For the Kids!

So, I have promised to try and blog everyday that i am here but i doubt i will be able too but i will try! i am exhausted tonight but have to start nights tomorrow so I must stay awake for as long as i can tonight...so i will write!

Once again I am sitting outside in the dark and its amazing here. It "cools" down to about 28C at night and there is a nice breeze which seems to help! We just got back from a 14 hour day and things were moving today..I can't imagine what they were like right after the quake..some sort of organized chaos I imagine!

I think I will divide tonight's blog into 2 different parts (but we will see how tired I get...) The first part of the blog I will talk to the kids of the Wildrose and St. Teresa's...
All the children I have met range in age from 8 days (a little one I met today) to 19 plus..some of them speak English and some of them only speak the language of Haiti and its called Haitian Creole, it sounds a lot like french and uses a lot of french words so I am doing ok as I took French all through school!!
Some of the children go to school and some of them don't and I don't know why some don't. Right now since the earthquake no one goes to school and I don't think anyone knows when school will start again! Some days we have lessons at the clinic and the kids learn to read and speak English (and they teach me Creole)!
The kids here don't play any video games that I have seen and that is probably because they cannot afford the games or even televisions but they do like music and there are a lot of radio stations here!! So for fun they play cards listen to music on their radios that are hand cranked!
Most of the people here eat a type of porridge for breakfast and rice and beans for lunch and supper. I have not told them yet but I brought them little treats which I will bring out soon for them. The water here that comes from the tap isn't good to drink so we drink water from little bags..kinda like bottled water only in bags! I will try and post pictures tomorrow night so you can see what I mean! And for showers they usually only sponge with water and clean that way!
Many of the children at the clinic were hurt in the earthquake. Most broke a bone and had to have surgery to have it fixed. These kids are very brave!! Some of them developed infections so have to stay with us for antibiotics as its hard to find them in the drugstores here!And ever since the earthquake most people refuse to stay inside because they are afraid of another earthquake so they sleep outside on cots with only a tarp to protect them!
Most of the children and their families go to church and every night there is a church service that all attend.
And there are the most beautiful babies everywhere! They smile and laugh and I spend most of my days holding onto at least one of them. We do have a baby that was born prematurely and only weights 4 pounds!! His name is Kenny and he is so tiny. If he was born in Canada he would still be in a hospital but there is no real place for him to go here so he and his mother are staying with us at the clinic!
I have not seen a lot of other places outside the clinic so will have to tell you about those later but here is a few things I saw driving in from the airport...
there really are no traffic lights
most of the roads are not paved
taxis are called "tap-taps" and they are trucks with people riding in the back.
there are "stores" set up along the side of the road where people sell fresh fruit and water, etc
there are roosters that crow all night, every night and the dogs bark back at them and there is no way to stop them!!
a lot of buildings crumbled in the earthquake and its pretty sad

and here's the other thing I have learned so far..the people of Haiti are wonderful and warm and so accepting of everybody and I am so glad to be here...so now I am going to go to bed!

So much for this blog being 2 parts..tomorrow I will try and write about the clinic for my nursing friends and hope to post pictures! Today was great and busy and fun and I have already learned so so much. We had a group named Merlin come in today and they are taking care of most of out patients who have had skin graphs and have fixators and wounds..pretty neat stuff! Check out their website to see what great work they are doing!!
well I am off to bed..oh and so you know the lady in labour last night had a baby boy and everyone is doing well!!
goodnight
Lise