate the other women volunteers to then educate their communities. They also are distributing APPOINTMENT cards – so that the women come “Tuesday morning” or Wednesday afternoon. We emphasized that we will only see women with cards. The team had also agreed to allow a 5 more patients, if some showed up without cards IF they were appropriate. 3) We held clinic in a community about 20 minute's drive from St. Paul's in order to be more accessible to the patients, hoping to reach women who might not otherwise be able to make the lengthy hike to St. Paul's.
To report briefly, we feel very pleased with this first effort. Each day we saw the allotted patients and a few more. The Women Volunteers made a list of the patients as they arrived, they let me know when the few arrived without cards & the women totally understood that they might not be seen (we saw everyone who came – I think a total of 6 for both days!) The team did pelvic exams with women practitioners (Pam and Mary Beth) and women interpreters (Anita and Nadia). They had a microscope to definitively id the organisms and prescribe the treatments. Kathy gave out the prescriptions (in CREOLE!!) and did a ton of teaching. She evolved into the lab, as she also did urine dip stick tests. I did intake with an interpreter (Jean Pierre) and we also had an interpreter (Patrick) who helped with crowd control and who is bringing us the freshly baked bread this morning.
Wednesday we packed up to return to St. Paul's learning that our driver (from Port au Prince) reported that the timing belt was almost gone on the $%& truck he had rented to bring the team out from PaP...he left on public transport around 1 am to get a part in PaP and come back to fix the car. We are driverless for now...at least we know none of the team will need a c-section! Pray for good health for us all, ok?
This morning we begin clinic at St. Paul's for women from the Raymond area. Fr. Kesner asked us to not have clinic there, as it is extremely remote and the road produced serious “white knuckle” reaction in me. So, 2 days for the Raymond gals and then Saturday we see women from around St. Paul's.
An added “fun” note. One of our patients told me she had moved to Petit Trou from PaP with her family to live with her Mom after the earthquake. She had beautifully manicured toenails – of course, I commented. Short story: she's coming to do pedicures for Anita and me Sunday morning for 150 gds each!! We are excited!
-Beverly
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Transitioning
Written by Sara in the Miami airport
So, we're sitting in the airport waiting to return to Denver after more than a week in Haiti. This is our time to decompress and adjust to American culture again. I have been to Haiti a few times, and this, for me, is always the hardest part of the trip. While you are in Haiti, you are so focused on taking in all of the sights, trying to make sense of all of the cultural nuances, and basically trying not to be the stupid "blanc" through all of the various faux pas you could potentially make. Now, while listening to the subtle Musak a-la- South Florida playing at the gate, you try to consolidate all of your experiences and prepare yourself for life after the Haiti trip.
While in Haiti, you are are "Go" mode; you feel as if you don't want to miss a single moment of the experience. And there is so much to the experience. Even after a few trips, I find myself exposed to new things and learning even more about this incredible country - "Why do they use their horns so much?", "How is is possible that Haitians do not seem to get as many mosquito bites?", "How do Haitians manage to survive given the crushing poverty they experience - with joy?"
But there is always more, leaving you to silently commit to that second, or third, or 50th trip. You always want to learn more about Haiti for one simple reason: the people are simply amazing. You promise the people you meet along the way that you will not forget them and that you will see them again, and you try to be true to your word. You don't want to forget them.
The final challenging leg of this journey involves sharing our experiences with friends and loved ones. We will try to share stories of memorable events and recall interesting people we met along the way. But no matter how hard we try, it can never properly convey *everything*. There is just too much - too much beauty, too much pain, and too much joy for words. So, forgive us if we fail to accurately describe what you want to hear - it's not for lack of material - it's for lack of words.
So, we're sitting in the airport waiting to return to Denver after more than a week in Haiti. This is our time to decompress and adjust to American culture again. I have been to Haiti a few times, and this, for me, is always the hardest part of the trip. While you are in Haiti, you are so focused on taking in all of the sights, trying to make sense of all of the cultural nuances, and basically trying not to be the stupid "blanc" through all of the various faux pas you could potentially make. Now, while listening to the subtle Musak a-la- South Florida playing at the gate, you try to consolidate all of your experiences and prepare yourself for life after the Haiti trip.
While in Haiti, you are are "Go" mode; you feel as if you don't want to miss a single moment of the experience. And there is so much to the experience. Even after a few trips, I find myself exposed to new things and learning even more about this incredible country - "Why do they use their horns so much?", "How is is possible that Haitians do not seem to get as many mosquito bites?", "How do Haitians manage to survive given the crushing poverty they experience - with joy?"
But there is always more, leaving you to silently commit to that second, or third, or 50th trip. You always want to learn more about Haiti for one simple reason: the people are simply amazing. You promise the people you meet along the way that you will not forget them and that you will see them again, and you try to be true to your word. You don't want to forget them.
The final challenging leg of this journey involves sharing our experiences with friends and loved ones. We will try to share stories of memorable events and recall interesting people we met along the way. But no matter how hard we try, it can never properly convey *everything*. There is just too much - too much beauty, too much pain, and too much joy for words. So, forgive us if we fail to accurately describe what you want to hear - it's not for lack of material - it's for lack of words.
Coming Home
Posted by Lauri
Wow. Apparently I have been avoiding writing on the blog enough that when I spoke to my mom upon arriving back to the States she thought the blog was only designated to Mike and Bev! I can't say that I have consciously not wanted to write, but I do seem to focus on my whereabouts and try to be present as much as possible when I travel. We are here in the Miami airport right now, waiting for the plane to Denver. There is no internet so unfortunately I will be writing and posting this later- So, here it goes..
When I think about this trip- including all of the preparation, the trip itself, and the re-entry, 4 things come to mind for me- Patience, flexibility, resiliency, and the contrast that we both witnessed and experienced. Not only is 'time' very different while abroad, which requires a lot of breathing, waiting, and relaxing into a different pace of life, but it also requires one to let go of any preconceived notions you may have when entering into a 'mission' type trip. I personally enjoy this way of being much more than the rigid, fast paced life we are faced with in the States!
Although I have witnessed the notion of 'Resilient' on other trips to different areas around the globe, I can honestly say that it is tenfold in Haiti right now. It has been humbling and heartening to hear peoples stories of survival and loss, of courage and hope. When driving down the roads of Port-Au-Prince, Cite Soleil, Leogane, plus others, it is hard to feel anything else when you see houses/buildings collapsed, roads covered with remains of buildings, tents and camps set up anywhere there is space, and a sewage/waste removal system that seems to be almost non-existent. Yet among all of this, people are working hard, selling their goods, rebuilding, enjoying each other while supporting individual and community needs. And most of all, people are smiling, while they find the inner light and strength. Most of all, you can see this in the children- in their faces and behaviors, in their play or their sorrow, in their innocence and vast experience. Resilience mixed with contrast- a combination seen here as lightness and heart. The idea of contrast also arose for me while seeing, collapsed buildings standing next to exquisite beauty of nature/standing architectural beauty. Or while hearing people's stories yet experiencing their courage. And while witnessing (and experiencing) deep poverty against those that have more wealth.
In Petit Troupes our work was well received. I believe that the Mental Health and Trauma focused work was well needed, and I have high hopes that both the women volunteers, the vocational students, and the teachers will continue to utilize these concepts with themselves and others- especially the children. Although there was not as much physical evidence of the earthquake way out there, it was felt by all- both in the people that were displaced there (IDP's), in the orphans, and those that lost family, livelihoods, and memories. I feel blessed and grateful to be able to not only share knowledge and support that I (we) was able to offer, but to also learn a great deal from everyone there. My work was based on Security and Resiliency, as well as basic reactions and behaviors during Crisis's or Trauma related events. I also did some Art Therapy which was well received, and created an atmosphere for sharing and vulnerability that seemed to be new yet welcomed. (True for the adults and children!) Some of the work followed Mercy Corps basic concepts as we were basing this training on programs they have going in PaP- I hope that they are able to connect with Mercy Corps in the future, and that this work continues through individual and community connections.
I also feel lucky to have met such wonderful individuals that I can call friends for life, and a place that I can continue to back to and call a home.
With that said, I think that I must write something about all of these factors in terms of our group. Having done Global Mental Health in the past, I can not have asked to be with a better group. From the leadership to team work to friendships made, it has been an amazing experience. I feel like we were all able to be present and engage, be heartfelt, empathic, and compassionate in truly genuine ways. We helped each other, learned from each other, and gave support- and space!- as needed... And at the end of the day, we could talk and laugh with each other- very much required while engaging in this trip!
So, all in all things went really well, with a few bumps and minor ills along the way… However arriving back with this accomplishment can seem like a feat. Yet when you compare this to the day to day lives for the residents of Haiti, it seems like nothing.
I think others have done a great job at detailing our experience, so I am trying to keep this a bit more general- I am only posting a few photos- out of thousands! For those of you that know me, documenting and doing a bit of 'photo journalism' is a love of mine, yet the space on this blog is limited. We will be creating a 'Snapfish' account soon, and will post it on here ASAP!
Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support and for reading this- it means a lot to all of us to know that there is continued interest and dedication to areas that need sustainable efforts!
Take care, and until next time :)
Lauri
Wow. Apparently I have been avoiding writing on the blog enough that when I spoke to my mom upon arriving back to the States she thought the blog was only designated to Mike and Bev! I can't say that I have consciously not wanted to write, but I do seem to focus on my whereabouts and try to be present as much as possible when I travel. We are here in the Miami airport right now, waiting for the plane to Denver. There is no internet so unfortunately I will be writing and posting this later- So, here it goes..
When I think about this trip- including all of the preparation, the trip itself, and the re-entry, 4 things come to mind for me- Patience, flexibility, resiliency, and the contrast that we both witnessed and experienced. Not only is 'time' very different while abroad, which requires a lot of breathing, waiting, and relaxing into a different pace of life, but it also requires one to let go of any preconceived notions you may have when entering into a 'mission' type trip. I personally enjoy this way of being much more than the rigid, fast paced life we are faced with in the States!
Although I have witnessed the notion of 'Resilient' on other trips to different areas around the globe, I can honestly say that it is tenfold in Haiti right now. It has been humbling and heartening to hear peoples stories of survival and loss, of courage and hope. When driving down the roads of Port-Au-Prince, Cite Soleil, Leogane, plus others, it is hard to feel anything else when you see houses/buildings collapsed, roads covered with remains of buildings, tents and camps set up anywhere there is space, and a sewage/waste removal system that seems to be almost non-existent. Yet among all of this, people are working hard, selling their goods, rebuilding, enjoying each other while supporting individual and community needs. And most of all, people are smiling, while they find the inner light and strength. Most of all, you can see this in the children- in their faces and behaviors, in their play or their sorrow, in their innocence and vast experience. Resilience mixed with contrast- a combination seen here as lightness and heart. The idea of contrast also arose for me while seeing, collapsed buildings standing next to exquisite beauty of nature/standing architectural beauty. Or while hearing people's stories yet experiencing their courage. And while witnessing (and experiencing) deep poverty against those that have more wealth.
In Petit Troupes our work was well received. I believe that the Mental Health and Trauma focused work was well needed, and I have high hopes that both the women volunteers, the vocational students, and the teachers will continue to utilize these concepts with themselves and others- especially the children. Although there was not as much physical evidence of the earthquake way out there, it was felt by all- both in the people that were displaced there (IDP's), in the orphans, and those that lost family, livelihoods, and memories. I feel blessed and grateful to be able to not only share knowledge and support that I (we) was able to offer, but to also learn a great deal from everyone there. My work was based on Security and Resiliency, as well as basic reactions and behaviors during Crisis's or Trauma related events. I also did some Art Therapy which was well received, and created an atmosphere for sharing and vulnerability that seemed to be new yet welcomed. (True for the adults and children!) Some of the work followed Mercy Corps basic concepts as we were basing this training on programs they have going in PaP- I hope that they are able to connect with Mercy Corps in the future, and that this work continues through individual and community connections.
I also feel lucky to have met such wonderful individuals that I can call friends for life, and a place that I can continue to back to and call a home.
With that said, I think that I must write something about all of these factors in terms of our group. Having done Global Mental Health in the past, I can not have asked to be with a better group. From the leadership to team work to friendships made, it has been an amazing experience. I feel like we were all able to be present and engage, be heartfelt, empathic, and compassionate in truly genuine ways. We helped each other, learned from each other, and gave support- and space!- as needed... And at the end of the day, we could talk and laugh with each other- very much required while engaging in this trip!
So, all in all things went really well, with a few bumps and minor ills along the way… However arriving back with this accomplishment can seem like a feat. Yet when you compare this to the day to day lives for the residents of Haiti, it seems like nothing.
I think others have done a great job at detailing our experience, so I am trying to keep this a bit more general- I am only posting a few photos- out of thousands! For those of you that know me, documenting and doing a bit of 'photo journalism' is a love of mine, yet the space on this blog is limited. We will be creating a 'Snapfish' account soon, and will post it on here ASAP!
Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support and for reading this- it means a lot to all of us to know that there is continued interest and dedication to areas that need sustainable efforts!
Take care, and until next time :)
Lauri
Back home.
Two-thirds of the team - Sara, Pat, Lauri and I - are back home safe in Colorado. Beverly and Anita are still in Petit Trou. The Colorado Haiti Project Medical Team (Sara, Lauri and I are the Trauma Team) may have even passed us on the road near Léogane as we made our way back to Port-au-Prince, and should have arrived in Petit Trou last night. Hopefully the womens' clinic went well today and they can start coming up with some answers.
We'll continue posting on this blog. I know that I speak for others when I say that one of the many motivations for this trip was to bear witness. To that end, between the six of us, we literally took thousands of photos. We'll post selected ones on the blog, and give some context or tell an anecdote, but we also plan on creating a snapfish or flickr or some other online photo-sharing account where we can just post them all in bulk.
In coming back to the US, it was really striking to me that on the cable news channels blaring from TVs in the US airports there was absolutely no mention of Haiti; down the short attention span memory hole went the Earthquake headlines. I am here to say that the crisis in Haiti is as ongoing as the oil leak. It hasn't stopped and it's not OK, and I hope people continue to raise funds and support good groups who are established in Haiti (a good question to ask if you're thinking about donating: 'Were they there BEFORE the earthquake?') and are partnered with organizations that are based in Haiti and run by Haitians.
To wit:
http://www.coloradohaitiproject.org/donate.html
-Mike.
We'll continue posting on this blog. I know that I speak for others when I say that one of the many motivations for this trip was to bear witness. To that end, between the six of us, we literally took thousands of photos. We'll post selected ones on the blog, and give some context or tell an anecdote, but we also plan on creating a snapfish or flickr or some other online photo-sharing account where we can just post them all in bulk.
In coming back to the US, it was really striking to me that on the cable news channels blaring from TVs in the US airports there was absolutely no mention of Haiti; down the short attention span memory hole went the Earthquake headlines. I am here to say that the crisis in Haiti is as ongoing as the oil leak. It hasn't stopped and it's not OK, and I hope people continue to raise funds and support good groups who are established in Haiti (a good question to ask if you're thinking about donating: 'Were they there BEFORE the earthquake?') and are partnered with organizations that are based in Haiti and run by Haitians.
To wit:
http://www.coloradohaitiproject.org/donate.html
-Mike.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Back in Port-au-Prince
Sara, Pat, Lauri and I are back at the Palmms Inn in Port-au-Prince. We debated heading back out into Port-au-Prince but opted instead for Haitian beer, Haitian rum, and the pool. Anita and Beverly stayed back in Petit Trou to run the women's clinic. Anita should be back in the US on the 23rd. Beverly is staying a week longer than she originally planned because when we delivered the cello, the head of the orchestra asked her to stay and play the cello at a concert on July 4, and offered her a place to stay.
Tomorrow we head to the airport bright and early and are supposed to land in Denver around 7:15pm.
-Mike.
Tomorrow we head to the airport bright and early and are supposed to land in Denver around 7:15pm.
-Mike.
14 June 2010 Monday Goodby and hello
Monday 14 June 2010
From Beverly
The Mental Health team departed around 8:30 this morning for Port au Prince. Now, at 4 in the afternoon, we expect to hear that they have arrived very soon. The river crossing was uneventful for them. But last night, the 2 drivers coming from PaP were hit by a Haitian version of a tsunami (lavalas in Creole) as they were actually driving through the river! The car was totally flooded – they had water inside the car, up to their knees and had to be towed out. At least it was during the day and there actually was someone there to tow them. They were pretty well shaken up by the time they arrived. We are only guessing that there had been rain high up in the mountains because it was dry and sunny here.
We are expecting the arrival of the women's health team any minute. Their departure out of PaP was delayed by no cars actually being available at the car rental reservation. Luckily, Pere Kesner had arrived here on Sunday ( the head of St. Paul's church and over the region). He was able to make one call and arrange 2 drivers, a truck and a 4 wheel drive. Whew!
Anita and I remain at St. Paul's to support the women's health (WH) team. We will have 2 clinicians doing pelvic exams of women with specific complaints of vaginitis. CHP has heard about the seeming high prevalence of vaginitis for quite some time. This team will actually only see women patients, will take specimen and will look at them under a microscope in the field and diagnose/treat. Then we will share our findings with the local government clinic.
We will be going to one of the outlying communities for the first 2 days of clinic and then 3 days at St. Paul's. We have tried a new experiment – giving the Women Volunteers appointment cards to distribute, only 45 each day...and only women with the cards will be seen...we'll see how it works.
From Beverly
The Mental Health team departed around 8:30 this morning for Port au Prince. Now, at 4 in the afternoon, we expect to hear that they have arrived very soon. The river crossing was uneventful for them. But last night, the 2 drivers coming from PaP were hit by a Haitian version of a tsunami (lavalas in Creole) as they were actually driving through the river! The car was totally flooded – they had water inside the car, up to their knees and had to be towed out. At least it was during the day and there actually was someone there to tow them. They were pretty well shaken up by the time they arrived. We are only guessing that there had been rain high up in the mountains because it was dry and sunny here.
We are expecting the arrival of the women's health team any minute. Their departure out of PaP was delayed by no cars actually being available at the car rental reservation. Luckily, Pere Kesner had arrived here on Sunday ( the head of St. Paul's church and over the region). He was able to make one call and arrange 2 drivers, a truck and a 4 wheel drive. Whew!
Anita and I remain at St. Paul's to support the women's health (WH) team. We will have 2 clinicians doing pelvic exams of women with specific complaints of vaginitis. CHP has heard about the seeming high prevalence of vaginitis for quite some time. This team will actually only see women patients, will take specimen and will look at them under a microscope in the field and diagnose/treat. Then we will share our findings with the local government clinic.
We will be going to one of the outlying communities for the first 2 days of clinic and then 3 days at St. Paul's. We have tried a new experiment – giving the Women Volunteers appointment cards to distribute, only 45 each day...and only women with the cards will be seen...we'll see how it works.
9 June 2010 Mental Health Training Begins
9 June 2010
Petit Trou de Nippes
St. Paul's Church and School
Entry by Beverly
The journey from Port au Prince to Petit Trou began at 8:15 am on Tuesday, just as planned. We traveled in 2 rented cars with 2 very FAST Haitian drivers. Both kept the vehicles upright. And we arrived in at St. Paul's around 1:30 in the afternoon, tired, but grateful that the river was not too high. (The river was much higher than when I arrived here in February, but we were able to drive through it.) For those of you who know this area, let me give you our travel times. 8:15 depart PaP. 9:20 Mariani; 9:33 Marge; 9:42 Leogone (we got Gas and snacks at the Total station on the left of the highway – highly recommended for “pit stop”); 10:50 Guave; 11 Petit Guave; 11:20 Miragoane; 12:30 Petit Riviere; 12:45 River crossing; 1:30 Petit Trou!! Mr. Kessner greeted us, but Guilot was not here – he was in Miragoane, only to arrive much later after he was called to come in.
Today we began the Mental Health training – to give the participants tools for dealing with the trauma dealt by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The team planned to have a morning session for the Women Volunteers. This group of 34 women were identified as community leaders about 4 years ago and have done a variety of basic community health activities with CHP. They really are the pulse of the community and we anticipate that training them about trauma symptoms and practical ways of coping will spread out to the communities. The afternoon training is for the 28 St. Paul's teachers, the seminarian and the school nurse.
Upon our arrival, we found that the Women Volunteers hadn't been notified about the training, so our leader, Pat Laudisio drove out into the countryside with a couple of Haitian colleagues to find and bring as many of the WV's to this morning's training as possible! We had a packed classroom as the students of the vocational training program joined us. We are providing the Wvs with a lunch stipend, to make it a little more reasonable for them to be able to spend their whole morning in class. $5 per person. A bargain, as these women have the pulse of the communities in which they live and will carry this learning to many people in remote villages.
The team has been joined by 2 Mercy Corps staff, based in Port au Prince, who are doing trainings based on Comfort for Kids curriculum. This will be a pilot project for them, as all of their prior trainings have been in Port au Prince. It is brilliantly simple and straightforward and has been used after the World Trade Center, Katrina, China earthquake and more places. We are really enjoying sharing professionallly with them and hope this pilot is only the beginning of services to come to Petit Trou de Nippes.
As far as more personal information, we are all awestruck by the beauty of this place. St. Paul's is in tremendous shape. Even the bathrooms are cleaner than when I was here in February (OK, that's from the neurotic nurse!) The ocean views invited us for a dip as we drove in, but it was a 5 ½ hour journey as it was. So no dallying! Here, we have verdant, tree-covered mountains to the south. St. Paul's grounds are clean, spacious and open. Part of the team is sleeping in tents; part in the dormitory. Thunder and lightening rolled in as we were preparing to go to bed, but we did not receive rain. The roads were muddy as we drove in, so we know they have been getting plenty of rains. It's partly cloudy today and hot!
It has been really humbling for me to be back here after 4 months and for so many people remember me and welcome me warmly. I am a bit “curious” about developing a plan with the WVs to identify women patients for the Women's Health team. (They arrive in a week). The idea/hope is to develop a strategy with the WVs to identify patients, give them appointment cards for either a morning or afternoon appointment on a specific day AND to hold clinics in buildings in the outying communities...so that it is less of a hardship for the patients to reach the clinic. And we are hoping that the wait time for the patients is less as well as the pressure on the clinicians. Wish me good luck! It is a whole new concept to go out to the communities AND especially to try to set appointments.
Last night, I thought I was going to bed early, starting around 8:30...but no. We found that 2 of our 4 rooms did not have functioning ceiling light fixtures and one room didn't have a light bulb. Mr. Kessner, Guilot and one other guy found parts and and repaired and replaced them all to great success. It meant that we could all have fans cooling us during the night.
Today the team has begun their trainings. We had about 40 for the morning and 25 for the afternoon. We have a great variety of professions attending – 22 of the community Women Volunteers, teachers of the primary school, the principal and the administrator, the women's collective coordinator and the school nurse, to name a few.
Petit Trou de Nippes
St. Paul's Church and School
Entry by Beverly
The journey from Port au Prince to Petit Trou began at 8:15 am on Tuesday, just as planned. We traveled in 2 rented cars with 2 very FAST Haitian drivers. Both kept the vehicles upright. And we arrived in at St. Paul's around 1:30 in the afternoon, tired, but grateful that the river was not too high. (The river was much higher than when I arrived here in February, but we were able to drive through it.) For those of you who know this area, let me give you our travel times. 8:15 depart PaP. 9:20 Mariani; 9:33 Marge; 9:42 Leogone (we got Gas and snacks at the Total station on the left of the highway – highly recommended for “pit stop”); 10:50 Guave; 11 Petit Guave; 11:20 Miragoane; 12:30 Petit Riviere; 12:45 River crossing; 1:30 Petit Trou!! Mr. Kessner greeted us, but Guilot was not here – he was in Miragoane, only to arrive much later after he was called to come in.
Today we began the Mental Health training – to give the participants tools for dealing with the trauma dealt by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The team planned to have a morning session for the Women Volunteers. This group of 34 women were identified as community leaders about 4 years ago and have done a variety of basic community health activities with CHP. They really are the pulse of the community and we anticipate that training them about trauma symptoms and practical ways of coping will spread out to the communities. The afternoon training is for the 28 St. Paul's teachers, the seminarian and the school nurse.
Upon our arrival, we found that the Women Volunteers hadn't been notified about the training, so our leader, Pat Laudisio drove out into the countryside with a couple of Haitian colleagues to find and bring as many of the WV's to this morning's training as possible! We had a packed classroom as the students of the vocational training program joined us. We are providing the Wvs with a lunch stipend, to make it a little more reasonable for them to be able to spend their whole morning in class. $5 per person. A bargain, as these women have the pulse of the communities in which they live and will carry this learning to many people in remote villages.
The team has been joined by 2 Mercy Corps staff, based in Port au Prince, who are doing trainings based on Comfort for Kids curriculum. This will be a pilot project for them, as all of their prior trainings have been in Port au Prince. It is brilliantly simple and straightforward and has been used after the World Trade Center, Katrina, China earthquake and more places. We are really enjoying sharing professionallly with them and hope this pilot is only the beginning of services to come to Petit Trou de Nippes.
As far as more personal information, we are all awestruck by the beauty of this place. St. Paul's is in tremendous shape. Even the bathrooms are cleaner than when I was here in February (OK, that's from the neurotic nurse!) The ocean views invited us for a dip as we drove in, but it was a 5 ½ hour journey as it was. So no dallying! Here, we have verdant, tree-covered mountains to the south. St. Paul's grounds are clean, spacious and open. Part of the team is sleeping in tents; part in the dormitory. Thunder and lightening rolled in as we were preparing to go to bed, but we did not receive rain. The roads were muddy as we drove in, so we know they have been getting plenty of rains. It's partly cloudy today and hot!
It has been really humbling for me to be back here after 4 months and for so many people remember me and welcome me warmly. I am a bit “curious” about developing a plan with the WVs to identify women patients for the Women's Health team. (They arrive in a week). The idea/hope is to develop a strategy with the WVs to identify patients, give them appointment cards for either a morning or afternoon appointment on a specific day AND to hold clinics in buildings in the outying communities...so that it is less of a hardship for the patients to reach the clinic. And we are hoping that the wait time for the patients is less as well as the pressure on the clinicians. Wish me good luck! It is a whole new concept to go out to the communities AND especially to try to set appointments.
Last night, I thought I was going to bed early, starting around 8:30...but no. We found that 2 of our 4 rooms did not have functioning ceiling light fixtures and one room didn't have a light bulb. Mr. Kessner, Guilot and one other guy found parts and and repaired and replaced them all to great success. It meant that we could all have fans cooling us during the night.
Today the team has begun their trainings. We had about 40 for the morning and 25 for the afternoon. We have a great variety of professions attending – 22 of the community Women Volunteers, teachers of the primary school, the principal and the administrator, the women's collective coordinator and the school nurse, to name a few.
Monday 7 June 2010 Cello is delivered
7 June 2010 Monday Greetings from Beverlyt
Greetings from Port au Prince. We arrived in Haiti yesterday - Mental Health (MH) team from the Colorado Haiti Project (CHP). We leave for Petit Trou tomorrow. (Where I worked in February.) I'll remain in PT when the MH team leaves and will support the CHP Women's Health team when they arrive on the 14th of June. I will return to Port au Prince with them on June 21st, when my next most amazing phase in Haiti will begin.
I was totally blessed by being the carrier of a cello to be donated to the Holy Trinity music school. The donor church in Evergreen blessed the cello the Sunday before I left and I got to play it with their choir! Unbelievably, American Airlines let me “gate” check it AND return it to me at the gate in Miami...AND the cello arrived totally intact and ready to be played!
Today, we made contact with the priest of the church and Bernadette, the prinicipal cellist. I began my day by playing a Bach suite on the balcony of our hotel (I had the mute on and the roosters had been crowing for a LONG time). Then I got to play for the Mercy Corps team who is helping children to deal with the trauma from the earthquake. (there is more to that story,but later). Then, I got to hand it off to a cellist who is doing daily work with young musicians...we sat and looked through the music that I brought her. One of the pieces had been given to me by a church elder from the church I went to in Marin County. I never played it, but decided to bring it to Bernadette. She saw it and exclaimed! This is the priest's favorite piece and she had been searching for it! Needless to say, I am very happy. But that's not all! She asked if I could stay for 2 weeks, that they are doing a concert on July 4...and would I play with them? I had planned to return on June 28, but how could I say no? So, I'll be home on July 5th...I'm so happy!
Greetings from Port au Prince. We arrived in Haiti yesterday - Mental Health (MH) team from the Colorado Haiti Project (CHP). We leave for Petit Trou tomorrow. (Where I worked in February.) I'll remain in PT when the MH team leaves and will support the CHP Women's Health team when they arrive on the 14th of June. I will return to Port au Prince with them on June 21st, when my next most amazing phase in Haiti will begin.
I was totally blessed by being the carrier of a cello to be donated to the Holy Trinity music school. The donor church in Evergreen blessed the cello the Sunday before I left and I got to play it with their choir! Unbelievably, American Airlines let me “gate” check it AND return it to me at the gate in Miami...AND the cello arrived totally intact and ready to be played!
Today, we made contact with the priest of the church and Bernadette, the prinicipal cellist. I began my day by playing a Bach suite on the balcony of our hotel (I had the mute on and the roosters had been crowing for a LONG time). Then I got to play for the Mercy Corps team who is helping children to deal with the trauma from the earthquake. (there is more to that story,but later). Then, I got to hand it off to a cellist who is doing daily work with young musicians...we sat and looked through the music that I brought her. One of the pieces had been given to me by a church elder from the church I went to in Marin County. I never played it, but decided to bring it to Bernadette. She saw it and exclaimed! This is the priest's favorite piece and she had been searching for it! Needless to say, I am very happy. But that's not all! She asked if I could stay for 2 weeks, that they are doing a concert on July 4...and would I play with them? I had planned to return on June 28, but how could I say no? So, I'll be home on July 5th...I'm so happy!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Quick update
I was planning on putting a whole bunch of photos of everybody up, but the internet is really really slow, so a quick update will have to do!
We leave Petit Trou tomorrow. The trip was a success, and everyone here seems very grateful. Lauri's art therapy session on Saturday morning was great, and the teachers say they'll do it every Friday with the kids. Today we got to take the day off and went swimming in the ocean, drank coconut juice out of a macheted coconut and ate mangos right from the tree.
Our drivers came up today and will spend the night here so we can leave early- it's about a 6 hour drive to Port-au-Prince from Petit Trou. To get back and forth, you have to drive over a river which can vary greatly in depth. It's the rainy season- although not a lot of rain since we've been in Petit Trou- but the river has been causing difficulties. When our friends from Mercy Corps left, the river was high enough that it flooded their truck. They sat on the side of the road for a few hours but luckily the truck did start up again. It's not great to be stuck there because there are bandits, one of the reasons the drivers drive so fast. We were pretty concerned that they were stuck on the side of the road in a shiny new SUV that didn't work; unfortunately it's several hours to get to the river so there wasn't much we could do. But it worked out and we know they are home. On the way up here, our drivers also had difficulty, so here's hoping tomorrow will go easily!
-Mike.
We leave Petit Trou tomorrow. The trip was a success, and everyone here seems very grateful. Lauri's art therapy session on Saturday morning was great, and the teachers say they'll do it every Friday with the kids. Today we got to take the day off and went swimming in the ocean, drank coconut juice out of a macheted coconut and ate mangos right from the tree.
Our drivers came up today and will spend the night here so we can leave early- it's about a 6 hour drive to Port-au-Prince from Petit Trou. To get back and forth, you have to drive over a river which can vary greatly in depth. It's the rainy season- although not a lot of rain since we've been in Petit Trou- but the river has been causing difficulties. When our friends from Mercy Corps left, the river was high enough that it flooded their truck. They sat on the side of the road for a few hours but luckily the truck did start up again. It's not great to be stuck there because there are bandits, one of the reasons the drivers drive so fast. We were pretty concerned that they were stuck on the side of the road in a shiny new SUV that didn't work; unfortunately it's several hours to get to the river so there wasn't much we could do. But it worked out and we know they are home. On the way up here, our drivers also had difficulty, so here's hoping tomorrow will go easily!
-Mike.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Petit Trou de Nippes
It's about 9:30 Haiti time on Thursday night and I'm in my tent. I decided to get to bed early tonight as we wake up around 5:30 with the sounds of roosters and children each morning. We have not had internet in the evenings (the generator here is turned off in the evening) and have been too busy to even check during the day (did check once yesterday but it was not working), hence no blog additions for a few days. I thought I'd write a simple text blog so that everyone knows we're OK, and then try to run up to the internet cable during lunch tomorrow and post it.
We are in Petit Trou; we got here on schedule (in Haiti, less than 2 hours late officially counts as "on schedule"), and have been doing well. Yesterday I taught some "women volunteers" and schoolteachers about expected reactions to trauma in adults. It was well received. "Twóma" is a new word in Haiti- my understanding is that the word has emerged since January 12- and yet even the women from the very rural areas of de Nippes had at least heard the new term and had some associations even if they did not have a fully formed definition. I think it's a really unique opportunity and important responsibility to help them form that definition. I used the analogy of poison- that a disaster is like a poison for the mind and that there are predictable and normal reactions to disaster, but like a poison must be expelled from the body, the trauma must be expelled from the mind through communication and expression or the predictable reactions can become long-term problems. I went over some basic neuroscience which the teachers especially seemed very eager to learn about. Afterwords, the teachers called me "Doktor Twóma" which was a term of respect but I couldn't help but think it was an awesome name for a James Bond movie villain. I also taught them some mindfulness meditation techniques (many studies have shown neuroendocrine and stress/fear circuitry changes in folks with PTSD after learning these simple techniques)- or rather I taught them to Muríelle, a psychologist from Port-au-Prince who works with Mercy Corps there- who then did a masterful job of communicating these strange and foreign actions and concepts in Creole and in a culturally appropriate way. Muríelle has a "License" degree in Haiti (4 year degree) and has been counseling in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake destroyed her office. Since then, she has been working pro-bono and has been extremely busy.
By the way, she's hoping to get a scholarship to study child psychology and English in the United States so she can be better trained to continue working with traumatized Haitian children. She bought a piece of land in the small village where she was born, in the hopes that she can raise money to build an orphanage there. Somebody give this girl a scholarship. Write to me for her contact information VANELZAK -at- Colorado -dot- EDU
After her office was destroyed, Muríelle took a job with Mercy Corps and came along with us from Port-au-Prince to help us, learn from us, and to see our group give the first Mercy Corps-based trauma training outside of Port-au-Prince. Maxéne is a young man from Mercy Corps Port-au-Prince who met us in Petit Trou for the same reasons. He is trained as a sociologist (and also studied English for 2 years at a prestigious Haitian language academy), but hopes to earn a Master's in counseling in the United States. He is also looking for a scholarship and is quite deserving. The fact that Mercy Corps is expanding its trauma work beyond Port-au-Prince is a very good thing. Driving through the massive slum of Cite Solei ('Sun City'- the largest slum in the world other than the favelas of Rio de Janeiro) on the way to Petit Trou from Port-au-Prince it was quite apparent that the damage- and the trauma- from the Haiti earthquake was not isolated to Port-au-Prince. Cite Solei was so jam packed with refugee camps that even the median of the one road in and out of the city was filled with tents, right up to the traffic's edge. Sanitation there seemed to be absolutely non-existent. We also drove right over the epicenter and needless to say, there were a lot of piles of rubble and UN tents and one can assume that traumatized human beings are in those tents.
What we're doing here is definitely based on Mercy Corps' work, but we've expanded it quite a bit. One expansion was to include specific "What you can do about it" ideas and strategies, which is what the people of Petit Trou specifically asked the Colorado Haiti project to help with. Not surprisingly, during our first day here they also asked us for "what to do during an earthquake" advice (on January 12 many, many terrified Haitians ran IN to their homes for safely) so it was lucky that I expected that question and did some research on the topic, which we'll go over Sunday after everyone gets out of church.
Today, Lauri went into the Mercy Corps program concepts and added her own "What you can do about it" section from her own area of expertise with some art therapy projects, basically some specific art therapy based program/curriculum ideas for the schoolteachers to give to their students. The women volunteers especially did the art therapy exercises earnestly and with an openness which said to me they took our words seriously and also knew intuitively that their grief needed to be expressed. Tomorrow Sara will talk about predictable reactions to trauma in children at different developmental stages and will also give the teachers some curriculum materials. Beverly and Pat have been busy setting up a women's clinic in 2 different areas of the village: every woman in the village has a painful vaginitis so there will be a microscope to figure out what is happening and medicine to make it better. I would assume that we'll also have to start thinking about how to treat the well water.
-Mike.
We are in Petit Trou; we got here on schedule (in Haiti, less than 2 hours late officially counts as "on schedule"), and have been doing well. Yesterday I taught some "women volunteers" and schoolteachers about expected reactions to trauma in adults. It was well received. "Twóma" is a new word in Haiti- my understanding is that the word has emerged since January 12- and yet even the women from the very rural areas of de Nippes had at least heard the new term and had some associations even if they did not have a fully formed definition. I think it's a really unique opportunity and important responsibility to help them form that definition. I used the analogy of poison- that a disaster is like a poison for the mind and that there are predictable and normal reactions to disaster, but like a poison must be expelled from the body, the trauma must be expelled from the mind through communication and expression or the predictable reactions can become long-term problems. I went over some basic neuroscience which the teachers especially seemed very eager to learn about. Afterwords, the teachers called me "Doktor Twóma" which was a term of respect but I couldn't help but think it was an awesome name for a James Bond movie villain. I also taught them some mindfulness meditation techniques (many studies have shown neuroendocrine and stress/fear circuitry changes in folks with PTSD after learning these simple techniques)- or rather I taught them to Muríelle, a psychologist from Port-au-Prince who works with Mercy Corps there- who then did a masterful job of communicating these strange and foreign actions and concepts in Creole and in a culturally appropriate way. Muríelle has a "License" degree in Haiti (4 year degree) and has been counseling in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake destroyed her office. Since then, she has been working pro-bono and has been extremely busy.
By the way, she's hoping to get a scholarship to study child psychology and English in the United States so she can be better trained to continue working with traumatized Haitian children. She bought a piece of land in the small village where she was born, in the hopes that she can raise money to build an orphanage there. Somebody give this girl a scholarship. Write to me for her contact information VANELZAK -at- Colorado -dot- EDU
After her office was destroyed, Muríelle took a job with Mercy Corps and came along with us from Port-au-Prince to help us, learn from us, and to see our group give the first Mercy Corps-based trauma training outside of Port-au-Prince. Maxéne is a young man from Mercy Corps Port-au-Prince who met us in Petit Trou for the same reasons. He is trained as a sociologist (and also studied English for 2 years at a prestigious Haitian language academy), but hopes to earn a Master's in counseling in the United States. He is also looking for a scholarship and is quite deserving. The fact that Mercy Corps is expanding its trauma work beyond Port-au-Prince is a very good thing. Driving through the massive slum of Cite Solei ('Sun City'- the largest slum in the world other than the favelas of Rio de Janeiro) on the way to Petit Trou from Port-au-Prince it was quite apparent that the damage- and the trauma- from the Haiti earthquake was not isolated to Port-au-Prince. Cite Solei was so jam packed with refugee camps that even the median of the one road in and out of the city was filled with tents, right up to the traffic's edge. Sanitation there seemed to be absolutely non-existent. We also drove right over the epicenter and needless to say, there were a lot of piles of rubble and UN tents and one can assume that traumatized human beings are in those tents.
What we're doing here is definitely based on Mercy Corps' work, but we've expanded it quite a bit. One expansion was to include specific "What you can do about it" ideas and strategies, which is what the people of Petit Trou specifically asked the Colorado Haiti project to help with. Not surprisingly, during our first day here they also asked us for "what to do during an earthquake" advice (on January 12 many, many terrified Haitians ran IN to their homes for safely) so it was lucky that I expected that question and did some research on the topic, which we'll go over Sunday after everyone gets out of church.
Today, Lauri went into the Mercy Corps program concepts and added her own "What you can do about it" section from her own area of expertise with some art therapy projects, basically some specific art therapy based program/curriculum ideas for the schoolteachers to give to their students. The women volunteers especially did the art therapy exercises earnestly and with an openness which said to me they took our words seriously and also knew intuitively that their grief needed to be expressed. Tomorrow Sara will talk about predictable reactions to trauma in children at different developmental stages and will also give the teachers some curriculum materials. Beverly and Pat have been busy setting up a women's clinic in 2 different areas of the village: every woman in the village has a painful vaginitis so there will be a microscope to figure out what is happening and medicine to make it better. I would assume that we'll also have to start thinking about how to treat the well water.
-Mike.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Trinity Cathedral
We visited the Trinity Cathedral Church in downtown Port-au-Prince.
I'm going to post "before" photos from the internet next to photos I took today. I took a picture of the church organ as well.
-Mike.
I'm going to post "before" photos from the internet next to photos I took today. I took a picture of the church organ as well.
-Mike.
x
The Good News
The good news is that for every group here to proselytize and do fluff work, there is a group here doing serious helpful activism with long-term goals and commitments. The best, of course, have a strong relationship with Haitian groups that will make sure the work is sustainable and effective. Today we met with the Mercy Corps group in Haiti to go over the trip to Petit Trou (2 of them will be going with us for the week to help translate, especially when we break the audience into small discussion groups). We met with Mercy Corps workers all afternoon today. They also took us to a really unique place: the Dominical Republic (traditionally there is tension between DR and Haiti) has donated a bunch of buses that are now essentially classrooms for all the children living in the nearby tent camps (which are everywhere). One bus is for pottery (many of the kids built houses with their clay), one bus is the library, a tent is for language lessons, another bus is for singing. THe kids sang us a welcome song that was really amazing! Furthermore, the kids are sent home everyday with a meal- not just for themselves, but for their whole family. There were kids waiting at the gates- at first we were concerned that there were not enough resources and those were kids who had been turned away, but it turned out that they were the afternoon kids who showed up early, eager for their session to begin. The first picture is of our new friends in Mercy Corps, the rest are of the unique school. (I'm pretty sure you can click on an image to enlarge it) -Mike.
The view from our hotel room
This is a photo I took from the back window of the room where Beverly, Pat and I are staying.
The Palmm Inn Hotel where we are staying for the first two nights:
http://www.palminnhotel.net/english
survived the earthquake remarkably well. Embarrassingly, maddeningly well. I suppose if I were a structural engineer I wouldn't think it was arbitrary, but driving through Port-au-Prince, it sure seems arbitrary. I think that it is a fair generalization to divide buildings here into fourths: 25% survived with none or just surface damage, 25% have cracks but are still livable, 25% have major damage like a wall or, more commonly, the roof missing, and 25% are completely decimated, a pile of bricks.
Some images of buildings and houses taken from the car:
I think these show that strange pattern of relatively intact houses next to piles of bricks.
The bricks.
Bricks and debris line the streets. Everywhere. Sometimes massive piles, and it seems to ALL have been removed by hand, Haitians using shovels or, literally, their hands. Will the piles be picked up? I could count the big construction vehicles I saw all day on one hand.
For traumatized people, one of the great tortures comes in the form of re-experiencing the trauma. Sometimes it's as distinct and punctate as a flashback, sometimes it's "just" intrusive memories - can't stop thinking about it, reliving the trauma in nightmares, etc. Imagine trying to psychically heal with massive piles of bricks everywhere.
-Mike.
The Palmm Inn Hotel where we are staying for the first two nights:
http://www.palminnhotel.net/english
survived the earthquake remarkably well. Embarrassingly, maddeningly well. I suppose if I were a structural engineer I wouldn't think it was arbitrary, but driving through Port-au-Prince, it sure seems arbitrary. I think that it is a fair generalization to divide buildings here into fourths: 25% survived with none or just surface damage, 25% have cracks but are still livable, 25% have major damage like a wall or, more commonly, the roof missing, and 25% are completely decimated, a pile of bricks.
Some images of buildings and houses taken from the car:
I think these show that strange pattern of relatively intact houses next to piles of bricks.
The bricks.
Bricks and debris line the streets. Everywhere. Sometimes massive piles, and it seems to ALL have been removed by hand, Haitians using shovels or, literally, their hands. Will the piles be picked up? I could count the big construction vehicles I saw all day on one hand.
For traumatized people, one of the great tortures comes in the form of re-experiencing the trauma. Sometimes it's as distinct and punctate as a flashback, sometimes it's "just" intrusive memories - can't stop thinking about it, reliving the trauma in nightmares, etc. Imagine trying to psychically heal with massive piles of bricks everywhere.
-Mike.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Welcome to Haiti
We arrived in Port-au-Prince a few hours late but intact. The plane was packed; filled with a disproportionate number of caucasian teenagers with matching t-shirts. I wonder somewhat cynically what they have to offer and marvel that, through the strange prism of American culture, an event such as the Haiti earthquake winds up adding Collectible Items to the Global Product Stream.
The plane itself was oddly indicitive of Haiti: nothing seems to work perfectly well, and you're better off if the oddities and quirks make you smile rather than curse. About halfway through the flight the overhead screens started sharing the following information with the passengers:
TIME TO PORT-AU-PRINCE: 8:16
ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: 0:12
TEMPERATURE: -43c
"Doesn't exactly instill confidence in the engineering," quipped Beverly.
at the moment we touched down, the screen informed us:
TIME TO PORT-AU-PRINCE: 7:08
DISTANCE TO PORT-AU-PRINCE: 5058 Miles
Plenty of houses sans roof on the way in, though the skies were so hazy- almost smoggy- that it was hard to see much distance.
The cello made it intact. Right now, I'm writing from the table of the hotel restaurant, and the cello is locked safely in our room, unscathed. Pretty amazing, actually.
It rained. It did not drizzle. We waited and negotiated (much of Haiti seems to revolve around waiting and negotiating) for our 2 4-wheel drive vehicles- just as we were piling in to the trucks, the sky opened up. Within minutes the "roads" were running streams. I was amazed that people were talking about the "address" of the hotel. "Address" implies order and numbers. A lot of bricks and a lot of tents, but it was hard to tell what was the result of the earthquake and what was like that before. As we crept through the stream/roads we slowed down next to an old Toyota pickup with a tarp strung over the hood, lean-to style. I noticed a lone man standing erect, shoulders hunched, neck leaned forward perhaps in the least-rain-penetrable spot of his new post-earthquake home.
At the hotel, as we waited and negotiated for 2 rooms despite having a "reservation"for 3 rooms, a man walked up through the downpour toting a black and silver pistol grip pump shotgun. After a second, he pulled his black baseball hat out from under his jacket, it read "SECURITY."
-Mike.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Shake Your Booty For Haiti!
The bar and dance club Round Midnight (1005 Pearl St) will be hosting a fundraising event for the Colorado Haiti Project's June mission.
Sunday May 23rd 8pm-close. $10 suggested donation.
Details to follow, but there will be a DJ thanks to Round Midnight and a jewelry sale thanks to Bead For Life.
http://www.roundmidnight.tv
http://www.beadforlife.org
Sunday May 23rd 8pm-close. $10 suggested donation.
Details to follow, but there will be a DJ thanks to Round Midnight and a jewelry sale thanks to Bead For Life.
http://www.roundmidnight.tv
http://www.beadforlife.org
Colorado Haiti Project - Psycho-Social Mission
Greetings, and welcome to the CHP Psycho-Social Missions Trip Group Posting Blog.
This blog was created to provide updates and reflections on our June 6-15 trip to Petit Trou. The members of this delegation will be providing training to members of the Petit Trou community on how to cope with psycho-social issues the community is currently facing. Using training provided by Mercy Corps, the delegation will primarily work with the teachers and provide them with the information they need to more effectively help the students in their care.
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