Kado

One of the organizations I have had the opportunity to learn about while down here in Port-au-Prince is Kado, a nonprofit that provides women with a living wage making gorgeous jewelry.  Most of these women are single mothers who lost their homes and some of their family in the earthquake.  They work on one of the balconies of Relax, rolling beads cut from cardboard boxes and stringing these incredible necklaces, bracelets and ornaments.  Combined with special beads from other Operation Blessing projects, such as Jerusalem stone or Kenyan glass, these items are an amazing and creative outlet for the ladies.

Naomi Darg started this project with the ladies a little while after the earthquake, and has been growing it with new products and new markets ever since.  She is in the process of applying for nonprofit status in the US, and I’ve been thankful to help guide her through the process while down here.  It is nice to put that degree to some use every now and then!

It has been a pleasure getting to know the ladies working with Kado and having them around.  Every cardboard box is saved for them, and it is fun to think about what kind of piece will come out of the box of cereal I just poured or the granola bars I stash in my bag for Lucy.  They love seeing Lucy around, and every time we are playing in the lounge or outside, they call hello to her and wait for her little “bonjou” or “bonswa” back.  I would love to spend more time with them out on the balcony, but whenever we go out Lu makes a grab for the beads or plays in the sticky varnish drops from the drying beads, and I feel we might be hindering more than helping!

Ladies working on the balcony.

Here are some pictures of the gorgeous products they have available.  I have already facilitated a couple of orders for friends, so if you are interested in ordering some jewelry or ornaments please let me know ASAP!  You can pay and order online through their website, and I can bring your items back with me when we return on January 30^th and mail them to you myself!

Necklaces in every color!

You can see the quality of the cardboard and glass beads.

Some memory wire bracelets.

Check out their website, and order now!

Tout Zanmi Se Mwen Ki Beni

The death rate from car crashes inspired us to lug our car seat down here.

Sunday was a short day at the hospital for Don, so we spent the afternoon visiting Zanmi Beni, an home for children who have physical and/or developmental disabilities.  The name, Zanmi Beni, which means “blessed friends” in Kreyol, is a joint project between Operation Blessing, the “Beni,” and Partners in Health, whose Haitian organization is called Zanmi Lasante.

The kids were living in the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince in pretty dismal conditions, and when the earthquake struck their current home was damanged.  They were already either orphans or had been abandoned because of their disabilities, and so there was literally no where for them to go and no one to take care of them.  Many of the kids have pretty severe disabilities, and require around the clock care or supervision.  There is a very significant cultural stigma against persons with disabilities here, especially mental disabilities.  Children who are mentally disabled are viewed as being possessed or cursed by a local lwa, or spirit, and bring bad luck to those around them.  As such they are usually either kept closeted (sometimes literally) within a families home or abandoned.

The two organizations purchased a home outside of Port-au-Prince, only 20 minutes from Relal in Tabarre, and built on the existing site to create an incredible environment for these kids.  They have around 90 staff members to take care of the almost 40 kids living there, ranging in ages from two year olds to twenty-two year olds.  I have visited other homes for children with disabilities outside of Leogane when Don lived here several years ago, and have worked with children and adults with disabilities in the US.  I have rarely seen a more beautiful, well operated and joyful place than Zanmi Beni.

Upon entering the gates you drive up a palm lined drive toward a sprawling one story stone house, and are struck by the sense that whoever owned this property before must have been very wealthy.  We learned that the former owners were Haitians living in the US and using this home as their vacation house, and were eager to offload the property after the earthquake.  To the right of the driveway is a little fenced in play area just the size of a small soccer field.

The main house is now a library, meeting room and administrative office area.  However before the new dorm spaces opened all of the children were sleeping in this one large room together.  On the back of the main building is a large screened in porch where physical therapy takes place.  To the left of the main building there is a gorgeous white washed building that houses the art therapy space.  Inside are tons of art supplies and a movie screen and projector for watching movies.  Every building is of course accessible by wheel chair.

Outside of the art therapy building.

Art supplies.

Back through the main building is the pool where the kids can benefit from water therapy.  The main building also has a large shady veranda area on the other side where those kids who are severely disabled can enjoy the shade and the breeze in the afternoon.

The shaded veranda in the distance with the pond area in the foreground.

Right now most of the staff live on the property, either in tents on in staff living areas above the children’s dorm areas.  They hope to build more staff housing in the future, but it is a safe place for everyone to live.  If your choice is living in a tent in a camp, or a tent on Zanmi Beni land, then the clear advantage is to Zanmi Beni.  There is ready access to clean water on site, and the land is of course walled off and gated.

Just past the gate leading into the new dorm area is a small grove of banana, plantain and coconut trees.  The staff maintains chickens, turkeys and some small cages of rabbits, guinea pigs and doves here as well.  At the back of this little grove there are several rows of holding ponds laid out for a new project that Operation Blessing will be launching soon.  They are importing several species of ornamental fish to raise in the tanks to sell.  There is a market for these gorgeous fish in Port-au-Prince, and the proceeds will go back to Zanmi Beni.  They have also been building smaller tank display cases in the courtyard at Relax, and the sound of welding has often lulled Lucy down for a nap during the day.

Lu and Don taking a stroll on the ornamental fish holding ponds.

Back through the grove there is a path that leads to the new dorm buildings, which are painted a very cheery orange and blue, and covered in metal artwork and pictures of the children.  We passed through the doors and both Lucy and Don were almost instantly pounced on by children playing and resting in the shade.  The dorms are located around a central courtyard that has a little nurses station and therapy area under a pavilion in the middle.  The whole structure makes very good use of airflow, and was very cool on a hot and sunny day.

With these new dorms each room only has two or three children in it.  At each corner of the square around the courtyard there is a staff room, so the children can be taken care of overnight and there is always a staff member close by.

One little girl in particular, Eveline, held quite close to Don and Lucy, touching her hair and pulling her around the play even as some of the staff ladies called to her to play gently!  The kids would come up to us asking to be picked up and held, calling us “papa” or “maman” and making Lucy a little jealous!  And of course all of the kids were cracking up over Don’s beard, running their fingers through it and tugging on it!

The back part of the square has a second story with staff quarters and in back of the entire building is another plot of land with the holding tanks for the new tilapia project that Operation Blessing is starting.  On January 26^th 25,000 fingerling Talapia will arrive from the US and will be matured and bred in these tanks.  Their goal is to use some of the fish to provide Zanmi Beni with fresh fish, to sell a portion in live fish markets for Haitians, and to reserve some for breeding so that the facility will also become a hatchery.  This is big business in Haiti, and so the land is very well secured against the possibility of fish sabotage.

The two aquacells for the Talapia.

Back through another gate is the kitchen area for Zanmi Beni, which has a very large inside and outside food prep area.  The kitchen reminded me a lot of the kitchen and pantry area of Nativity House, and I felt a familiar itching in my palms when I saw a huge 10 gallon pot simmering on the huge gas burner.  The dining room was similarly large, with tables and chairs lined up as well as rows of high chairs and lots of hand washing stations.  The dining room exited to the pool area, and we were back at the front of the house.

It was such an uplifting place, and so wildly divergent from the other facilities I have seen in Haiti.  No children lingering on dirty mattresses in a hot, dusty courtyard plagued by flies.  These kids are truly loved and taken care of here.

An Introduction

As usual I have done things backwards. I threw you into this environment with a funeral, without first shaking your hand or buying you a steak dinner.  Well, for those of you still interested in the first date after we've been to a funeral together, here is your steak dinner.

The road up to our compound.

Don and I are living in Port-au-Prince (PaP), Haiti this month at the Operation Blessing compound.  Operation Blessing is one of the largest NGO's in the world, with operations in many countries.  Haiti is one of their biggest operations with a lot of programs going, most of which we hope to see before we leave!  Their compound, Relax, is outside of the city center in an area called Tabarre.  

Lucy playing with Krista.

Don is spending his days working at St. Luc's, the adult hospital that was built next to St. Damien's in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake to deal with the incredible influx of patients.  Lucy and I are spending our days playing with play dough, chasing roosters, having boat adventures, sliding on the wooden half pipe on the roof, and making new friends.


Eric Lutz is one of the Operation Blessing employees, and he and his wife Jen live here in Haiti with their six children.  Lucy has already declared her preference for their eldest, Krista, and will completely ignore me whenever we go over there to play!  They have a wonderful house just a few blocks from where we are staying, with a dog, cats, turkey, trampoline, swing, lots of toys and lots of fun kids!


The compound is set up as a guest house as well, and there are several people living here full time that we have come to know.  David Darg is OBI's Director of International Disaster Relief and Special Projects as well as the acting director in Haiti.  He and his wife, Naomi, live here full time when not traveling responding to other disasters.  Naomi, an artists, is from Australia originally, and works with the Kado project.  A group of Haitian women come to the house every day during the week and sit on the second floor balcony turning cardboard boxes (along with Jerusalem stone and Kenyan glass from other OBI projects) into incredibly gorgeous jewelry under her direction.  If you are looking for any special gifts for the ladies in your life, I will take orders - they really are exquisite!


Don, Lu and I are living in a room on the second floor of the main house, down the hall from Naomi and David and across the hall from the lounge room.  Every room here has an air conditioner, which is amazing and completely unexpected.  The bathrooms all have big sunken bathtub showers, and we have been enjoying sometimes twice daily showers, which are necessary when you do a lot of outside playing in the dust here!

Underwear drawer has been dumped on the floor due to invasion of huge roach.

Lu likes her little nook, complete with mosquito netting.

Our little bathroom nook is one step up from the main room next to the door.

We have started to develop a loose daily routine.  We wake up between 6 and 7am, get dressed, and head downstairs for some breakfast.  There are three house maids/cooks/all around helpers that work in the compound, and they have already made breakfast and a pot of strong coffee by this time.  Usually there is good bread out for toasting, cut up mango, pineapple, papaya and watermelon and some peanut butter and spreading cheese out.  Sometimes the ladies will make scrambled eggs, which are always incredible on some toast with cheese.  After a quick breakfast Don will usually leave for the hospital at 7am to catch mass before rounding with the doctors at St. Luc's.  The hospital complex is only about 5 minutes from Relax.

After Don leaves Lucy and I have some intensive playtime for a few hours.  We play with play-dough and stamps, take her animals outside and play farm or African veldt, have adventures in the zodiac boat in the back yard, chase the Rooster around the yard, play ball with Mishka the dog, or snuggle and read books.  Or sometimes all of the above.  Around 9:30am Lucy gets snackish, and we usually throw together some yogurt and granola for a mid-morning snack.  After our snack - which usually involves me sitting at the table feeding Lucy as she runs around the room, jumping up and down the step into the kitchen, moving water bottles in and out of the supply room, and generally being super active in between taking bites.

We stay very hydrated throughout the day with bottles and cups of water filled from the Culligan jar.  The local water is used in the taps, but its undrinkable because the cholera is so endemic around here that it has entered the water table.  Each day our tap water is treated with chlorine, which makes it relatively safe, but we don't drink it and we try not to open our mouths in the shower :)  We are incredibly lucky to have such a reliable safe water source here in the Culligan bottles.  People still get cholera daily here from drinking water infected with the cholera virus.  And people die from dehydration here daily from being too scared to drink the water for fear of catching the cholera.

I put Lu down for a nap around 10am, and try to do some sort of work.  I have been helping Don work on some presentations, writing, helping some folks around the house with tasks.  After Lu wakes up around noon we match up with some of the folks downstairs and make a little lunch.  The cooks make breakfast and dinner, and we are able to make our own lunches and have some semblance of normalcy.  

Down the street from our house.

After lunch Lucy and I have a continuation of the mornings play activities, or head over to the Lutz's house to play.  Today Lucy ran laps around the trampoline for an hour with Krista, Jet and Callie and had to be pried, screaming from their gate when we left.  This past week Don has been getting home from the hospital around 3pm, and has had a great share of family play time.


In the evenings we snuggle and watch videos, sneak snacks before dinner, read, and always go for a ti flane (little stroll) before dinner.  Usually the ti flane requires that we also have a ti bain before dinner, because a stroll here, even in the cloudy evenings is usually a dusty, hot, sweaty affair after a bloc or two!  


Sometimes after the walk we stop in the lot across the street and watch the baseball game that is usually going on.  The guys at Operation Blessing have organized some of the street boys in the neighborhood into several baseball teams that play in the abandoned lot across the street.  They are still learning some of the fundamentals, but are so incredibly animated about the game.  Don absolutely lights up every time he sees them playing, or hears them through the windows!

After dinner Don and I put Lucy down to bed, and then watch a movie, do some work or read in the lounge until we can sneak back into the room to go to bed!


The routine is different this week, as a large team from Mayo arrived on Sunday to work at St. Damien's and St. Luc's.  Nurses from the ER, several Gold Cross EMT's, two Physical Therapists, and several ER doctors.  They are working very hard to help St. Luc's bring a brand new ICU unit online, the only ICU available in a public hospital in Port-au-Prince.  They are not only seeing patients, but teaching the Haitian staff as well.  They are working full days at the hospital, and then returning at 8pm to teach the night staff until midnight, and back again at 7am the next day.


So that is how are days are going so far!  We are trying to experience everything we can, be as open as possible to what this month has to offer.  To whatever God might be leading us to do.