Cuteness!

Kids Singing

Foot Traffic

Driving Through Port Au Prince

Kite Making

Archange and the other boys are making kites for Ms. Sherry to bring
back to the states. She will have a stand at a flea market where
people can make donations. The proceeds will go to the kids.

These kites are made of all found materials and they fly really well!

Field Trip!

Emanuella, Excaline, and Marc went on a field trip to the market
yesterday! We went to the supermarket and the hardware store. They are
to write a composition about what they saw and what we purchased.

The Dogs That Live on The Compound

This is the only photo I've gotten with all four dogs. They are
usually all over the place.

Sorry it's blurry and not great, but they are good dogs... Except for
the fact that they play loudly with each other all night long!

The Scariest Welding Contraption I Have Ever Seen

This thing terrifies me. It is a welding device. It makes a loud, very
dangerous-sounding buzzing noise when it's on and it looks like it
will explode at any second, shooting those curly metal spikey bits
into anyone and anything in its path.

I had to walk past it a couple of times while it was on and I felt
like I was walking a plank on a pirates ship.

Meet Ross and Vidlan

Ross (left) is a college student from Michigan. He is staying here for
two months and is going to help run things while Sherry, the school
principal/orphanage director is back in the states for several weeks.
The kids love, love, love Ross.

Vidlan is the little cutie sacked out in Ross' arms. Vidlan was
brought here by his father before the earthquake because he was sick
an malnourished. He was supposed to be here temporarily while he
gained weight and got healthy. Vidlan's father, who visited him almost
every day before the earthquake, has not been back since. It is
assumed that he was killed in the earthquake.

Just Another Reason I Love Haiti

I was waiting to cross the street and this guy stopped and pretty much
insisted that I take his picture.

So, he makes it to the blog!

Wash Day

Might be a repeat.

My Star Pupils

Excaline, Emmanuella and Marc in Phonics class.

They are great kids and it's been a joy working with them!

I was on my way into the bathroom to get ready for bed when a rat ran past my foot and rounded the corner in the direction of the bathroom. So I decided to use the bathroom upstairs. I've decided my mosquito net will also keep furry vermin at bay.

I really hope I can make it until morning for my next bathroom break :)

Jay-Jay The Bruiser

Meet Jay-Jay, AKA the Bruiser. He came to the orphanage a year ago. He
was starving and near death. His hand had been burned in a kerosene
fire and his pinky finger had to be amputated--which was done with
nail scissors.

As you can see Jay-Jay has grow. Into a happy, beefy kid!

Hands on Training.

Emanuella and Excaline Show Me How to Do Laundry

After a couple of minutes Emanuella told me to give the stuff I washed
to her so she could wash it right!

Emanuella and Excaline are two of the kids I'm working with on reading
skills so they can move into the English speaking school in the fall.
They are great students and a lot of fun!

It did not rain tonight, so it's still hot. The dogs have been causing a ruckus and wrestling with each other just outside the window. The air is smokey and it smells like burning tires. And I can't get to sleep. I'm just sweating under my mosquito net, eyes wide open. Wide open.

Today I learned two things: 1) If there is glitter in a classroom, kids will find it. 2) If a kid has Pink Eye, he REALLY wants you to hold him and he's gonna figure out a way to touch your face.

View From the Restaurant at the Mountain Man Mission

View From the Roof of the School

Drilling for the Foundation Anchors

View of the Schoolyard

The older boys still sleep in the tent. The younger boys sleep
together in one room and the girls sleep in another.

The piles of gravel are for the ongoing construction.

The New School/Orphanage

The kids have been living and going to school here since January. It
is very much a construction site, but they were able to get back to
school and some kind of a routine right after the earthquake.

View of the back of the original school building

The school was badly damaged during the earthquake. It is hard to see
the scale of the damage in this photo but the back of the building
collapsed. The building is still shifting and is very unstable.

One of the boys from the school, Petrson, was killed when the building
collapsed.

Construction on the new school site had already started. Everyone was
able to seek shelter there right after the earthuake, since it is
across the street. 200 people joined them there. Sherry, who runs the
school, set up a triage station and someone else shuttled the injured
to the hospital.

Yesterday we went through Petionville and up the mountain for lunch and to do some shopping. We went to the Mountain Man Mission for lunch. The view was incredible. I will try to post photos tomorrow.

As we drove through Port Au Prince and Petionville, we saw some of the devastation from the earthquake, including a school where 200 died. It's hard to comprehend the devastation, even seeing the collapsed buildings and wrubble everywhere.

It is estimated that 1 in 10 died in Port Au Prince in the earthquake.

FTP

A Tap Tap

The streets of Haiti are filled with tap taps, small colorful buses
used as a primary mode of transport.

Rush Hour in A Rain Storm

We took a trip to the hardware store yesterday afternoon during the
rain.

Mr. Reynaud in His New Home

I will try to get a better picture tomorrow, hopefully with his wife.

The roof goes up tomorrow and hopefully we can get some painting done,
too.

A Timeout Turns Into Naptime

One of the boys, Cherlein, was given a timeout and he ended up taking
a long afternoon nap on the naughty step!

Ok, rioting mat have been an overstatement. It sounds like very hearty demonstrations!

We were thinking about heading into town this afternoon to look at the palais national, have some lunch and check out a local market, but there are reports of rioting because of the schools/universities. So were gonna keep building!

Today we are anchoring the house to the. Foundation, cutting out windows and putting up the roof. This place is really coming along! Photos to come.

Octaline with Some of the Boys

Hello my name is Octaline. I am 12 years old. I am in 5th grade. I live in Haiti. We will send a photo of me later.

Road Trip! We are headed east towards Dominican Republic. I think the place is called Love Richard, but that's probably not quite right. I'll try to post photos!

Sisters Ivolna, 12, and Ivolia, 7

An Afternoon Shower

Last Day of School'

I hope I never again take matching shoes (the left being of the same pair as the right) for granted.

It is hot here!!!! I'm going to be working with 3 kids on their English comprehension while I'm here so they can start at the English speaking school here in august. We are also building a house for one of the workers and his family. Theirs was levelled in the earthquake.

Some of the Boys From the School

Today we are having a party for the kids to celebrate the end of the school year... Tomorrow is the last day of school!

View of a tent village on arrival to Haiti

About to Take Off

Already meeting great people!

another test

trying to see how i can notify people via email of a new post.

Comments Welcome (And How to Comment)

to post a comment, click on the title of an individual post and then go to the comment area. you do not need to be signed in to anything to post. I would love to hear from you during my trip!

i can upload video from my iphone!

Pretty cool, huh?

It looks like Blogger uses Flash because even though I uploaded a quicktime file, you can't see it from an iphone. Anyhow, if you see a cube-shaped thing with question marks in any entries, it's because I uploaded a video.

Thu, 27 May - A TEST VIDEO OF FRANK

Got My Passport!

OK, I have my passport and I am ready to go! Well, sort of.  I have lots of finishing touches in the packing department, but I am on the right track.

I think I am starting to get excited.  Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and support.

M' rele Nicole. M' se moun Etazini. Mwen se Ameriken e Ilande.

Bon nwit!

Last mobile test for the night.

Gah!

Sweet Mother of Sunshine... That took FORVER!

I just spent two hours trying to successfully upload a photo from my iPhone.  Blogger wouldn't let me register my cell phone as an MMS device and I've never been able to email photos from my iPhone.

But ahh, sweet success!

It would now seem that I will be able to upload photos from Haiti, and since I just got the Flickr for iPhone app, I think I can even geotag them.  Whee!

The photo that you are looking at of (next post down) someone who appears to be the nicest man on the planet, is in fact the nicest man on the planet... My Dad!  Isn't he handsome?

Hi Dad!

Test

Test post from my celly... Is it gonna stick?

Plan B on the Passport

Well, my passport is nowhere to be found. Ugh. Argh.

Thankfully, my mom went to the records office in Hartford, CT this morning to obtain a copy of my birth certificate (also nowhere to be found--what can I say I've been dealing with some stuff lately).  So, now I can go register the old passport as stolen and get a new one rush-processed.

Thanks Mom! And Dad! Such Champs!!! I appreciate your help with this.

Frank made a great impression on Beth's parents!  He will be enjoying resort-style accommodations while take hammer to nail and do my part to build a house.

I hope to be able to upload photos for everyone to see during the trip.  I am headed to the AT&T store this week to look into a Haiti Coverage plan.  Apparently they are offering a special Haiti coverage plan for relief work. I am going to bring my Flipcam with me, as well, but I doubt I will be able to do anything with the video until I get back. I have a bad habit of not documenting my trips and adventures, especially when I am having a great time, so hopefully this blog will give me added incentive to take lots of pictures.  Now that I think about it, that's kind of lame for a multimedia producer and former photo editor.

I am so excited to meet new people and experience Haiti's culture (95 degrees during rainy season, not so much).  The Haitians that I know possess a special warmth and generosity of spirit (I know that's a stereotype, but it's a positive stereotype, so I'm ok with it!)

It's hard for me to fathom what these last several months have been like for people in Haiti. I'm excited for the trip and the work we'll be doing, but I hope I am ready for what I will see. More so, I hope I can ease someones burden for even a short time and make some kind of a difference.

These pre-trip posts are probably going to get pretty boring and repetitive, so I'll try to spread 'em out and not bore you with ridiculous stuff like my biggest question of the weekend: How much Immodium and Pepto is too much Immodium and Pepto? Sort of like the sound of one hand clapping, I know.  I'm deep.

Three Shots Down, But Where's My Passport?

Well, I leave for Haiti to build a home with Christian Light Foundation in two weeks and I can't seem to locate my passport.  I've decided to hold of on panic-mode until sundown tomorrow. Instead, I choose to feel satisfied that I've gotten my pre-trip shots (three of them, ouch!) and picked up my anti-malarial drugs and just-in-case antibiotocs.

When it comes to this trip, I vacillate between excitement, fear and disbelief. I am certain that I cannot fully prepare myself for the experience, but I deeply hope that I will be able to make some kind of difference and I am excited to meet the other trip participants.

The home-front logistics seem to be falling into place nicely and I owe unyielding thanks and gratitude to my friends and family who have offered support, encouragement and kind words to me. Were it not for my great friend Beth and her amazing parents, I would be spending as much time worrying about my sweet pooch Frank as I am about preparing to actually head off to Haiti for two weeks. Beth's folks have offered to take the Frankster in and love him as their own while I am away!

And were it not for my parents and my siblings, I just don't think I could have moved forward with the trip at all. I am so grateful for the love and support that my family provides.

The plan for the rest of the weekend is to track down my passport, find cheap or free luggage, purchase pharmacy, first-aid, and toiletry supplies and finalize my packing list. I am also heading to Beth's parents' house tomorrow to do a meet-and-greet with Frank (let's hope that goes well!!!)

Let's pray that my next post begins by announcing that I have located my passport :)