Melinda and Jesula

In April Kay Angel had 2 birthdays to celebrate. On April 11th Jesula turned 4, and on April 28th Melinda turned 9. WOW they are growing up so fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesula was only 11 months when she came to live with us and Melinda was 5. Because of all the busyness of our recent move, the break down of our old camp site, preparations for the start of construction on Sacrifice etc, etc we did not really had the time to celebrate either birthday with a real party like we usually do here at Kay Angel.

But a birthday party is a very positive childhood memory for any child, so on Thursday May 5th we found the time to celebrate both birthday’s with a big cake and a special surprise visit.

Singing “Bon Fet” for the birthday chicks

A good friend of Kay Angel, Greg Bennick happened to be in Haiti this week for his charity organization OneHundredforHaiti and luckily for us it worked out perfectly for him to plan his visit with us coinciding with the day of this party, to be an extra surprise for the kids.

Cutting the cake

Greg had visited us for the first time on February 7th 2010,  just after the earthquake ,  and at that time he had surprised the kids already with one of his many talents. Today again he brought a lot of amusement to the party with his juggling skills.

The highlight of his show

Luckson is sitting on Dr Jacques Denis’ lap

Tyson from OneHundredforHaiti had brought a bag full of presents for all the kids of Kay Angel. They all received a big notebook and coloring pencils

Youseline, Melinda and Estania performing

After the beautiful performance of Greg and the presents from Tyson it was up to our “triplets” to perform some songs and dances.

Lia, Greg Bennick, Dr. Jacques Denis, Tyson Sadler

Jesula and Melinda had to wait quite some time for their birthday parties this year, but it turned out to be worth the wait. We all had a great afternoon.

With special thanks to Greg, Tyson and Dr Denis from OneHundredforHaiti

An original English gun from the late 1700′s at Fort Jacques

The day after, on Thursday I took the 5 older kids on an excursion to the only Zoo
in Haiti, in Fermathe, Kenskoff and the historical Fort Jacques high in the mountains above Port au Prince.

Very early on in the day this day proved already to be a multi-cultural day.
We had left at 7 AM since Kenskoff is all the way on the other side of Port au Prince high in the mountains, so quite some road to cover.
We had not even crossed the mountain-road coming from Jacmel yet, and roadblocks appeared before us, luckily unmanned.
But as we drove into Leogane we came upon a serious roadblock on Route Nationale 1 and lots of people in the street throwing
rocks at whomever tried to get through.

On our left we just saw some MINUSTAH/UN military take cover in a sugarcane field.
The day before, the final election results had been made public, for President as well as other political functions,
and even though everybody is happy with the new President, apparently
not everybody is happy with the results of their local representatives.

We turned around immediately, but did not want to let this spoil our special day, so we tried to find our way through to Port au Prince anyway
through some back dirt roads. Ofcourse we were not the only ones who tried these roads and soon we found ourselves in a huge traffic jam
for a couple of hours.

Finally we did make it to Kenskoff, clearly not at the planned 10.30 AM but at 1.30 PM
First some sandwiches and French fries with cold, cold cokes in the restaurant to recover from our long road-trip.

Then we visited the Zoo. This Zoo is part of the Centre Evangelique Wallace Turnbull.
This is a Baptist mission in Fermathe founded in the 60′ties by an American missionary Wallace Turnbull.
There is a church, a little hospital, a little museum and the little Zoo.

We were a little disappointed by what we found at the Zoo.
Most animals had died some time ago. We found a goat in a cage, lots of rabbits, some peacocks
and 1 very sad little monkey who appeared very neglected.
We all felt a very strong desire to free this monkey and take him home with us.
All kids agreed that monkeys should eat lots of bananas, but in the monkey’s cage we saw no food, just plastic trash.

There was however also a great playground for the kids, that made up for the disappointment at the Zoo.

Youseline

Melinda

Yakime

Luckson

Estania

The Museum was very interesting for the kids. There were some stuffed animals, lots of fossils, Haitian cultural attributes and a life size wooden Indian.

Estania is very intrigued with the Indian

Tania, Reginald and Youseline posing with the Indian

Overview of Port au Prince and the bay
Then we drove the 12 km further up the mountain to Fort Jacques.
After Haiti gained it’s independence, their forefathers always feared that the French would return in an attempt to retake the colony.
In order to protect the Port-au-Prince and the Cul-de-Sac, two forts were built on top of the mountains near boutilier:

• Fort Jacques (for Jean Jacques Dessalines) and
• Fort Alexandre (for Alexandre Petion).

Mounted on Fort Jacques are original French and English guns from the late 1700′s. Each gun is inscribed with the name of the corresponding king.

Fort Alexandre, the twin battery to Fort Jacques was never finished.

Fort Jacques overlooks the whole of Port au Prince and the bay, and the view from up there is magnificent.

Picking flowers

At 7 PM we left Fort Jacques to start the decent and the long trip home with a beautiful view of the sunset over the mountains.
We came home at 10 PM with 5 very tired, but super happy kids that had the day of their lives.
Another great childhood memory for them.

Right after the earthquake last year Pacific Domes had donated a 36′ and 44′ dome to Kay Angel for our shelter. Unfortunately, transporting those domes from Oregon to Jacmel via Los Angeles, Miami and Port-au-Prince took over seven months despite the help of some very dedicated people, among them Deanne LaRue from the Meridian Foundation, the folks at Operation USA, Andy Watson and others at Airline Ambassadors, Michael Rettig, and last not least the Haitian Rotary Club.

By the time the domes finally made it to Jakmel we had already constructed a temporary home for our much needed shelter with the help of Dave Bird from Calvary Chapel.

So with no immediate use for these beautiful domes anymore at Kay Angel we recently passed the domes on to 2 other great causes. The first being the school that 6 of our kids attend: S.O.S Enfants in Cyvadier. This is a great school, tuition-free, run and financed by the owners of Hotel Cyvadier Margaret Kohlbrenner and her son Christophe Lang. 4 of their classrooms had been completely destroyed by the earthquake.

Since they don’t have the funds yet to reconstruct these classrooms the school had been teaching their students in 2 shifts in a make-shift space in the court-yard. The 44′ dome now provides enough space for the 4 classrooms and the school hours are back to normal.

The 4 destroyed classrooms

We had called in the help of Grass Roots United, to set up the dome, since they are the official “certified by Pacific domes” dome builders. They have constructed many Pacific domes in Haiti already for various NGO’s GRU came with a team of 18 and under supervision of Chad Walsh the dome was constructed in 2 days on a special concrete platform Christophe had build for it.

Setting up the dome

Setting up the dome

Lifting the whole structure to attach the next row of struts

A moment to rest

A moment for fun

The team of Grass Roots United

It was a beautiful sight to see this geodesic structure erected in just merely 2 days, and how well this team of GRU worked together.  The moment the skin was pulled over it was really breathtaking.

Pulling over the skin

Fitting on the skin

The skin fits perfectly!

Once S.O.S Enfants has rebuild their classrooms the dome will continue to function as a theatre, arts, special events and community space.

Yakime and his class of pre-schoolers

The new classrooms in the dome

The new classrooms in the dome

“Lakay se lakay” is Kreyol for “Home Sweet Home.”
It is such a wonderful feeling to be home again after 2 months.
Traveling this distance has been somewhat a challenge.
Since I cannot walk fast or far yet I received wheel chair assistance to wheel me in and out
of the plane. The 8 hours sitting in the plane between Amsterdam and New York were not exactly
pleasant, but half way during the flight I got moved up to business class.
“This will make it easier to get you in your wheel chair once we arrive in New York” was the friendly explanation.
Of course I was thrilled to suddenly sit in such a luxury chair, as was my belly and my scar.
I still keep my jeans open since the pressure on the scar is too much if it would be closed.

After having spend 2 nice resting-up days at a friend’s house in NYC I flew back to Haiti last Sunday.
It was great to be greeted by Youseline, Estania and Melinda at the airport’s exit, who had come along to pick me up.
I noticed right away how all 3 had grown, and that they looked so beautiful and healthy.
After a 2.5 hour car ride we were back in Jakmel and Kay Angel.
What a joy to see all the other kids again as well. All of them had grown a lot. Sophie, who is sitting on my lap as usual, had turned 3 in my absence.
Luckson (5) had just a few days before my return lost his first tooth. Just past week school had started for the 6 oldest kids
and all of them were talking to me about their new school and how much they love going to their school.
To me it definitely has been worth it to make this long trip quite early on in my recovery time.
The rest of my recovery I now get to do at home. Nothing can beat that.

A big compliment and thank you to my friends and staff who have managed Kay Angel very well in my absence.

Of-course I have been very worried about the recent tragedy that has hit Haiti, the cholera epidemic.
I had already tried to get cholera vaccines in New York, but it turns out that they are not available in the US.
Once home I immediately called our doctor, Dr Ernest to see if vaccines are available here, and if our kids and staff
could be vaccinated as a precaution. But unfortunately also in Haiti there are no vaccines for cholera available.
At this time it seems that they have gotten the epidemic under control, and that they were able to keep it from spreading to
Port au Prince. But that is not yet completely sure. At this time no cholera has been detected in Jakmel.
Of-course we at Kay Angel always follow very strict hygiene rules, which makes our chances very low to contract cholera.
It is really sad that yet another tragedy has hit the Haitian people. Many have fallen victim already, about 300, and
thousands are ill and being treated.

This makes me appreciate even more that I am  home again with the kids.
If I had to sit by and watch from such a distance I would have been worried sick.
Not good for my recovery of course.

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

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

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.