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!haiti update - february 20, 2009
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4
Hi! This week has been a busy week with a visiting team from the Hamilton, Ontario region. Tim of Mission of Tears and James, Dan V., Dan H., Bill, and Len arrived on February 11th and stayed until February 18th. They are all skilled tradesmen and were kept busy doing repairs at the house. Dan V. is a mechanic and he fixed up Kimosabee the pickup truck. Now I can drive in 4th gear again without worrying about the steering wheel shaking and I have more control on the steering with new tie rods in place. The truck also has a new sound! A new horn was installed and hooked up together with the siren. The sound is like the horns from the days of the first vehicles with a siren added. People really notice the sound and it’s fun to watch people jump at the sound! It is good to have a unique sounding horn here in Haiti. A business in Canada donated a security system and now I have a couple of security cameras around the house and a monitor that can record the activity. It’s nice to have this in place. I am going to put a sign on the door that says, “Smile, you’re on candid camera!” Jacob and Manu had a fight this week over leftovers. One of the guys told me about this and when I talked with Manu he was really impressed that I knew about their food fight when I wasn’t even around. I didn’t tell him that someone else had told me about it. Stealing is always a problem here in Haiti and some of the people living here at the house steal from each other, so the team built a set of lockers each with their individual locks. The generator is working better now that a chewed up wire caused by a mouse is fixed. Wireless internet at the house was set up as well and the old computer was set up in the living room. I want to teach the children how to use the computer and this will help. Another school table was built as well as some more benches so that we can have combined school and medical clinic days in the future. With all the extra dishes from the school program the sink in the house is too small, so an outside sink was built and plumbing installed. The sinks were made out of plastic barrels that were cut down to size. The remainder of the barrels was used to make a couple of garbage pails. The tile on the kitchen counter inside the house was repaired. We couldn’t find white ceramic tiles so we found the closest available color, which is navy blue. It looks good to have some extra color to the counter. There was also some plumbing and other repairs done too. Manu is in his climbing things stage. It’s not too bad climbing the tree but when he tried to climb up the bars on one of the outside windows the frame came crashing down. This was fixed as well. I told Manu the next time he goes to the roof to chase after a ball to use the stairs. It’s great to see all the improvements! We give the Lord thanks for the funds that were raised to do these repairs! There are still more repairs to do. If a team wants to come down there is plenty of room for them to stay.
We made a visit to Paulna’s village with the team. Bill had a bunch of soccer uniforms and shoes that were donated and they were handed out to some of the older children of the village. Now they can have soccer uniforms to go along with the soccer ball that they got last week.
The main road of Delmas near the CEP offices still remains blocked off by the Haitian police and UN. Last Friday I was with Dan to get a part for the pickup truck exchanged and we couldn’t get near the auto parts store that we needed to get to. The blockade was extended to Delmas 33. We parked the truck on the side road and walked to the store. The visitors got a chance to see some of the things that go on here in Haiti. We were the only customers and the woman who runs the business told us she was going to close up shop for the day. Shortly after we left there was a “manifestation” of Lavalas supporters that came to protest. They knocked aside the first barriers by Delmas 33 but got turned back at the next barrier by the UN and police. We met up with them by Delmas 2 as they were heading back down to Cite Soleil. The police were at the front escorting them home. We had just come back from buying the plastic barrels at the base of Delmas. This week the CEP reviewed the appeals of candidates that were disallowed and accepted 13 of these appeals. Now there are 78 candidates eligible for the senatorial elections in April. The Lavalas party candidates appeals have been denied. There are some questions as to who the official leader is in the Lavalas party and there is a split in this party. It won’t be any time soon that the blockades around the CEP will be removed and traffic will continue to be detoured to inside roads. A rumor that has been circulating around for the last couple of months is that the ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide will be returning from exile in South Africa sometime in March. He founded the Lavalas party. Next week is Carnival and the country shuts down for these festivities on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Pray for stability for Haiti.
In our visit to the ravine area on the other side of Delmas 31 the other week, we met a family that we knew. One of their children is on our waiting list but when I saw how they lived I opened up a place for him in the school program. Lenel Laguerre is 11yrs old and didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. He started attending school here at Coram Deo this week.
On Saturday morning a 4-day-old baby came to the house with his parents. They are members of Pastor Pierre’s church in the mountains of Kenscoff. Shortly after birth the baby developed a bad eye infection. The baby was born at home. We brought the family to Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs Children’s Hospital on Tabarre and they treated the baby. Untreated eye infections can lead to blindness in newborns here in Haiti. We also got a call on Saturday from Mimi who manages a medical clinic in Cite Soleil. Somebody abandoned a hydrocephalus baby on a street inside Cite Soleil. She made a report at the police station and took the baby to Dr. Joey’s clinic in the Delmas 33 area. We visited him on Sunday afternoon and he is in good shape. The head hasn’t grown much and he has good neurological signs. He looks to be about 5 months old and he has been well cared for. Hopefully he can be a candidate for surgery in the next round of hydrocephalus surgeries. It is common in Haiti for hydrocephalus children to be abandoned. The society in a way treats these children like a curse. It was good that Mimi just happened to be in the area at the time. Pray for the health of this abandoned hydrocephalus baby.
Solyvien Favra has been accepted at a hospital in the United States for orthopedic care. Pray for the visa paperwork process.
My nephew Matthew is doing well in his recovery from his auto accident in the London, Ontario region a couple of weeks ago. His friend Kevin appeared to be improving and coming out of his coma but his heart stopped suddenly in hospital this week and he could not be revived. Pray for Kevin’s family and also for Matthew as he has lost his best friend.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Hi! This week has been a busy week with a visiting team from the Hamilton, Ontario region. Tim of Mission of Tears and James, Dan V., Dan H., Bill, and Len arrived on February 11th and stayed until February 18th. They are all skilled tradesmen and were kept busy doing repairs at the house. Dan V. is a mechanic and he fixed up Kimosabee the pickup truck. Now I can drive in 4th gear again without worrying about the steering wheel shaking and I have more control on the steering with new tie rods in place. The truck also has a new sound! A new horn was installed and hooked up together with the siren. The sound is like the horns from the days of the first vehicles with a siren added. People really notice the sound and it’s fun to watch people jump at the sound! It is good to have a unique sounding horn here in Haiti. A business in Canada donated a security system and now I have a couple of security cameras around the house and a monitor that can record the activity. It’s nice to have this in place. I am going to put a sign on the door that says, “Smile, you’re on candid camera!” Jacob and Manu had a fight this week over leftovers. One of the guys told me about this and when I talked with Manu he was really impressed that I knew about their food fight when I wasn’t even around. I didn’t tell him that someone else had told me about it. Stealing is always a problem here in Haiti and some of the people living here at the house steal from each other, so the team built a set of lockers each with their individual locks. The generator is working better now that a chewed up wire caused by a mouse is fixed. Wireless internet at the house was set up as well and the old computer was set up in the living room. I want to teach the children how to use the computer and this will help. Another school table was built as well as some more benches so that we can have combined school and medical clinic days in the future. With all the extra dishes from the school program the sink in the house is too small, so an outside sink was built and plumbing installed. The sinks were made out of plastic barrels that were cut down to size. The remainder of the barrels was used to make a couple of garbage pails. The tile on the kitchen counter inside the house was repaired. We couldn’t find white ceramic tiles so we found the closest available color, which is navy blue. It looks good to have some extra color to the counter. There was also some plumbing and other repairs done too. Manu is in his climbing things stage. It’s not too bad climbing the tree but when he tried to climb up the bars on one of the outside windows the frame came crashing down. This was fixed as well. I told Manu the next time he goes to the roof to chase after a ball to use the stairs. It’s great to see all the improvements! We give the Lord thanks for the funds that were raised to do these repairs! There are still more repairs to do. If a team wants to come down there is plenty of room for them to stay.
We made a visit to Paulna’s village with the team. Bill had a bunch of soccer uniforms and shoes that were donated and they were handed out to some of the older children of the village. Now they can have soccer uniforms to go along with the soccer ball that they got last week.
The main road of Delmas near the CEP offices still remains blocked off by the Haitian police and UN. Last Friday I was with Dan to get a part for the pickup truck exchanged and we couldn’t get near the auto parts store that we needed to get to. The blockade was extended to Delmas 33. We parked the truck on the side road and walked to the store. The visitors got a chance to see some of the things that go on here in Haiti. We were the only customers and the woman who runs the business told us she was going to close up shop for the day. Shortly after we left there was a “manifestation” of Lavalas supporters that came to protest. They knocked aside the first barriers by Delmas 33 but got turned back at the next barrier by the UN and police. We met up with them by Delmas 2 as they were heading back down to Cite Soleil. The police were at the front escorting them home. We had just come back from buying the plastic barrels at the base of Delmas. This week the CEP reviewed the appeals of candidates that were disallowed and accepted 13 of these appeals. Now there are 78 candidates eligible for the senatorial elections in April. The Lavalas party candidates appeals have been denied. There are some questions as to who the official leader is in the Lavalas party and there is a split in this party. It won’t be any time soon that the blockades around the CEP will be removed and traffic will continue to be detoured to inside roads. A rumor that has been circulating around for the last couple of months is that the ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide will be returning from exile in South Africa sometime in March. He founded the Lavalas party. Next week is Carnival and the country shuts down for these festivities on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Pray for stability for Haiti.
In our visit to the ravine area on the other side of Delmas 31 the other week, we met a family that we knew. One of their children is on our waiting list but when I saw how they lived I opened up a place for him in the school program. Lenel Laguerre is 11yrs old and didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. He started attending school here at Coram Deo this week.
On Saturday morning a 4-day-old baby came to the house with his parents. They are members of Pastor Pierre’s church in the mountains of Kenscoff. Shortly after birth the baby developed a bad eye infection. The baby was born at home. We brought the family to Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs Children’s Hospital on Tabarre and they treated the baby. Untreated eye infections can lead to blindness in newborns here in Haiti. We also got a call on Saturday from Mimi who manages a medical clinic in Cite Soleil. Somebody abandoned a hydrocephalus baby on a street inside Cite Soleil. She made a report at the police station and took the baby to Dr. Joey’s clinic in the Delmas 33 area. We visited him on Sunday afternoon and he is in good shape. The head hasn’t grown much and he has good neurological signs. He looks to be about 5 months old and he has been well cared for. Hopefully he can be a candidate for surgery in the next round of hydrocephalus surgeries. It is common in Haiti for hydrocephalus children to be abandoned. The society in a way treats these children like a curse. It was good that Mimi just happened to be in the area at the time. Pray for the health of this abandoned hydrocephalus baby.
Solyvien Favra has been accepted at a hospital in the United States for orthopedic care. Pray for the visa paperwork process.
My nephew Matthew is doing well in his recovery from his auto accident in the London, Ontario region a couple of weeks ago. His friend Kevin appeared to be improving and coming out of his coma but his heart stopped suddenly in hospital this week and he could not be revived. Pray for Kevin’s family and also for Matthew as he has lost his best friend.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
photos - repairs
The inside of the house got a fresh coat of paint.
The first couple of days was taken up with painting. Jennifer is getting some paint prepared.
The new color scheme looks good!
Jo is painting the back bedroom.
The hut in the yard needed some repairs as well.teeth - soccer - part a
Rob is a dentist and he was able to help some people who had dental problems. Here he is preparting to remove a tooth for this girl.
Santonio Edmond is about to have surgery for his tongue tied problem. His mother was very thankful for this opportunity.
Rob and Joanne visited their sponsor child through the organization Compassion. This child attends a school in the Delmas 20 area of Port-au-Prince.
Jim is measuring soccer shoes for a couple of the school children. They were very excited to get them!
It didn't take long before every child had a soccer uniformphotos - soccer - part b
Here are some of the children of Coram Deo with their soccer uniforms. They are very proud of them!
The girls had fun playing soccer.
Benson enjoyed the afternoon playing soccer.
Kiki even made the effort to get involved too! Some older boys tried to steal the soccer ball but everyone chased after the thief!
There was lots of room for the children to play.Tuesday, February 10, 2009
photos - outings - part a
We walked through the neighborhood to see where some of the people that we help live in the Delmas 31 area.
We took a trip up to the Baptist Mission, Fort Jacques and Fort Alexandre. From Fort Jacques there is a nice view of Port-au-Prince. Right now it is the dry season and there is no water in the river below.
The population of Port-au-Prince is around 4 million people.
Some of the grafitti on the walls of buildings in Cite Soleil are very decorative and colorful.
One of these ships will take a passenger to Inagua, Bahamas for the price of $2,000. The boat will travel with 4 passengers.photos - outings - part b
At the outskirts of the village Paulna decided to bring home the donkeys with her.
She is used to riding a donkey and the rest of the donkeys followed her donkey up the path.
Jim decided to help Paulna's relatives cut sugar cane. These guys work quickly.
Walking through the village we met Paulna's sister and her 2 children. They are standing in front of her sister's house.
Paulna's family gave us several stalks of sugar cane and everyone enjoyed chewing on them back at the house. Even the dog joined in on the fun.haiti update - february 7, 2009
“A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue.” Proverbs 11:12
Hi! This week has been a busy week with a visiting team from the Chatham, Ontario region. My cousin Jim and his daughter Jennifer, and Rob, Joanne, Kris and Brandy all arrived on February 3rd and will be staying until February 11th here at Coram Deo. They have been busy doing a lot of painting and repairs to the house. There were some repairs made to the playground equipment as well and the children now have a couple of swings to use. We give the Lord thanks for the funds that this team raised in order to do these repairs. They are saving some repairs though for the next team that will be arriving on February 11th and staying until February 18th. Rob is a dentist and he performed the first surgery we have had here in the kitchen. Santonio Edmond is a 3-year-old boy who we met at the most recent medical clinic that was held at Coram Deo. He was born tongue-tied and Rob did surgery to cut the skin that was preventing him to move his tongue. He now will be able to have better speech. We give the Lord thanks for his quick provision of finding a doctor to perform this procedure. The mother was very happy that her son was able to get this help. Rob also pulled some teeth for some of the children at Sheri’s school. This was the first visit for everyone on the team and we spent some time to visit different areas. We made a visit up the mountain to the Baptist Mission area, Paulna’s village and to Cite Soleil. These visits gave them a perspective of how the Haitian people live. The team brought with them lots of soccer uniforms and shoes that were donated by soccer teams in the Chatham area. They spent time on Friday fitting shoes and uniforms for all the children (both boys and girls) in the school program here at Coram Deo. Every Saturday afternoon the St. Louis de Gonzague school on Delmas 31 opens their soccer fields to the public and on Friday I told the children that anyone who wanted to come and play soccer needed to arrive around 2:30pm to go over to the school. We were a little late getting back from the Baptist Mission and were met at the gate by Manu, Benson and Jacob who said that the others were already waiting at the school. Kiki was all dressed up in his soccer uniform and shoes as well. When we got to St. Louis more than a few people had shown up. Around 30 children (both boys and girls) showed up to play soccer! We ended up setting up a few teams and basically just letting them go. They were excited and very enthusiastic. Jennifer and Brandy were watching over the girl’s soccer game and they told me later that the girls were the most vocal. They commented that the girls did quite a bit of shouting. I told them that some of the girls were either deaf or hard of hearing and this is how the others tried to communicate with them. These girls were also the only ones on all the soccer fields! We were kicking the ball back and forth with Kiki. He does well at this. Maybe one day he will be able to participate with the others and be able to run and kick as well. The only problem was with a couple of young guys who were watching Kiki kick the ball and when the ball went wide they ran off with the soccer ball. The children put up a chase to try and catch them. They learned a good lesson that day on working together as a team and on determination. Both the handicapped children and the non-handicapped children worked together in chasing down the thief! A couple of older guys intercepted the soccer ball thief and took the ball back. When the day was over I had to make 3 trips with the pick-up truck to bring everyone back to Coram Deo. The children are proud of their soccer uniforms and shoes and we hope to make this a regular Saturday afternoon event. The remainder of the soccer uniforms and shoes will be given to Willy and Joel for their soccer program for the youth in Cite Soleil. If anyone would like to donate soccer equipment there are very excited children living here in Haiti who would love to have them!
While the focus was on repairs this week there was an emergency where we had to bring a child in the community who had fallen on the street and broken his arm to the hospital. We brought him over to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital on Delmas 19. This mission hospital treats trauma cases for free. Pray for their efforts as they help a lot of people here in Port-au-Prince to get emergency medical care.
Chrisno Jeudi now has a new home. Arrangements were made for him to stay at another home and we brought him over to his new home this week. Pray he continues to stay healthy and continues to get stronger.
My nephew Matthew is now out of hospital and recovering at home. Continue to pray for strength for him. His friend is alive but is still in hospital in a coma. Please continue to keep him in prayer.
This past week, traffic on the main Delmas road was re-routed to side roads near the CEP (Conseil Electoral Provisoire), which handles the upcoming senatorial elections. For the last couple of weeks they were going over all the applications for the upcoming senatorial elections, which are scheduled to be held for April 19. There were 105 candidates registered for the 12 seats in the senate that will be voted on. Concerned about “hockey fights” happening the UN and police have kept the area around the electoral council building closed to traffic. Friday the list of approved candidates was released and 65 candidates will be allowed to run in the upcoming elections. The rest were eliminated. There are now a lot of unhappy people. The biggest problem is that all the candidates of the Lavalas party were not allowed to run. This is the same as the conservative or liberal party being told that they cannot participate in the Canadian elections. There have been diplomatic concerns released by the American and Canadian embassies, as well as the UN. The UN had some water cannon vehicles prepared for riots because of the decisions made by the CEP. The Lavalas party though has called for calm from their supporters and this week the CEP is allowing all disallowed candidates to submit appeals. I hope that the CEP will reverse some of their decisions in order to stabilize the upcoming elections. Canada has provided funding for the acquisition and installation of machinery used to print CIN (Carte Identification Nationale) voting cards. People will need these cards in order to qualify to vote. Pray for the upcoming senatorial elections and for stability for the country.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
Hi! This week has been a busy week with a visiting team from the Chatham, Ontario region. My cousin Jim and his daughter Jennifer, and Rob, Joanne, Kris and Brandy all arrived on February 3rd and will be staying until February 11th here at Coram Deo. They have been busy doing a lot of painting and repairs to the house. There were some repairs made to the playground equipment as well and the children now have a couple of swings to use. We give the Lord thanks for the funds that this team raised in order to do these repairs. They are saving some repairs though for the next team that will be arriving on February 11th and staying until February 18th. Rob is a dentist and he performed the first surgery we have had here in the kitchen. Santonio Edmond is a 3-year-old boy who we met at the most recent medical clinic that was held at Coram Deo. He was born tongue-tied and Rob did surgery to cut the skin that was preventing him to move his tongue. He now will be able to have better speech. We give the Lord thanks for his quick provision of finding a doctor to perform this procedure. The mother was very happy that her son was able to get this help. Rob also pulled some teeth for some of the children at Sheri’s school. This was the first visit for everyone on the team and we spent some time to visit different areas. We made a visit up the mountain to the Baptist Mission area, Paulna’s village and to Cite Soleil. These visits gave them a perspective of how the Haitian people live. The team brought with them lots of soccer uniforms and shoes that were donated by soccer teams in the Chatham area. They spent time on Friday fitting shoes and uniforms for all the children (both boys and girls) in the school program here at Coram Deo. Every Saturday afternoon the St. Louis de Gonzague school on Delmas 31 opens their soccer fields to the public and on Friday I told the children that anyone who wanted to come and play soccer needed to arrive around 2:30pm to go over to the school. We were a little late getting back from the Baptist Mission and were met at the gate by Manu, Benson and Jacob who said that the others were already waiting at the school. Kiki was all dressed up in his soccer uniform and shoes as well. When we got to St. Louis more than a few people had shown up. Around 30 children (both boys and girls) showed up to play soccer! We ended up setting up a few teams and basically just letting them go. They were excited and very enthusiastic. Jennifer and Brandy were watching over the girl’s soccer game and they told me later that the girls were the most vocal. They commented that the girls did quite a bit of shouting. I told them that some of the girls were either deaf or hard of hearing and this is how the others tried to communicate with them. These girls were also the only ones on all the soccer fields! We were kicking the ball back and forth with Kiki. He does well at this. Maybe one day he will be able to participate with the others and be able to run and kick as well. The only problem was with a couple of young guys who were watching Kiki kick the ball and when the ball went wide they ran off with the soccer ball. The children put up a chase to try and catch them. They learned a good lesson that day on working together as a team and on determination. Both the handicapped children and the non-handicapped children worked together in chasing down the thief! A couple of older guys intercepted the soccer ball thief and took the ball back. When the day was over I had to make 3 trips with the pick-up truck to bring everyone back to Coram Deo. The children are proud of their soccer uniforms and shoes and we hope to make this a regular Saturday afternoon event. The remainder of the soccer uniforms and shoes will be given to Willy and Joel for their soccer program for the youth in Cite Soleil. If anyone would like to donate soccer equipment there are very excited children living here in Haiti who would love to have them!
While the focus was on repairs this week there was an emergency where we had to bring a child in the community who had fallen on the street and broken his arm to the hospital. We brought him over to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital on Delmas 19. This mission hospital treats trauma cases for free. Pray for their efforts as they help a lot of people here in Port-au-Prince to get emergency medical care.
Chrisno Jeudi now has a new home. Arrangements were made for him to stay at another home and we brought him over to his new home this week. Pray he continues to stay healthy and continues to get stronger.
My nephew Matthew is now out of hospital and recovering at home. Continue to pray for strength for him. His friend is alive but is still in hospital in a coma. Please continue to keep him in prayer.
This past week, traffic on the main Delmas road was re-routed to side roads near the CEP (Conseil Electoral Provisoire), which handles the upcoming senatorial elections. For the last couple of weeks they were going over all the applications for the upcoming senatorial elections, which are scheduled to be held for April 19. There were 105 candidates registered for the 12 seats in the senate that will be voted on. Concerned about “hockey fights” happening the UN and police have kept the area around the electoral council building closed to traffic. Friday the list of approved candidates was released and 65 candidates will be allowed to run in the upcoming elections. The rest were eliminated. There are now a lot of unhappy people. The biggest problem is that all the candidates of the Lavalas party were not allowed to run. This is the same as the conservative or liberal party being told that they cannot participate in the Canadian elections. There have been diplomatic concerns released by the American and Canadian embassies, as well as the UN. The UN had some water cannon vehicles prepared for riots because of the decisions made by the CEP. The Lavalas party though has called for calm from their supporters and this week the CEP is allowing all disallowed candidates to submit appeals. I hope that the CEP will reverse some of their decisions in order to stabilize the upcoming elections. Canada has provided funding for the acquisition and installation of machinery used to print CIN (Carte Identification Nationale) voting cards. People will need these cards in order to qualify to vote. Pray for the upcoming senatorial elections and for stability for the country.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
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