Trip to Haiti - Bonus Material: Butchering, Bumpy Rides and Boys Band

Butchering Day....pretty self explanatory

 

 

 

 

Bumpy Bus Rides through Haiti

 

 

 

 

 Boys Band at the end of another day....

 

Trip to Haiti - Part 4 of 4: HCH Building Project

Building
The following are pictures of the new building site for HCH. I took them mostly for the benefit of the team from our church who is involved in the project.

Matthew - Project Manager

 

Building 3 Family Style Homes for the children and house parents

 

 

Growing Peanuts and Bananas on site

 

Peanut Plant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haitian Cook Stove

Trip to Haiti - Part 3 of 4: Haiti Childrens Home

 

The main purpose of our trip was to visit Haiti Childrens Home as both Donna and I have connections through people we know. Here is a link to more information about the home

http://haitichildrenshome.com/about

 

 

In 2010 their main home was damaged by the earthquake. They are able to use some areas for meals, medical care, storage, classroom and bathroom but it is structurally unstable and cannot be used for sleeping quarters for the children. They have temporary shelters on the yard. While we were there, 100 donated chickens were awaiting their fate on the second floor. 

The next posting will show some pictures of the project that is now underway to provide safe housing and a better location for the future of the work there.

 

 

 

The following pictures are of the grounds and temporary buildings in the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are currently 25 children cared for full time at the home. Some of them are matched with adoptive families but there are about 14 boys between the ages of 3 and 13 who sadly are not as easy to place. They are here because they have no families and will probably grow up at the home. We really enjoyed these guys. Donna wanted to pack them up and take them with us - she thought they would be wonderful brothers for their little boy, Manny, who they rescued from the Haitian village where they work in the Dominican Republic.

Here's a link to more information about the work they do.

http://www.dominicanfeedthekids.com

 

 

 

 



 

In addition to placing adoptive children, Lori also does nutrition education and support for the local community. Moms come with their babies every Friday to learn basic information about caring for their children. Lori, a registered nurse (among everything else) tracks the health and weight of the babies and provides weekly formula supplements.

Here's a link to more information on the milk program.

http://haitichildrenshome.com/ministries-programs/milk-program



 

 

She was NOT happy about being weighed.

 

 

Spoiler alert: Pictures of adorable little ones to follow....

The following pictures show life in the baby house. There are currently 9 babies in the home, 2 of them eligible for adoption and the rest being cared for by the nannies until they are healthy and strong enough to return home to their families.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonsley and me. I would have taken this little guy in a heartbeat if it were that easy. Zach gave me strict instructions not to come home with something adorable!!! Fortunately or unfortunately it can take up to 2 years to actually adopt a child and this guy was just there temporarily until he was healthy enough to go back home.

Trip to Haiti - Part 2 of 4: Santo Domingo, DR to Mirebalais

Okay, so here we are on the next stage of our adventure. Seven hours on the bus to Port-au-Prince and another 2 by truck to Mirebalais.

 

Waiting at the Capital Coach Line terminal in Santo Domingo.

 

So far we look pretty happy.



Lunch served on the bus.



Capital Coach was OK, but not nearly as advertised! Especially the ease (not) of the border crossing and a few other details I won't discuss here.



The Purple and Yellow are the colours of the ruling Dominican Party.



We went by this pretty fast but it seemed like it was a little graveside honoring some dog that died on the road. This could be a booming business in the DR!!

The following pictures are random pictures of the countryside as we traveled to the Haitian border...

 



The border crossing is on the edge of a very big lake. The road is narrow and sometimes we couldn't even see the edge of the road...just the lake. The border was pretty much a gong show...chaotic, dirty and NO ONE to tell us where to go. Capital Coach had advertised that we would not have to get off the bus - that they would take our passports and do all the necessary emigration/immigration. NOPE, we were given our passports and told to get off the bus and had to figure it out from there. Yes, we were scammed when we got off the bus.
The following are some pictures of the border crossing....



 

We were given a "special" place in line - complete with plastic chairs to sit on.

Yep -  some random guy took our passports so we wouldn't have to stand in line....we were still thinking that we were being given special treatment.
The "treatment" was being back on the bus and leaving the DR without our passports, suddenly knowing we had been scammed. The very snarky bus attendant rescued them and gave us a lecture. Too bad we had no instructions BEFORE we got off the bus!

Arriving in Haiti - only 3 more hours to go....

 

Made it to Port-au-Prince - only 2 hours late. Our Haitian escort from the Children's Home had been waiting for almost 3 hours because of a time zone change issue (there isn't one at this time of year but the bus schedule showed the wrong time)

The following pictures are taken on our ride to Mirebalais..

 



Here are our basic but very comfortable camp-like accommodations at HCH. We slept VERY well here.