We were really blessed to have my parents make their first trip to Haiti! They spent about 2 1/2 weeks with us, and helped out a lot with the kids! We realized how many things we have to show people to give them the Haiti experience...we kept busy that whole time! Here are some highlights of our time together.
Orrin teaching Grandpa and Grandma how to use the tablet and play games :)
One day, we had Haiti Air Ambulance come to the hospital and talk to our staff about what to do if they needed to call a helicopter for a patient. They're a new company in Haiti, just started last year. So they're trying to network the hospitals to find specialties in each hospital to be able to transfer patients to where they can receive care (burn unit, ICU, NICU, etc).
We all went up the hill to watch them fly in. The kids sat on top of the Landcruzer to be out of the way :)
They set up a landing zone at a soccer field just up the mountain...it's about the biggest flat spot in the area. Security guards were posted around the perimeter to keep people away. The helicopter had the pilot, two flight medics, and a flight nurse.
It was quite a draw for everyone in the area to come and see. What a day!
As I watched the helicopter fly out of sight, I cried a little. (Maybe just a little hormonal from just having a baby....) But that helicopter brought back so many things. It was a reminder of the EMS world that I'm not in right now. It's a reminder of the dream I had of someday working on a helicopter. And I again remembered how much I love being a medic.
Having Grandparents here let Orrin spend a lot of time "binking"...Orrin's word for jumping on the bed :)
Randy and LaNae Meyer came up for church one Sunday and ate lunch with us. LaNae is mom's cousin, and they're working with LSM in Haiti. It was really nice to spend time with them, and that mom and dad could too!
One Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach. It was a lovely day of relaxing and swimming.
We took them to Cayes where we go shopping and showed them the stores, did some shopping in the clothes market, and ate at Hot Spot. They also watched Orrin while we went to get our Haitian Driver's Licenses.
We did a lot of walking to different places over the course of a few days. One day, I had a lady who wanted me to come look at her house that I thought she said was falling down. I was going to have to be gone when she came, so I told Madam Ino to let her in and ask her to wait for me. Mom said she gave Cassia to her to hold, and she really liked that. I asked her if I could come see her house, since I didn't want to give her money without seeing it first. She said it was a short walk to her house. So, I followed her through the mountain for about 20 minutes until we (finally!!) got to her house. :) They pulled out a chair for me and we tried to stumble through some conversation. I think I understood that she lives in that house with her sister and brother-in-law, and her daughter-in-law and her 3 or 4 kids. It sounded like her son had died in the earthquake in Port 5 years ago. Anyway, the brother-in-law is the only one who has a job, and they have a plot of land she showed me where she wants to plant beans. Soon I was walking back home, really glad that she took me back because I would have been completely lost.....
That same day, Madam Ino came to work and said they were killing a pig and wondered if I wanted any meat. So that afternoon, we went with her "by" her house...maybe a 10 minute walk through the woods. As we passed her son's home, I saw her daughter-in-law lying on a cot on the front porch area. Madam Ino had told me a while back that she is pregnant and very sick. I've talked to her some when I see her at the hospital, but I know she's missed work because of being sick. Madam Ino told me one day that after she leaves my house, she goes home to cook for her family...because her daughter-in-law can't handle the smell of oil cooking. I feel horrible for her, but it did make me feel a little better...at least Madam Ino didn't think I was crazy when I was the one lying on the couch all day and telling her I couldn't handle the smell of garlic!!
I was hoping to pick up the chunks of meat, put them in my ziplock bags, and go back home. But I felt like I had stepped back into the early 1900's in the Appalachian Mountains or somewhere when they brought us out chairs to sit in and unhurriedly worked on cutting up the pig laying at our feet. Then pretty soon, someone came bringing an old rusty produce scale, and hung it in the tree. They weighed our chunks of pork and we put them in our sacks, and headed back, again following someone to find our way. I had wondered that morning how smart it was to be going off by myself, but I realized I just had to trust....
Marvin and Nancy came to the Hospital to visit, and they wanted to go see the Hydro plant. So we dropped Orrin off at Jami's and headed down with them and my parents - and Cassia :) We stopped at the Reservoir first, seeing the view of the mountains. During my walks I had come to appreciate a little how much surface area was crammed onto those mountains, as opposed to the island being all flat. It's crazy to look at mountain after mountain and think of all the people living all over them...and how far they have to walk to get anywhere! It blows me away.
We got quite the workout on the hike...it was a lot more strenuous than I remembered. Whew!
Proof that we made it down to the hydro building :) We really enjoyed our time with Marvin and Nancy. Glad they got out safely through a lot of demonstrations that were going on during that time. It was really good to have people visit from our home church!
Mom gave blood at the hospital before they left...it was her 9th gallon!! Too bad it won't count in Iowa :) but it will help someone here though! For fun, we took Orrin up to the hospital wearing doctor scrubs, and we got a lot of smiles out of it :)
We took mom and dad on a gator ride up the mountain to a beautiful lookout one evening. So much to see and do! We also took them to the local market one Saturday to buy our produce. They also got in a lot of walks with Orrin and a lot of time holding Cassia in the evenings when she fussed :(
When it was time to go home, Port-au-Prince was still having major problems with demonstrations, and the embassy was sending out emails advising people to remain in place. It was the first time since we've been here that I've gotten emails advising that. David and I were planning on riding into Port with dad and mom, and going to the Embassy to start Cassia's paperwork and then meet up with David's parents and spend the week in Dumay with them. But with all this going on, we just didn't know what to do. Should we leave late afternoon and stay in a hotel in town? Leave at 1 or 3am and try to get in before things heated up again? Finally Monday evening, we found out about a small plane that was flying people from Port to Cayes in the morning, and they would fly us back to Port for $300. Wow, that totally turned out to be the best possible solution! We got up Tuesday morning and left at a reasonable time, drove an hour to the Cayes airport, and then took an hour flight to Port. Brent and Alisha were also flying with, so we ended up paying $50 per person to fly in. Now that we're spoiled we'll want that to work out every time so we can skip the 4 hours of driving :)
Orrin was so excited to be able to fly in an airplane!! He was a big boy!
Cassia, at 4 weeks old, took her first airplane ride! What a busy life she's had :)
Thanks Dad and Mom for coming to visit and helping us out! Hope you enjoyed your Haiti experience, and come back next year :)
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