TRAVELING INTO HAITI… 5 days in PAP

Wendesday

GOD’s Provision & Blessing…- Wednesday morning was an early 1. I got up at 3:00AM to head to the airport with my dad. I had 4 bags packed (3 at 70lbs and 1 at 50lbs). There was an embargo in place so the rules are you can only take 3 bags at 70lbs if you are flying first class (which I was for the baggage). I took an extra bag just in case they let me and to my surprise the LET ME! I am so thankful I was able to get that extra bag of supplies in. 

Super blessed to have 2 travel buddies into Haiti this time. Jenn was a surprise (I love that we met on a flight to Haiti a year ago & we were on both flights together)! Please pray that she has a wonderful visit with her daughter who has been in the process of adoption for over  3 years & Paperwork is very slow moving. They have run into roadblock after roadblock. Pray for favor and open doors in the rest of this adoption process. My second travel buddy was Deb. Deb & I were talking a few weeks ago & found out that we were both going back into Haiti the same day so I was able to plan to be on the same flight as she was. Deb was flying in to Haiti to surprise the young lady she has sponsored for years graduation from high school. I wish I could have been there to see the surprise look & excitement on Rosmine’s face. 

Deb and Jenn

All my bags arrived in PAP & made it through customs with no problems. I was super blessed that John Barnes who had come to pick up Deb at the airport also volunteered to transport all my bags up north so I would not have to pay the bus luggage fees. John was also a rockstar at helping me handle all my luggage & get it out of the airport! He was also very patient with me as I went through all my bags to find the supplies I would need for my week in PAP and changed out items from my carry ons. I sent everything up north except my carry-on and book bag. 

I then went straight from the airport to Healing Hands Rehabilitation Facility in PAP. It is quite the facility! I got to meet Gail who I had heard so many great things about from Morgan & Justin (Founders of STAND a rehab facility they are starting in PdP). Healing Hands was a 3 story rehab facility with a 3 story ramp system to make the entire building handicap accessible.  They had a check-in/waiting area for patients, a physical therapy gym, prosthetic lab that can make up to 10 prosthetic legs at a time, an area to adapt wheelchairs, a massage room, an ADL OT room, a Pediatric OT/PT gym, and a social worker on staff. Gail has been living in Haiti for 6 years. It was great to meet some of the Haitian Staff at the clinic many of whom have gone to other countries for education to learn PT. They had no certified OT’s on staff but did have a PT who is being cross-trained to be an OT and a Rehab Tech who is being trained to be an OT. I heard multiple times from different people the need for OT and ST in Haiti. It was also great to be able to give this clinic 1 of my resource binders. Gail felt that it would be very helpful to the staff for them to learn themselves as well as to use the parent handouts I have for the families they work with.  

Gail and I

Top: PT Clinic on Top
Bottom: 3 story Ramp and Classroom

Top: OT clinic
Bottum: Pediatric Gym

Top: Prostheti Lab
Bottum: Orthotic Lab and Equipment Adaptation Area

While in PAP I was blessed with the opportunity to stay with missionary friends Megan and Courtney. Courtney has been living in Haiti for a year and Megan for 6 months. In the states they both live just a few hours from me. I know Megan’s family from Miracle Mountain Ranch which is where my brother serves around Corey PA. I can't even begin to put into words what a blessing it was to meet their friends, see their ministry in action and get to know them both. 

THURSDAY

 I went with Courtney and Megan to an Orphanage “The Mango Tree”. They spend 2-3 days a week serving at & loving on the kids at this orphanage. I got to meet & play with many of the children. 3 of the kids I spent the most time with are

1. Moses- He is a 2 week old baby who was abandoned at the gate of the orphanage 2 weeks ago. He has been taken in and is being loved on at the Mango Tree Orphanage. I got to feed him and hold him. It was hard to feed him a bottle of mashed up and watered down cookies (as that is what they gave me because they did not have formula). What a precious little boy. After seeing my post on Facebook about Moses many have asked how they could help out with Moses to get formula. The best way is to donate $ so that Megan & Courtney can weekly take formula to the orphanage for him. Send me an email and I can give you instructions how to donate if you would like. 
2. Jeffry- He is a 2 year old cutie-pie who does not crawl or walk. He has developmental delay in many of his Gross Motor and Fine Motor skills. His brothers & sisters love him and they take care of him. I had the opportunity to to sit down on the floor and work with him for a while. I was able to get him standing while holding onto a bend for 10 minutes (poor guy thought I was torturing him though & I didn’t have anything to distract him with). I was able to educate one of the older boys who takes care of him on how to do a few strengthening activities/exercises with him. When I get back to the Miriam Center I will make a PVC  pipe stander for him as well and send it down to Megan to give to him.
3. Gaelle- She is a young lady who was able to come to the states a year ago and have a life changing surgery. She had double club foot surgery. She can now walk but her left foot never healed correctly and causes her a lot of pain. I talked to an orthopedic surgeon friend of mine and he believes in October he may be able to do surgery to relieve the pain. Next step is to get an x-ray to confirm if it is intact what dr. Dell thinks it is. If that is the case Gaelle will come up to the Miriam Center to have surgery in October.
   

FRIDAY

I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Espoir Village or Hope Home. They have 32 children with special needs. I have been wanting to visit this orphanage for a few years and I am so thankful for the opportunity to finally visit. It was so wonderful to work alongside there therapy staff and the “Momma’s”, love on these beautiful kiddos and get some new ideas for the Miriam Center. They have a wonderful staff that you can tell they love and care deeply about the kids! I loved that each kid had a customized wheelchair and bed. They are broken into little family groups for sleeping. I also love that during the morning they rotate through stations and so receive therapy and education. I hope to visit again sometime and maybe be able to do some training with their therapy staff. I was surprised to find that they have 6 therapy staff that work there daily. 2 of them had a rehab tech training but the rest of them were taught by therapist who came to Hope Home for a few weeks at a time and educated them. I was amazed by how much they knew. 

SATURDAY

 I was able to go to Mirabalae Haiti to see the town where Nahum and his therapy partner Joel are going to start their therapy clinic/special education school/farm. I rented a tap tap for the day and we had a full truck load of us that went. Nahum brought his wife, daughter, mother, brother, cousin, Joel, & Nahum. I brought with me Megan, Aunt Connie, and Sue. Mirabalae is in the mountains about an hour to an hour and a half from PAP. It is a beautiful drive changing from city, to desert with Cacti to tropical. We stopped at multiple places throughout the day.

The first stop we made was to visit the Hospital of Mirabalae. This is where Nahum and Joel did their first 3 month clinical. This is the biggest hospital in Haiti. When you walk in it is nicer than any hospital I have ever visited in the states. AND it is only 50gds per patient no matter how long they stay, no matter if they have an operation, If they get x-rays or CT scan. The pharmacy is free as well. They just built a new therapy building that looks huge from the outside. We were unable to look inside. Definitely the hospital I would choose if I had to go to a hospital in Haiti.

All of the doors at the clinic were metal with detailed designs in them

The emergency room entrance

The new Rehab building they just built but have not moved in yet

Rehab Gym 

Pediatric Rehab Gym

Nahum being silly

The beautiful view from the hospital

Beautiful decorations & plants throughout the hospital

The wall that displays donors

Next we went to see the piece of land that they hope to purchase. This land is what they would use to build their therapy clinic on. 

The land they hope to buy

Nahum, Me, Joel

We then went to the house that they are thinking about renting and did our first tour of it. This is also the guy who owns the land that they want to purchase. The guy is building a second story onto his house where he and his family will live. Then the owner is offering the entire first floor as a space that Nahum & Joel could rent for their therapy clinic start-up. The space is very nice with 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, a living room and kitchen. As we walked through we discussed how we could utilize the space and create a clinic within this home. We talked about seeing if we could turn the garage into a pediatric clinic space and knock a big doorway in the wall between the living space and the master bedroom to make a good size clinic space inside. Then Nahum & his family would live in the other space. 

Outside of House

Top: front vide from road & behind the house
Bottum: 2 of the bedrooms (which would be the living space for nahum family

Top: Master bedroom and living area (where we hope to open up & connect)
Bottum: Garage and hallway

It is in a good location located right off the main road
AND the land they want to buy is across the street

We then stopped at Joel’s family house. This is also where Nahum stayed during his 3 months of clinical at the Hospital of Mirabalae. It was so nice to meet Joel’s mom, dad, & 1 of his sisters. I loved watching Nahum interact with his family. Nahum told me that Joel’s family took such good care of him during his stay there. I also loved that Nahum’s family got to meet Joel’s. Nahum got really close to Joel’s niece and I love that Nahum’s daughter about the same age got to meet her and loved watching them play together & walk around holding hands. 

Top: Nahum hugging Joels day and the front of Joels House
Bottum: Aunt Sue & Connie and Joel's family portrait

Nahum's family portrait 

After leaving Joel’s house we stopped at a school that Joel started a few years ago to meet a need he saw in his community. The school used to be a government run school but the government shut it down. I guess for about a year the school was used for job training of some type and after that it shut down and was sitting there empty. The government gave Joel permission to open a primary school. His sister is 1 of the kindergarten classes. The last few year they have had 2 kindergarten classes and a first grade class. He hopes this coming year to add a special needs education classroom. Joel said he saw a need for this school after doing some community service in rehab where he found that many of his patients were not able to work and thus their kids were not able to go to school. The school he opened at first was free and they did not have to buy uniforms, etc. which most schools in haiti you have to pay tuition, buy uniforms, & pay for tests. The school is big enough to continue expanding to add more classrooms and has a beautiful field area attached for recess and activities outside. 

The outside of the school

The inside of the school

The field for recess and outside activities

We then headed to go see the only Hydroelectric plant in Haiti. It was built in 1982 (I think that is what was said). It provides electric to PAP, Cap Haitian, Gonaive and the towns in between. I have never seen anything like this in Haiti before. It was incredible to see and is in such a gorgeous area! Everyone Haitian and American were in Awe of this facility. 

We then started a long tap-tap ride back to PAP. Our truck kept breaking down and we stopped multiple times to buy fruit, food, and drinks. It was so wonderful though to catch up with the guys and we had good conversation during the tap-tap ride. 

Nahum and his wife

Nicholson, Me, Nahum

They dropped us off at a little town where Megan and Courtney have friends who have an Ocopella singing group. It was wonderful to spend the evening listening to them sing they are so talented. Wish I had good enough internet to upload them singing. Their group name is JBLM. The letters are the first letters of 4 of the members in the group and stand for Jesus shines in us. They want to make an impact in their community and be a model. 

 SUNDAY
In the morning I packed all my stuff up and we headed to church. We went to the Calvary Chapel in PAP. I was amazed at this church as it was so technilogically advanced. They had headsets for Americans with someone translating the entire service. The music was beautiful, they had ushers, etc. They had lots of fans so good airflow which kept it comfortable while you worshiped. I was leaving straight from church to head to the bus station. When we got out of church I had 9 missed calls from Nicholson. Unfortunately we both thought the bus left at 12 but is actually left at 11 and for once left right on time. I rushed to the bus station but was too late they sold my tickets and even though the bus was there I couldn't get on. I decided there must be a reason I stayed. It ended up being a relaxing day I took a nap, wrote this blog, watched a movie with Evanot (pictured below, she lives with Megan and Courtney), got to practice my creole a lot with her and 2 of their other Haitian friends that help us with transportation. We had a dance party and I got to try out Megan hammock (I am in love!) lol. It ended up being a wonderful day and I am actually thankful for missing the bus ;-) I am leaving for the bus station in 10 minutes to try again. Can't wait to get back to see my kids!!!!