Sunday

WE FINALLY GOT POWER BACK YESTERDAY! I was sitting on the porch with Stephanie and Stuart when Emily came outside and calmly explained that the fans had turned on. We thought she was joking because she was so cavalier about it, but when we saw for ourselves, we all screamed a lot. All of Hinche suddenly came to life again -- radios chattering away, caribbean beats drowning out the hums of vehicle motors. It was wonderful.


The house staff now consists of three young women: Emily, who you all know very well, Stephanie, the new In-Country Coordinator, and Carrie, the new Volunteer Coordinator. Stephanie's boyfriend, Carl, is visiting right now and will be staying long-term in Haiti with her working for a different organization (when he finds one). Stuart is a high school student from Virginia who's been to MFH 4 times now and is the creator of the Women's Empowerment Curriculum that I oversaw while I was here. She's implementing it in Rivage, a poorer community near the Hinche river, and at the girls' orphanage, where I used to help Miss Guerlie teach a health class each week. We all decided to dress up for the 4th of July (except Carl, who's been feeling under the weather).

From L-R, Me, Emily, Carrie, Stephanie, Stuart

To celebrate the holiday, we baked a cake and added some homemade pink and blue (we were limited in our options, okay??) icing on top. Yum! Four volunteers arrived yesterday afternoon, so Carrie has been orienting them and getting them settled and ready for work tomorrow.

This morning, we took a dance lesson. I called up my good buddy, Tura, and he brought Junior, his student-turned-dance-teacher. I was glad to see there were very few advanced steps I had forgotten, and after one retry was able to do no problem. Carmelle, a recent graduate of the SBA (skilled birth attendant) program, taught Stuart and me the lyrics to Aprouve'm, one of the big songs in Haiti right now. Tonight, we plan to go to the disco, Zenith, to show off our moves -- and maybe I'll remember some of the song lyrics.

This afternoon, Isabelle, one of the translators, brought her little baby boy, Nathan, over to the house. I'd been asking to see him for days! We passed him around, snuggled him lots, fawned all over his chubby cheeks and tiny sneakers, until he fell right asleep. I took this adorable photo of him (shoes and all) napping in my bed. What a cutie! If you follow the MFH facebook page, Isabelle is the translator who was working when a grandmother brought her mother-less granddaughter to a clinic. The baby was hungry, and Isabelle, having given birth not long ago to the sweet baby below, breastfed the baby in a really emotional moment for everyone involved. Vanessa, a MFH super-fan and super-volunteer, blogged about it here.

Little Nathan is about 3 1/2 months old now and Emily is his marin

Upon reflection, it's been a really great week. Without power and therefore the constant need to feel productive, I got to spend some quality time with everyone around the house. I ran errands with Emily like old times, sat with the ladies on the porch and helped prepare food, and spent evenings telling jokes with the boys and/or the staff in the house. Life here is normal, just as if I never left. Unfortunately, that makes it difficult to write about. I'm trying to blog every few days, so if you have topics, let me know what you'd like to hear. Next time, I'll write all about my project and the progress I've made so far. For now, I'll leave you with a picture of one of Rebecca's bloodhound puppies from Port-Au-Prince!

Ain't Got No Power ♫

Emily and I have kept in pretty close communication over the past year. After everything she and I have gone through with staff transitions, big MFH news, and simply growing older, we have a mutual understanding of what it is like to work in an environment such as this -- this house, this community. Her most frequent comment to me was that she couldn't wait for me to see how much has changed and how little has changed, at the same time. I now see exactly what she meant.

There's something about coming back to a place that is so unavoidably nostalgic that makes you aware of any subtle differences. For example, there are ways in which the program management has become more streamlined. The volunteer recruitment process is more efficient. The maternity ward walls have been painted, screens put on the windows, and fans installed above. But then, the people are exactly the same. The whole staff and all of my friends around town have greeted me so warmly. I hopped on a moto with Davide on Monday, expecting to be holding on for dear life every time we came upon a rocky or wet part of the road. Instead, I wasn't holding on to the back or nervous about big rocks. When I danced for the first time at the disco on Sunday, I was told I dance like a Haitian girl (a serious compliment!). And I am definitely still sick of the breakfast food options in the house. It's really, really great to be here.

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The past few weeks have been exceptionally difficult in the Central Plateau. Although it is the middle of the rainy season, rain has been relatively scarce. Last night was the first night it had rained in a week and a half. On top of that, city power has been out for about a week. Everyone's phones are dead, businesses are closing, and it is difficult for anyone to be productive. For us here at MFH, this generally means that we rely on the trusty generator to get us through. Unfortunately, the generator finally pooped out on us after so many days of consistent use. Li se yon granmoun, Manno says. The generator is an old person. Napoleon, the boss jeneratris, has been working on it as late as 10 pm by flashlight to fix it. We thought he was going to be successful a few nights ago, but it won't run on its own, so he took it entirely apart and tomorrow he'll make the trek to PAP for the one piece we need.

Having no power is generally fine by me. It's been extremely hot, which is miserable for sleeping and just general productivity, and the cooks weren't able to cook the dinner they'd prepared for us the other night (thank God there is Easy Mac at Ebenezer market), but I can do most work without internet until my computer dies -- and my little Macbook's battery lasts quite a while. Unfortunately, when everything dies, we are unable to work. And, once the water tank on top of the house ran out of water, we no longer had running water. So, it's been bucket showers (took my first one today in a few days...) and we've been carrying buckets of water from the cistern out front to the bathrooms to flush. I caved and bought some minutes on a Natcom stick so I can use the internet until my computer battery dies. Life in general is just a little bit harder, but I'm definitely ready for the power to come back on! Always an adventure.

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As I began to work on a monitoring plan for the mobile clinic, I realized that I needed a better understanding of what exactly the midwives do at each clinic. In other words, how, logistically, do they see 20-120 patients between the four of them? How does the paperwork get filled out (this includes both diagnostic materials that are used to follow a woman throughout a pregnancy, but also data collection sheets for MFH purposes)? Which parts of the mobile clinic would not happen without x, y, z? So, this morning, I went to Bassin Zim with the ladies. It's a much closer (~40 minutes), much shorter (~20 patients) clinic, but we saw both new and old patients, as well as one postpartum lady with her sweet baby, too. I took notes and feel very ready to work more on the monitoring plan.

What's difficult is that I want to collaborate with Nadene and Steve more than I am able to without wifi. I'm hoping that I can get enough of a start on everything, and then we can work back through everything when I am able to reach them over Skype.

In other news, Bobby bought his flight today! He's officially visiting the last two weeks I'm here. I'm sure I'll still be working hard by then, but he has been experiencing some severe FOMO, so I'm not surprised he caved and bought a flight. Every staff member has asked me about him, so I know he'll be welcomed as warmly as I was!


I'm still conserving battery life, so I'll stop here, but I'll do my best to update every few days. Thanks for reading!

Kale Chips, Kindle, KITTY CAT

This week was a stressful one. Between completing two large final projects for my summer course, ensuring I've fulfilled all of BU’s practicum requirements, and trying to compile every last item I may need, my brain was exhausted. Add a day and a half of travel to that, and I am pretty ready to collapse.

I didn't even remember until late last week that I didn't have a suitcase to bring. This was the first time I've left for a long-term trip from anywhere but my home in Pennsylvania, so I didn't have the luxury of borrowing Mom's Haiti dresses and stealing from her stockpile of travel-sized knick-knacks. Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind past few days full of CVS, Star Market, and TJ Maxx trips, and my wallet is sobbing. I did manage to bring some goodies for the house staff (kale chips and Cheez-its). And all I forgot were my contact lenses!

My flight arrived yesterday (Friday) around 5:30 pm. Rebecca, a MFH super-fan/part-time helper, and her husband Ted came to pick me up, with their adopted Haitian princess, Syndie, in tow. We went out for pizza at the local Port-Au-Prince ex-pat hangout for the evening. The pizza was way too good and by the time we made it home, I was dead tired. It's much warmer in PAP in the evenings but I think my body knew what to do and I was out pretty quickly. This morning, Ronel picked me up and we made our way to Hinche, where there was warm soup and lots of smiles to greet me. When I finally got to the house, the stress and craziness of the past weeks (honestly, months) was all worth it. I am in my element. As soon as I stepped out of the Land Cruiser, Monique (the laundry lady), Eliette (cleaning lady), and Dieuny (cook) gave me huge hugs and kisses. Emily and I embraced for a long time and spent hours chatting and catching up today. I've snuggled Ina May tons and will continue to as long as I can. In Emily's words, so much has changed but so little has changed, too. Either way, I AM SO HAPPY.

(I feel wrong not mentioning the awesome people who are here now -- the new staff and one volunteer -- but I promise I'll write more about them soon!)

I originally began this post right before I left, so I feel the need to post these thoughts. I've shared my travel plans with many people over the last few weeks, and have received mixed reactions. Most people ask if I'm excited, which I absolutely am. Some have questions about crime, my safety, drinking water quality, and my language skills. And others offer their wisdom about traveling to "places like Haiti." I think many first-time or short-term travelers to developing countries have misconceptions (at least in part because of post-quake horror stories), and it can be offensive to someone like me, who feels the need to defend their (Haitian) friends. I can't speak for every country "like Haiti," but this is what you should know about travel to Haiti:

1. Yes, people are right; don't drink the water. There is no public water treatment facility, and in many places running water comes from communal taps in someone's backyard. There are, however, treatment facilities that bottle water and put it in those big 5-gallon jugs – and they’ll deliver it to your home. Also, you can swim in it, wash your face with it, and cook with it -- provided you are as careful as you would be if you were camping in the US (avoid stagnant water and boil it).

2. Eat the mangos, eat the avocados, eat the bananas, and make juice with the oranges. Buy food from the market place or you will go insane eating beans and rice all the time (although Haitian food is absolutely delicious, there is little variety from week to week). Boil your veggies. Go to the market with a friend or translator if you're not comfortable alone to ensure you get the right prices and the biggest veggies. Market food is homegrown without any pesticides or genetic modification, so it's literally the realest it gets. Enjoy it -- don't fear it!

3. Most people probably wouldn’t take me up on this, but I think you should try the street food. In every tiny village in Haiti, you will find women sitting above a pot of oil making a fantastic little treat called paté. These are fried pockets of different combinations of veggies – cabbage, tomato, etc. --, meat, and sometimes an egg. They also add this magic ketchup-y salsa sauce that usually has some spice to it. And they’ll prepare them right in front of you so you know they're fresh! A more classic street food option would be fried plantains, pikliz, and chicken or goat with the classic Haitian brown sauce and some raw onions on top. For a snack, try the grilled corn on the cob. YUM. Haitians don’t undercook anything, so give it a try.

4. Talk to people. 99% of the world is good, and locals want to learn about you. Try to learn a little bit of the language and it will go so far. Smile at people and greet them -- and don't forget that although their world is completely different, you are entering it. Remember where they're coming from (figuratively), and treat them as people with very real experiences that have shaped them. Just as Americans have their perceptions of Haitians, Haitians have their preconceptions of Americans. But don't forget that you can communicate non-verbally (Bobby is a pro - everyone here loves him and he speaks MAYBE 3 Creole words) and that you can develop some really lasting friendships. Also, you learn so much more about a place when you open up.

5. Go for a walk through town. Walk into little shops along the way and explore. I spent an entire year in Hinche and by the end of that year, I was still discovering little gems throughout the town. You can find almost anything you could need, and you'll meet so many people. It's good to be with a buddy, but a person is more vulnerable when they're alone (in both good and bad ways).

These are just a few thoughts based on conversations I've had lately. Anyway, I am safe and happy as a clam under my mosquito net at MFH. I'm extremely excited for the coming weeks and I can't wait to share more. Hopefully I'll be a bit better about blogging during this trip than I was when I lived here :) Pictures coming soon!