Camera Roll

Looking over the past few months on the pictures on my phone, I wanted to share some of them and what we've been doing in everyday life.  So here is our "camera roll" of events and non-events :)

Before Lee and Desma left, they had all the hospital employees up to their house for suppers, divided into several groups.  Our family was invited the nights that they had the yard and garage guys (who David works with) and the surgery ladies (who I work with).  They were both nights of lots of good food and fun games!

Hot potato!

Surgery, sterilization, and lab ladies and families.

We built a swing set in our yard, and it is much to Orrin's delight.  He looooves swinging!

Just a bedtime story....or 32!

We have lots of kids that come play in our yard...small groups like this are good, but when it gets to about 30+ it gets a little too stressful for me....

Baseball!  Orrin's newest favorite sport...and he's not half bad!

We got our gates and porch painted this summer and Orrin was pretty intrigued.  He spent several hours out watching and talking, and then pretty soon took up a spare brush and joined in.

He spent days out there, and made a new friend!

The surgeon is doing a skin graft on an amputation here.  The patient was an elderly woman who had a diabetic wound requiring a below-knee amputation and a several month hospital stay.  She had a successful skin graft and was discharged a few weeks later.  It was a pretty neat surgery!

Our rock climber.  Totally not afraid of anything :)

Poolside chicken.  Crazy girl.

Orrin's first job started out kind of by accident.  One evening a young girl came by with "senk gourd" and wanted to buy ice.  The next night she came back, and the next.  I know a few other community people with electricity sell ice, so they must not be keeping up with the demand now that it's hot out.  So Orrin got a job filling bags of ice and refilling ice trays, taking money and giving bags of ice at the door.  And every once in a while he can go to the little market up by the hospital and get a sucker!

MSPP (Haiti's ministry of Health) came and built this building and incinerator around the time we moved to Haiti.  Unfortunately, before it was totally completed, the man who was involved in the project was killed in an accident.  So we've spent this time not using the incinerator because we didn't think we had all the parts.  We finally did more research on it, and found out we were probably good to go.  So one day I skipped out on surgery with a full box of sharps, and David and I tried it out.  It worked good, and so hopefully we can get a system down to get the sharps disposed of correctly...because it has been a problem area!

Watching dad working on the roads with the tractor!

Just a nap in the summer air.

Orrin was going up to the basketball court with David one afternoon, but didn't want to wait.  David caught up with him about at the top of the hill...and Orrin carried his bike all the way up by himself!!!

We had Roselyn and Vania come visit again for a week.  We took them to the beach one Saturday, and ended up taking a spontaneous adventure...a boat ride to an island with an old French fort, two sunken ships, and beautiful water!

The island we went to for the day....they brought us all our water, food, and then caught us lobster, and cooked it for us to eat too!

 One of the old sunken ships...a great place to snorkel!

 The fort...a good place to come and explore!

 It turned pretty cold and started raining.  We were slightly freezing by the time we left!

 The boat we traveled in :)

There was even a playground (on the mainland) that Orrin wanted to play on before we left.  In the background is a huge soccer field with bleachers!

Cassia's first Haitian braids :)

David and I have a few classes we have to keep up on to keep our Paramedic license (in addition to testing every other year).  We went to Port in July for an Advanced Cardiac Life Support renewal course at Haiti Air Ambulance.  While we were there, they mentioned they had a defibrillator that someone had donated to them and it needed a home.  We very happily took it home with us and after some training, it is now in our OR!

We were invited for supper one evening to "Plattop Grill" :)  It was a great evening with *amazing* grilled pizzas, company, and games!

Looking back, we've had lots of fun times these past few months!  We also have had other good times with locals...eating out, having a Father's Day celebration with some local dad's....but no pics :)  I would love to post pictures of all the things we do with the people of Haiti, but I have to choose very carefully what pictures to put out there.  To us, these are our friends.  These are our neighbors.  I know they want their privacy respected, and I need to respect that privacy as we seek to build relationships.  So unfortunately, if I have doubts, we will not always have documentation of all the good times :(  We are thankful for all the good memories, and also thankful for a safe trip back to the States for our furlough!

Progress?

The last few weeks have been pretty quiet.  There has been ongoing communication between Hospital administration and the community.  A committee has been formed and David is on the committee too.  They've had a few meetings, and David senses small progress being made.  The other administration staff have been seeking contact with others who can help us, writing letters, holding meetings.  MINUSTAH (the UN presence here in Haiti) was contacted and they now know of our problem.  A meeting was also held with the director of the southern department of the HNP (Haitian National Police).  These contacts could prove valuable to our solution, and of help should the need arise again.  We are hopeful that others continue to do their parts in finding a solution to the problem of providing electricity to the community, because we feel that without that, this situation will not just go away with time.  As we go home on Furlough, we hope to be able to leave the stress of this behind.  We know we won't always know what goes on day to day, but it will not be far away from our thoughts and prayers.  Please continue to pray for progress and a solution!

Rice n Beans

Diri ak pwa.  Rice and beans.  Our meal several times a week and oh so good.  The combination of rice and beans is probably the most traditional Haitian meal, provides a complete protein, and can fill a stomach fairly economically.  There are several traditional ways to prepare it, starting with the basic rice and bean, and building off of that.  Different kinds of rice, beans, veggies, meat, and spices create our favorite Haitian dish.  Bon appetit!

 This is our favorite...rice with black beans, with an oil and vegetable sauce to go over the top.  And fried chicken.  Yummmm.

 Diri djondjon (mushroom rice).  This has mushrooms and a bean called pwa tchous.  It also has cooked cabbage and carrots.  This time a little sausage was added.

 Rice with bean sauce.  This is made with black beans, but it's kind of like a refried bean sauce.  It's good for a change of pace.  Other items on the plate are abriko, pineapple, and pikliz (a pickled cabbage salad) to put on the fried plantains or bananas.

 Diri jadenye (gardener's rice).  This is pretty much like diri djondjon, also with veggies, and traditionally has a green bean called pwa kongo that is similar to a pea.  It also is served with the oil/onion/green pepper sauce.  This day we had fried chicken and labapen, a nut that falls from one of the trees in our yard.

A good meal right here.  Our normal rice and beans,  fried chicken, homemade potato chips, cabbage salad, avocados.  Many thanks to our dear cook, Madam Ino, for all the hard work making wonderful meals when we otherwise would have had mac and cheese :)

Back in the States, our Saturday noon tradition was to pop a frozen pizza in the oven and enjoy.  Here in our present situation....can you hear me laughing??  So we found our new tradition right outside the hospital gates.  Yes, we buy food off the street, or sometimes we even get rice and beans delivery to our door.  It is a highlight of our Saturday...diri kole with pwa wouj (sticky rice with red beans).

We have just one week left of eating our Haitian food before we hit the border and enter the land of American food.  We're really excited to seeing everyone, and we have our bucket list of food we want to eat on our TWO month furlough!!

While everyone has their own little twist on how they make their rice and beans, here is one "recipe" for anyone adventurous enough to try it out.  Or visit http://myhaitiankitchen.blogspot.com for more Haitian recipes and probably better directions.  Or you can come visit us (after furlough!) and we'll get you the real thing!

Haitian Rice, Beans and Creole Sauce

*Cook 1 cup beans in 3 cups water for 2 hours
*Drain beans, reserving cooking water

*Heat ¼ cup oil in pot

*Add ¼ cup bacon and cook (yes, deep fried bacon....us Americans can learn a lot of good tips!)

*Grate ½ coconut
*Rinse grated coconut with water, and squeeze water through a colander (into bowl with bean water), making coconut “milk”, until you have 4 cups.  Then add this to the beans.

*Add parsley
*Add cooked bacon

*Put 2 cups uncooked rice, rinsed, into 2 cups water and cook for ½ hour

*Add ¼ cup butter at the end

*Combine rice and beans

Creole Sauce:

*Make a paste with:

3 Garlic cloves

1 Green Onion

Small dried Shrimp

*Heat 1/8 cup oil in pot

*Add 2-3 tbsp tomato paste, or ketchup

*Add 1 cup water and stir
*Add two chicken bullion cubes

*Add parsley, pepper, and previous paste
*Add 1/2 Tbsp lime juice or vinegar

*Add sliced onions and green peppers
*Cook on stovetop until veggies are tender

Serve sauce over rice and beans.