Let the following serve as an update as well as stand for
evidence of why we’ve been a tad lax on the blog updates since we’ve returned
from Michigan in June…
Coordinating a Two Week Day Camp for Preschoolers - Aaron
About two weeks before this all began (around the end of
May), Sister Gloria excitedly announced to Maguy and me that we were going to
be running a day camp for two weeks. School was finished after the first week
of June, and not having any other projects lined up for that time, we were
excited to take on the challenge. We were given no instructions and all we were
told was that there would be 200 students, about 20 adults, and that we would
have access to a bunch of different materials that Sister Gloria had acquired
via donations as well as materials already at the school.
So Maguy and I got to work planning a schedule and
eventually we cleared up some details: there would be 100 kids the first week
and 100 the second week. We arranged the camp to have six groups of kids and
six activities they would switch between, with three activities each day. We
had to keep things relatively simple given the time constraints and the
relatively limited resources at hand. The activities we planned included
painting, theater, movie watching, soccer, manual activities/arts and crafts,
and dance. Being the aspirational person she is, Maguy came up with a slogan
for each day and a camp song that I learned on guitar and we sang every morning
for the kids.
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| Camp director Aaron ready for action |
The first day of the first week Sister Gloria planned a
field trip for the kids. We all loaded a bus in the morning and went to a
historic sugar plantation, now a museum and restaurant/hotel. The kids (and
adults) all let loose and enjoyed themselves (something Haitians seem to be
inherently good at). After the museum, we ate lunch on the busses and took the
kids to a giant store called Maison Handal, the equivalent of a Target. I was
amazed at the variety of items for sale, from $100 life-sized Barbie dolls to
flat screen TV’s, any alcohol you could think of, and other groceries. Most of
the kids had never seen any place like this so it was a real treat for them to
explore. The store must be used to groups coming to see it for a trip because
they had a worker escort the kids around in a big line showing them the isles
like it was a museum.
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| Exploring the old sugar cane plantation |
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| Sugarcane machinery |
After the first day we got into a more normal routine. Every
morning the kids would get breakfast and then we would gather them in a big
circle for the rasanble (assembly). P.A. maxed out, Maguy or our theater guru Janm
Janm Bret would rile up the kids singing the camp theme song and the day’s
slogan. Janm Janm Bret had a remarkable ability to turn himself into a
D.J./Jukebox with only a microphone in his hand. He would start singing a capella
some popular Haitian pop and children’s songs and get everyone jumping and
dancing for 20 minutes at a time.
Maguy and I experienced many ups and downs over the course
of the camp, and overall it was a success. One of the more difficult parts was
to manage keeping all kids in their activities when at least three of the days
included previously undisclosed to Maguy and I meetings with hundreds of
parents in the same place and time as the camp, with the same teachers who were
our camp counselors, and a surprise visit by the Minustah (U.N.) who came in
the middle of a day to do a health screening on each kid in our camp, which was
chaotic to say the least! You can see how the ‘go with the flow’ mantra works
well around here. We were lucky to have some volunteers who just arrived and
were eager help us. We were also lucky to have a great dance instructor,
Patrice, and the enthusiastic theater instructor Jamn Jamn Bret
who the kids adored.
The final day of the camp we decided to throw the kids and
the staff (who all worked without being paid, by the way) a party. We spent the
night before with mounds of crate paper and glitter making flowers,
chain-links, and posters with all the days’ slogans on it. After hours of work
with help from Clare, Kendra, and two Colombian volunteers, we went to bed
exhausted. The next morning we spent an hour or so putting up all our
decorations and when the kids arrived we had a long and fun morning assembly.
After being successfully riled up, we had each group go “on stage” in front of
everyone else and dance or sing to their hearts’ content. It was a fun way to
end the camp, and the whole next week was one of recovery!
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| Making popcorn for the kiddos |
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| "Manual Activities" (Arts & Crafts) - Thanks for the awesome signs, Clare! |
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| Futbol |
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| These faces are priceless |
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| Janm Janm Bret, theater extraordinaire |
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| Diri ak pwa (rice with beans) |
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| Lunch! |
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| I see you! |
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| Owning the mic, loving the kids. |
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| Camp Directors |
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| Final party |
RAM -
Clare
The week after
we got back from our brief stint in the States for our friends’ wonderful
wedding, we got to see RAM, an incredible band who has played a weekly Thursday
night show at the historic Hotel Oloffson in Port Au Prince for well over 10
years. Our favorite partners in crime, the Chileans, helped arrange a tap tap
to take us to the hotel for a late night of dancing. The hotel is old and
beautiful and was reportedly the inspiration for Graham Green’s Hotel Trianon
in his novel The Comedians. Anthony Bordain did a really awkward episode of No
Reservations in Haiti and stayed at the Hotel Oloffson in 2010 right around the
same time I was there on my first trip. He essentially broke the cardinal rule
of not showing up and passing food out to a large crowd, then rode out a hurricane
getting drunk at the hotel. Our trip to the Hotel was way more exciting.
The band itself
has a significant political and cultural history in Haiti and has been a
national favorite since their inception
in 1990. The history of the band has evolved hand in hand with Haitian politics;
during some of the more unstable periods (1990s and early 2000s) the band
survived assassination attempts, extortion, bribes, and terror, mostly because
of the political implications of their music. The style of music is called “Mizik
Rasin” and incorporates Haitian Vodou rhythms, classic rock and roll, blues,
and funk. It’s eclectic, full of energy, and just awesome. Some of their songs reminded
us of Paul Simon (Rhythm of the Saints/Graceland period) and Pink Floyd but
otherwise I can say that their music is perhaps the best I’ve heard in Haiti
and a new favorite of ours that we’ll enjoy long after we’re off the island. The
band has about 13 members including multiple drums, keyboards, dancers,
guitarists, and singers. The whole place was packed as soon as they started
playing and we had a great night dancing to their music until they finished at
2:00am.
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| Paying homage to the mighty RAM |
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| Crowd shot from above |
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| Shake shake shake! |
Clinic Update - Clare
Work has
been chugging along at the rehab clinic. I’ve been working with the thought
that I want to tie up any loose ends as much as possible and advocate for my
patients while I’m still here and involved in their care. Many of my patients
have been asking when I plan to leave as they know to expect that from a foreigner.
Most also ask when I’m coming back.
This past
month I dove into a handful of projects. I built a forearm platform for a walker
out of PVC pipe for an extremely sweet young man. He needs a walker but can’t
grasp it with one hand due to hemiparesis from a brain injury and a related leg
fracture. He is the first brain injury patient I’ve seen in Haiti and cognitively
he’s doing excellent; physically he’s a mess. Because he has been mismanaged by
the hospital he stayed at after the injury and because he’s the cousin of one
of my good Haitian friends, I want to ensure he gets the VIP treatment from us.
My hope for him is that we can get him in to see an orthopedist before I leave.
It’s critical. I imagine the much needed surgery would follow, likely after I’m
gone, but if I can get things rolling in that direction it will be a victory.
When I see him later this week, I’ll try to grab a pic of the platform walker.
I’ve had a
few other minor side projects like making some wheelchair adjustments for a
spinal cord injury patient (who is making great functional gains now that he
has a chair that fits well), making a few one-handed cutting boards, and
cleaning and organizing every inch of our overcrowded gym. Our clinic being a
medical equipment supplier, orthotist, seating/positioning clinic and rehab
clinic all in the same space creates a tricky organization puzzle. The project
that I’m most proud of is the wheelchair seat insert I’ve been custom making
from scratch over the last few weeks with the wisdom and guidance of our PT. As
of this afternoon it’s nearly finished. If all goes well this week I’ll plop
our little guy in, fasten the straps to the right width, adjust the footplate, add
the seat covering and call it a day. The seat insert is designed to fit snugly
inside a regular adult wheelchair and it comes with lateral supports, 2
diagonal chest straps, a seatbelt, a pummel to support his thighs, a shelf to angle the chair in 30 degrees posterior tilt, and a foot rest. As this
is the first project of this magnitude for me, I’ve made tons of mistakes and
had to undo some things, but it’s been made with love. Lots of hands went into
the construction/design of this chair including the American PT, Aaron, a stoke
patient who needs to practice building stuff in order to return to work, and of
course the patient’s mom who came in on the weekend to help us cut the wood. I’ve
often been thinking of my paternal grandfather, my Abuelo, while building the
chair as tinkering, building, and inventing are skills that come as naturally
to him as breathing and baking bread. He would have a field day in Haiti with
our building needs!
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| Step one: Cutting the wood |
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| Step two: Assembling like a piece of IKEA furniture with no directions |
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| Step three: Finally it looks like a chair! This was taken before lunch today. |
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| Step Four: Adding foam and straps. This was taken before dinner today. (not yet pictured) Step Five: Add cover and child! |
The American
PT has also been building custom seating devices of all kinds at a feverish
rate. She helped me fit one of our
little boos with spastic CP in a donated wheelchair that can be adjusted and
fitted in just about any way imaginable, which is nice because it will grow
with him. We added a tray to it so he can interact with his hands while his
trunk is in a stable position (a rhyme for those of you not familiar with
rehab: proximal stability = distal mobility). In the weeks following, our
little man has made remarkable gains in head control and functional arm use. It’s
really a miracle to witness the rapid change good positioning makes.
That same little
guy with spastic CP was also seen this week by a speech therapist who donated
her time to visit our clinic from another rehab clinic before leaving for the
states on Wednesday. Wednesday is also our pediatric day in rehab and we have at
least one little patient every hour with some kind of communication goal. But
of course that same Wednesday was the day tropical storm Chantal meandered over
Haiti and it had been raining most of the day, meaning our cancellation rate
was through the roof. The speech therapist came anyway and worked to engage our
little guy and a handful of others. She left us with great ideas to advance
treatment for voicing, forming sounds, and indicating needs/preferences. For a
few of our kids, being able to communicate may be the difference between
attending or not attending school and we made sure to let her know that in an
attempt to guilt her into future visits (is that so wrong?). One of our bright,
spunky, near-school aged girls who can approximate sounds but not exactly speak
yet due to a brain injury was at the top of our list when we knew that a speech
therapist was visiting. The girl’s mom, however, has been flaky about appointment
times. In the rain of Tropical Depression Chantal, I found her mom at work
selling food on the street. I explained I had a special doctor who wanted to
see her daughter who was leaving our clinic in the next few hours. After that I
helped her frantically pack up her merchandise into a wheelbarrow, ran with the
mom to her home, scooped up the girl into Aaron’s rain coat, and ran back with
her to the clinic to be seen by the speech therapist. The consult was a success;
it was worth the effort just to have an authority on the subject assure us that
with some good therapy and practice she could expect to have functional speech.
Phew!
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| Chantal making a swift exit Wednesday afternoon |
And for those of you following Rosy's story I have good news; she's independent in her self care and will be attending school this fall. The school has funding for a special class room next year and as a trial, Rosy (now discharged from therapy) attended the camp with Aaron and had an absolute blast. I ran out of the clinic to steal a brief glimpse of her having a ball in dance class. From dependent and laying in bed to social and engaged in daily activities; a total turn around!
Visa
Lodge - Aaron
We had wanted
to have a relaxing day away from the compound, and last weekend proved perfect
for a trip to the Visa Lodge. The Visa Lodge is a hotel about 45 minutes away
from us and close to the airport that has a nice pool and restaurant you can
hang out in for the day. More than anything, the trip was a pilgrimage for
pizza. We went with our American physical therapist buddy here at the compound
for the day and really enjoyed ourselves. The pizza was outrageously delicious
and we got in some good swimming and naps.
Independence
Day - Clare
Being practically
the only American in another country during an American holiday seemed like it
could’ve either made us really homesick or be fun and memorable. To prepare for
this while back in Michigan in June for our friends’ wedding, we grabbed some
sparklers, small fireworks, Jack Daniels, and other cheeky Americana merchandise.
We were going to bring the party to Haiti. The 4th of July fell on a
Thursday, which was a regular work day in Haiti of course, but the American PT
and I handed out fake patriotic tattoos to whoever wanted to celebrate with us
and wore crazy rock-and-roll/flag glasses in the feisty, independent spirit of our
homeland. We weren’t expecting anyone to have any clue that it was a major U.S.
holiday so we were surprised when one of our Haitian co-workers served a delicious
Haitian homemade lunch of banan frit and pikliz (fried plantains and spicy
vinegar coleslaw, our favorite) to celebrate. The Sisters also had a surprise
for us at dinner time. They had the cooks make us a special dinner with a great
salad (with our other favorite, dark greens!), homemade potato chips, ice cream,
and cookies. They even busted out the Prestige! They asked us lots of questions
about the origin of our country and the meaning of the flag colors– which
admittedly we had to look up. The three of us also sang the Star Spangled
Banner and finished the night lighting sparklers with the Sisters and the cooks
to Ray Charles’ America the Beautiful playing on the computer (a Fernandez tradition
started by my brother). Fun times!
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| Hayam showing off his American eagle tattoo and shades |
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| Americans represent! |
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| Bon Fet Independence! (surprise Independence Day fiesta!) |
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| Clare with Sister Gloria |
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| Cookies, ice cream, fresh-picked flowers, and American flag shades. |
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| Nuns can party too! |
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| The three Americans |
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| Happy birthday America! |
On Friday we
were excited to have a party/cookout with our Chilean friends at their house.
We had gone shopping (pilgrimage to an indoor market) earlier in the week for
groceries and made a seriously yummy and mostly American dinner (with the
necessary tropical flares): hot dogs, potato chips, homemade potato salad,
pineapple/onion stuffed green peppers, Mediterranean salad, s’mores, beer, and
a little pour of our old pal Jack Daniels. One of our Chilean buddies insisted
on going through the effort to get charcoal for the grill since this was the 4th
of July and all. We had a great night laughing, relaxing, listening to music,
telling stories, waving sparklers and lighting little fireworks, and pretending
we knew which stars were part of which constellation in the night sky from the
roof.
The three of
us Americans decided that our 4th had every element possible from
home complete with good people who genuinely wanted to make it a special day
for us. As we declared under an imagined banner walking home from the Chilean’s
house Saturday morning “Mission Bring Patriotic Good Times, Hootenannies, and Outrageous
Fun to the People of Haiti: Complete.”
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| Tropical Mediterranean style salad |
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| All-American necessities, no further explanation needed. |
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| Potato salad |
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| A feast fit for 4th of July celebration! |
Looking
to the Final Three Weeks - Aaron
It’s crazy
to realize that we only have about three weeks left here in Haiti. However, in
that time we are so excited about all we have to look forward to. Tomorrow, my
brother Jeff will arrive and is staying for nine days to create a film
documenting all the services the primary care and rehabilitation clinic provide
here. The hope is that the video will be used for informational and fundraising
purposes in the United States so we can keep this great place alive for the
years ahead (it is all run on donations). During Jeff’s visit we have probably
the busiest week we’ve had here planned. We’re going to another late-night RAM show,
back to Kenscoff to stay with Maguy and her family for the weekend in the mountains,
and a trip to the artistic village where artists hand make all kinds of metal
art from reused oil drums.
The week after
Jeff leaves is our final full week in Haiti, so we’re trying to nail down our
final projects (literally for Clare). I’m planning to facilitate a couple therapy groups for stroke
and chronic pain patients. Our final weekend in Haiti is our one year wedding
anniversary! Clare has a surprise trip planned (I’m sure it will be something
amazing). The following week is our last, and also the time of Carnival des
Flures (Carnival of Flowers) in Port-Au-Prince, a yearly national celebration!
Without meaning to, we timed our trip so that our last few days in Haiti will
coincide with Carnival so it’s sure to be a big send off.
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| The Supermoon June 23rd |
