some pretty awesome things here including $50k!

Hey There,


I admit I have been quite neglectful of this blog over the past few months. Please excuse me...I have been trying to sort out this teaching thing...aka the logistician thing that I have taken on for the next year. Admitedly tonight my brain is mush..who would have thought that I could talk so much that come the end of the day my brain has a hard time forming coherent sentences...yup it's true....

And what about the $50k you ask..I'll get to that later!


For now there have been a few things that have come up that I want to share with you. Mainly some articles and sites that I have been following/reading and Iwanted to share them with you.





First is an article about an amazing American Infectious Diseases Doctor working/volunteering in Haiti (her name is Megan Coffee...probably should have told you that)! She has been there since just after the EQ and has made a huge difference in the treatment and care that patients suffering from TB have been able to recieve. She is wicked smart and is wickedly committed to improving the lives of her patients and the staff that work with and for her. I have yet to meet her in person but am hoping on my next trip this summer that I can. Check this article out!





http://www.socialdocumentary.net/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=1259#.To1g7AisHmd.facebook





Second is that the people of Heartline have been BUUHISY the past few months (not that they are not always) but the past few months and a bit have been crazy with orphans, births (and crazy,stressful ones at that), volunteers and oh yeah rats in ovens!!
I have posted below from Tara and Troys blog an amazing post about what life could be like in a place like Haiti for a teen mom...
http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/08/imagine-if-you-will.html

So difficult and so true....

Below is a link to a contest that Heartline is currently in. All you have to do is click on vote on the Heartline page (no need to sign up or give away your life, although if you do sign up you qualify for more votes...just sayin). If they win they will recieve $50k towards their womens program. A program that has done and continues to do amazing work in Haiti providing women with safe, loving birth and newborn care options. Please go and vote..it takes 3 seconds and then have your friends go and vote...lets do this!!

http://givingoflife.com/browse/heartline_ministries/

Now for something not so sad but very true....rats in ovens!

start here..
http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/08/today-plan-was-simple.html

and ends here...

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/08/rat-saga-final-chapter.html

SO glad to see Jen Halverson back in Haiti doing as she says "anything that needs to be done"... guess that include assisting in rat assassinations... :-) (love it!)

And now I must head off to do a bit more marking and logistitining(?).....and then maybe some sleep!

Things for me slow down a wee bit in the next few weeks so I am hoping to do a bit more on here..get myself and you caught up and just reconnect!

Trip # 4 in pictures...

I know I didn't post a lot from my last trip to Haiti this past summer. Lots happened, I met lots of new and wonderful people, got to see missed friends, got to spend time with little lady and her family....

My hope is to return there this coming summer for a longer period of time.

I thought I would post some pictures from the trip (As you will be able to tell a certain someone captured most of my time!)

Pictures for me this time can say more then my words...

Enjoy...

lets try this again...a little more PC this time..but still with a few tears..

Sometimes I think my mind gets ahead of..I don't know..my rational thought (or maybe my little political correctness trigger). And then those thoughts manifest into written word with limited thought behind them. For that I am sorry. And although most of what I said in the last post (I have removed it from here)is true for me I think sometimes I share a little too much in this public form and it might give the impression that I am up on a soapbox and that's not where I want to be at all.


I am grateful for my life..for all that I have. I realize there are many in this world that have more then me and many that have less. I guess my wish is not to make people feel bad for what they have but maybe more a hope that people take a look every now and then at the world around them and the role they are playing in the bigger picture.



Tonight I was reminded of an African philosophy called Ubuntu, which in essence means

"I am what I am because of who we all are"...

Thus we are all interconnected..we are all responsible for humanity..we all have a role to play whether we think we do or not!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu further describes Ubuntu in this way:

" We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."

And a man I admire for so many reasons Nelson Mandela puts into words (way more eloquently then I could ever hope too) what it is I was wanting to say to people...

Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

Many people I have met over the past few years are doing exactly that and I wanted to share with you my thoughts on these people. In this journey I am finding myself becoming surrounded by people who for me exemplify Ubuntu... people who are working to help those who for whatever reason have been handed a smaller piece of the pie...



In my travels to Haiti over the past 18 months I have met people who, to me are doing extraordinary things...these are everyday people like you and me. They are not movie stars, they are not big execs they are "normal " human beings doing amazing things...



This year I have started teaching at a local university and my first class is a class on leadership and I have always felt (and the evidence backs it..I know I've read enough of it!) that to be a good leader you must model the way. "Be the change" as a wise man once said. The people I have met who are making the differences in this world do just that..they are living Ubuntu and proving you don't have to be extraordinary to make a difference...



I once saw this quote and I saved it...it is very real for me today...


This week some of those people made a difference in someones life and for that I am so grateful...

As I write this the tears are falling but they are tears of joy...

Joy because I have met such wonderful people as Beth and John; Tara and Troy; Jen

Joy because my eyes have been opened to the great people already in my life that love me and support me always...Sherri (and the whole Widynowski family),Jen,Barb (and the ladies!),Margie,my CCI ladies and many others I am forgetting..

Joy because I have realized whats important in life...and I will be able to leave it one day knowing that I did the best I could...

Joy because there really are those out there living Ubuntu and they have brought me into that way of life..and I hope that by living that way others will see (that haven't already) and they will join..making this world just a bit better...

Please check out Heartlines blog post about my little peanut and her family... http://johnmchoul.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/a-new-house-and-a-new-well-or-goodbye-leaky-stinky-muddy-tent/

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love"

Gratitude part 2

On Monday....
.....because of these people...









And especially these people...







And many others not pictured...

This Family...(with a few missing members)


Will move from here...





To Here...Out of the rains and wind..safe and secure..





There are no words to express my heartfelt gratitude...

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

- John F. Kennedy

New and Sweet...

I'm sitting here trying to think of something creative and inspirational to say about my recent time in Haiti..but to be honest I'm not sure I would do it justice..not right now.

So here are a few images from this trip...

Familiar places..









Lovely faces..


Old Friends...


New Friends..



Old House


New House!








New Life, New Struggles, New Hope...



New Day...

almost home

Hey there,

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am safely in Miami. Have been here since sat and head home tomorrow. 2 wonderful nurses I met on the trip have spent the past 2 days with me and for that I am grateful! We didn't really talk too much about our experiences but in ways it has been comforting to spend the time with them. Tonight I am alone and am going to head out for a nice glass of wine and good meal then I might try and post a little later...

My trip was, in most ways like my other times in Haiti..struggling to get back into the Haiti way of living/being, finally finding the groove and then having to turn around and come home...

I had a tough week..I worked 7 long shifts in an area I am in no way knowledgeable about (Peds) and in all ways it was a steep learning curve...

We lost a lot of children (and patients in general all over the compound) but we also helped so so many...

I just don't know....I'm still processing and will hopefully write more and have more to say later...

Thanks for all the support.
Talk to you soon.
Lise

update while i can still think!

Another quick message.

Sorry for the short ones but both motivation and time seem to be in short supply at the moment. Am at Medishare and in following along DR. Jen Halverson's master plan for me, I am working in the area of Pediatrics. For the most part my primary duties have been to care for a set of premature twins (brother and sister) each weighing under 2kgs (so no worries on the back strains!).They are pretty darn sweet and even at this age the obvious bond between them is amazing. Thank goodness I am working with a PEDS nurse from the US, an amazing Haitian Pediatrics Dr and some pretty adventurous Haïtien nurses. I say adventurous because I am not sure if I know of any nurse in Canada that would be willing to walk into work, get a crash course on ventilators and begin caring for a vented patient along with a very sick premature baby. My American counterpart and I are also assisting in teaching where we can although for me it is more learning then teaching.

The Haitian nurses have humored me in my attempts to further my Kreole skills and for that I am grateful! It's crazy hot here but when working there is air conditioning (crazy luxury for Haiti) and the air makes sleeping during the day fairly decent! Oh and the fact that I seem to be in an area void of roosters and barking dogs?!

Anyways, better get going for night 3 of 7 (not sure if there are labor laws about that here...) but tomorrow is a "tour" of the city in the afternoon which will be interesting. For those of you asking me if there has been any change, while in a lot of ways that is a subjective question, physically Port Au Prince seems to have made some strides and things (from my limited drives through the city) seem to be more "cleaned up".

As an aside there is apparently a possible hurricane headed our way and depending on which weather forecasting system you believe, it may or may not hit us. Nice (?) thing is it appears that it may hit on friday or sat so...I might be working more nights then first thought...god lets hope not!

Bye for now!

Lise