Since I last blogged, there have been many happenings with my little Baba. First of all, he was able to get proper medical attention for his hernia with the collaborative effort of the visiting surgical team and the Alma Mater hospital staff. He was admitted to the hospital for preparation last Wednesday and received surgery on Thursday. His stitches should come out tomorrow. With that step out of the way, we are able to move forward with the hearing aid tests and fitting.
Becca, Pat, Ti Denn, and I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Port au Prince running random errands and visiting the RJMs house. We bought materials for a new chain-link fence in Fon Ibo (Pat and Ti Denn were awful impressed with my understanding of construction materials; kudos to my hands-on upbringing), picked up the Kreyol translation of Becca's composting toilet manual from an NGO called SOIL, purchased Kreyol translations of the Bible, went to the grocery store, picked up the newest addition to our house (Rachel), and, most importantly, went to the hospital. While at the hospital, Becca helped me (her Kreyol is leaps and bounds better than mine) talk to the nurses and ENT about our upcoming visit. They informed us of when the doctor will be in, where we need to go, and how long the examination will last. Baba will be on his way, accompanied by Ti Denn, Jackie, Brittany, and I next Wednesday, for just another step in the process. How exciting!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bridges To Prosperity in Fon Ibo
A the beginning of the year, a group of Virginia Tech students opened a footbridge in Ti Peligre, Haiti, located in the cenrtal plateau region. This bridge allows the reisdents access to school, market, medical care, and work when the rainy season hits. Oftentimes in Haiti, people are completely cut off when the rains come due to an inability to cross the river. Either the water is too deep or the current too strong to cross safely.
The VT group, a branch of Bridges To Prosperity, saw the need for a safe way to cross and jumped at the opportunity. Multiple trips were taken to assess, plan, and construct the suspended footbridge. Although the process was delayed by the 2010 earthquake, it was still considered a great success. The people in the Ti Peligre community are so grateful and now use the bridge daily. The group was awarded a $100,000 grant to pursure similar projects in other parts of Haiti. Their plan is now to build 5 bridges in the next 5 years - 1 per year. Here are some links that will take you to more information about what VT has already done:
In nearby Fon Ibo, residents face many of these problems during the rainy season. I have even seen it happen in my time here. Life seems to shut down when it rains. Children don't go to school. Fathers don't go to work. Mothers don't buy or sell goods in the market. And when it rains 6 months out of the year, this can cause grave problems. Because of this, I have chosen to write a formal proposal to have our location included in the VT B2P assessment process with hopes that we will be chosen as a final candidate. I have already been in contact with some of the group's members and will be spending the rest of the month researching, taking pictures, and writing up the proposal. Look for more updates soon!
The VT group, a branch of Bridges To Prosperity, saw the need for a safe way to cross and jumped at the opportunity. Multiple trips were taken to assess, plan, and construct the suspended footbridge. Although the process was delayed by the 2010 earthquake, it was still considered a great success. The people in the Ti Peligre community are so grateful and now use the bridge daily. The group was awarded a $100,000 grant to pursure similar projects in other parts of Haiti. Their plan is now to build 5 bridges in the next 5 years - 1 per year. Here are some links that will take you to more information about what VT has already done:
In nearby Fon Ibo, residents face many of these problems during the rainy season. I have even seen it happen in my time here. Life seems to shut down when it rains. Children don't go to school. Fathers don't go to work. Mothers don't buy or sell goods in the market. And when it rains 6 months out of the year, this can cause grave problems. Because of this, I have chosen to write a formal proposal to have our location included in the VT B2P assessment process with hopes that we will be chosen as a final candidate. I have already been in contact with some of the group's members and will be spending the rest of the month researching, taking pictures, and writing up the proposal. Look for more updates soon!
Against All Odds
Last week, Dr. Mike and I took a look at little Baba’s ears and the complications just seem to keep coming. The right ear appears to have endured some sort of a traumatic injury – there is a large amount of scar tissue built up on the drum. While we don’t think this is the cause of the deafness (he appears to be bilaterally deaf and the injury appears to be unilateral), we do feel it is best to have him seen by an ENT prior to testing. Dr. Mike also examined his trunk, because his mother mentioned he has chronic stomach aches. It seems he also has a hernia. So that is taking first priority for now. It is possible that the visiting surgical team will be able to reconcile that, and we will be able to get him down to PAP to see an ENT and be tested by the group that is visiting at the end of June. The poor little guy is up against all kinds of odds, yet he is so pleasant all the time. Keep praying for him. He still has a long road ahead.
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| Cheesing! He loved playing with the camera |
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| We made funny faces to pass the time in the hot car in PAP. |
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| Mike had me look first; "a learning opportunity" he said |
The house is done...for now
The surgical team from Light of the World arrived on Sunday and so far, with a few exceptions, things seem to be running smoothly. The team headed to the hospital early yesterday morning to start taking care of "lumps and bumps", as they call them. While they were gone, we had a valve burst under the kitchen sink so water was spewing all over the place. Then we found the cistern wasn't pumping water correctly, so I spent the rest of my day monitoring that and helping some local boys hoist water onto the roof to fill the cistern with. What a tiring day! But all seems to be better today. We're planning on showing them to Ti Denn's tonight, a Haitian bar down by the river owned by a friend of ours. Here are some pictures of the finished project for now. We have many more improvements to make (like a fresh coat of paint all over the place) but those will come with time. In true Haitian style, we're as far as we can go with the funding we have right now.
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| Kitchen |
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| Dining room (sitting room in back) |
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| Upstairs bathroom |
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| Bedroom (with the infamous mosquito nets) |
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| Back yard & guardian's house (landscaping courtesy of Becca) |
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Baba Update
A little update on my little guy. We drove down to Port au Prince on Monday to meet with a group called ASP. They are a hearing aid company based out of Canada, who has come to Haiti to do testing and fitting of aids. How perfect, right? Well, we arrived around 9:00 AM and with just one look in his ear with the otoscope (which he was very skeptical about), we hit a bump in the road (nothing ever seems to work out quite as planned down here). The hearing aid technician found blood in his right ear canal. How much? I don't really know. She wasn't too keen on allowing me to participate in the process. My guess is that Baba simply scratched his ear when trying to clean them out - a minor action, but one that threw a wrench into the process, nonetheless. The group can't perform the test until we get it checked out due to safety. So today we are having him seen by a visiting doctor, Dr. Mike, to make sure all is structurally well. Once we have the OK from him, we (well, some volunteers will; the car is too full so I won't be able to join) will take him back to Port au Prince tomorrow to be checked by the group and I should have all the information I need to proceed from there. I'll make sure the group takes lots of pictures and takes down lots of information for me. Things are happening, although on Haitian time, they're still happening. Keep praying.
And since I'm on here, I'll give you a house update as well. Our bedroom and living room furniture was moved in yesterday. A minor problem with the legs for the bed (they broke about as easy as peanut brittle at Christmas time) was overcome by our wonderful carpenter who volunteered to make us new legs. They'e definitely sturdier and, if I do say so myself, much easier on the eyes. Brittany and I finished hanging all the towel bars in the upstairs bedrooms yesterday and will be finishing the downstairs today. We will be painting the kitchen and dining room and doing some final cleaning before making beds and hanging towels in the rooms to welcome our first round of guests. Exciting stuff! Jackie, the other sister in the house, returns from a 3-week vacation tomorrow, so we're hoping to have it ready for her as a surprise. If I have anything to do with it (which I do), it will be done (even if we have to stay up late and get up early to make it happen). We'll probably be christening the house with one night in it as volunteers this weekend. Should be fun! I'll be sure to get another update posted soon after I receive word about Baba. Thanks for all the prayers.
Peace,
C.
And since I'm on here, I'll give you a house update as well. Our bedroom and living room furniture was moved in yesterday. A minor problem with the legs for the bed (they broke about as easy as peanut brittle at Christmas time) was overcome by our wonderful carpenter who volunteered to make us new legs. They'e definitely sturdier and, if I do say so myself, much easier on the eyes. Brittany and I finished hanging all the towel bars in the upstairs bedrooms yesterday and will be finishing the downstairs today. We will be painting the kitchen and dining room and doing some final cleaning before making beds and hanging towels in the rooms to welcome our first round of guests. Exciting stuff! Jackie, the other sister in the house, returns from a 3-week vacation tomorrow, so we're hoping to have it ready for her as a surprise. If I have anything to do with it (which I do), it will be done (even if we have to stay up late and get up early to make it happen). We'll probably be christening the house with one night in it as volunteers this weekend. Should be fun! I'll be sure to get another update posted soon after I receive word about Baba. Thanks for all the prayers.
Peace,
C.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Houses, Hearing Aids, and Humidity
June is here, marking that I'm about 1/5 of the way through my journey. I've been at the Sister's house in Gros Morne for a week now and we have some really exciting projects underway.
Brittany is heading up the construction of a house to be used for future medical missions teams. I've been helping her out a little with that project. Most of the work is being done by Haitian contractors ("bosses" as they call them here). As of yesterday, however, most of them had finished up. The tile was laid on the kitchen floor (after a near disaster with broken tiles and an inability to find more) and the plumbing was finally completed. Now it's up to us to fill in the holes in the yard, move in all the furniture, hook up the appliances, paint the walls (not all of them will be painted right now), and clean everything before our first group comes in on the 12th. Brittany has done a great job with the project. The house looks great (if you ignore the atrocious Pepto Bismol pink bathroom tiles, that is; I assure you Brittany did not pick those)!
Okay, now for the BIG news! There is a young boy in the community with a severe hearing loss. His name is Rodricksson, but everyone calls him Baba - the term used for deaf people in Haiti. It appears that Baba has some hearing, but it is minimal. Pat has asked me if, with my Speech-Pathology background, I could help him get a hearing aid and improve his speech. Of course I can! So for the past few days, I have been sending e-mails and making phone calls trying to find a place where we can get him a hearing aid. It's not like in the States where there is a full-service doctor's office around every corner. Right now, we are waiting to hear back from St. Vincent's Hospital in Port au Prince. They have a mission team coming in from Canada tomorrow who may be able to do the test for us. Cross your fingers! If not, there is another group coming to do testing at the end of June. They will return at the end of July to distribute the aids. I wouldn't get to work much with him in that scenario, but still. He will be able to HEAR for the first time in his life. Amazing! This could make all the difference. Currently, he can't attend school because of his impairment. But he's attentive and polite (which I can't say for many of the other kids in the area). What an exciting opportunity I have here! Hope it works out. Pray, pray, pray please!
Other than that, I'm still just gearing up for camp - making supplies lists, e-mailing volunteers, writing up schedules, and making sure we'll be ready to hit the ground running come July.
The humidity here is astounding. I don't feel like anything is ever dry. It's the rainy season, so we've been getting rain EVERY day. Good for the farmers. Not so good for all the rest of us (except for the fact that it keeps the temperature down; it's actually a bit chilly some days). The rain jeopardizes daily routine. You can't always travel where you want. The river comes up and cuts off our route to anything outside of one side of Gros Morne. Our workers may not show up to work on the doctor house. And there are kids everywhere asking for things because there is often no school. Can you imagine? I'm going to start using that as an excuse for missing class. Explain that people in Haiti wouldn't go, so why should I? Solidarity, I tell you! Don't think that'll fly.
I'll try to post again soon with updates about the house and Baba.
Peace,
Christy
Brittany is heading up the construction of a house to be used for future medical missions teams. I've been helping her out a little with that project. Most of the work is being done by Haitian contractors ("bosses" as they call them here). As of yesterday, however, most of them had finished up. The tile was laid on the kitchen floor (after a near disaster with broken tiles and an inability to find more) and the plumbing was finally completed. Now it's up to us to fill in the holes in the yard, move in all the furniture, hook up the appliances, paint the walls (not all of them will be painted right now), and clean everything before our first group comes in on the 12th. Brittany has done a great job with the project. The house looks great (if you ignore the atrocious Pepto Bismol pink bathroom tiles, that is; I assure you Brittany did not pick those)!
Okay, now for the BIG news! There is a young boy in the community with a severe hearing loss. His name is Rodricksson, but everyone calls him Baba - the term used for deaf people in Haiti. It appears that Baba has some hearing, but it is minimal. Pat has asked me if, with my Speech-Pathology background, I could help him get a hearing aid and improve his speech. Of course I can! So for the past few days, I have been sending e-mails and making phone calls trying to find a place where we can get him a hearing aid. It's not like in the States where there is a full-service doctor's office around every corner. Right now, we are waiting to hear back from St. Vincent's Hospital in Port au Prince. They have a mission team coming in from Canada tomorrow who may be able to do the test for us. Cross your fingers! If not, there is another group coming to do testing at the end of June. They will return at the end of July to distribute the aids. I wouldn't get to work much with him in that scenario, but still. He will be able to HEAR for the first time in his life. Amazing! This could make all the difference. Currently, he can't attend school because of his impairment. But he's attentive and polite (which I can't say for many of the other kids in the area). What an exciting opportunity I have here! Hope it works out. Pray, pray, pray please!
Other than that, I'm still just gearing up for camp - making supplies lists, e-mailing volunteers, writing up schedules, and making sure we'll be ready to hit the ground running come July.
The humidity here is astounding. I don't feel like anything is ever dry. It's the rainy season, so we've been getting rain EVERY day. Good for the farmers. Not so good for all the rest of us (except for the fact that it keeps the temperature down; it's actually a bit chilly some days). The rain jeopardizes daily routine. You can't always travel where you want. The river comes up and cuts off our route to anything outside of one side of Gros Morne. Our workers may not show up to work on the doctor house. And there are kids everywhere asking for things because there is often no school. Can you imagine? I'm going to start using that as an excuse for missing class. Explain that people in Haiti wouldn't go, so why should I? Solidarity, I tell you! Don't think that'll fly.
I'll try to post again soon with updates about the house and Baba.
Peace,
Christy
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