Lakay Nou!

Lakay Nou, Hinche

We've named it: Lakay Nou, in Kreyol... "Our Home" in English. This leamed house is now the home of Midwives for Haiti.
After years of running a program out of borrowed closets, classrooms under trees, volunteer sleeping in guesthouses and motels, we've landed.We have a home, and are starting our fourth class. Midwives for Haiti has landed like that baby giraffe, and is on the ground, running!

Therefore we're all over the map, crazy busy.
In one day:
-Vitamins/medicine/prenatal supplies loaded into suitcases and into the truck.
-Folding chairs for our classroom, nametags & blouses for the students, 5 American midwives to hospital.
-2 Haitian Midwives left for a rural mobile clinic. Still managing out of Ronel's ancient, rusty Hilux truck which hemorrhages oil and gas. We are praying for our lovely, pink, "Jeep La"! to arrive...it will not be a moment too soon.
-Class #4 with 15 beautiful,high qualified students started, prayer and singing ringing off of the concrete walls.
-Shopping til we Drop - I bought a Haitian cell phone....I guess this is a sign the relationship is getting more serious...! It's just so much easier to have one, here. My trusty guide and ride, Manno's motorycle, needed gas...it took a half-hour to find a gas station on the edge of town that had some. Filled his tank so he can run me around. Made purchase of 40 Klorfasil bucket systems to be delivered in the village of Naran tomorrow. We arranged to buy a 500 gallon water tank for the roof of our house.
Paint, brushes & rollers. Plastic baskets for recycling and storage. 6 giant bottles of water. Can't find a "stand" for the water tanks to save our life. Landlord Jean-Louis says they come from the "Old Country"...ie, the USA!

Meetings Galore-- and these are not Quaker ones!
-Landlord meeting with Jean-Louis LaFort: Many issues with house resolved... guard/security, barbed wire,doors, electrical, water tank issues. Oh, shucks....the tank we bought is not needed! Arranged to return it tomorrow and buy light fixtures for outside the house. Carpenter, electricians, consulted, haggled with, etc. Not exactly complaining, but this stuff is not like Home Depot, folks. It's a little more complicated.

Cara Osborn, inspired by advice & helpful contacts from Jean-Louis and our desperation, will try a trip to St.Marc/PortauPrince tomorrow...and try to get the Jeep out of hock in customs. Who know what sort of persuasion she may try?? She's a powerful woman who gets a lot done....and we're frantic for that darn Jeep.

Pregnant Ladies and Babies....of course!
I saw my first Haitian patient of the week: Manno's wife, Nathalie, complaining of persistent nausea...a urine pregnancy test done in the living room clarified the reason....she's expecting baby #2! We'll start prenatal care later in the week.
Second patient of the week: our cook, Diuny's one-year old baby, was vomiting, her friend told her he had an ear infection. But!--it all started this week, when she began working for us, and leaving him bottles of powdered milk to drink when she's away working during the day. A quck examination, and we quickly decided that we can't even call ourselves "Midwives for Haiti" if it involves our cook weaning her breastfed baby so she can work for us, and he gets sick from not getting breastmilk. We arranged for her to have her baby nearby in the house so he can nurse and be cared for by her little 10-year old babysitter. So M4H will have a baby in the house!! How appropriate! He's cute, fat, and healthy as can be as long as he doesn't get that nasty powdered stuff.

A "Quiet" Evening at Lakay Nou--NOT!
No, not a quiet evening....Nadene had visits from 2 different M4H-trained midwives whom she hired to staff a clinic and a family-planning education program. The 5 bags that had been delayed in New York finally arrived via Moliares' SUV, along with furniture ordered in PaP...So the evening activty became the Allen Wrench Olympics, seeing who could assemble what with a flashlight, allen wrenches, one screwdriver, and 8 cans of Prestige beer. We had a good time and now have some boxy, ugly, durable, lightweight practical furniture.

I delivered a small Xmas bottle of Scotch to next-door neighbor Xavieran Bro. Mike McCarthy at Maison Fortune orphanage. Asked him to pray for the Jeep. I am serious....non-Catholic, but consulting a priest. We need "Jeep La" really bad, folks....please do exercise whatever spiritual powers you all hoave, ye who care for us. Otherwise, and still, it's a lovely night in HInche!

God Bless.

News & Ways to Help

Midwives for Haiti has great news in that Shelly, our most recent American CNM volunteer, is unhurt, in Port au Prince. When and how she will get home to the US is another thing entirely, but thank God, she's safe. Here is an update from Nadene Brunk, the founder of Midwives for Haiti, in response to many concerned inquiries regarding the M4H project and the general situation in Haiti. God Bless you All for caring!

(see also: mercycorps.org)

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Dear friends of Midwives for Haiti,
Many of you contacted me today to see if you could help us in any way. The devastation in Haiti is unbelievable for those of us who knew how bad it was before and frightening to think how many people who we loved are no longer alive.
Our teachers, students, and friends are safe in Hinche and the program will go on.
However, we know the worst need is in PAP. There is a rumor that AA is offering free airfare to doctors and nurses. Call 212-697-9767 to check it out.
Many want to go to PAP to help with relief there. But getting there is one thing and where you will stay, how you will get there from the airport and what you will eat or drink while there is difficult to predict. The missionaries we know in PAP are alive but have limited resources to house and feed others. I hesitate to give their names and numbers because they are not certain how long their own resources will last. We have not heard from our faithful drivers and translators in PAP.
We will continue our program in Hinche because it is more needed than ever. I think we will be able to have transport from PAP to Hinche lined up in the next week.
But if you want to go to PAP to help, know that you need to be a part of an organization that is really big and really organized or you may be in the same shape as the other survivors- wondering where you will sleep and what you will eat.
If we can partner with another organization that particularly wants to put midwives to work in PAP, we will get the information to you as soon as we can. Suggested organizations- Mennonite Central Committee, The American Red Cross, the UNFPA, Doctors Without Borders ( who could not find staff and doctors today to work in 3 toppled hospitals), Christian Services International, Circle of Health International (http://www.cohintl.org/)

Nadene Brunk