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

Last night my very good friend Andrew Bigosinski from Cine Institute called me to tell me that there is a whole crew made up of gaffers and grip that came in from New York with a container full of donated generators and other electrical equipment. They call themselves Friends of Cine Institute, and are donating and installing full electrical systems to those who are in need for that. Andou (his Haitian nickname) asked me if we could use one.

A big YES on my end ofcourse.  So today some students from the film-school came to visit us with Charlie Libin and Jim McCullagh from  Friends of Cine Institute with a huge generator, Honda ES6500. They also brought a whole bunch of electrical cords, and light bulbs.

At the same time  UNICEF gave us a 42 square meter tent  yesterday, that they will come and set up for us tomorrow, monday. That tent will function for the time being as our dining area, kids safer play ground, and our home school.

The days will be so much better for us and our kids when they are not out in the open all day long. So when the tent is set up tomorrow the crew will come back and install our electrical system for us. The generator is full with gas, and they also donated a 5 gallon container full of extra gas to us.

I will keep you all posted, and needless to say we had a great Sunday with all these gifts, we are very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Over the last 2 days I received many calls from my Dutch friend Geert van der Kolk, via a satellite phone from a boat. He is a journalist, writer who lives in Washington DC. He is also a very good sailor, and has made many trips to Jakmel on his sailboat in the past.

He asked for my help, because he was on his way to Jakmel on a big sailboat / schooner with as captain Jared Talarski, and was unable to get in touch with any of his local contacts, or the mayor’s office to receive them.

They were coming in on saturday morning around 10 AM. They had left Miami 8 days ago and had sailed non-stop to reach Jakmel with all sorts of aid.

If you would like to follow their journey check out their blog  http://www.libertyschooner.com

I managed to reach the right people for them, to help them unload and make sure the distribution was handled correctly. Tiffany Keenan was essential in this whole process, I was very happy she was there for them.

It was great to see my friend Geert, he ran into Jakmel quickly to have a look of all the damage, but then went back on board. The ship was not staying in Jakmel, but moving on to Jamaica, and due to the direction of the wind and the tide they had to move out quickly.

They did leave some people in Jakmel, who had made the trip to stay on the ground. Two of them came to visit us in the afternoon. Otho Campbell and Greg Bennick. The latter turned out to be a great entertainer with just 3 white balls. Our kids had a blast with him.

The Canadian navy has visited us several times this week, to come and scout the need for toilets.  We do need that very much, so they located a good spot across the street from us and marked the area.  The next day a big bulldozer came by to dig the hole.

The day after, today they came back to install our new toilets.  There is no room for it, so we will find a solution for that, because we do have a lot of rain these days. The hole is also not very deep, it is just a temporary solution they said. I think our kids will fill it up in no time

Arjan van der Veen of the Commercial Boats sailing from Den Helder we got the offer to be shipping goods to Haiti, with the schooner brig “Tres Hombres”.

Soon the 28th day because they would all leave. Lia had been specifically stated that we currently need them and so we had power to collect from all beaten. Resulting in a large trailer full of diapers, vitamins, soap, footwear, apparel and stationery, and some surprises. Wednesday we got this stuff on board and took up about 2.5 m3 cargo space. Tents had already Lia of the Marines, so that we could strike action.

Meanwhile it the “Tres Hombres” and absent when the wind changes, they will leave the ocean. The anticipated time is approximately 4-6 weeks. Advantage of this method of transport is the stuff that the crew itself will solve the port of Jacmel and delivery, it is faster than we stuff through a container with an ordinary freighter would send and then the spot would still have the problem how at the orphanage to get. Except for the Lia “Tres Hombres” is about 50 m3 of supplies on board for a hospital and orphanages.

A special initiative of Captain Arjen van der Veen and commercial vessels sailing the foundation which we are very happy. More information about “Tres Hombres” and sailing on Commercial Boats: http://zeilendehandelsvaart.homestead.com/Algemeen_Tres_Hombres.html

Our work in progress. Since yesterday morning we have been very busy with cleaning up our little piece of land, and constructing our new little tent village. Some friends of mine have come to help us with this big job, and Frantz our director, Rochel our security guy and Tizepi have been working very, very hard to construct our new home.

We have set up the 2 shelter boxes, face to face with their front door/overhang connected.

Our homage to  Palace National in PaP that has collapsed

Some of our staff have moved their tent onto our land as well. The idea is to have 1 center playground with all our tents around it, so the kids can play all day, without any danger from the street. We have hung a super big tarp over that whole area to protect us from the hot sun.

It is not completely done yet, but I just want to share the visuals with all of you, because we have the coolest tents in town   Okay I have to go back to work now, this will be continued.

Again thank you all who have made this possible for us.

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……………………………………

This morning at 6.02 AM a big aftershock that luckily only lasted for about 4 seconds, but everything was shaking a lot. Around 10  AM 2 people from WFP came to see us at the orphanage and were able to tell me that it was a strength 6.

Yesterday afternoon we saw a lot of planes coming in. The 2 beautiful air-shots of the first Canadian plane are taken by our 8-years old Youseline who is a very talented photographer. I had already learned from an e-mail from our SoutheasternHaitiHealthNetwork who is locally in charge of receiving the in-flown aid. So I called that person who then told me that they will not be able to distribute anything today Tuesday 19 Jan. Maybe tomorrow. I went to the airport anyway, because you never know.

We really need a big tent, or at least a few big pieces of plastic so we can build our own tent. At the airport I had someone write down all our info and what we need ASAP, but I received nothing. Then I went to the WFP again, and the floor manager who is in charge of the big depots they have there said he could not give me anything without authorization from higher up. And higher up was out on an emergency. Meanwhile  I see so much stuff inside of the big depot tents they have there……….. frustrating!! Since I know the “higher up”, David and had met with him the day before already I called him again, and was lucky to find him on the phone. He then authorized for them to give me 5 big pieces of tarp.

Today Wednesday 20 January I have spoken again with Gwen, who is part of the local  NGO’s who are receiving the aid, and she promised me that I can come and get things this afternoon. A new item we are really in need of now is diapers, we still have 6 kids in diapers, and our washable diapers are mostly worn out by all the hand-washing. It is getting also more and more difficult to do laundry, because our water reservoir is almost empty.

But we were visited this morning by 2 people from WFP and they will have a meeting at 11 AM to organize the distribution to all of us in need.

They arrived this afternoon and delivered the supplies to the Hopital St. Michel.  As far as we know, Luke is now headed back to the DR for another supply run, this time to get large tents, generators, solar-powered lights, etc.

This quick and decisive relief effort was made possible entirely by your contributions!  In the name of those who were helped by this shipment, we thank you for your support!

-Martin

The last 2 nights we have slept inside the TV room of the hotel across the street. There is a rain front coming over us since Saturday night, so we are lucky the hotel lets us use their space, but we are not able to stay there. They will need their space back soon.

Crossing the street to the hotel

Also up until Saturday there were still many aftershocks and then Sunday afternoon it was said, if your house was not damaged it was safe to go sleep inside. But then yesterday we still felt light shocks, and not all of our staff is comfortable to spend the night inside, even though the hotel is not damaged at all. Almost everybody in Jakmel is still sleeping in the streets.

Plan Parrinage has started to hand out small red Coleman tents.  We have claimed the little piece of land across the street from us, that belongs to our landlord and have started to clean it up.  We are planning to build a big secure tent there, as soon as we find the materials for it.  That will then be our home for the time to come.

We have been all over for help, Minustah, WFP, Plan, UNICEF.  So far without any concrete result, only a lot of promises that they will do there best to find a tent for us, or lots of pieces of plastic. Tameko Donatien from UNICEF told us he would do his best to help us, because this is a crisis, but he said normally UNICEF does not help orphanages. I did not know that.

To make life feel as normal as possible for our kids I had asked our school teacher to come back to work and continue school for our 3 girls that are home schooled. For the other 4 kids that are in kindergarten, their school is severely damaged so for them school is closed.

Pazapa, Martin’s school is standing on the front outside, but inside and the back is completely destroyed. Our dog Toutous is doing very well, actually our kids right now have even more affection for  her, they are padding her all the time.

All our kids are in very good spirits, Youseline and Estania are playing beauty parlor with each others hair extensions, and lots of beads.

Who would guess by looking at this picture of these 2 beautiful girls that they are orphans, HIV+ and homeless They look soooo happy, don't they?

Yesterday I ran into a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Rhoads, who took my interview and today I ran into another journalist, Jacques Guillon, of AFP Agence France Presse, and he also interviewed me and will write about us.

Our nurses are continuing helping some hurt people in our neighborhood, and of course “our” patient Wilson.

Digicel, the cell phone company has stopped giving free service to us, we have to buy the cards again, and now it is not so easy anymore to call international.  Phone cards are hard to find.