Haiti is a country that has deep beliefs in magic and voodoo. A lot of the time in the clinic these beliefs clash with western medicine. At times I find myself very frustrated and I just want to yell, no that is not true! Today though I have a new appreciation for magic. When you are faced with the numbing loss of a loved one for no apparent reason and you have no knowledge what actually caused this person to die, why not believe it was the work of dark magic? Tonight we visited the home of young Rodlyn, a sweet little boy that passed away this afternoon. He has been a long time patient at the clinic and I have gotten to know this quirky little fellow quite well. He has been sick on and off for quite some time, but he recently came down with bad stomach pain resulting in a swollen abdomen, swollen feet and vomiting. He went to a hospital and they said that someone had put a curse on him and he was going to die... After suffering all night his grandmother brought him to the clinic and he was already in bad shape, he did not make it through the day. It is so hard to witness this loss which seems to happen here all the time. But life goes on...(sorry for the morbid story but that is what is on our minds right now)

We spent two incredible weeks down in the south west of Haiti. We had a few nights up in the mountains in a town called Kazal (where we met up with Kimball) with our friends Cissy and Fenel and their beautiful healthy boy named Christopher. We then headed to Port au Prince for a bit then up to the high mountains of Douchity. Kathryn, Donna and two other UVM students joined us at this point for the next week. While in Port au Prince we spent a day at the school VHP sponsors and spent some quality time singing with the kids trading some American songs for Haitian songs, I think Peter has a future as an elementary choir teacher. After just a few days in PAP we were feeling ready to get to the mountains and out of the chaos.

We really enjoyed being up in the mountains. A real change from Terrier Rouge, it rains there every afternoon and actually gets quite cold at night! We spent sometime working on a garden and helping Despagne plan his future technical school. This is a project that Peter and I are especially excited about. This is a real dream of Despagne’s and Vermont Haiti Project is assisting him in getting his dream off the ground, he will run and operate the school but VHP is trying to help raise some funds. Peter and I see this as a future place to bring people to explore and appreciate all the beauty the culture, people and land that Haiti has to offer. Peter and Fenel spent nine hours hiking in the mountains one day with Pierrevy, Despagne’s nephew, who is trying to start exporting the coffee he and many others are growing. When they got back to town that evening they (Peter and Fenel) could barely walk their legs were so tired. One of the highlights from Douchity was that we were their during carnival so there was a band that played music during the night and all day long. They were all wearing red and blue and playing the drums and other homemade instruments marching around town chanting,singing and dancing- it is hard not to dance since the music truly enters your soul.

After Douchity we finally got to the ocean for a quick swim before returning to the dusty polluted city of Port Au Prince. We have been back in TR now for a week and it feels good to be back home. Things here keep marching along. We both have some work here we want to finish before we leave for an unknown amount of time. Peter is working with friends building an arborloo (movable shallow pit toilet where, after its full and moved, you can plant a tree). Meredith is still working on conducting a survey on family planning for the clinic. Mostly though we will try to remember to spend our next two weeks doing what we love most here. Which is, talking with people in the street, telling jokes, and experiencing a life, its good times and bad, that is still so different to us. The “work” that we do is at best an excuse for these interactions, and we are grateful for it.

The run-off election is held Sunday and former President Aristide returned from exile this morning. Let us all pray that everything stays calm.

Recent Pictures

Teaching about flower parts

Big tree by the river

Driving out to IDDH Farm

IDDH natural farm-made insecticide experiment

SoSR retreat in Terye Wouj

We have had another busy past few weeks. Our most exicting news is that we just had a great visit from John Hayden and an awesome group of Vermonters! Maggie Donin & John Smith came over from the DR with John Hayden as well as two teachers from Cambridge Elementary School Mary Fiedler and Michel Piché. We spent the past 4 days with them showing them the various agriculture projects here in Terrier Rouge. We spent two awesome days in the school doing some hands on science learning with the group of students who are also involved with the pen pal program that was set up last year. It was very cool to be apart of the kids getting their hands dirty with art projects and a plant experiment. These kids are used to sitting and repeating as a form of learning so the goal was to expose them to a more hands on and critical thinking approach. All parties seemed to enjoy the experience, espsicially Mary, it was her first time in Haiti and she is so exicted to bring back photos and stories to her students in Cambridge.

We also spent a couple afternoons working along side the kids at Jardin Florans- which is always a fun time. In Haiti there always seems to be some set backs, a few chickens died and some gas was stolen, but these kids and especially the director of the program, Onel, truly never get discouraged. We had a nice visit with the GAFAT group who makes the jams and jellies, everyone got to bring some home... hopefully they will remain intact for the plane ride. Having everyone here was a real boost for Pete and I, it was so nice getting to talk and reflect on our time here with our fellow Seeds of Self Reliance Volunteers across the border, we are missing them all already!

Other happy news- my friend here in Haiti (also named Maggie) who was on bed rest ( she was having some higg blood pressures with really bad swelling) delivered a healthy boy at home Sunday at 4am. I was so happy to hear that all went well and I got to check up on mom and baby at their home on Monday morning. It was such a relief that they all are well after having my friend Clesia loose her baby last year. Also on the health care front we have started to do pap smears at the clinic and launched the program last week, we are the only clinic other than in the city of Cap Haitian, in Northern Haiti that is doing this.

We leave for Port Au Prince on Friday- we are both looking forward to seeing our Vermont Haiti Project family and to have a little break from our routine here in TR and to see a different part of Haiti for a while. We will be spending a few nights up in Kazal with Fenel and Kimball and then Donna will be joining us in Port au Prince. Then we are off to the mountains of Douchity to work on collaborating with a VHP project and hopefully working on getting a garden going and composting toilet, Kathryn (Meredith’s) sister will be joining us for that adventure! We will write again when we are back home in Terrier Rouge.

Fun things to note we went to a Baptism last Saturday and Meredith had a spaghetti and carrot homemade popsicle at the clinic today, only in Haiti!

Grapefruit jam, midwives & a funeral

It seems like the weeks have been flying by and it is difficult to get around to posting a blog, but here is my attempt to update you all with what we have been up to.

I (Meredith) recently had the opportunity to visit the organisation Midwives for Haiti in Hinche with a group of midwives that came to work in the clinic from Georgia. This was quite the trip because from TR to get to Hinche you have to fly to Port au Prince then take a 4 hour drive into the mountains arriving in the Central Plateau where Hinche is located. The locals will say Hinche is 2 hours form PAP, but not true at all. It was really interesting visiting this program and seeing the great work they are doing with educating women who are already birth attendants to become certified midwives. They go through a year long program and are then able to work in hospitals. Esperance et Vie is in the process of developing a women’s health center and I have been lucky to be apart of that planning process, visiting MFH gave us an opportunity to see what their program was like. There are two Haitian physicians who are the true motivators behind the development of the women’s health center, they already come out to TR once a week and volunteer their time seeing ob/gyn patients. They feel their is a real need in this area to develop a
“one of a kind” center that offers consistent quality care. They ultimately want to turn it into a birthing center but we are starting with pap smears and family planning. My plan for the next few weeks is to develop a survey with these physician to do in the community to help organize and focus the development of this project. Hopefully by next week I will start going door to door and begin this process!

I really enjoyed having the group of midwives here, it was great collaborating and learning from my future colleagues. We saw lots of ob/gyn issues as well as the regular skin, GI, fevers and all the tropical illness jazz. My favorite part of their trip was the midwifery seminar that we put together. We had a two day seminar with the home birth midwives from the community. Most of these men and women I knew from last year so it was a great way to give back to the community of midwives. These midwives do have some training but it was great to go over things like positioning during labor, shoulder dystocia, breech delivery and review the different reasons to transport to the hospital. They have a lot of experience and knowledge already but it was great to review and strengthen their existing skills.

Last week we had a small group here with a physical therapist and x-ray tech. We got an x-ray machine donated and the tech was so amazing she basically learned how to do the film processing and we went from having this machine in the closet to taking, processing and casting fractures in 2 days! We had an elbow fracture, wrist sprain and pelvic fracture all in 3 days. I worked along side the PT translating so I also got to see some interesting cases, we also had our first case of sickle cell anemia. The clinic seems to be getting busier and busier each day and I am leaning something new all the time! I have also been busy with home visits, following another pregnant woman who is bordering on pre-ecclapsia her BP remains stable on bed rest for now.

Peter, who will from now on be referring to himself in the 1st person, has also been busy. Lately I have been spending ever afternoon at Jaden Florence, our youth community garden. We have started up the program with about 15 middle and high school aged students who will each have their own garden plot to manage. We have all been working together after school to form our nursery beds and seed vegetables that we can transplant into the main garden once we get some rain. We have also finished building our chicken coop and just bought three hens and a rooster. The chickens will provide fertility and also (hopefully) help to support the program financially. We also repaired an old cement water basin that we are going to use to make worm compost. In the Nativity Village the rabbits are starting to take off. We’ve had three does give birth in the last week, with 8,7, and 3 babies respectfully.

One other group I work with here in a women’s group called GAFAT whose main activity is transforming local fruit into jams, jellies, liqours, and were hoping to keep experimenting on solar dehydrating. We’ve been working on a business plan together and we gave them a micro loan so they could produce a few cases of several products, which will allow us to do some local market research. This has been an enjoyable project to work on because of course we need to be taste-testing the product. So far we’ve had grapefruit jam, orange marmalade, candied peanuts, and I know they’ve also made passion fruit and pineapple jam which I’ll try to get my hands on soon.

Other interesting things to note- we had another Cholera campaign up in the mountains this past Sunday. That really is Meredith’s favorite type of nursing here, having the time to sit down with a family and do prevention work is so important and rewarding too. Going up in the mountains is a whole other world compared to TR. There are children everywhere! It is getting us excited for our trip to the southern mountain village of Douchity in March... more on that later.

On a sadder note we attended our first Haitian funeral this past weekend. It was the brother of the pharmacist from the clinic and he was also a member of the group Peter works with IDDH. We had to borrow the appropriate attire from friends since I ( back to Meredith typing now) did not have a black skirt and Peter needed a tie. The affair started at the families house where we paid our respects then everyone walked to the church. This was a very well liked and respected individual and the church was packed, we stood in the back for the 2.5 hour ceremony. The music was incredible and there was incredible tropical plant and flower arrangements everywhere. I know people talk all the time about the resilience of Haitians, their determination to endure and prosper and their incredible ability to be so hopeful and spirited. Being at this funeral just reaffirmed that cliche. Here was this 50 year old man that died on his way being transferred to Port Au Prince because he was having trouble urinating, the first hospital he was seen at was unable to give him any answers so he was being transferred and died in the car. He started feeling sick in December and died January 25th. His family still does not know why he died and his wife is left behind with no children and no parents or siblings, all of who have passed away (including their daughter). The health system has failed this poor man and his family, but he is only one of the many many out there continually enduring this injustice. And here all these Haitians sat and stood singing and crying for this tragic loss of life, enduring the heat and discomfort of the packed church. As people flooded the streets after the funeral to walk to the cemetery for the burial the road was shut down and all you could see was a sea of white and black. The inequality that exists in our world is truly astounding- let us never settle for this inequality.

Thanks for listening,

M and P

Aba Kolera, Viv Lasante

We have been back on the Island of Hispaniola for the last two and a half weeks and we’ll try to update you on what we have been up to.

We flew down to Santo Domingo, the capital of the DR with our two friends Maggie Donin and John Smith, who are going to be volunteering in the DR through Seeds of Self Reliance. They will be working on different gardening projects all across the North Coast. We spent 10 days there with them to get them set up.

We got to Haiti last Friday. Saturday morning we loaded up with the Cholera campaign group and headed up the mountain to Perche. This small town neighbors an area that has been hit hard by Cholera, a river runs through this area which has been identified to be contaminated, so this area is a target for prevention. We found that most people get their water from the river so educating about treating the water and hand hygiene is critical. Most people in this area are already aware of the Cholera and know what needs to be done but this was an opportunity to reinforce and provide resources by going house to house and sitting and talking with the family members. This campaign was started by Father Bruno who runs the school where we are currently staying, he has put together an amazing campaign to prevent Cholera in this area and because of his efforts we are happy to report few cases of Cholera here.

So about this trip up to Perche... We loaded 56 people in the back of a flat bed truck that has a metal bar on top that everyone holds on to. We lumbered up a bumpy dirt road with everyone hooting and hollering like monkeys the whole time. We normally travel by tap taps here which are trucks with benches in the back, normally 20 people or so ride in the back of these trucks, but 56 people yelling to duck from the trees that brushed our faces and hands was a whole different experience. It was like a horrifying amusement ride, not able to see where we were going and just hanging on for dear life, we have never been so relieved when we finally arrived home at 6pm everyone in the truck chanting in unison “A ba kolera, viv lasante” (down with cholera, live health)!

Since then we have jumped right in to our projects down here. It has been great to hit the ground running, having more creole under our belts and already having meaningful relationships developed it has been so different arriving down here compared to last year. Our first month last year was about figuring out how to live down here, now we can just pick up where we left off.

Peter has already started working with the directors of Jardin Florence, the youth gardening club, on how to start keeping chickens at the garden. He is also working with his friends at the Nativity Village who are still raising rabbits. He is most excited about trying to grow black soldier fly larvae in rabbit manure or other organic matter to supplement chicken feed.

Meredith has been busy as the same clinic she worked at last year, Esperance et Vie. This will be more of her focus this trip. She has been translating and working with an American doctor who is down here for the week so she has been in the clinic each day since we arrived seeing a diverse variety of patients, from lacerations to malaria.

We have also started helping in an english class once a week for some of the teachers at the local Baptist High School. It was a pretty fun experience to see them converse and practice sentencing, so excited and eager to learn, the students have so much passion to learn english!

The return of Baby doc has not brought too much fuss to the north and things remain calm despite the Cholrea and the uncertain future of the government. The feeling of walking down the street and giving hugs and handshakes to friends here has been wonderful, it feels great to be back in our Haiti. We were at a church service last night and the singing and drumming was bursting through the seams of the room- it was a truly moving experience hearing the powerful voices in harmony with the steady drum.

N’ap Kenbe

M ak P

kids in the Nativity Village

this is how we travel

little trouble makers

A new partnership is formed with the farmers of Jagua Clara

new rabbits!

the composting project Peter was working on has continued to progress independently!

happy to see old friends

John and Ramon under a cocoa tree

more photos to come...

kids in Batay Saman

In Hagua Clara

Tomas is coming... in the garden at the IDDH farm in Terrier Rouge