Sacrifice was owned by a very good friend of mine, Reginald Turnier, who “sacrificed” it to us for a very reasonable price.

Sacrifice’s location is east of Jakmel, 10 minutes by car, a little of the only paved main road in the South of Haiti, Route National 208, and nestled under the protection of a rock formation which forms the base of the mountain range Kap Wouj (Cap Rouge) On paper the land measured 47 centiemes when we purchased it, but after the official land measurement executed by Arpanteur. Jean Maxo Bazile it turned out that the land actually measures 48 centiemes.

In Haiti one measures land in Carreaux. 1 carreau equals 100 centiemes, 1 centieme equals 128 square meters. 1 Carreau equals 3.19 acres…

This system of land measurements stems from the French colonial times. In any event, the land is beautiful. The earth is made up of red clay which is very fertile. Great for our future vegetable garden.

Since the land is on a slight tilt we have a beautiful far view on Jakmel and the mountains across from the Bay of Jakmel. The sun rises behind us, and sets right across from us, so the future holds many many beautiful sunsets. Our surroundings are very green, in front of us lays an ocean of palm and coconut trees.

The land itself has several fruits trees already, like mango, lime, korosol, coconuts, grapefruit and sour oranges, which are great to marinate meat with.

Lots of children are living in this area and behind us we find many little trails  for our kids to explore in the future. A big healthy exciting difference from the dusty area where we live now in St Helene, Jacmel.

I am madly in Love……………………….

with our new car:  A great Toyota Granvia minivan, diesel, 4 cylinders, 3 liter engine, imported straight from Japan by a local car-dealer, year 1996, only 80,000 miles on it   This car makes such a difference in our life, makes life so much less stressful, gives us freedom and a little more normalcy in life again, even-though the orphanage still lives in tents.

Toyota Granvia minivan

The orphanage has never had enough funding to buy it’s own car, so I have always put my own personal car to work for us, from hospital visits in Jakmel and/or PaP, weekly grocery shopping, to and from school, and of-course fun outings for our kids.

During our last “fun outing” to the local play ground in the center of town with our 5 oldest kids, last January 12th my car got completely destroyed by the earthquake. Since then life has been very difficult and challenging, living in tents, while trying to continue our life as normal as possible.

Not having a car available to you makes all of that even harder, and you realize that it is a must to have a good car to manage an orphanage with 13 little kids, of which 2 handicapped. No car means no more fun trips to the beach or playground, high expenses for a “for American standards” unacceptable car that functions as a taxi here, even before the earthquake, for our many hospital visits. Walking our groceries shopping home with a wheelbarrow all the way from the center of town to where we live. Etc etc……

But thanks to  my dear friends Gosta and Patrick and their yoga center http://svahayoga.com/ in Amsterdam we were able to buy this great family-car for the orphanage. They have specifically fund raised to replace my car, and this new car is so much better than my old car ever was.

So thank you Gosta and Patrick and Svahayoga. JAI MA. The first trip with our new car was one afternoon to the beach in Jakmel, last Monday 26 April and after that, last Wednesday afternoon 28 April we had a great birthday party for Melinda’s 8th birthday on the beach of Raymond Les Bains. We spend the whole afternoon playing in the water, playing soccer on the beach and instead of the traditional birthday cake we had fresh grilled fish, with fried plantains and piklees and lots of soda’s. The kids loved it.

When we came home later that afternoon Melinda said to me that this was the best birthday she ever had, and that from now on she wants to celebrate this way every year.

And for all our other kids these 2 afternoons away from the tents and dusty street, playing in the water, running their little hearts out on the beach, just having fun as kids, worked a miracle on their moods, they had a great time and were just so happy!!!!!

Life is still challenging for us of course, but it is a whole lot less difficult with this great new car. Mesi anpil!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You would think that the flood of media images would have appropriately set my expectations, but they couldn’t suppress the visions of the suffering witnessed by buildings like these:

There are tents everywhere now.  On fields, by the side of the road, and even on median strips of major city streets.  Three feet and a thin sheet of Coleman Nylon is all that separates people’s “bedrooms” from honking, speeding, diesel-spewing, 24/7 traffic.

New too are the signs for help.  Some of them are simple, hand-scrawled signs saying HELP! and a phone number.  Those with more resources post more elaborate listings of their losses:

Although Jacmel wasn’t subjected to the same scope of descruction as Port-au-Prince, many landmarks are gone or shadows of their former selves:

The local Kindergarten is destroyed along with the house next to it shown above.

One of the four gas stations in and around town.

Hotel Florita, built in 1888.  Only one of the shutters remains of chambre trois, the room I stayed in during my last visit.

About 3,000 of the displaced found temporary shelter in a camp set up by the Venezualean army on a soccer field.

One of the homeless there is Tektek, a friend of Lia’s.  I happened to run into him in town and he took me to his new “village”.   His new “house” there is a 6 by 8 foot section of tent with a mud floor and a rip in the roof:

Our current digs consist of a 400 sqft. UNICEF tent and a few smaller tents arranged around a central play area, all wedged between a public road and a hotel.

While the kids are fairly healthy and content for now, as soon as the rains arrive in April and the hurricanes in August, life will become hard.  Keeping thirteen kid, many with major health issues, safe, happy, fed and educated in a tent is a major feat.  Hats off to Lia for managing the day-to-day

The staff is already stressed by the added strain

While I was there, we covered the area as best as we could with a huge tarp to keep the sun and rain out,

Relief to this situation was supposed to arrive while we were visiting.  This brings us to the major disappointment of the trip: the domes never arrived while we were visiting.  One delay after the next has kept them in a warehouse in Miami till now.

A huge positive development, though, is the fact that the orphanage secured the perfect piece of land for the orphanage:

It’s one and a half acres in a rural area just outside Jacmel, near the airport, nestled among small farms.  There is plenty of room for our dome, a house for Lia, a guest house for visiting volunteers, a garden, play area…

Here we are, celebrating the signing of the paperwork that makes the property ours (from left to right: ?, Frantz, Lia, Gala, Katherine of Bumi Sehat, Reginald, my mother Erika):

How are Rochel, Frantz and Ambroise, you ask?  Just fine, actually.  Here they are resting after a long day at work:

Our rescued dog Toutous is doing well also.  Despite her paralyzed back, she gets around and is very playful.

On Wednesday, we attended the grand opening of Bumi Sehat, a birthing clinic just down the street from us.  Reginald is the administrative director:

A part of their clinic is housed in the exact same dome that we are expecting.

Ever since the earthquake happened I have been wanting to talk about our staff, and show you all their damaged or totally destroyed houses as well. It took me until today to finally find a moment to write about them, and also collecting photo’s of their homes to show you.

Elmas Juselene, 1 of our cooks. Her roof had fallen down on her 1-story home

The worst off of our staff are the two laundry ladies, Fernande and Ginette. Both their homes were destroyed completely. Then there is Elmas, 1 of the cooks, her house is not livable any more, the roof fall down. The rest of the staff various from minor damage to major cracked walls, not sure yet if those can be repaired or if they would have to rebuild.

I am hoping that we as an organization will be able to fund-raise enough money not only to rebuild our orphanage but also to reach out to our staff and help them rebuild and /or repair their homes as well.

Today it is exactly 1 month ago that we had the 7.1 earthquake.

The government together with all churches has called for a 3-day “conge”. Conge means “day off” in Kreyol.  This to remember all people that have died, but also all the people that survived but now live in very bad circumstances. For 3 days people will be praying everywhere, in churches, in groups in the street, in the peristile, (Voodoo tempel) Processions are taking the street, during the day but also as early as 3 AM in the morning Shops and banks are closed.

When the earthquake just had happened, I realized with a big shock that we just had survived a major earthquake. The next shock that hit me was the realization that our house was severely damaged, and that we therefor were homeless, and I really asked myself: “How am I going to solve this one?”

Daily life in Ayiti (Kreyol spelling for Haiti) is a chain of problem solving, because everything is so difficult here always. There is hardly any infrastructure, electricity very unreliable, just available for a few hours a day, sometimes none for days in a row.

Something that will only take maybe 2 hours to accomplish in the States, might take up to 2 weeks in Ayiti, and even then many times it is only half way done right. I am used to living this way, it makes you very creative and resourceful. Whenever I am in New York, I am always amazed that whenever you turn a light-switch, for sure a light will come on. Whenever you turn the water faucet, water will come out. You even are guaranteed of a choice between hot and cold water.

Anyway, back to the earthquake of 12 January, this time I did not see a real solution for the problem right away. At that moment I had no idea we would not have to deal with all of this misery on our own, like we normally have to in Ayiti, because Ayiti seems not to be on the map. I could not have imagined how the whole world would reach out to us, and make all these amazing rescue and aid efforts. It is absolutely amazing what everybody out there in the world, and in my home country The Netherlands is doing for all of us.

I can hardly find enough words to thank you all. All your love and support has really given me the courage to continue to take care of our 13 kids as best as I can, even under these very challenging circumstances. The knowledge that thanks to all the financial support we are receiving our children will be secured of a good future where they will get to live in their own home, built to their needs is just amazing. We all down here, our kids, my staff and myself thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts.

Mesi anpil, as we say in Kreyol, thank you

Last tuesday afternoon at around 5 PM there was another after shock. Youseline said she flew up in the air with chair and all and then fall back down on earth. After that she started laughing uncontrollably and couldn’t stop for the longest time.

So endearing and funny to see a little 8-year old orphan, HIV+,  earthquake survivor, who is homeless and lives in a tent in the street get such a kick out of a potential dangerous after shock I couldn’t help myself but to laugh along with her……………

Today we were visited by a group from TCAT. Through my friend Joe Duplan they had heard about us and donated 5 FilterPure clay water-filters with special silver lining baked into the clay to the orphanage.

Please check out their website at: http://www.filterpurefilters.org

We will now be able to filter any kind of water to drink. We will also start using the filtered water to bathe our children with, since they have compromised immunity systems due to their HIV + status. The air and ground is full of dust, germs and microbes.

Watch the video produced by FilterPure:

Lisa Ballantine, Executive Director of FilterPure, is in Port-au Prince addressing the need for safe water. She writes, “I am overwhelmed by the situation of the people living here and touched by this tragedy. We are here with a group of 14 people working together and bringing in water filters for these families, trying as hard as we can to overcome this serious problem.

LISA SHAVED HER HEAD IN THE STREETS OF PORT-AU-PRINCE: A CHALLENGE TO WOMEN TO PURCHASE A LIFE SAVING WATER FILTER WHICH COSTS ABOUT THE SAME AS A HAIR CUT. Learn more about FilterPure’s Hope For Haiti Project here: http://www.filterpurefilters.org/h2o4haiti/index.htm

Reprinted from: Financial Advisor Magazine

People who give to charities providing earthquake relief in Haiti can claim the donations this year under recently adopted tax provisions, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Taxpayers who itemize deductions on their 2009 return qualify for the special tax relief provision, which was enacted January 22, according to the IRS. Only cash contributions made to these charities after January 11, 2010, and before March 1, 2010, are eligible. This includes contributions made by text message, check, credit card or debit card.

“Americans have opened their hearts to help those affected by the Haiti earthquake,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a prepared statement. “This new law provides an immediate tax benefit for the many taxpayers who have made generous donations.”

The new law only applies to cash, as opposed to property, contributions, according to the IRS. The contributions must be made specifically for the relief of victims in areas affected by the January 12 earthquake in Haiti. Taxpayers have the option of deducting these contributions on either their 2009 or 2010 returns, but not both. To get a tax benefit, taxpayers must itemize their deductions on Schedule A. Those who claim the standard deduction, including all short-form filers, are not eligible.

The IRS noted that taxpayers need to be sure their contributions go to qualified charities. Most organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible donations are listed in a searchable online database available on IRS.gov under “Search for Charities.”

Some organizations, such as churches or governments, may be qualified even though they are not listed on IRS.gov, according to the IRS. Donors can find out more about organizations helping Haitian earthquake victims from agencies such as USAID at www.usaid.gov.  Contributions to foreign organizations generally are not deductible, according to the IRS.

http://www.fa-mag.com/fa-news/5117-haiti-donations-eligible-for-09-tax-returns.html

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to We Can Build An Orphanage today!

We Can Build An Orphanage is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. All contributions are tax-deductible. Our EIN (tax id number) is: 20-8660929

If you prefer to send a check, please send it to our US office:

WeCanBuildAnOrphanage.com
1291 Will Geer Road
Topanga, California 90290

The Dutch media crew from RTL4  that had visited us last friday had promised us to try to get us a big tent from the Dutch marines who have come in to Port au Prince, to help Haiti after the quake.

On Sunday I received an e-mail from Martin van Norel from RTL4 with the good news that this will happen. Then today another e-mail from Rik Konijnenbelt from RTL4 with the confirmation that indeed tomorrow 2 shelter-boxes (storm-proof tents) will be delivered to us by the Dutch marines in person.

Then this afternoon around 3.30 PM a phone call from the Dutch marines themselves asking me for directions to our orphanage!!!!

The Dutch marines

They had just come in from PaP, just to deliver these tents to us. FANTASTIQUE!!!!!!

Within 10 minutes 3 army jeeps pulled up in front of us, and a whole bunch of very Dutch looking marines jumped out with the 2 shelter boxes. In no time they set up the tents for us, which are beautiful by the way, and then off they went again, back to PaP.

The whole visit lasted a mere 30 minutes.

We are all soooo excited. Tomorrow morning we will have a lot of work to do, to clean up the rest of our new claimed land across the street to set up a permanent little tent village, which will be our new home for a while to come.

I am so proud of my motherland, Holland, The Netherlands. It is amazing what every body in/from Holland is doing for us.

And I love the Dutch marines, they are the best, THANK YOU SO MUCH And thank you Rik, Martin and Hans from RTL4.

Amawanda Pierre on October 17, 2007, her first day with us, severely malnourished and dehydrated

In our care she spend about 2 weeks in the hospital on oxygen and a drip, and came totally back to life, to become a very healthy, beautiful big girl.  In the summer of 2009 we had located her mother’s aunt up in the mountains far East from Jakmel, a place called Macary. After assuring she would be well taken care of by her family we reunited Amawanda with her family.

Then after a few months her deceased mother’s sister Gina came for her from Port au Prince.  She took little Amawanda back with her to live with her in PaP, put her in school and raise her for her sister’s memory.  We thought it was a beautiful ending to that story.  We were so happy for Amawanda, even though we miss her a lot, she was such a presence in our Kay Angel.

Now today Monday 25, January 2010 we still have not been able to get in touch with Gina or Gina’s aunt in Macaryto know if they and Amawanda are okay.

We are praying for her and will continue to look for her until we know she is hopefully okay……………

When the crew from RTL 4 News was here, they gave us some medical supplies from their travel survival kit. Some of it we can use very well, but other items like blood plasma, and lots of gauze we do not need for the moment.  So in the afternoon I quickly went over to see our Dr. Ernest at the hospital to give him these items. He was very happy with them, he certainly has use for all of it, he said with his big smile.

Dr Ernest with Idoris, Yakime is coming to check  out the medical files

Then  I asked him if he please could find some time to come and see us for his monthly visit. Obviously he missed his January visit that was scheduled for Friday 15, January 2010. At that time he was way too busy with all the victims of the earthquake at the hospital, and we decided that at that time he was needed there much more than with us.

By now, after living in the street for 11 days, I feel that is is important that our kids have a medical check-up.

Our little Zaël, who will turn 2 on March 15, 2010 has developed some skin problems, caused by all the germs in the dust on the street. I knew from day 1 living in the street, that these problems will occur.  Sophie has some of the same skin problems as well, the doctor has prescribed cortisone for them.

The dust has many more illnesses to offer, like colds, fevers and flu’s.

It is a good thing that we found that extra tent, so that the kids can play in there, away from all the dirt. Our sleeping tent is great at night, but in the daytime it is way too hot to be inside, because it has no protection from the hot sun.

The other tent is shaded by a tree.

As I am writing this update another big shock……………………………………