Out and About

New Life church

Today was long in a good way.  We started out by looking for New Life Children's Home which is an orphanage and guesthouse not far from us.  The wife of one of the police officer's that Rhonda worked with will be staying there next week.  We had thought their visits would over lap, but flight changes nixed that idea.

Rhonda waiting outside the guesthouse

We went to check out the place and see what it was like.  It's very easy to get to from here, and the motorcycle ride went quickly.  The place is great.  Huge piece of property, beautiful guesthouse with lots of American amenities, power 24/7 (nice), and wonderful facilities for the kids.  I was really impressed with what they are doing.  The woman who runs it has been working in Haiti for 35 years, and she has thoughtfully and purposefully built programs.  As nice as the place is, it was reassuring that they were wrestling with some of the same questions that I am:  what is the best way to educate children with special needs, how does one provide for adequate physical therapy, and what to do as the special-needs children age and need an adult placement facility.  Even though they didn't have answers, I am glad that someone else is asking the same questions.

New Life building

New Life Children's Home is in the process of digging a new well.  By hand.  Check out the short video and see whether you would like to do that work!  The men are standing on the "hole digger" because it helps to have extra weight on it when they hit rocky parts.

We decided to walk most of the way back.  After the HUGE rains from last night, the walk was muddy, but the air was much less humid.  Even so, we worked up quite a sweat.

We took a quick break for some lunch and cooling off before heading back out to the Apparent Project.  It's this great gift shop place up on Delmas 75 whose employees keep much of the profits for themselves so that they can send their children to school.  I love the philosophy behind it's approach to addressing the "orphan crisis" in Haiti.  If you want to know more about what the Apparent Project does, check out its website: http://www.apparentproject.org.

We took moto taxis from Delmas 75 to the Apparent Project, and that was our plan for the return trip.  Unfortunately, no moto taxis were waiting outside for us!  We walked for a bit, thinking it would be easy to find some motorcycle drivers.  Not the case.  We walked for about 20 minutes, backtracking our way out.  Too bad we took a right instead of a left.  We ended up not going in the right direction.  I wasn't too worried (Rhonda was a bit uncomfortable), but we decided it was best to turn around and head back toward the Apparent Project and begin again.

Soon after we turned back two moto taxis happened by.  I flagged them down, but only one stopped.  We decided to both take it so that we would get "unlost" as quickly as possible.  I seriously thought the motorcycle was going to die on us.  It huffed and puffed its way up hills and over ravines (not kidding . . . some of the "roads" were more like rough 4-wheeling trails!).

The last video is of the road construction going on near the orphanage.  They are making great progress and doing most of it without the equipment that American road crews have at their disposal.  Haitian safety protocols aren't exactly like they are in the States.  Check out how close we (and others) get to the big equipment while it's being used!


The construction video won't upload . . . I'm going to see if it will upload on its own blog.