Saturday, July 13, 2013

Happy Campers, Happy Birthday America, and Other Happy Adventures


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.

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.

Exploring the old sugar cane plantation
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!


Making popcorn for the kiddos
"Manual Activities" (Arts & Crafts) - Thanks for the awesome signs, Clare!


Futbol
These faces are priceless
Janm Janm Bret, theater extraordinaire
Diri ak pwa (rice with beans)
Lunch!
I see you!

Owning the mic, loving the kids.

Camp Directors

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.

Wikipedia outlines their incredible story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_%28band%29

Paying homage to the mighty RAM

Crowd shot from above
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!

Step one: Cutting the wood
Step two: Assembling like a piece of IKEA furniture with no directions
Step three: Finally it looks like a chair! This was taken before lunch today.
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!

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!

Hayam showing off his American eagle tattoo and shades


Americans represent!
Bon Fet Independence! (surprise Independence Day fiesta!)


Clare with Sister Gloria
Cookies, ice cream, fresh-picked flowers, and American flag shades.

Nuns can party too!



The three Americans

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.”

Tropical Mediterranean style salad
All-American necessities, no further explanation needed.
Potato salad
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.

The Supermoon June 23rd












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