Last thursday March 31 st we have moved Kay Angel into our new “temporary” home. Dave Bird from Calvary Chapels had chosen the color “Peach” for us, when he painted the house last week with his group of volunteers, but to me it looks totally like the Dutch National color ORANGE The house turned out so beautiful, it feels immediately like a real Home to us.

The kids were so excited when I went to pick them up from school and we did not go back to our campsite anymore, but straight to the new house. After I had brought them to school at 6.30 in the morning we immediately moved all our stuff in 2 trips to the new home, with the great help of yet another group of volunteers from Calvary Chapels and their big truck. So the kids found their new home completely decorated already, and all their toys, beds etc and the group of volunteers to welcome them and spend some playtime together.

By 11 AM our kitchen was already full up and running so that lunch would be ready on time.

Our first weekend in our new home we worked very hard on our garden, we got 3 truckloads of gravel, “sab de mer” so that the kids can play outside without any mud problems.

Youseline and Estania helping out with the gravel.

The rest of the garden was cleaned up and in 2 weeks time we will start the garden project with the kids. The idea is that every child will have it’s own garden to tend to and grow things that we can eat, like carrots, tomatoes,aubergine, squash, persil, cabbage etc etc

There is even a perfect spot for our car to be parked, safely away from the street.

Every evening after dinner Youseline, Estania and Melinda are doing the dishes.

They are very dedicated to this chore and our dishes are spotless

Sunday afternoon memory game

Our front fence is being decorated just about every day with different designs.

It is just so beautiful to see our kids play their little hearts out in the safety of our own front yard, they are beyond happy in their new home, and so am I. Every evening, totally exhausted from all this play they fall asleep right away like little rocks.

And after this first fantastic weekend in our new home came monday morning, quarter to 7, time to go to school.

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

Now that electricity is back on and the internet signal back in the air,I can send you all a sign of life from Jakmel, Haiti.

We have been extremely lucky that TOMAS changed it’s course and passed us much more to the west. At first the prediction was that he would come straight over Jakmel.

What we got was a lot, a lot of rain, a wall of water came over us, and quite some heavy winds, but of course it could have been much worse had it been the 80 miles/h winds closer to the eye of the hurricane.  Thursday morning we moved all the kids and all our belongings into next door Hotel Leviya, a lot of work, but luckily Dave Bird from Calvary Chapel with some volunteers came to help move the most heavy things for us. The rest we did ourselves. And just in time, because the rains started at around noon and did not let off until saturday morning. Saturday afternoon it was all over and the sun came back, but it wasn’t till sunday afternoon that we could move back into our campsite, since it needed quite some time to dry, especially the floors.

TOMAS did punch a hole in our monthly budget, because obviously we did have to pay to spend 3 nights in the hotel, but hey the kids were safe and dry, and they spend a fun time inside with great sleep.

The cholera epidemic is spreading rapidly. Two days ago a person from Lavoud, a little town not to far from Jakmel came to the local Hospital St Michel, and he tested positive for cholera. He is being kept in isolation. All of the hospitals in Port-au-Prince are overflowing with patients. People in towns and villages around Gonaïves, in the north, are burying victims in mass graves, according to aid workers and photographers, and suspected cases have been detected in the south and in the Dominican Republic, which shares this Caribbean island with Haiti. One hospital in Gonaïves has closed its doors completely to cholera patients, out of fear for infecting their other patients. People are being left in the streets, in front of hospitals and churches in hope that some one will take care of them, which does not always happen and so they die right there in the street. Very, very sad.

Of course we are taking all precautions to protect ourselves and follow very strict hygiene rules. Which is something we already always do since day 1 at Kay Angel. All staff and kids are washing their hands all the time with disinfecting soap. We bathe the kids with filtered water, we cook with filtered water, we do the dishes with filtered water with some bleach in it, and clean all our fruits and vegetables the same way.

The oral vaccine that exists is not recommended by the WHO, and is also not available to us. All of this does add stress to our already stressful existence since the earthquake. Soo much extra worrying. In Haiti you go from one problem to the next all the time, there is never any time to just relax ;-(

“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.

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.

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.

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

The last 2 days I spend going to the bank and back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! None of the banks in Jakmel have opened their doors yet, since the earthquake.

Our bank, BNC bank has big cracks in the walls and word has it that this bank might stay closed for some time. The Western Union is open, but they are not able to serve their clients, since they have no money and are also waiting for their bank to re-open.

Our petty cash has been out of money for 9 days already. Luckily I was able to borrow some money, for us to continue to take care of our kids, and buy the things we need, like fresh produce.

Everybody is out of money. It’s a real problem, very, very real. It is also the end of the month and our staff needs to be paid.

Since we started this orphanage August 2007 I have always managed to pay our staff on time. Even though we have had many problems before. From funding problems to two years in a row big hurricanes, with lots of damage and all banks closed for weeks. No electricity for 4 months etc etc.

So this whole past week I have been breaking my head over how to get enough money here to take care of my staff, because I really do not want to start now to let them down, when life is even harder and more challenging, than life in Haiti already is, when things are “normal”.

Somebody told me last Wednesday that some banks have opened in PaP, and that there are huge lines that reach all the way into the street. I decided to take my chance with that, and asked my friend Reginald if I could borrow his car to drive to PaP. He agreed and came with me, along with 2 other friends to be my “body-guards”. Going to take money out of the bank in PaP under these circumstances can be potentially dangerous.

We left very early Friday morning and arrived in PaP at 9 AM, only to find the BNC bank on Champs de Mars closed. That bank had been open the day before. It took us till 1.30 PM, and a flat tire later to find a BNC bank open all the way up in Petionville.

I spent about an hour standing in line, not too bad. When I finally got to the teller, I was told that there is a limit on what one person is allowed to take out, regardless on how much money you have in the bank. So I was not able to take out the full amount I need.

Luckily later that day I found a friend who was able to lend me the rest, so our staff will be paid on time. After the bank we continued to go up into Juvenare, a neighborhood next to Petionville. Reginald’s father lives there and Regi went to check if the house was still standing, since his father happened to be in Miami at the time of the quake. The house is very badly damaged.

And then……….. his car broke down. It was around 5.30 PM. We ended up spending the night at Place Boyer in Petionville, outside in the street. Then yesterday afternoon I found a ride back to Jakmel with a friend from Jakmel who happened to be in PaP.

It was very sad to see PaP, with all the destruction, and the way so many people are now living in the street, without proper tents, in make-shift huts. So many people are now living in such bad conditions.

We passed countless collapsed buildings where the smell of dead people was still very strong. So many people must be still under those rubbles.

I am happy to be back in Jakmel, but very sad and very, very tired.

PaP Haiti Earthquake Photos