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.

Idoris was our little boy who, even though he just had turned 3 last May 17th 2010, looked like a 6 months old baby, because he was severely handicapped.

On May 17th 2007 Idoris was left at the doorsteps of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in DesChapelles in the north of Haiti. According to the doctor who examined him at that time he was a day old, and at that time it was not apparent something was wrong with Idoris.

The last 2 years Idoris has been in our care. He came to us through a physiotherapist friend of ours, Chery Kay who was working at that hospital at the time and took notice of Idoris. She told us he was laying in a little crib, appeared to be blind, deaf and paralyzed, was only given milk through a tube straight into his stomach 3 times a day.

No-one seemed to have the time to hold him, rock him, give him love and affection. It was a very sad existence for Idoris. Chery then asked us of we could please take him, and of course he was welcome with us.

From the moment Idoris came to live with us we started to try to find out what was wrong with him, in hope for a cure. After many tests, a head-scan, MRI and an examination by an American neuro-surgeon it turned out that Idoris had microcephalie. This is a condition in which the head does not grow along with the speed the body grows, and in his case it was even worse, he also had liquid in his head, so not enough space for any brain tissue to develop. So Idoris had no brain tissue, just the brain stem.

Nothing could be done for him, no medication, no operation,  nothing could cure him. The surgeon told me that the only thing I could do for Idoris was to keep him as comfortable as possible, that that way he could still live for many years to come, but he also told me to prepare myself for the fact that Idoris could die at any given moment just like that.

It is still a mystery to me how this sweet little life was able to function, breathe etc the way he did without any brain tissue. Every few seconds Idoris suffered a little seizure, by some doctors explained as a spasm, which made his little head shake.

He always had trouble breathing, more than once did we rush him to the hospital in the middle of the night, or at 6 Am one time, because he was not breathing anymore, had a high temperature of  103 F and his eyes had turned away in his head, showing us only the white.

2 of those 3 times it was “false” alarm, the moment the doctor in charge at the emergency room came to look at him he turned “normal” again, his temperature had dropped and his eyes were back to normal. One other time we had to admit him to the hospital and he spend 10 days on oxygen and a drip.

When Idoris was hungry or in pain, had problems again with his digestion and needed a suppository to be able to go to the bathroom he was able to cry to let us know about it, but in all those 2 years I have never seen him smile or laugh.

I find it very intriguing that one can cry, because you are hungry or in pain, even without brain tissue, but that happiness, joy does not have a clear form of expression in that stage of awareness. But I am sure that even though we never heard or saw Idoris smile or laugh, he did have the best life possible for him with us, and that he did experience some form of happiness or contentment, at least I really wish that for him.

I have always felt that somehow he was aware of it, every time I held him, touched him, fed him etc. His eyes would always roll around more than usual at those moments, as if he was searching to see me.

He received so much love, attention, affection etc the last 2 years with us, I hope that that made up some for his first year in this life that he passed quite miserable and lonely. Since the last year Idoris was able to eat more substantial food, like baby food. It could take him almost a full hour, but with a lot of love and patience from us feeding him he did manage to eat 2 cans of baby-food a day.

The week before he died Idoris had us worry a lot again. He was having a mild temperature, and so as usual we did all the obvious tests for him, like typhoid, malaria etc, you do in the tropics when someone has a persistent temperature.  It turned out that he had malaria. And even though his temperature that week had never surpassed 101 F, in fact his temperature 1 hour before he died was 98 F, and since friday he was on anti-malaria medication, most likely the malaria was too much to handle for him.

Last Thursday June 17th we buried Idoris on our new land. Between 4 and 5 PM that afternoon all our friends and staff came to say goodbye to Idoris. For 1 hour our staff sang and prayed for him in the front-yard of the old damaged orphanage, where we held our wake for him. After that we took him to his final resting place with a few close friends.

In Haiti you are allowed to bury your loved ones on your own land, and in Haitian tradition we had build him a “kav” a tomb which is above ground, see pictures below.

According to Haitian beliefs the first person buried on a piece of land, automatically become the “Baron” of that land. Which means, that that person becomes the protector of the land and all who live on that land………….who is us in the near future.

So from now on it is Baron Idoris.

Baron Idoris was very dear to me, I was totally in love with this little boy, he was so cute and adorable, and very special in his own way. A little miracle that he was able to live this long, without brain tissue, blind and deaf, his little body totally stiff.

We really miss him a lot, but at the same time we also do feel at peace with it and glad for him that he has some rest now, and does not need to struggle so much anymore for every next breath.

ADIEU BARON IDORIS

Please be aware there are pictures of Idoris’ body at his wake in this gallery

For weeks now the rainy season is in full gear. Lots of heavy rains, wind and too many problems for all of us who are living in tent camps. There is mud everywhere, the water with mud enters our Unicef tent every-time it rains.

The plastic roof that covers our daytime area does not hold up under the heavy rain etc etc.

To move the kids at night from the Unicef tent into the sleeping tents is very challenging and stressful under those heavy rains. So we had to come up with something better than our tent-site for now.

Obviously the construction of our new orphanage will take a few months before that will be finished. Dave Bird and his wife Darlys have moved to Jakmel post earthquake for a period of 3 years to help several projects, schools and orphanages to rebuild, be it temp shelter or permanent housing for the future.

Every 2 weeks they host and feed a group of volunteers and put them on local projects.

For 2 days and 2 nights we put our kids up in the basement of Leviya Hotel across the street from us, and worked from 7 AM till 7 PM to build this new temp house.

We took down our current camp site, and with the help of a bulldozer and many trucks of dirt mixed with rocks, we evened out our little piece of land and raised it quite a bit. After living on it for the past 3 months the whole ground had sacked, and it had never really been straight to begin with.

At first we had planned to build a strong corrugated roof over our campsite, but while building we saw many possibilities to make it more into a “real” home. Recycling materials we already had as well. What used to be our floors we now used for our new walls, and our former plastic sheet roof is now our new floor.

A week later we finished the details, like putting in  a screen to keep bugs out, but to let some air in so the house will not be too hot under the strong Haitian sun. A few truckloads with river stones to fill in our front yard and keep it mud free, and a little wall between us and the public road to keep out the muddy river that road turns into every time it rains.

The Unicef tent is now connected to this new house and is our sleeping area. The house houses our dining room, the school for Youseline, Melinda and Estania, the tv / play room, our little clinic with all medication for our kids. And this new home is so much cooler than the hot tents we had before.

We are all super happy with this new home, life has again become less stressful to us.

A big thanks to the volunteers who build this for free for us, and to all of you who have donated to us, so that we were able to buy the necessary materials!!

The kindergarten Claire Fontaine, where 4 of our kids go to school, Yakime, Luckson, Kettia and Yakime’s younger brother Sylvaince was heavily damaged by the earthquake, unsafe and closed.

But since the end of March this school, which used to be walking distance from our orphanage has re-opened, mind you all the way at the other end of Jakmel on a rented piece of land, with make shift class rooms that are open to all the elements.

First the highest class that Yakime (4 1/2) and Luckson (4 1/2) attend was re-opened. After 2 weeks the direction was able to re-start the second class that Kettia (3 1/2) is in, and just last week the youngest, Sylvaince’s (3) class started again.

Our kids love to go to school so they were so happy school has started again. And of-course it is even more fun when you are driven to school in our cool new car.

Youseline, Estania and Melinda are still home-schooled and their school is out at 12.30 PM so they love to come with me at 1 PM when I am picking up the 4 kids from kindergarten.

And last but not least Pazapa has also re-opened last week. Pazapa is the school for handicapped children where Martin goes to 3 mornings a week. His school starts at 8.30 AM so first we drop of the 4 kids at the kindergarten and on the way back Martin and 1 of our nannies at Pazapa. Since Martin is severely handicapped he always needs to be accompanied by an adult.

So that is a very full car every morning, but our new car has plenty of space for all of us.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On March 4^th I landed in Port au Prince with Martin and is mum.  I had not been back to Haiti since last April.  I had no idea what to expect and I was a little overwhelmed with fear, excitement, sadness, and “oh my god we are about to see the kids!”.

Customs was surprisingly fast and simple and fast.  After scooping up all 6 pieces of luggage we pushed our way out the door through the sea of cab drivers trying to toss you and your bags in one of their cabs (always so much fun, lol) and  made it across the street so that we could find our ride to Jacmel.  Once we found our ride we loaded up the car and we were off!!!!!!! 2 ½ hours and we would finally see our city and our kids!

Then the funny noise started…… our bags were heavy and the car we were in was not happy.  The back tires kept hitting the wheal wells.  We stopped the car several times to try and rearrange the weight distribution with in the cab of the car and eventually strapped everything to the roof (it really only helped a little).  Again, we were off!!!!

Driving through Port au Prince was interesting.  I recognized nothing.  There were several large tent sites set up.  Piles of rubble that used to be buildings.   Parts of the road that had been lifted up about a foot. Tinny huts that people placed in center divider of the road that were mad of cardboard and sheets.  Tons of advertisement for the various NGO’s that came down to help…..  Everything was a bit overwhelming to take in all at once and I felt really confused.

Once out of Port au Prince we Had to drive through another town called Leogan.  The driver told us that they were hit harder than Port au Prince.  Almost every house on the road was either no longer standing or condemned.  Through the mountains it was the same…fallen buildings, roads that were broken, many many tents.  After 3 hours we finally made it Jacmel and our own little tent village

The day before yesterday, thursdayevening the big sailboat from Holland “Tres Hombres” had finally arrived in PAP after sailing for about 6 weeks.

Arjan van der Veen, the captain called me to inform me that they were not able to dock in Jakmel, and so if I could come and meet them in the harbor of PaP. He also told me that customs had taken all the goods that my family had send for us, like clothes, shoes, lots and lots of diapers, and fun games, and that that would not be released until next week.

So I decided to take the triplets with me and just make this day into a fun outing for all of us, visiting this Dutch pirate-ship. None of our kids had been anywhere other than around our campsite, or the Jakmel beach a few times since the earthquake and on the way to PaP I left my camera in the hands of Youseline. Following some shots of what captured her photographic eye on the way.

All 3 girls were very shocked to see so many collapsed houses, specially in the Leogane area. We also passed many, many campsites, some better than others and they were very sad to see in what bad conditions so many people are living now. They all 3 agreed that that is no way for people to live, and they considered themselves very lucky that we at home have such better tents to sleep and play in.

When we arrived in PaP we found the harbor right away, and were welcomed by captain Arjan and his crew. We got the whole tour on the ship, which was very interesting. At first Melinda was kinda scared to be on the boat, since the rocking feeling of being on a boat is very similar to the feeling of an earthquake. After that we toured the harbor and were shown the container where our stuff has been stored for the time being.

All of this under the filming eyes of Maarten and Ine, 2 documentary filmmakers who had made the trip with the ship to document their journey.

I am looking forward to one day see their documentary.

http://www.svtreshombres.com/

Of course I will have to go back next week with a big truck to get our stuff out of customs…………………

Our History

After a lifetime of software development, culminating in recent dot-com fortune, Martin Schmitt and his wife Sue decided to delve deeper into their philanthropy. In 2006, after a visit to Haiti, they founded an orphanage in the coastal community of Jacmel on the southern shore of Haiti.

Kay Angel, Creole for Angel House, opened its doors in 2007 and is now home to 13 children. Some have AIDS; some are severely handicapped; all are lucky to be alive. They are the fortunate exceptions to the estimated 225,000 child slaves in Haiti, children as young as five years old who lost their parents and are now forced to work just to survive.

The orphanage’s director, Lia van de Donk, and her local staff care for our children 24/7. Half of them are of school age and visited either the local kindergarten, a school for the handicapped or were taught by own private teacher – until the earthquake destroyed all three facilities.

Support for Kay Angel comes from private donations, Founder’s contributions and local support from MINUSTAH and the World Food Program.

WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com received its grant of non-profit status from the IRS in March of 2007, and was recognized as tax-exempt by the State of California later that year.

Our Location

View Larger Map

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.

This morning the team from Unicef came at 7 AM to set up the 42 square meter tent they had given us last saturday. It is quite a big structure and it took a whole team to set it up. They anchored it in the ground at several places to make it a safe  sturdy home.

We then created a ground cover with tarps and moved in our school, dining room, tv room and playroom / afternoon napping-time room. It feels so good to be “indoors” again.

Life will be a little less stressful for all of us.