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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Tropical Storm Isaac Hits the DR and Haiti


Well, I’ve gotta say we got pretty lucky here in the DR and were minimally hit by the storm…just a day and night of lots of rain and wind. The worse I saw was a few trees down in San Pedro. However, our sister home in Haiti (the one I’ll be visiting in about a month) took a little bit of a hit. Fr. Rick, the national director there, sums it up SO well. I’ve bolded the parts that really ring true for me!

“Who are you, to talk like that, to a rainbow?”
Reported by Fr. Rick Frechette, CP, D.O.
National Director, NPH Haiti
August 26, 2012

These are strange words, of course, and I am the first to admit it. They might make a little bit of sense to you in a minute.

Storm clouds are never very good news for a country tottering on the edge of survival. Even the super powers brace for super storms, and as we have seen, often do so in vain. How much can we do before the gigantic forces of nature?

Storms bring the obvious problems of floods, mud, and homelessness, trees that crush people and buildings, and objects that deliver their destruction by flying on the wings of savage winds. We saw this again yesterday.

Less obvious problems are the weakening of infrastructures, like our own hospitals when no one can get to work, when power is lost, when the sick are sopping wet and shivering cold because buildings made to protect from heat and sun above cannot protect against rain coming is sideways on high gusts of wind.

I am thinking at the moment of Fr. Francilome, who was brought to us in a coma yesterday after a terrible car accident in the drenching torrent. He came for a CT scan of his head, so we could send him to a private hospital with capacity for neurologists and neurosurgeons. It was pathetic to me, how in such conditions as yesterday, we could not offer him much protection from the same storm that so hurt him. “Let us pray.” His signature words, far from his silent lips now, are now our words for him. Let’s use them full heartedly.

Less obvious still, brought by life’s storms, is the inward journey of storm chaos. We human beings absorb it. We take it in. Some, sadly, welcome it as “home”, as “how it is”, never to be otherwise. Fate. The storm damage is also emotional and spiritual.

The nearby river rises and rises, fed afresh from the mountain rains, ripping wider canyons along its track, as it is forced to take more water than it was carved to handle. Storms dump whole lakes worth of water on mountains, and these lakes seek the sea.

The river is so fast and furious that if you fall in, even if you are the best swimmer or super athlete, you are lost and taken to your death. On the river banks, hundreds of residents of a tent city, mouths wide open before yet another force of destruction, take the scene deep into themselves and try to make plans for escape, as they clutch their children: plans to go where? With whose help?

If there were such where’s and who’s, they would not even be on this riverbank, almost three years after the earthquake robbed them of even subsistence wellbeing. What is the emotional and spiritual toll these tragedies take on them, in this storm?

Or, think of the children in our orphanages, and the hundreds of orphanages around the country. Young minds and hearts, with damaged feelings and spirits from so many tragedies already at such a tender age, safe in a building but hiding from another manifestation of doom.
And what do storms do to people like me and you? We are helpers, and often enough wounded helpers with our own problems and sorrows.
How many stresses and strains does it take before we become cynical, before we don’t want to hear any more, before we don’t care?

It is to be expected that that can happen.

But let’s not say it is normal. Let’s never say it’s normal. It can never be normal for human beings not to care about each other.
I started making my rounds at 4 a.m. yesterday, to all our mission sites, winds and rains still railing. At 5am, some police approached St. Damien Hospital just as I returned from St. Luke Hospital and before heading to Cite Soleil. A police car approached, sputtering along, emergency lights barely flickering. Out came a screaming woman. She buckled over in the hospital lobby, dropped to her knees and lowered her head onto the chair.

I ran for the only help anywhere nearby, a clean white towel from my office, since I could see she was about to have a baby. I caught the baby from behind, into the towel, and cleaned off our newborn brother and stimulated his cry.

As I held him, aware that my arms where the first ever to hold him, I was on my knees behind the crouching mother, a woman from a poor tent city, who now had her baby in a bloody public scene, during a hurricane.

Neither of us could move, until we had help to cut the umbilical chord and untangle ourselves from this bizarre scene. It was one of those moments when life seems absurd, cruel, and random of meaning. I looked out at the storm, and knowing full well what life conditions awaited this baby within hours, I cynically said, “Lot’s of luck, kiddo!”

Suddenly, I felt the presence of the kindly forces that guide those who allow such guidance in their lives. Those who deeply understand living faith know what I mean. I was led to understand immediately that my cynicism had no place, and was dangerous to me, to my own path, to the baby in my arms. The kindly forces asked me if I was sure of what I had said. It is not that I heard a voice. But I was challenged and I felt the question put straight to me, “Who are you, to talk that way to a rainbow?”

Noah was given the sign of a rainbow, the sign of contradiction to the destruction of the storm. I was given the sign of a child. Yes, who am I, to talk with such arrogance and cynicism?

So, correctly and gratefully chastened, I murmured this prayer to the little rainbow in my arms: “I wish you the blessing of even half the love and strength I have known in this life. Welcome to our world, a little rough around the edges, but it’s a beautiful place.”

That there are storms and clouds in life, there is no doubt. But that there are silver linings, there is no doubt either. Thankfully, the signs are everywhere, to encourage us and quicken us in the work God has given each of us to do.
 

Couldn’t be better stated in my opinion. To see a couple pics, you can check out this link: http://www.friendsoftheorphans.org/s/769/social.aspx?sid=769&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=3661&ecid=3661&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=1251

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Portraits, Padre Wasson, and Pijamadas!


Chilling in the park with Carmencita and Cristela on Padre Wasson Day!
Yep, again, life continues to move along here at a rapid fire pace. It’s crazy to think how much has happened in just the last 10 days or so. Here’s a quick recap:


1. PORTRAITS! As previously mentioned, Avriel and I took photos of ALL 216 kids this past week. We did the majority of it last Tuesday, but have been doing ‘retakes’ and getting the few stragglers who have artfully avoided us for the last couple of days. More or less, I took all of the girls’ photos and Avriel took all of the boys’ photos. These photos will get sent to our 1500+ sponsors/godparents at Christmas time. We tried something new this year too, where we not only took a nice picture of each child, but we also took a ‘foto loca’ where each kid could strike a pose, make a face, etc. Pretty fun! Here’s some good ones! By the way, these photos are definite proof that our kids are the CUTEST kids that exist in this country.

Milagros!

Junior Olivo!

Yudelkis!

Noel!

Catia!
2. Padre Wasson Day! This past Thursday we celebrated the 6th anniversary of our founder, Padre Wasson’s death. It’s a day of celebration and thanksgiving for all Padre Wasson has done. The day started with mass at 8:00am, summer workshop presentations at 10:00am, sports tournaments in the afternoon, a Padre Wasson play at 6:00pm, a pizza dinner at 7:00pm, and a movie at 8:00pm. It also happened to be the Inauguration Day for the new president (Danilo) so it was a day off work for all NPH employees (except for us and the tias of course!)

Me and Nairobi at the party!
Ofemia and me in the park!
With my godbrother and sister, Wilson and Milis!
 3. Pijamada! Yep, on Saturday night with the help of Pili, I did a pajama party sleepover in my house complete with a movie, popcorn, ghost stories, and all of us spending the night in the main room sprawled out on the floor. Interestingly enough, I think the highlight of the night for the girls was when I took out my contacts. All of the girls were crowding around me in the bathroom and simply amazed at what contacts are! It’s the little things in life…
Cecilia, our new (awesome) house helper making palomitas!
Sleeping on the floor!
Carolina, Yaqueline, and Cristela!
Me with Belkis and Ditania!
4. Avriel’s birthday was last Wednesday, so that was a fun day. We balloon bombed Avriel’s office the night before, sent her 23 little ‘love notes’ from the kids throughout the day, had a surprise party for her with her house, and then closed the day off with a Chinese dinner for all the volunteers.
Av, Pili, and me!
Yay volunteers!!
Yep, we got 'tud.
5. Memory Project: This was really REALLY cool. So towards the end of last year, we sent a guy named Ben photos of all of our kids. Ben has started this organization where he gets young artists to create draw, paint, or photoshop pictures of kids who have been neglected, abused, abandoned, etc. Long story stort: Years ago, he met a kid who had never owned a picture of himself. So on Friday night, Ben arrived with his wife and daughter (I love that our kids got to see a complete family) and we began the process of distributing 4 portraits to each child here (do the math: that’s over 800 drawings!) It was so so SO fun to see each kids' reaction as they received their portraits. What a GREAT way to reach out and make a difference!
Sandy!
Santa Rosa!
Joel José...love this one!
6. Katherine is here! On Sunday, Katherine (long-time NPH volunteer/coordinator of the Internation Mtg that took place in February/amazing person) arrived with her husband. We took two of her godchildren, Esmerlin and Esteban, to pick her up at the airport with us. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! It was the boys’ first time going on an elevator and escalator. Tough Esmerlin needed me to hold his drink and took my hand with an IRON GRIP for his first escalator trip while Esteban was left stranded at the bottom while we all started up, trying to decide when he could get on. The second time, they both stepped on they ended up on cracks and the trip in rgw elevator had them both nervous as heck. SO CUTE! In other news, we spent all Monday afternoon and evening with Katherine and Tom exploring the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo and then having a lovely supper together :)

7. 1st day of classes was Monday! The kids all have new uniforms, shoes, backpacks, etc. They look so sharp! Needless to say, we were READY for this. It’s so nice to have the kids in a routine again…things are just a little less crazy.

8. And lastly, Daniela (head of sponsorship) is on vacations for the next 2.5 weeks, so I am officially in charge of Padrinos. Things have been pretty busy so far, but I definitely like it. I don’t think I’ve mentioned my job a lot on here, but I really really enjoy it. It’s a fun job, because all of the kids are always asking if their godparents have sent them anything or are coming to visit, so I get to be the bearer of good news a lot plus I get to help with a lot of fun visits!

The camera crew :)
It's been raining so much lately! And currently, a hurricane (Isaac) is on the way as well!!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

SO Many Cacatas!

So here's a new word for you all: cacata. Translation: tarantula. And let me tell you, they are EVERYWHERE these days. Rainy season has certainly hit and apparently, cacata season as well. I kid you not, every night we are finding cacatas in the house and when I was walking back to the house after dark this past weekend, I was centimeters away from stepping on one while wearing my sandals. So with Wes gone (he was the resident cacata whisperer), the rest of us have had to step it up a bit. The other night, we found one right outside the front door and it was my turn...I first tried using a rock to knock it out cold (this is what the kids do), but I guess my aim isn't as developed (to put it nicely) as one would hope, so in the end, I had to revert to another method. Irene happened to get it all on video:

While the fam was here, we also had a cacata visitor and I definitely woke all 4 of them up to come see it. Here's a couple pictures of yet another cacata from two nights ago. This one was a WHOPPER. 

It's the size of a hand! GROSS!
Me and the cacata...YUP. As it takes its final few breaths...
DEAD.
Other than that, life continues as normal in this EXTREME heat. Today was picture day for all the kids, so we spent the morning getting pictures of all the girls and the afternoon getting pictures of all the boys. We'll sent the pics to their godparents (sponsors) with the Christmas cards. More on this later! 

Well, as rainy/cyclone season continues, we can only hope no cacatas show up in my bedroom...I can handle the house, but I'm not sure I could handle that!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Susanna, Me-chel, Ray-becca, and Tia Maria Come to Visit!

Oh, yes, Sunday, July 29th marked Visitor’s Day not only for the kids here, but also for me! At 3:00pm in the afternoon, I left the craziness of kids returning after summer vacations and the many visitors on the terreno to head to the airport with my godbrother Wilson to pick up MY visitors: my sisters, Suzanne and Michelle, along with best friend Becca and my aunt Mary! We came back for a grand tour of the place and got settled in! Many MANY introductions were to be made as the kids are always curious when there’s new people walking around, esp. chicas lindas (not to mention I had made pretty much everyone aware of the fact that they were coming prior!)
Becca and Michelle with Estrellita and Erika (plus Leonardo!)

Carolina and me (and Natalia!)

On the grand tour!

Mary and Jhon Luis (here begins our intro to the baby house!)

Suzanne and Estrellita in matching army pants!

Becca and her new best friend, Saul.

Michelle, Fausto, and Becca.
Monday was hang-out-with-the-kids day and attempt-to-learn-250-names day. We did lots of activities esp. with the girls in my house. We made bracelets in the park and then later painted nails. We all ate lunch together in Santa Ana and then that night we attempted to sleep on the roof underneath the beautiful Dominican sky (by 2:00am, we had all headed for cover...the moon was SO bright!)

Scones for breakfast!
Our dining room!
Belkis and me!
Suzanne and her resident match-maker, Valentina.
Luisito had SO much fun with all the thread!
A new friend...?
Nail polish time!
Erika, Carmencita, and me! Seven months in, without fail, anytime these girls see me, they drop whatever they are doing and run in my direction for a big hug...a GREAT reminder of why I am here!
Katherin and Suzanne!
A country of contrasts...and a country of beauty...
20 bottles of nail polish is no everyday matter here...took no time for the girls to all show up!

Becca got a wonderful manicure from Anaika!

Cristela insisted on painting my nails...LOVE this girl! So young and so grown-up all at the same time...

Michelle and Josi (had to take advantage of the fact that Josi would let me take her picture this day!)
Lunch: rice, beans, meat, and salad...la bandera dominciana.
Tuesday started out rainy, so we switched up our plans and spent some more time with the kids right off the bat. We started out by bringing a yummy breakfast of monkey bread to the house and soon afterwards, we did a craft the girls had never seen before called Dream Dolls. My aunt Mary brought it along, and it was a blast. It was so cool seeing each girl express themselves by creating a different type of doll! Next stop was San Pedro which meant it was time to get on some MOTOS! Yep, we grabbed three motos and hopped on over to town to visit Wilson at his internship at the gas station and then to all get some supper together. We also went in a public guagua, which is essentially an old van that costs 25 pesos a ride. We gave Wilson his b-day gifts and called it a day! But not before the girls had their first chance to see a cacata (tarantula) climbing up the stairs to their bedroom!!
Monkey bread...it might not look so good, but it tasted super dulce!
Katherin working on her Dream Doll...
Carmencita and her Dream Doll...
Belkis with her Dream Doll (and new headband!)
Milis (Wilson's sister) and Michelle!
Aunt Mary i.e. Director of the Dream Doll Project.
Finished products!!

Suzanne, Mary, and Yesenia
Katherin and her finished product!
The crew including Nairobi who is deaf and mute...the Dream Doll was a great way to express herself!
On the moto...booyah!

Visiting Wilson at Shell where he worked for 5 weeks this summer!
Walking through San Pedro...
Down by the malecon, right next to the ocean...
Pizza and pica pollo for all!
Lots and lots of motos!
In the public guagua (it was a pretty nice one!)
Getting ice cream at Bon!
Kristen's 22...
...and Wilson's 16 (as well as a Twins fan!)
EWWWWWWW!
 Wednesday morning began our second part of the week: resort DR. We took public transport (a bus, bus, taxi, bus, and taxi) to our all-inclusive in Puerto Plata. It was a good 7 hours of travel, but a great view of the country. We ended the night with some dancing!

Hotel!
Ready for supper!
And Mary's on the dance floor!
Dancing the night away!
Thursday was beach day. Nuff’ said. I live in paradise
Playa!
Sistas!
Besties! (It was Mexican night!)
SO pretty!
Friday was another day at the resort for Mary and me (beach, books, sun) and a trip to 27 Charcos, some AMAZING waterfalls, for the rest of the crew. Dominican coffee was drank by all. YUM.
Mary got artsy with her new camera after supper!
Saturday we made the return trip back to NPH and the decision was made to spend the rest of the time at NPH rather than doing any more touring/sight-seeing. We went to misa at 5:00pm with the kids…it’s always fun seeing the kids in their Sunday-best.
Couldn't resist the temptation of the see-saws after hours!
  Sunday was ‘batey day.’ We started the morning off by going to the nearby batey (Haitian migrant community), Monte Cristi and we did a caña walk. Everyone got the chance to chop some down and attempt to peel it…needless to say, we all got our butts kicked by 3 little boys who had 3 pieces of caña each while we were all still working on our very first one. The afternoon was spent hanging out with the kids one last time and saying a sad goodbye to Wilson. We got in one last Domincian experience by heading back to the batey that night for some dancing!
The caña crew!
Suzanne taking a bite...
The three boys were so entertained by our lack of skill!
Michelle giving it a go!
Didn't take long for Mary to catch on!
Our walk back to NPH was made a little more exciting by this cow crossing and little Jeri's scared voice saying, "Kris, the cows are COMING!"
Some of the batey boys...the place was packed!
Hermanas!!
Monday morning by 5:15am we were on the road to the airport! It’s amazing how quickly time flies! It’s hard to pick a favorite part of the week, but without a doubt, one of the coolest parts for me was having my family meet Wilson and getting to hang out with him! He is definitely part of the family now! Overall, I just feel so blessed to have such kind and generous family and friends…it was an unforgettable week! Thanks to all who made it happen (including Becky Tukua, Brenna, Grandma and Grandpa Becker, and of course mom and dad!)