A lot has happened since the last blog post, but little to write about. Construction has been put off for the past week, and the kids are still acting like spoiled brats, and standing against the wall because of it. Thirteen kids require a great deal of care and attention, and two parents (who should be enjoying a retired life of golf and bridge) are hard-pressed to fulfill it. And unfortunately, instead of providing what attention you can muster, it's all too easy to ignore the problem and retreat into the semi-sanctuary that is the computer 'depot'. "GET OUT OF THE DEPOT!" is an all too common exclamation in the Comfort House. 

Today, in the midst of all of this, I noticed an anomaly. We were trying to teach the children discipline through a friendly game of memory, and when that failed we switched to a puzzle. But after a few hours of yelling at them, we grew tired and annoyed. In a moment of frustration, I sent one kid (a whining trouble-maker) to the wall, the younger kids to the front to scream and play, and the three oldest into the kitchen for school.  And immediately there was peace in the Comfort House. The oldest were able to focus without distraction, and the youngest could play without the constant need for attention. And, Abra and I could get to our own writing (her in her journal, me doing this blog), with only the occasional 'helping-along' and encouragement for our three studious pupils. 

It turns out, the best form of discipline is not yelling and punishment, but division of children, schedules, work and education. You must divide to conquer, keep a schedule to keep them busy, give them work to keep the distracted, and give them an education to get them learning and excited about it. 

 

 

So I am now setting out to create a school schedule, which will lead them through the sequential steps of learning to write, read and do math. I've never created lesson plans before, but I'm confident that over the past 4 weeks, I've learned the order in which kids have to learn these subjects, so it's a matter of writing that down (for future teachers), creating the material (on the computer, so it can be printed as needed), and creating some sort of an accomplishment chart so they can feel rewarded and encouraged. I'll let you know how it goes... but I can already tell you I'm much more excited about this than shoveling rocks into another drain hole. 

And it's a much bigger area of need. Saving these kids from homelessness and starvation is one thing (not to mention death, as they provide them with life-saving medication), but it would be a disservice to not also give them even a rudimentary education. (Which, to be honest, is about all they'd get from public education system in this country).

 

 

 (Photos from above: Ray had to take a drive down to Port one morning, and Abra wasn't feeling so well... Meaning, I got to cook breakfast for the crew. It was Saturday, so, eggs and hash browns. I opted for scrambled eggs thinking maybe it'd be a little easier than fried. Was pretty delicious I'd have to say!)

Other than that, which I haven't even started, life has been fairly routine. Which is not to say bad. William just came home from the hospital, where he was for an operation to help his testicles drop. He's walking like a cowboy, just off his horse, but he's recovering fine. Abra and I each spent about 4-5 hours babysitting him during his 2 day stay at the hospital. To get their I took "public transportation." First, I took a tap-tap, down the road to the HAS turn-off. A tap-tap is nothing more than a cheap Toyota pickup, which piles people (and whatever they're carrying) into the back, fitting 20 people easily. When you want to get off, you just tap on the side. Hence it's name. Then, from the turn-off, I took a Taxi-moto the rest of the way. A taxi moto is just a dirtbike that can hold one passenger, though often times, you'll see 4 people on these little bikes. 

William's bed was in the children's ward, in a 25' x 25' room, stuffed with 11 beds, each with 1 or 2 accompanying adults. The room was designed for 8 beds (4 on each side), but the hospital was overcrowded, and we were placed in the open space in the middle. But about halfway through the second day of being there, one of the babies passed away, and we were given her stop. I was watching her sleeping, each breath from her oxygen pump seeming quite the struggle, but she seemed at peace. Her mother didn't believe the nurses, when they came in and pronounced the baby dead. I didn't understand what they were saying, but it was very cold, matter of fact, and someone must have said a joke, because one of the nurses let out a chuckle. The other nurse spent her time yelling at the mother to convince her that her baby was no more. After about 20 minutes, the nurses came back, rolled the bed out into the hall and placed a sheet over the body, so that William could take over the spot. 

On her shift, Abra was able to get a handful of photos, some of which can be seen above.

We also took a trip to Lachapelle, and I took some photos along the way, to show the daily scenery of this area. We're living in a valley, with a simple 2-lane road that runs up the middle. Along the road are various small towns, some hardly noticeable as you pass, others a conglomeration of food stands and 'banks'. Banks, as I learned, are not banks at all. But they want you to 'deposit' your money there nonetheless. In fact, they're lottery stands, and every day you can buy numbers from 1-100, and every night they pick 3 numbers. There are a few off-shoots from the main road, most of which are unpaved, leading to the river (which runs parallel to the road, a few hundred yards away), and to various boroughs off the main road. Along the road you see tarps laying on the ground covered with rice, as farmers dry their crop.

Because of the upcoming Nov. 28 elections, the roads are filled with posters for presidential hopefuls. The most common poster is the yellow-and-green for Jude Celestin, the handpicked heir of President Rene Preval. But he's considered unlikely to win due to the inaction by the current government after the earthquake, and the recent cholera outbreak. Many think he would be a puppet for Preval. Over the last administration the country has remained the poorest in the western hemisphere, and a NGO haven for international aid organizations providing education, healthcare (Doctor's Without Borders), and orphanages. The period has also seen the continuance of a UN presence for security, and US AID, which provides food, and development projects. The main opposition candidate is Mirlande Manigat. At the moment she's favored to win. To read more about this interesting election, go to: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2031412,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular.

The other big thing that's going on is Abra and I are building Ray and Trisha a new website. Their current website is fairly outdated, difficult to navigate, and full of bright-colors and obscure fonts that make it hard to read. We're hoping to give them a more professional site (without losing ALL of the homie-ness), which we hope will help them attract some more eyes and also donations. I wish we could show you what we've got so far, but it hasn't been posted yet. Their current website is still up at www.haiticomfort.org.

Trisha will be back Friday from her 3 week trip to Florida, South Carolina and Texas where she spoke at several churches to ask for donations. She's coming back with bowls, and batteries and other essentials that are hard to come by in Haiti, and also, so I've heard, a Thanksgiving Turkey (hard to believe!). And hopefully, the donations will soon follow. If they do, the Lachapelle house has a real chance of being built fast. And while the original date of Dec 31 is looking increasingly unrealistic, hopefully the end of February isn't.

Everything else is going well. I'm considering returning (alone) at the end of Abra and my trip, but that is yet to be determined. The 16 year old (Roodline) is still in love with me, and 'flirts' by following me everywhere, copying my every word, and giggling obnoxiously. It's less cute than it is annoying, childish, and sad. She has a history of sexual abuse, as well as a late stage of AIDS dementia, which gives her very limited mental capacity, speech impediments, and a skewed sense of balance. 

The twins (Mason and Michael), with whom I share a room, have graduated from cribs to beds. And since my room is also used as a storage room for rice and beans, it means nap time has become ‘run-around-the-room-and-spill-rice-everywhere-time”. Speaking of my room… I caught 2 more mice a few days ago. That brings the total for my room up to 6. Except, again, 1 escaped (I was naïve to think these sticky pads were strong enough to hold the mice). So that means with 4 sticky pads I’ve eliminated only 4 mice. Abra is lucky not to have mice in her room but because her room is open to the outside (really all it is is a porch), she has lots of lizards running around her room. We found one floating in the dogs water bucket on his back. He wasn’t dead though… he ran away later. She also gets lots of cockroaches in her room at night as they venture out of the kitchen. At night the kitchen is a no-go zone because of all the cockroaches. Yesterday Ray sprayed bug spray in there and must have hit their "nest", as they were crawling out of every little crack, falling from the ceiling... one after the next... I wasn’t there, but I heard dozens of them were scrambling and flying for their lives.

The weather has cooled down to a more comfortable low-to-mid 80's. We survived hurricane Tomas, which was just a lot of rain, a little wind, and a bunch of thunder and lightening. The coastal towns had the brunt of it. 

We're still taking showers in the alley-way, with cold water, which is always fun.

Oh! And I'm trying to learn French. I just hired someone to give me lessons Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays for a couple hours a day for a couple bucks a day. We'll see how it goes.

Otherwise, all is well! Please let me know how you're doing! I love to hear about news from the states.

Best!

Posted by Hans