Day 19: Paradise & Poverty...

This is going to be a very long post about an incredible weekend...I took way too many pictures so I'll just put up the best ones!

Friday we went to clinic just for the morning session. I only saw 2 patients, but I also helped make my first ever hand splints out of a couple old wrist braces and some velcro...pretty cool! We came back to the guest house around noon, packed our bags, and then waited for our driver to pick us up so we could head to Club Indigo. It's only about 50 miles from where we are in Port-Au-Prince, but it took almost 3 hours to drive there because of bad road conditions & traffic from manifestations.

"night club" on our way...haha

the saddest, skinniest cows i've ever seen

normal driving in Haiti

gorgeous mountains on the way

We made it to Indigo around 4:30 and checked in, then went right down to the beach. It was absolute paradise!! Made me feel incredibly guilty though, after seeing all the poor villages we drove through on the way and the kids on the side of the road with no shoes trying to sell us water and fruit...ugh. Here are some pictures of the grounds...
 

wooo made it!

my room at club indigo!

view from my window

more of the view

beautiful mountains!

:)

snack bar on the beach

We walked along the beach for a while collecting shells & just taking it all in. Jessica (the OT from Boston) & I got some delicious tropical drinks & we all just swam and relaxed on the beach until sunset.

beautiful bar by the pool

yummy tropical drinks!

where we parked ourselves for the evening!

:)

we had the beach all to ourselves!

view from the water

gorgeous sunset!!

That night we had delicious dinner and sat around talking about the best & worst parts of our trip, since they were leaving this weekend. I said the worst part has been being here and seeing how much of a need there is, and just feeling like I'm not doing enough. Jan, the woman who has been coming to Haiti for 15 years, said that it always feels like that, and you just have to focus on what you're doing in the moment and know that it's appreciated. That helped my attitude a bit! After that, we hung out in the bar and listened to some live Haitian music - so good!! As we were looking around, we noticed at least 10+ armed guards with huge guns - turns out President Martelly was there! I didn't take any pictures of the guards, since they didn't look too happy to begin with...

The next morning we got up early and had a huge breakfast, then spent the morning on the beach swimming and looking for shells! I even got a coconut from one of the workers   :)

YUM

We left the resort around 1pm and drove about 15 minutes away to an orphanage that Kathleen has been supporting for the past few years. I can't even explain how amazing these children were! Supposedly there were between 10-20 orphans, but there must have been 30 kids there! They were so polite and sweet - every single one came up to greet us and introduce themselves. The orphanage itself was tiny and sparse, but it was full of beautiful paintings that all of the kids had done! We spent 2 hours there playing with them, taking pictures, and just talking to them. It broke my heart to leave, knowing that this is how they spend their days. We don't know how lucky we are at home - these kids share 1 or 2 mattresses and didn't go to school this week because they don't have any shoes. Really gives you some perspective...

these 3 LOVED to pose for pictures!

the boys were shy

 

the "kitchen"

Xavier & I with his paintings!

loved these kids...

We left the orphanage around 3pm and started our 2 hour drive home. As we passed through the villages along the way home, we realized it was market day! There were so many donkeys carrying people and food, and everyone carries huge baskets on their heads. I managed to get a few pictures from the car window...

carrying FURNITURE on her head!

wheelbarrow of sugarcane

so many plantains!

 We also saw a bunch more tent cities, and some typical Haitian driving...

this one wasn't even that full!!

crazy.

still so many people without real homes...

Today we spent the day watching football, drinking beer, and having bratwurst!! We projected the games onto the living room wall from our laptops haha.

Phew! Sorry for the ridiculously long post. Thank you to everyone that has been reading this!! It makes me happy that I can share everything with all of you   :)

xo

Day 16: Re-arranging...

Clinic is very day-to-day here. For example, I saw 3 patients Tuesday, a record 5 on Wednesday, and only 2 today. The OT from Boston & I were laughing, because 5 patients is just our morning caseload at home sometimes haha. Since it was so slow today, we spent the entire afternoon completely re-arranging the clinic and cleaning. It also gave us some time to practice our Creole, which is getting a little better! I'll try to post new clinic pictures soon.

We leave tomorrow at noon for Club Indigo which is a beach resort about 2 hours from here!! Can't wait to lay in the sand and swim in the ocean! Pictures to come...have a great weekend everyone!

xo

Day 13: Explorations...

Busy weekend!! I love having other groups here so I can latch on with their fun excursions. Between a busy exploration weekend and this nice cold that I caught, I haven't been able to write til today!

I completely forgot to mention that on Thursday night I went to the Irish Embassy! That's right - there's an Irish Embassy in downtown Haiti. Not only that, but they have a pub on the 1st floor that was giving away free Guinness. Nothing like drinking a Guinness and singing along to "Wild Rover" with a bunch of crazy Irishmen and confused Haitians!

blurry embassy sign - too funny!

i felt right at home   :)

Saturday (day 11) we woke up early and I tagged along with the team from Utah/Boston to do some sightseeing! First stop was the Haitian History Museum! Learned all about how Haiti came to be, saw some cool artifacts (including the anchor of the Santa Maria!) and even had the power go out while we were in the darkest part of the exhibit! Okay, so that last part wasn't too fun but still...

cool museum entrance

woo!

From there, we headed to a different section of Port-Au-Prince where they had what's called the Artisan co-op. It's a big 2 story building full of crafts made by local Haitian artists, like hand-woven baskets, jewelry, and bowls. As soon as we got out of the car, we had people begging and trying to sell us different paintings or crafts. I ended up buying some greeting cards made from banana leaves from a man with no shoes and no teeth. They were beautiful and he was very grateful!

 

 

 

small section of the co-op

After all of that exploring and shopping we were ready for some lunch. The two women with us from Utah have been to Haiti 15+ times, and they recommended the Hotel Oloffson. It was built in the late 1800's and was considered the place to stay for actors and singers during the 1930's - 1960's. We had delicious avocado club sandwiches and wandered around the hotel a bit.

beautiful entrance to the Oloffson

cool article about the hotel from the 30's - rooms were $4 a night!

really cool room where their house band "RAM" plays every Thursday night

 

the woodwork was beautiful!

view from the open-air porch where we had lunch!

After lunch we had to pick up a couple of ASL instructors from their school in downtown Port-Au-Prince. It was the first time I'd really been able to see or take pictures of the downtown area since I got here. One thing that I found out is that many Haitian people do NOT like to have their picture taken, so most of my pictures are of the scenery. It's really devastating to look at, because you can tell that downtown must have been a beautiful and thriving place before the earthquake.

downtown near St. Vincent's school

the "unknown maroon" or "Maroon inconnu"

 That statue basically symbolizes the Haitian people's struggle for independence. Maroons were runaway slaves in Haiti that formed independent settlements together.

one of the center squares downtown

most people sit on the sidewalks and try to sell their goods

example of housing downtown - a lot of people will leave room on their houses to build up once their children start having families, so they all can remain in one area

sad remains of the palace

Sunday (day 12) we woke up early again and decided to take a little field trip to a small town called Croix-des-Bouquets, which is about an hour from where we're staying in Port-Au-Prince. There's a metal village there, where people make beautiful metal art and sell it right from their homes. It's a very impoverished area and there were a lot of children begging us to come see their shops. After seeing about 30+ shops we decided to call it a day. We went back to the palace area and were just starting to walk around and look at some of the statues, when a truck full of about 30 UN police in full riot gear pulled up. The manifestations that we had heard rumors about were starting to take place, so we decided that getting lunch was a much better idea! After lunch we spent the rest of the day swimming at the guest house. Here are some more pictures from Croix-des-Bouquets and Port-Au-Prince...
 

on the way to Croix-des-Bouquets

one of the tent cities still left from the earthquake (I think it was Wyclef Jean's?)

women carrying buckets of water

tap tap! their crazy public transportation system - basically a truck where people sit in the bed

another tap tap!

another tent city closer to downtown

remains of what used to be a beautiful episcopal cathedral

closer view of the palace remains

SO many houses...

Phew! That's all for now - back to clinic!

xoxo