We made it home!! After waking up at 6am this morning, 2 flights, and a 5 hours layover in Miami, we made it back to Raleigh around 7:30pm. We were both so excited to be back, but also a little sad to say goodbye again. We spent yesterday playing with the kids and loving on them as much as possible before we had to leave. I gave them all lots of hugs and kisses, and promised I'd be back soon. While I don't know how much they understood, I know they all know we love them. Plus, they remembered us from last time, so we must have made a pretty good impression! These last ten days have flown by, and while there were some bumpy parts, we all made it, had tons of fun, and would go back again! I love those kids, I love Dorothy and the work she's doing, and I love that Country.
I am so grateful for everyone that helped us get to Haiti, and I'm so grateful for everyone that impacted our time there. Huge shout out to Dorothy Pearce, Katie Benner, and Samuel Chery for all of their time and love they shared with us this week! You are all amazing, and we are extremely blessed to call you our friends. May God bless you in all you do!
While I was sad to say goodbye, I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. There's no where better than home. Thanks again to everyone!! I'll update more, finish the hospital story, and post pictures soon! Sleep and laundry have to come first though!
Goodnight everyone and thanks again!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Haiti Day Nine: Quick Update
I'm really tired tonight and the power keeps going out so tonight's update will have to be quick. We got to do some souvenir shopping today and I got some really beautiful paintings, artwork, and jewelry. The apparent project was amazing and I wish I had brought more money to buy more things. The sunburn is quite painful today and being out in the sun was not fun at all. By the time we walked to the Apparent Project I was feeling quite nauseas and overheated. Sunburn is not fun at all here. We spent the afternoon napping and trying to cool off while praying for power. We finished the outside mural tonight. The kids were excited about it this morning, so they will only love it more tomorrow! Right now we have city power and we just keep praying it will stay on long enough to charge the inverter so we can have power all night. We drained the batteries on the inverter this morning so we need city power for a few hours to recharge it. Please pray that the power will stay on. It's about my only relief from this sunburn and heat. I'm going to enjoy the cold shower tonight and head to bed. Tomorrow is our last day, and then home on Thursday!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Haiti Day Seven & Eight: Beach and Sunburn
Sorry I didn't update last night, we were all exhausted after our wonderful day at the beach!! Katie got here around 9, and we headed out for the beach around 9:30. We didn't hit any traffic on the way there, which is amazing for Haiti! We did get to one street that was super flooded, which made for some interesting driving. We had to inch, and I mean inch past a large truck which was a little frightening, but very impressive to watch Katie do. We made it to the beach in a little over an hour, and as soon as we saw the water we all immediately felt relaxed. We went into this little resort type place that cost us $20 to get in for the day. As we walked down the beautifully landscaped walkway, we could see the crystal clear water and were so excited to get in. We ordered our lunch, got in the water, and swam out to these little floating piers. It was gorgeous and perfect in every way! We came in, took some pictures, enjoyed our lunch, and then walked over to another little area where we could jump off the wall into the water. It was amazing!!!!!!! The best part however, is that all of these men were on row boats selling rides to the visitors. Katie asked him how much it would cost and it was only 100 goude to ride, and to use the goggles to snorkel were another 100 goude which roughly converts to about $5 US. He took us out to this gorgeous area with tons of coral to snorkel around. We all got in and snorkeled for about an hour, looked at all the pretty fish, quickly swam away from about seven jelly fish, and just relaxed. I've never been snorkeling and it was breathtaking! It was probably the best day I've had in a very long time. I've never been to a beach so beautiful or relaxing.
Unfortunately, because my skin sucks, I got fried to a crisp. I tried my best to not get burnt, putting sunscreen on at least five times, but I guess the sun here doesn't mesh well with my skin. I'm hurting pretty badly today, and spent the majority of my day laying in bed with my straps down. My thighs are burned, the sides of my legs are burnt, my back and shoulders are crispy, and it is just about miserable. The heat here makes it 100x worse I think, and I really just want to lay and not move until it goes away. Sleeping was next to impossible last night, I woke up every time I moved. I'm hoping i'll sleep better tonight and I'm hoping icing it and ibuprofen will help take some of the pain away soon. I hate being this burnt away from home. Only two more days though, I think i'll survive if I keep myself covered in aloe and stay on ibuprofen all day.
Tomorrow we are going to do a little bit of souvenir shopping and get some paintings. Meredith and Jess are really excited and I'm highly looking forward to experiencing their first shopping experience in Haiti! We will get to go to the Apparent Project tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon with Katie. I saw their organization on the special Oprah did when she came to Haiti. I mentioned to Jess when we watched it that I would love to see it one day, but had no clue where it was. Come to find out it is walking distance from Dorothy's house. I'm so excited to see it and get some nice handmade things! If I can make it through these two days and not die from pain, they will be a lot of fun!
Here are some pictures as promised:
Unfortunately, because my skin sucks, I got fried to a crisp. I tried my best to not get burnt, putting sunscreen on at least five times, but I guess the sun here doesn't mesh well with my skin. I'm hurting pretty badly today, and spent the majority of my day laying in bed with my straps down. My thighs are burned, the sides of my legs are burnt, my back and shoulders are crispy, and it is just about miserable. The heat here makes it 100x worse I think, and I really just want to lay and not move until it goes away. Sleeping was next to impossible last night, I woke up every time I moved. I'm hoping i'll sleep better tonight and I'm hoping icing it and ibuprofen will help take some of the pain away soon. I hate being this burnt away from home. Only two more days though, I think i'll survive if I keep myself covered in aloe and stay on ibuprofen all day.
Tomorrow we are going to do a little bit of souvenir shopping and get some paintings. Meredith and Jess are really excited and I'm highly looking forward to experiencing their first shopping experience in Haiti! We will get to go to the Apparent Project tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon with Katie. I saw their organization on the special Oprah did when she came to Haiti. I mentioned to Jess when we watched it that I would love to see it one day, but had no clue where it was. Come to find out it is walking distance from Dorothy's house. I'm so excited to see it and get some nice handmade things! If I can make it through these two days and not die from pain, they will be a lot of fun!
Here are some pictures as promised:
I am absolutely in love with Johnny!
The four of us on the roof enjoying the sunset.
Meet Lovena, the newest little baby.
I think i'll bring her home!
The view of the beach we visited. How gorgeous is that?!
The view of the beach from the pool.
Have I mentioned how much I love this Country and these kids????
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Haiti Day Six: Hospital Part One
Today has been a whirlwind of a day. It started off normal, we got up, ate breakfast, and played with the babies. I loved on Lovena for awhile until she fell asleep in my arms. I've fallen in love with that sweet little girl, I could just eat her up she's so cute! When I went to lay her down I noticed Tamara was awake. When I went to talk to her, Tamara had this weird expression on her face like she was in a lot of pain. I reached to pick her up and as she tried to lift herself up she started crying and stopped trying. When I picked her up she just started wailing, and I mean WAILING! That was when I knew something wasn't right. You see, Tamara has brittle bone disease which means she breaks bones VERY easily. I gave her to one of the nannies and as she sat still the crying stopped. The nanny kept asking her where it hurt and she wasn't responding. We left her to the nannies and didn't think much about it. We spent the majority of the morning outside playing with the older kids until they had to eat lunch. After we ate lunch around 12:30, I noticed one of the nannies trying to pick up Tamara to feed her and that's when her wailing began again. We all immediately knew she had to of broken something. The nanny sat down and we noticed Tamara's left thigh was very swollen. Jesula, the nanny in charge of healthcare, got Sha Sha to come to me and translate that they thought her femur was broken. From what they could gather they think Tamara tried to stand up in the crib, fell, and landed badly on her leg. Jesula asked that we call Dorothy, since she was away in Gonaives, but we had no phone. The nannies were all out of minutes on their phones, so we started racking our brains to figure out what to do for Tamara. We gave her some ibuprofen for the swelling, and then decided to walk to Katie's house to have her call Dorothy.
When we got to Katie's they were busy cooking spaghetti for their youth event this evening. Katie called Dorothy, and she recommended we splint Tamara's leg and take her to the hospital. Luckily yesterday morning we had just learned how to splint a fracture, so we got the supplies and I was able to wrap Tamara's little leg up. It broke my heart to hear her scream as I did it, but I had to. Katie, Meredith, Jesula, Esther (another nanny), Tamara, and I packed into Katie's school car and headed to the hospital. Haiti is a very bad place to drive an injured person around. Katie tried so hard to drive slowly as to not hurt her more. Luckily Tamara didn't cry the whole way, we think the splint helped keep her leg stable.
When got to the hospital, were able to drive straight in, and headed to the orthopedic doctor's area. A nurse told us that the orthopedic doctor was not in that day but that they could take an x-ray to see if it was broken and then we could come back. Katie, Meredith, and I had originally planned to drop the nannies off and come back later to pick them up, but they said the x-ray wouldn't take long so we waited. When we got to the waiting area, an American doctor came over to check on Tamara's leg. As she felt the right leg, she couldn't feel any abnormalities but as she lifted it Tamara started crying so she figured there was some sensitivity in her hip. As she undid the splinted leg and started to push on it, while Tamara is screaming out of control I might add, she described her femur as feeling crunchy. They rushed her to the x-ray and took it from her hip to her knee. When it came back, about an hour later, they let us know that Tamara had indeed fractured her left femur and it would need to be taken care of.
The orthopedic doctor had come in, but was in surgery so he could not cast it. They said they'd give her an IV to sedate her and just splint it again, and that it'd only take an hour and we could come back Monday for a cast. We decided again to wait with the nannies thinking it wouldn't take long and about thirty minutes later they called Jesula and Tamara back. It was at least two hours before we ever heard anything from the doctors. Two hours later Jesula came out, holding her side, and informed us that they made her stand inside, holding Tamara the whole two hours. They would not let her sit and she had really bad cramps. When Jesula came out they had just taken Tamara to start her IV. To say we were a little frustrated would put it lightly. Again we thought the IV/splinting process would only take an hour so we stayed figuring it was pointless to leave and have to turn right back around. It was another good two hours before we heard anything at all from the Doctors. Katie finally found a doctor to ask and he let us know that they were able to cast it, and she was awake, but that Tamara would have to sit up and drink water before she could leave. An hour later Jesula came out holding Tamara who has a cast from her foot all the way up her leg and over her hips. We packed the car and headed home with her after dropping Jesula off to go home. What we thought would be a one hour hospital visit turned into over 6 hours. To say we are exhausted is an understatement. The Haitian hospital was an experience to say the least! We all left very thirsty, hungry, and weak, but happy to have Tamara taken care of and be on our way home. Once we got home we filled Dorothy in on the day, made some dinner, and chugged water since we had only had one bottle all day. There are so many other stories to share about our experience at the hospital, and this is honestly the short version of Tamara's day but I am exhausted and need to head to bed. Hospital Part Two to come tomorrow.
Please keep little Tamara in your prayers as she heals!
Beach here we come tomorrow!!!
When we got to Katie's they were busy cooking spaghetti for their youth event this evening. Katie called Dorothy, and she recommended we splint Tamara's leg and take her to the hospital. Luckily yesterday morning we had just learned how to splint a fracture, so we got the supplies and I was able to wrap Tamara's little leg up. It broke my heart to hear her scream as I did it, but I had to. Katie, Meredith, Jesula, Esther (another nanny), Tamara, and I packed into Katie's school car and headed to the hospital. Haiti is a very bad place to drive an injured person around. Katie tried so hard to drive slowly as to not hurt her more. Luckily Tamara didn't cry the whole way, we think the splint helped keep her leg stable.
When got to the hospital, were able to drive straight in, and headed to the orthopedic doctor's area. A nurse told us that the orthopedic doctor was not in that day but that they could take an x-ray to see if it was broken and then we could come back. Katie, Meredith, and I had originally planned to drop the nannies off and come back later to pick them up, but they said the x-ray wouldn't take long so we waited. When we got to the waiting area, an American doctor came over to check on Tamara's leg. As she felt the right leg, she couldn't feel any abnormalities but as she lifted it Tamara started crying so she figured there was some sensitivity in her hip. As she undid the splinted leg and started to push on it, while Tamara is screaming out of control I might add, she described her femur as feeling crunchy. They rushed her to the x-ray and took it from her hip to her knee. When it came back, about an hour later, they let us know that Tamara had indeed fractured her left femur and it would need to be taken care of.
The orthopedic doctor had come in, but was in surgery so he could not cast it. They said they'd give her an IV to sedate her and just splint it again, and that it'd only take an hour and we could come back Monday for a cast. We decided again to wait with the nannies thinking it wouldn't take long and about thirty minutes later they called Jesula and Tamara back. It was at least two hours before we ever heard anything from the doctors. Two hours later Jesula came out, holding her side, and informed us that they made her stand inside, holding Tamara the whole two hours. They would not let her sit and she had really bad cramps. When Jesula came out they had just taken Tamara to start her IV. To say we were a little frustrated would put it lightly. Again we thought the IV/splinting process would only take an hour so we stayed figuring it was pointless to leave and have to turn right back around. It was another good two hours before we heard anything at all from the Doctors. Katie finally found a doctor to ask and he let us know that they were able to cast it, and she was awake, but that Tamara would have to sit up and drink water before she could leave. An hour later Jesula came out holding Tamara who has a cast from her foot all the way up her leg and over her hips. We packed the car and headed home with her after dropping Jesula off to go home. What we thought would be a one hour hospital visit turned into over 6 hours. To say we are exhausted is an understatement. The Haitian hospital was an experience to say the least! We all left very thirsty, hungry, and weak, but happy to have Tamara taken care of and be on our way home. Once we got home we filled Dorothy in on the day, made some dinner, and chugged water since we had only had one bottle all day. There are so many other stories to share about our experience at the hospital, and this is honestly the short version of Tamara's day but I am exhausted and need to head to bed. Hospital Part Two to come tomorrow.
Please keep little Tamara in your prayers as she heals!
Beach here we come tomorrow!!!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Haiti Day Five
It has been a very exciting day around here! We all woke up early to greet the physical therapist from Johns Hopkins that came to teach the ladies some basic tips. I think they all really enjoyed it and got a lot of good information on how to care for sprains, injuries, and how to work with Son Son to get him walking. It was encouraging to see the ladies actively trying out the techniques with him in the afternoon. Son Son will be walking in no time with the help he gave! I know we all learned a lot from his class today as well.
The most exciting part of today was when the newest baby arrived. She is nine months old, a little malnourished, but absolutely beautiful!! Her name is Lovena and I think she is going to do great here. We all took turns loving on her, and decided her smile is so contagious. She had been living with her Grandmother and not receiving proper nutrition. Kez brought her to Dorothy to get her strong and healthy before returning her to the grandmother. She precious I tell ya!! Precious! Lovena will go for blood tests soon, and we are praying she doesn't have anything serious.
We also got to spend a lot more time with the kids today and love on them all. I am absolutely in love with Johnny and Biguerson. Their smiles, laughs, hugs, and tons of kisses will make anyone smile. They get so excited to see us everytime we come outside. The best part however is that they always make sure to come to our room to give us hugs and kisses when they get home from school. I just can't even tell you how much I love these kids!
We also did our first pizza night with the younger kids today. Since Dorothy will not be here tomorrow for dinner we decided to do it with the older ones tomorrow so Sha Sha can help us translate. The little ones were so excited, but the older kids cried their eyes out when they couldn't come upstairs. It breaks my heart and I just wish I could make them understand that they will get their turn tomorrow night. Either way watching their little faces light up when they saw pizza on the table made it all better.
Tomorrow we're on our own, and may possibly have a team from Georgia stop by to play with the kids. We will get to play hostess for the day. Please pray that we can keep city power. The heat is taking it's toll, and when we don't have fans the days become very long and difficult.
The most exciting part of today was when the newest baby arrived. She is nine months old, a little malnourished, but absolutely beautiful!! Her name is Lovena and I think she is going to do great here. We all took turns loving on her, and decided her smile is so contagious. She had been living with her Grandmother and not receiving proper nutrition. Kez brought her to Dorothy to get her strong and healthy before returning her to the grandmother. She precious I tell ya!! Precious! Lovena will go for blood tests soon, and we are praying she doesn't have anything serious.
We also got to spend a lot more time with the kids today and love on them all. I am absolutely in love with Johnny and Biguerson. Their smiles, laughs, hugs, and tons of kisses will make anyone smile. They get so excited to see us everytime we come outside. The best part however is that they always make sure to come to our room to give us hugs and kisses when they get home from school. I just can't even tell you how much I love these kids!
We also did our first pizza night with the younger kids today. Since Dorothy will not be here tomorrow for dinner we decided to do it with the older ones tomorrow so Sha Sha can help us translate. The little ones were so excited, but the older kids cried their eyes out when they couldn't come upstairs. It breaks my heart and I just wish I could make them understand that they will get their turn tomorrow night. Either way watching their little faces light up when they saw pizza on the table made it all better.
Tomorrow we're on our own, and may possibly have a team from Georgia stop by to play with the kids. We will get to play hostess for the day. Please pray that we can keep city power. The heat is taking it's toll, and when we don't have fans the days become very long and difficult.
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