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
I think your teachers would be ok with you skipping class for rain. Definitely.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope Baba gets a hearing aid soon!! Wow that's amazing :)