Graduation!

Congratulations to the 14 new nurse leaders that FSIL graduated on Friday in Petionville!

The students after receiving their nursing caps and pins. 

Transition of the school leadership team.

Passing off the candle from the one school President to the next. 

Diplomas!

The Dean leading in the soon-to-be graduates.  

The Dean and the Bishop of Haiti giving out awards. 

What auspicious event would be complete without bathroom mirror pictures? 

Haitian Creole

I had my first exposure to Haitian Creole during my senior year in high school, when Kyle Evans asked me to read a reading in French during her commissioning service for her first term in Haiti. I practiced over and over, worked with my French teacher to make sure that my pronunciation was spot-on, and was generally feeling pretty prepared. I got to church and ten minutes before the service, the priest walks over to me and says “The person who is supposed to read the Creole reading is not here yet. You’ll just read that too.”

Nothing like 10 minutes to prepare a reading in a language you have never seen before to get the blood pumping! Needless to say, I did an abysmal job, but no one really knew that (except for the Creole reader who walked in halfway through my reading!) As she did the second reading, I was like “oh these two languages really are related.”

To understand Creole linguistically, we have to do a little colonial history. Haiti was a French sugar-producing colony. They imported tens of thousands of slaves from all over Africa. The plantation owners spoke French, the slaves spoke a large variety of African dialects, and very few of the slaves could read or write. From the need for a common language, Creole was born.

Many words are similar to the French: for example, “stop” in French is “Arête.” In Creole, it is “rété”. Some words are entirely different and drawn from the African languages: for example “tree” in French is “arbre” in Creole it is “pyebwa”.

Because Creole was only an oral language until fairly recently, it is a dream to learn. Words are pronounced how they are spelled (as opposed to in French where you ignore half of the letters). For example “Good evening” in French is “Bon soir.” In Creole, it is spelled “Bon swa.” In both languages, it is pronounced like the Creole spelling. There are no gendered nouns (the bane of my French learning) and no verb conjugations: you just add a prefix to change the tense of the verb.   

Mèsi anpil!

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In other news, I finally have an address! Things have a slightly crazy journey to get to me, so letters and cards only please! 

Julie Burd
C/O Rev. Joseph Kerwin Delicat 

P.O. Box 407139

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33340-7139

Tabasamu!

This long weekend I had the great pleasure of working with the Tabasamu Team on their Dental Mission in the Central Plateau in Haiti. Tabasamu, the Swahili word for Smile, was originally founded as a clinical dental mission to Kenya. The leaders of the organization came to realize in time, however, that they could reach many more people more effectively by educating thousands. They want people to stop thinking about dental care as a luxury and rather as a medical necessity. Tabasamu grew out of my church in Pennsylvania and I have heard about it for many years, so it was a pleasure to finally get to be a part of it and to see some familiar faces!

On the first day, we split into 3 groups and went to visit schools on “Tooth Tours.” My group alone was able to educate over 1200 students, teachers, and community members! Each group had a Haitian dentist who volunteered to spend the weekend with us and who did most of the speaking and translating. I played the role of the toothbrush in the puppet show in what was hailed as “The best rendition of the tooth tour that the world has ever seen” by one critic. After the puppet show, the dentist explained proper brushing technique, the importance of flossing, and the symptoms of tooth problems. We did a flossing demonstration and then gave each student a toothbrush. It was tons of fun. I think the highlight of my day was when we were getting ready to leave a school, I started talking to this small group of little girls. We started singing “head shoulders knees and toes.” Suddenly I had a mob of what felt like approximately 200 children around me and I just had to keep coming up with songs, for fear that they would attack!

 They were in the process of rebuilding the road up to our first school... there is no "easy trip" in Haiti! 

 Students leaving their schoolhouse: all of the levels are in the same sweltering room! Fortunately, they are in the process of building a new school here! 

 Handing out toothbrushes! 

 More toothbrushes! 

 Kids climbing at the window to see our presentation at the second school! We arrived at the third school after the school day ended: kids ran after our car to come back to school to see the presentation! 

 Kids at the second school with their toothbrushes! 

On our way back from the Tooth Tours on Friday, we stopped at the brand new Partners in Health Hospital in Mirbelais to drop off a young student we had found during the day with a terrible dental abscess to be seen by a dentist. Most of us who are interested in public health in developing nations are mildly obsessed with PIH: They have done incredible work controlling disease, reducing mortality, and working for the dignity of even the poorest patients. I felt like a 14 year old fan-girl walking into a One Direction concert when I walked through those doors! It was an incredible hospital, complete with a NICU and an ICU, ventilators, the only chemo ward in the country, pulse ox readers, a complete lab, and a dental clinic that our dentist was drooling over!

And then we tried to leave the hospital… and the bridge back to the highway had flooded. In the USA, this would have been a catastrophe that would have led to us calling in FEMA and news helicopters would have been circling overhead. In Haiti, it became a bit of a party with hundreds of people hanging out on both sides of the river: this apparently happens fairly frequently. The first brave souls to cross as the river level went down were cheered for like Olympic Athletes! 2.5 hours later, we made it across the bridge!  

Saturday was T3: Teach the Teachers. We gave 70 local teachers some more advanced dental education and information on more didactic teaching methods (Haitians usually only learn by straight memorization, aka they learn everything the way that we learn our times tables in the USA. This puts these students behind in their ability to think critically and engage issues.)  Each teacher had their brushing style critiqued by a dentist, had a fluoride varnish applied, and 3 lucky participants got to see just how much plaque was on their teeth!

The taught teachers!

Sunday we took our tooth tour to church and then went back to Port au Prince for the Fete Artisinal, an artisan’s festival! There were so many fantastic things to look at. The main Haitian crafts are stone work, metalwork, brightly colored paintings, beading, and woodwork. It is all in a very unique style and absolutely gorgeous!

The most humorous Haitian art (Photo courtesy of Lindley!)

Monday morning we had the opportunity to tour Sean Penn’s NGO, JP H/RO. It is a truly fantastic operation that helped to move the tens of thousands displaced onto the Petionville Golf Course back into homes after the earthquake and also runs two tremendous medical operations. Tabasamu is looking to partner with them in the future. Their leadership was enthusiastic and great to work with! Afterwards, it was back to Leogane with me!

It was a fantastic weekend on so many levels, from being able to see some friends from home, make new friends, and do some very satisfying work! 

I also got to visit with my fellow YASCer Alan, who lives in Cange. Check out his blog here!

Plus, Cange is an absolutely stunning part of the country: it is incredibly mountainous and right on a reservoir. Here are pictures from Sunday’s sunrise yoga session! 

 Thanks again for the camera ABurd! 

 It was pretty. 

 Me at Lac Peligre on the infamous dam that provides a lot of energy for Haiti but impoverished many people in the process.  

... and then I saw peacocks in Port au Prince on my way home. I cannot tell you how out of place they looked. 

Questions You Always Wanted Answered but Were Afraid to Ask…

Fortunately, someone was not afraid to ask!

1. What is the best part about your life right now?

It is hard to pick just one! I love that I speak 3-5 languages on any given day (French, English, and Creole every day, and then we throw around some Spanish in the office and the consultant I am working with right now likes to quiz me on my Arabic!) I love what a culturally immersive experience this is: I really get to live with and alongside Haitians. And I love the people: Haitians love to laugh, dance, and sing, and really don’t care how good you are at any of these. Sounds like home to me!

2. What is the hardest part?

This one also gets split into two parts. First, it is the establishment of extreme poverty as the new normal. Everyday something in the hospital shocks me: people just don’t get treated with the very basic care that I would expect in the year 2013. They are told they need 4 medicines to fight an infection and can only afford to buy 2: it is tragic to see. On a personal level, my wings have been clipped rather severely. For safety reasons, I am asked not to leave the campus without a Haitian and never at night. I can’t cook my own food, do my own laundry, or drive my own car. It is a definite exercise in giving up control, which is probably not a bad thing!

3.Are you eating enough?

I swear that people besides my mother have asked this question. Yes, I am being fed plenty and very good stuff!

4.What do you miss the most about home?

Wandering around by myself wherever I want, fall flavored foods, and friends, family, etc. (obviously in this order) 

5.What is your day to day life like?

I wake up around 6 or 6:30, get ready, have breakfast in the cafeteria, and go to the office around 8. I spend my days either lesson planning, teaching, or doing whatever random jobs I am asked to at the school (Friday, I made a game show. Thursday I was editing the new Nurse Practitioners program’s student’s essays). Or I will catch a ride over to the hospital, where I will work with the administration on project proposals or will work with the consultant who is spending a month at Sainte-Croix talking to different departments and working towards a long-term strategic plan. After the work day, I go for a run, eat dinner, spend about an hour studying Creole, do some reading, and go to bed!

6.How is the fundraising going?

It is with a heart full of gratitude and humility that I am pleased to announce that I exceeded my fundraising goal this week! I am truly grateful to everyone who helped me to reach this goal and know that I think of you and your support often.

7.How hot is it actually?

It is not cold, but I have definitely gotten used to the heat. We very much look forward to evening thunderstorms, which make the sleeping conditions glorious!

8.Do you have an address?

Not yet but I am working on it! I will let you know when I know! I do love mail!

9. What was the most surprising part about arriving in Haiti?

One is just how much it looks like pictures. It isn’t that photographers take the pictures of the most decrepit buildings that they can find: there are buildings on every street that look like that. And then you happen upon this beautiful old house or a gorgeous courtyard and it is just strikingly beautiful. Haiti also has some gorgeous scenery working for it: every sunset is picture worthy, the hills are green and rolling, and the ocean is calm, blue, and comes out of nowhere, no matter where you are in Haiti.

The other most surprising things is when simple things I assume a place would have don’t exist. For example, a coffee shop. Or a park. Or trash cans or benches or street lights or a thousand other little things that we take so for granted in the USA.

10. How is your Creole coming along?

It is coming! It is pretty easy to learn from French and everyone is really good about helping me and pushing me! However, I am spoiled here; everyone speaks French well so there is not as much of an impetus to learn. Alan, the YASCer on the Central Plateau, can speak circles around me because where he is placed, few people speak English or French.