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

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.

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.

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

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.

Happy Valentine’s day everybody.

We spend the day today working very hard to give our kitchen staff a better workplace. Since the earthquake made our home unsafe, we had moved our kitchen outside into the front-yard, and the area was covered with a big piece of tarp. But wind and rain really created many problems for our staff to cook the meals to feed our children and staff.

So today we hired a Boss and asked some friends to come and help us take the roof of our laundry department behind the house down, (we cannot work in that area anymore, to risky if the house decides to fall down) and move it to the front-yard to create a better cover for the kitchen.

The structure is very heavy since it is wood covered with corrugated sheets, and getting it through the narrow pass-way next to the staircase was very tricky , but we made it to the front. The next step was to lift it high enough so it could sit on the side wall. This turned to be too impossible for us, to heavy, not enough people, but right at that moment 2 Canadian army trucks pulled up next to our camp to come and check on us. I asked the Canadians if they could please help us lift the roof, and it still was a lot of work to get it high enough and at the right place so it could sit on the sidewall, but it worked out.

Boss Frito then put all support poles in place, and when the structure was secure we pulled the tarp over  the whole area and we have a new kitchen. Our kitchen staff was happily surprised when they came in Monday morning!

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……………

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.