We Can Build An Orphanage

Adventures in Haiti

OK over the next few weeks I thought I would share some experiences and opinions from my recent trip to Haiti, I hope you enjoy my thoughts. I am going to start off from the beginning, our first day in Port-au-Prince.

Oktober Family Fest Tickets

Tickets are on sale for our Oktober Family Festival and are limited, so get them while you can! You can pick your tickets up in Topanga at Waterlily, Mimosa, and the Saturday Abundant Harvest pickup, we can’t wait to see you:)

School Time!

Last Monday was the first day of school for 4 of our kids;  Luckson, Kettia, Yakime,and Sylvaince. Lia was asked by the direction of the school to not bring the kids to school herself. Although this has been a difficult pill to swallow we understand the stigma HIV has in this country and we do not want the school to suffer due to other parents ignorance. Although the four kids that started school are not HIV+ we are an orphanage that is associated with kids effected by HIV and that could cause an issue.

Amawanda’s Surprise Visit

Last week we decided to and visit Amawanda to see how she was doing with her family. We kept it a surprise visit so we would be able to get a true picture of how she really is being taken care of. Given the long drive Lia had in front of her she decided to ask Ambroise to come along and help out. The triplets have really missed Amawanda so we decided to take them along with us. The girls took some time to carefully choose a few presents for Amawanda from their clothes and toys. We then packed her another can of formula milk before we were on our way.

Wilky and Dancing

Wilky, our psychologist had to cancel the triplets session this past Friday and asked Lia if she could bring the girls Sunday afternoon instead. Lia figured she might as well take some more kids and a nanny with her and go to the beach in Jacmel while the girls were in their session.

Off to Haiti

Today part of the Topanga WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com crew is off to Haiti, on a Haiti Unites mission (you can see some of the organizations we will be visiting on our Haiti Unites page). We are traveling all over Haiti over the next few weeks and will be sure to keep you updated on all of our trip details as they occur.

I know what you may be thinking, but don’t worry Gala will be in Topanga, holding the fort down, and keeping the ball rolling on our exciting Oktober Family Fest. Be sure to check out our Oktober Family Fest page and see all of the people involved so far. We are pumped, and we hope you will join us.

LET’S HELP MARTIN GET TO SCHOOL!

On Tuesday morning we went to Pazapa (the school for handicap children) for Martin, our child with Cerebral Palsy evaluation and acceptance into school, yea!!!. He is accepted for 3 mornings a week, starting the week of Oct 5th. He will be attending school Tuesday’s, Wednesday,s and Fridays from 8 AM till 11 AM.

The good news is we do not have to pay anything for Pazapa. The only thing we have to figure out now is how and with whom Martin will attend Pazapa. Pazapa requires an adult stay with him the whole time he is in school. We still have 1 month to figure out those logistics.

Meet the Oktober Family Fest Bands!

As you may know by now WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com is hosting their first annual Oktober Family Fest, October 18^th, and we thought this would be a good time to introduce you to some of our musical acts. Fist off, Meet the Polsky Band! This amazing local family loves to get everyone in the mood for dancing with their old time bluegrass and fiddle music.

Next up is Peter Alsop who we all had the pleasure of meeting in last week’s blog.

Soccer at KROMA

Since Lia’s return to the orphanage from Holland the kids have been begging to go out in her car, especially Yakime and Luckson. So yesterday we went to visit KROMA (a local Jacmel home for street kids) to play soccer with the kids. Some of the kids are getting really big, a few of them are already 16 and 17. The crazy thing is, Lia has known these kids since they were 10!!

On the way back tfrom KROMA we stopped at Hotel Florita for a coke. After playing soccer all afternoon the kids were really thirsty. Lia realized it was time to go home when Yakime and Luckson started to dance on the table.

Presents from Holland

While Lia, our director extraordinaire was away from WeCanBuildanOrphanage visiting her family in Holland, her youngest brother Wieb and his girlfriend Leonore donated a bunch of really cool clothes and shoes to us. They have 4 kids ages 3,4,5, and 6. They have 1 girl and 3 boys so their donations were perfect for our kids.

As if that were not spectacular enough Lia’s oldest sister’s teenage girls, Kiki and Nina donated a bunch of stuffed animals to our kids. All in all she ended up carrying back a 52 pound suitcase.