The funeral for Kevin Dinh was this week. He was Matthew's best friend who died in the hospital a couple of weeks after their car accident. When the accident happened Matthew was going to drop his friend at the Food Bank where Kevin was going to volunteer for the day. Kevin loved music and made this video. Kevin wrote and composed this song. I posted this video to the blog as a tribute to his memory. My nephew Matthew continues well in his recovery. Click on the link to see his music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7tQbkPzKVE
Saturday, February 28, 2009
photos - Lavalas manifestation
From the One Stop Market parking area we could look down the street and see the Lavalas supporters approaching. They were about 1,000 in number.
One of them was carrying a sign saying "Titid we will never forget you" that was written in creole. The majority of the people who were walking were young men. They were walking in protest to the elimination of the Lavalas political party from the upcoming senatorial elections.
The Lavalas party was founded by Jean Bertrand Aristide who was the ex-president of Haiti. Currently he is in exile in South Africa.
The people were walking up Delmas towards the electoral council building to protest in front of it.
There was a police escort following behind to provide security for the manifestation.photos - medical clinic - cite soleil - part 1
Dr. Karen McCarthy was seeing patients in one of the consulting areas set up in the Maranatha church.
Her husband Dr. Dennis McCarthy saw patients in another area of the church. Translators from Sheri's mission helped with the translating.
Cindy Hodge and Kezia were working at the pharmacy table.
The patients sat in the pews of the church while they were waiting to be seen.
These boys were some of the children who were hanging out at the entrance to the church.photos - medical clinic - cite soleil - part 2
Here is one of the children holding the comic book evangelical tract that is written in creole. He was one of the children who asked for more to give his friends and family.
Here are a couple of people who attended the clinic.
Michaelson is a 4-year-old-boy who came to Coram Deo this week. He has a large swollen belly. Dr. Karen McCarthy looked at him and the family got a sonogram done but more tests are necessary to find out what caused his belly to swell.
Here is a side view. He looks pregnant. The swelling started when he was only 3 months old. He is not in any pain and is a happy boy.
Ismaelle is a boy who has the left side of his mouth that twists a bit to the side. I think he has some sort of jaw problem. He uses the right side of his mouth to chew food. I am not sure what can be done if anything to help him.photos - mountain road - traffic jam
We ran into a traffic jam driving down the mountain road from the Baptist Mission. To help make the time go faster while we were waiting I took my camera out and looked for photos to take.
This rock has a face carved into the side of it.
Some nice homes are on the tops of the hills. Here you can see the effects of erosion.
This collapsed electrical pole is what caused the traffic jam. There was only one lane for both directions of traffic. Looks like the termites finished eating through the bottom of the electricity pole.
In their spare time the guys like to watch a soccer game with their friends.photos - various
Benson is helping to carry one of the boxes of Feed My Starving Children rice meals. We recently got some as being a part of the ODEO organization. Love a Child donated these meals.
This is Marie cooking on a haitian stove. We need a big pot to feed all the people here!
On Monday afternoon the people here at Coram Deo attended the evangelical crusade that was held at Henfrasa on Delmas 33. Manu likes his new cap.
Benson got all dressed up too. He puts on his baseball cap for special outings!
Macdonald is the handicapped young adult standing who is instructing the people who live here on how to use a computer.haiti update - february 28, 2009
“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.” Proverbs 23:12
Hi! This week was Karnaval and this meant that everything was shut down for the first few days of the week. I took that time to work on some paperwork. During the 3 days of Karnaval festivities 3 people died and 850 people were injured throughout the country. The people here at Coram Deo went to one of the evangelical crusades that were held at Henfrasa on Delmas 33. These crusades were held in the hopes of keeping people from participating in Karnaval. Several thousand people attended each evening during the 5-day crusade period.
The schools in Haiti were closed all week because of Karnaval. The oldest student here at Coram Deo is Macdonald Jean. I have known him for several years. He is now 22 years old. He has some form of neurological disease that gets worse over time. When I first met him he walked normally and his only complaint was that he had trouble standing up when he was in a crouching position. Now he can only stand and walk with assistance. His physical disability prevents him from maneuvering around. He wanted to continue his schooling and has been attending classes here at Coram Deo since January 2009. He even comes here on Saturday’s because he enjoys being here. He is a smart guy and knows how to use the computer. This week he has been showing everyone here how to use the computer that was set up by the visitors last week. Everyone looks forward to spending time on the computer. Seeing this gave me an idea. When our funding improves and we have a couple of additional computers we can start a computer class here at Coram Deo for the students. I think that Macdonald would make a good teacher. He is patient in showing the people here how to use the computer. Being a teacher would give him confidence and make him feel productive in Haitian society. Pray for him as he strives to live and be productive with his handicap. He is a very determined young man.
On Thursday we held a medical clinic in Cite Soleil that was led by Dennis and Karen McCarthy who are both doctors. They were working at Sheri’s mission for the week. They were able to see around 90 patients. It was great that people were able to receive medications as well. We also handed out evangelical tracts that are in Creole to people who were standing at the street entrance of the church. The tracts were appealing to the youth because they were in a comic type format. I would hand out one to a child and then he would ask for more to give to his family at home. Some of the children would come back with a friend and ask for a tract for him too. Sometimes the children were pushing to be the first to receive a tract. People on the street walking by would see and then ask for one too. I had to stop after a while because the entrance was getting clogged up by children. It was amazing to see the people so receptive! Halfway through the clinic we heard a smashing glass noise and thought that there was a car accident near the church. When we looked it wasn’t an accident. Someone was angry with the tap-tap driver and smashed his window with an iron bar. There was a small crowd and some angry people but after a couple of minutes things were resolved. It helped too that there was a UN patrol a few vehicles behind the tap-tap. One person was slightly injured because he got clipped with the iron bar but the tap-tap took this person to the hospital. We give the Lord thanks for sending this medical team to do a clinic. Dr. Karen also saw a young boy who had come to Coram Deo with his parents. Michaelson is 4 years old and he had a swollen belly that made him look to be 9 months pregnant. The family had a sonogram done but the results don’t really identify his problem. We are going to send him to Bernard Mevs and have one of the surgeons there examine him. The family is from the Belle-Anse region and he started with the swollen belly since he was 3 months old. Pray for Michaelson and that we can find out what is causing his swollen belly. He is a happy boy who does not suffer any pain.
Smile Train is sponsoring cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries at the Baptist Mission Hospital. A medical team from Surgery Volunteers International will be performing the surgeries over the next few days. This morning we drove Yvenson Joseph and his parents up the mountain to the hospital. The upcoming surgeries were well advertised by Smile Train. People have traveled from all over and there were many waiting to be consulted. There were several adults who have lived with cleft lips/palettes all their lives. Some would sit with their hands in front of their mouth so people wouldn’t notice them. With these surgeries they will not have to hide their face again. While driving away we saw a woman with a cleft lip walking to the hospital. Thanks to the support and investment of Smile Train cleft lips and palettes will now no longer be a handicap here in Haiti. Babies born with this defect will have the opportunity for surgery and will not have to live their lives as the adults who we saw walking to the hospital. Pray for the surgeries taking place at the Baptist Mission and the future surgeries as part of the Operation Cleft Free Haiti project. On March 7th another Smile Train team will be operating at Hopital Albert Schweitzer located in Deschapelle. American surgeons will be training Haitian surgeons how to do cleft lips and palettes. This is the second phase of the project. The objective is to train Haitian surgeons to do these surgeries. Smile Train will then sponsor the surgeries at various hospitals throughout Haiti. This is how the vision of a cleft free Haiti will come about.
Late this morning a manifestation was held. Supporters of the Lavalas political party walked through the streets starting from the downtown area and ending up at the electoral council building in the Delmas 41 area. We saw about 1,000 people walking by the One Stop grocery store heading up Delmas. One was carrying a sign saying, “Titid we will never forget you”. “Titid” is the nickname for the ex-president Aristide. He has a large following amongst the poor of Haiti and people are also upset that the Lavalas party was declared ineligible for the upcoming senatorial elections. Pray for stability for the country.
The 2008 Human Rights Report on Haiti has been released. If you are interested in reading it you can access it at "wwww.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-7PMH47?OpenDocument".
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Hi! This week was Karnaval and this meant that everything was shut down for the first few days of the week. I took that time to work on some paperwork. During the 3 days of Karnaval festivities 3 people died and 850 people were injured throughout the country. The people here at Coram Deo went to one of the evangelical crusades that were held at Henfrasa on Delmas 33. These crusades were held in the hopes of keeping people from participating in Karnaval. Several thousand people attended each evening during the 5-day crusade period.
The schools in Haiti were closed all week because of Karnaval. The oldest student here at Coram Deo is Macdonald Jean. I have known him for several years. He is now 22 years old. He has some form of neurological disease that gets worse over time. When I first met him he walked normally and his only complaint was that he had trouble standing up when he was in a crouching position. Now he can only stand and walk with assistance. His physical disability prevents him from maneuvering around. He wanted to continue his schooling and has been attending classes here at Coram Deo since January 2009. He even comes here on Saturday’s because he enjoys being here. He is a smart guy and knows how to use the computer. This week he has been showing everyone here how to use the computer that was set up by the visitors last week. Everyone looks forward to spending time on the computer. Seeing this gave me an idea. When our funding improves and we have a couple of additional computers we can start a computer class here at Coram Deo for the students. I think that Macdonald would make a good teacher. He is patient in showing the people here how to use the computer. Being a teacher would give him confidence and make him feel productive in Haitian society. Pray for him as he strives to live and be productive with his handicap. He is a very determined young man.
On Thursday we held a medical clinic in Cite Soleil that was led by Dennis and Karen McCarthy who are both doctors. They were working at Sheri’s mission for the week. They were able to see around 90 patients. It was great that people were able to receive medications as well. We also handed out evangelical tracts that are in Creole to people who were standing at the street entrance of the church. The tracts were appealing to the youth because they were in a comic type format. I would hand out one to a child and then he would ask for more to give to his family at home. Some of the children would come back with a friend and ask for a tract for him too. Sometimes the children were pushing to be the first to receive a tract. People on the street walking by would see and then ask for one too. I had to stop after a while because the entrance was getting clogged up by children. It was amazing to see the people so receptive! Halfway through the clinic we heard a smashing glass noise and thought that there was a car accident near the church. When we looked it wasn’t an accident. Someone was angry with the tap-tap driver and smashed his window with an iron bar. There was a small crowd and some angry people but after a couple of minutes things were resolved. It helped too that there was a UN patrol a few vehicles behind the tap-tap. One person was slightly injured because he got clipped with the iron bar but the tap-tap took this person to the hospital. We give the Lord thanks for sending this medical team to do a clinic. Dr. Karen also saw a young boy who had come to Coram Deo with his parents. Michaelson is 4 years old and he had a swollen belly that made him look to be 9 months pregnant. The family had a sonogram done but the results don’t really identify his problem. We are going to send him to Bernard Mevs and have one of the surgeons there examine him. The family is from the Belle-Anse region and he started with the swollen belly since he was 3 months old. Pray for Michaelson and that we can find out what is causing his swollen belly. He is a happy boy who does not suffer any pain.
Smile Train is sponsoring cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries at the Baptist Mission Hospital. A medical team from Surgery Volunteers International will be performing the surgeries over the next few days. This morning we drove Yvenson Joseph and his parents up the mountain to the hospital. The upcoming surgeries were well advertised by Smile Train. People have traveled from all over and there were many waiting to be consulted. There were several adults who have lived with cleft lips/palettes all their lives. Some would sit with their hands in front of their mouth so people wouldn’t notice them. With these surgeries they will not have to hide their face again. While driving away we saw a woman with a cleft lip walking to the hospital. Thanks to the support and investment of Smile Train cleft lips and palettes will now no longer be a handicap here in Haiti. Babies born with this defect will have the opportunity for surgery and will not have to live their lives as the adults who we saw walking to the hospital. Pray for the surgeries taking place at the Baptist Mission and the future surgeries as part of the Operation Cleft Free Haiti project. On March 7th another Smile Train team will be operating at Hopital Albert Schweitzer located in Deschapelle. American surgeons will be training Haitian surgeons how to do cleft lips and palettes. This is the second phase of the project. The objective is to train Haitian surgeons to do these surgeries. Smile Train will then sponsor the surgeries at various hospitals throughout Haiti. This is how the vision of a cleft free Haiti will come about.
Late this morning a manifestation was held. Supporters of the Lavalas political party walked through the streets starting from the downtown area and ending up at the electoral council building in the Delmas 41 area. We saw about 1,000 people walking by the One Stop grocery store heading up Delmas. One was carrying a sign saying, “Titid we will never forget you”. “Titid” is the nickname for the ex-president Aristide. He has a large following amongst the poor of Haiti and people are also upset that the Lavalas party was declared ineligible for the upcoming senatorial elections. Pray for stability for the country.
The 2008 Human Rights Report on Haiti has been released. If you are interested in reading it you can access it at "wwww.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-7PMH47?OpenDocument".
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Saturday, February 21, 2009
UN Video - 2008 Military Operations in Haiti - On the Line
The UN has published a video on what has gone on here in Haiti for the year 2008. Click on the link to see the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweLsMH6VGU&eurl=http://www.undispatch.com/node/7716&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweLsMH6VGU&eurl=http://www.undispatch.com/node/7716&feature=player_embedded
Friday, February 20, 2009
photos - various children
This baby lives in a village in the mountains of Kenscoff. He is only 4 days old and developed a bad eye infection after being born at home. We took him to the childrens' hospital on Tabarre and they treated the infection. Sometimes newborns in Haiti become blind after untreated eye infections.
Lenel Laguerre is the newest addition to the school program here at Coram Deo. He lives in the ravine area on the other side of Delmas 31. He is 11-years-old and has never had the opportunity to go to school.
Friedline Moise had heart surgery in the United States a few years ago. She visited the house with her mother this week. She is in good health!
Calens is the youngest boy in the school program here at Coram Deo. He is almost blind. He enjoyed the extra attention that he got from the visitors.
This hydrocephalus baby was found abandoned in Cite Soleil on Saturday morning by Mimi, of the Lamp Foundation. He was brought to Dr. Joey's hospital in the Delmas 33 region. When I put my finger in front of his hand he grabbed it and held on tight. His neurological signs are good and he should be a good candidate for surgery sometime in April or May. Pray a home can be found for him.visit - repairs - part a
Kimosabee is getting his front end fixed. Now with the new tie rod ends and a couple of other parts the steering is a lot better!
There were a lot of plumbing repairs and improvements to keep Bill busy.
The swing set needed an adjustment. In one week one of the parts already wore out. I caught the children this afternoon about to go down the slide on their bicycle. The boys can be quite daring sometimes.
Here Reginald is helping to unload the sheets of metal which are used to construct the storage boxes.
One of the guys is working on cutting up one of the barrels. Calens who is walking by is the supervisor.visit - repairs - part b
There were a lot of curious children willing to give a helping hand.
The guys are preparing to design the outside sinks.
We ended up using the top parts of the barrels as a garbage pail.
Everybody was goofing around and decided to stick Kiki into the barrels. Just the right size!
The children decided to climb a tree.visit - repairs - part c
When we arrived at Paulna's village she was able to find a donkey to help to carry the tote box filled with soccer uniforms and shoes. Paulno is her brother and he is standing beside the donkey.
We were watching to see if the school bus would attempt to go through the swampy area. There was a stand off between this bus and another vehicle coming from the other direction. We passed them on foot.
When we were up at Fort Alexandre we saw a voodoo offering. Carnival is next week and the city shuts down for these festivities. Voodoo is a large part in the lives of the haitian people. At a sports park in the Henfrasa sports complex located on Delmas 33, Church on the Rock and Fishers of Men Ministries will be holding evangelical crusades for the next week. Pray for their efforts.
Here is the new outdoor sink. It works well.
The steel frame around the window fell off when Manu tried to climb to the roof to go after a ball. Hopefully he won't try this again.visit - repairs - part d
This is the finished table for one of the school classes. It is made a little wider to give more room for the children.
The kitchen counter looks a lot better with the tiles all repaired. We couldn't find any white ceramic tiles so we found the next closest color and that is navy blue!
It is great to have a security system in place. This is one of the cameras in the kitchen. It even records the sound as well.
This is a camera that is hidden inside the black glass globe. When I took the photo you can see the inside of this globe and the camera inside. I am going to put a sign on the door that says, "Smile you are on candid camera!"
There is a monitor that shows the camera images plus a recorder to save them. It's great that a business in Canada donated this system!
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