haiti, life is a fight

  i have been talking to a lot of haitians lately, practicing my french and also learning more about how haitians see haiti.  the 'shift' button is broken on this keyboard so sorry for the lack of capitals.  they ask me what i think of haiti and i tell them a variety of things and then i respond with the question what do you think of haiti.  this question has sparked many unforgettable conversations from all sorts of people.  long story short, most people i have talked with will agree that haiti lacks opportunity.  often it is blamed on the government not taking care of its people, not focusing on developing jobs etc.  people go to school for a long time here, some go on to university - but they go despite the fact that it will most likely not get them anywhere.  they 'know' that once they are finished university they will be doing nothing with it... but, maybe they will catch a lucky break and get out of the country or get into government, or meet some rich people with connections.  i cannot even fathom a life like this.  the kidnappings that were somewhat prevalent throughout the country lately are mostly fueled by the rich, they hire the poor to do their dirty deeds and all haitians look bad because of it.  prospective business owners therefore become too afraid to invest in a business in haiti due to this conception that haitians will kidnap them or kill them.  crime is high due to the lack of jobs and the resulting poverty.  in order to decrease crime you must increase employment capability but to increase employment potential you need a low crime rate.  this is the situation of haiti.  their life is a fight to survive.  haitians are afraid of walking their own streets at night due to the lack of governing powers looking after their people.  i have not heard anybody speak poorly of preval - the new president - he is a very respected man and has caused an uprise in hope for the people, but still their is a sense of betrayal of the people by the government.  they are left to fend for themselves and continue to fight for their lives.  a friend of mine here believes haiti's hope lies in the education of the 7 yr olds.  he sees a current population bred to fight and thinks that violence has been engrained too deep within the hearts of the people.  the children need to be educated in such a way that they grow up with a new hope that lies beyond violence.  haitians are incredibly strong people with a rich and impressive culture.  but they need to be lifted up out of their current poverty in order for that beauty to be revealed.  i continue to be amazed at the ministry i am now witnessing here in this medical clinic.  the clinic treats roughly 300 people/day giving out medications often for free or whatever they think the person can afford. and they work very compassionately and their good intentions are shown through the way each of them treats the patients that walk in and out of their doors. 

i am going to post a few pics now that i have blabbed out some of my semi-conclusions about haiti.

this baby was born the morning i took this photo -i think that was wednesday- her mother died after the delivery and a neighbor brought her to the clinic.  she weighs 3 lbs - probably with her clothes on- and doesn't have much hope for survival in a place like this.  the rescue centre has taken her in and we fed a tube down her nose into her stomach in order to conserve energy in feeding her.  we are thinking the father will come to get her but he might not.  her hand is holding my pinky finger by the way - my pinky finger is longer than her face.

i just thought this was a funny shot. it looks like he is just throwing the food into his mouth and the surrounding area.

 this is a stitch job we did this morning.  the girl was around 14 yrs old and stepped on a broken bottle in her kitchen causing a very deep cut. i have much more gruesome photos i decided not to add ;] - that's my make-shift smiley face due to the lack of the shift button ;]

this is just another pic of that 3lb baby.  the red cloth was tied around her wrist as soon as the mother died.  it is a voodoo precautionary to stop the mother from coming back and taking her.

sorry about the neck strain - i took this photo just to show you the regular mode of transportation in these parts... bareback riding on a very skinny horse - at fairly decent speeds... i can't imagine that being very comfortable.

well that's all for now.  quite the mouth full but i hope you enjoyed that.  oh and for those of you who want to comment... you don't have to have a xanga account to comment anymore.  cya soon and god bless.

showing haiti's french heritage!

this is me and Ben, he is the city's mayor/judge - he's basically one of the coolest guys i've met down here, I met him the first time I was here, we were playing soccer, then I found out he was the mayor and thought they were all kidding... they weren't he actually is the mayor!  He helps the med clinic by signing papers for any abandoned kids to stay at the rescue center.

speaking of abandoned kids... this little guy was just left here by someone.  we are not sure what his circumstance is nor are we sure about his psycological circumstance.  he is either mentally disabled or he has been treated like an animal his whole life.  he could be deaf, or just doesn't know or care to respond, we gave him a lollipop and he didn't know what to do with it (he was holding it by the candy part and starting chewing on the stick, then when he got to the candy he chomped it right down, drooling excessively all over his shirt.  they ran an HIV test and he came up positive - but that is just using a little finger prick test that isn't incredibly accurate - anyways, there's lots to tell but basically they aren't sure what to do with him.  If the HIV test was wrong, then he may be able to be adopted out. 

well here is the baby boy that was born yesterday morning.  this is me cutting the umbilical cord.  yeah. it was pretty exciting.  it only took a half hour! anyways. that's all i'm saying for now, i'll tell more when i get home.

just some funny stuff you see around a 3rd world medical office.

sorry next photo is pretty gruesome... if you don't want to see the pic just scroll past.. this guy had a tire rim dropped on his foot and it got infected (didn't smell too good).

an old man with a terribly large lump in his armpit... it actually went from his back to his collar bone. if you look the other side of his chest you can see how big it actually is.  didn't cut this one out!

this guy is really cute, he was left outside the front gate a long time ago and they don't know his name.  all the kids called him tete (means 'head') so now that's what he knows his name as... kinda politically incorrect or something ethically wrong but its haiti.

traveling from the orphanage this is what were were constantly surrounded by.  there was a truckload like this in front and behind most of the time.  truck drivers take their loads and they just stack people on top of whatever they have.

 i took this pic right before i posted this.  this girl is supposedly 41 months old and weighs 10 lbs! they want to check her for TB but it was a fishy situation because the mom who brought her in (can't always assume it's the actual mom) wasn't making a whole lot of sense - her story just didn't add up so it's really tough for licia and lori to know what the real situation is.  they don't think she is actually 41months old but she has just about a full set of teeth in, and some other things that more or less say she isn't that young. 

well there ya go, i hope everything's going well back at home, i will only be at the clinic until saturday, then i will be with a team of nurses and a pediatrician until thurs when i fly out.  so not much time left but as you can see a lot can happen in a short while so there is plenty of time for craziness still left!  i am around a fair amount of sickness so please continue to pray that i keep healthy.  God bless, Neil.

ps - to all the guys flying out to europe today, have a great trip, and safe travels. 

still here

yeah, I got an email from my sister recently and she made me aware of the fact that for all she knows I'm in a ditch out here. Well, I am alive and thriving, and tomorrow I am ...probably... leaving the orphanage and going back to the med clinic. I say probably because I had made plans to leave this past wed. and then rides didn't work out and that was changed to Sat. and then to much amazement, my ride was unavailable again and we rescheduled for Mon. I said my goodbyes for the third time today... its getting kinda redundant, and people are starting to think God wants me to stay here forever. BUT I have really appreciated this extended visit thoroghly! Today I played with the kids for a long time - I actually hurt my calf muscle in the process, but nothing even slightly serious. And that made me really not want to leave this place. After dinner tonight, we (Abner, Mattie, Lauren, Natalie, Mabel, Tim, Pat and I) read out of Abner's devotional book and sang some Hymns - which we have done every night - and I realized I won't be doing this anymore and I am really going to miss that! Anyways, boo hoo Neil, I know that the following weeks are going to present me with new and exciting experiences which I am looking forward to. I have quite a bit of driving to do tomorrow, and still need to gather all my crap spread out in my (and Abner's) room.

My time here at the orphanage has been phenomenal, the kids have been great, Pat's been inspirational and great to be around, and Abner's been a great roommate, and all the girls have been humbling in their love and work ethic, and God has shown me love in some strange places. Overall a good time, Mabel asked me tonight what I learned from my experience here and I told her I'd get back to her in a few months! but seriously, I have experienced so much here I really do believe it will be atleast a few months before this slow head of mine sorts all of those things out! I am leaving at 6am tomorrow and will be driving along some pretty exciting mountain passes so PLEASE PRAY FOR ME :)
Ps - here are some more photo links if you wish to check'em out... I'm too tired to write about them at this time.

Mothers day blog

So since it's mother's day I figured it'd be a fair thing to post a few more photos to let her see rather than just hear about what I've been up to. I tried uploading around 10 photos but the computer over here after about an hour just stopped working so here are the five that worked... and I hope this works, since this internet browser is a bit out to lunch.


This photo (if it shows up) is of me holding Christian and Christopher. They are two twins who were born here and I believe they are 3 months old and now weigh 9.5 and 10 punds (I weighed them just the other day). They just turned 3 months old on May 6th. They are not the smiliest of babies but every once in a while you get a glimpse of those pearly whites.



The kids love jumping on the trampoline here, but usually they are all on it at the same time and when you are on a trampoline with no pads and many holes throughout, it gets kinda sketchy. They all want a piece of you so it usually ends in a pile of kids at your feet. BUT, if you find something fun (such as this photo shows) they are good at taking their turn... most of them are good at taking their turn. I assign them all numbers and then just point to whoever's number it is and yell "Aller!" or "back!"(they understand this english word) to the rest... it can be frustrating but most of the time it works out and makes trampoline time a lot more fun and organised. I either do this or just throw a nurf soccer ball at them, when I do this they all look at me with anticipation and I yell "key?" (which means who?) and they all wave their hands in the air to give me the green light. I usually can get a couple hits in on one throw (thanks April for the donated ball! hahah it's been a lot of fun)...


This is a photo of me with Eddie and John-dinny (left to right). John-dinny is so much fun, and is one of the better-behaved older kids, I think he's around nine years old. Eddie is great too, and is one of the more clingier kids, but I enjoy giving him the attention.



This is a photo of me playing doctor (actually more like nurse's assistant :) this is Joanna, she is a fun girl with some spunky attitude. I let her hear her own heart beat and she thoroughly enjoyed that! in this photo I was checking her temperature (a thermometer in her left armpit) and checking her heart rate. we would also listen for any breathing abnormalities but the nurse always double checked since well lets face it, I don't have a clue what I'm doing! I just count heart beats and read numbers.

This is me needing a doctor! this pretty much sums up the extent of my day on Friday, exciting eh! (that's a great big Canadian "eh" by the way). Abner, my American roommate took this photo of me as he was stealing my camera to take a photo of the amazing sunset I was missing out on... thanks Abner.


Well there are some photos for now. Just a peek into what I've been up to around here, most of which has been exceptionally logical and mostly scheduled, to many of your surprise. So thanks for your prayers and God willing my stomach will get better and I'll continue to soak in whatever I can. God bless, and I look forward to hearing what this month has had in store for you back at home! ~Neil.

PS - so the photos didn't work... you'll have to paste the links in a separate window and view them that way... too bad, I'll change that when I get to a better computer.