Miss Me?

One day my life will be so exciting and wonderful I'll feel overwhelmingly compelled to blog something magnificent every day in order to keep all you wonderful people who read this blog informed about the fabulous things that happen day in and day out.  Today is not that day.  While I love (for the most part) my life and have a grand ol' time I fear I'll never be as faithful in posting about events as I would like, and as I'm sure you would like as well. I try hard not to make promises I can't keep, and that one my dear, is one I can't keep!  However, while I'll never be the faithful blogger, here I sit, 3:30am, a mere three and half hours left of work, and wanting to write.  Write about what?  I haven't the faintest idea.  I have a thousand different thoughts, feelings, and emotions running through my mind and not a clue as to how to sort them all out.  Thoughts of family, friends, and the future.  Thoughts of books, nature, and reality.  Thoughts of escape.  That seems to be the most appealing thought of them all, and sadly the least achievable.  Ever just want to take a break?  From everything?  Step outside of your life and peer back in?  Be completely apart from where you are now?  Sounds quite fantastical and I'm sure completely unoriginal. Regardless, it's what I want.  A book, a drink, a friend.  Somewhere warm, but not unbearably hot. And away, just away.

Tuesday, Caregiver School

Tuesday I went to the caregiver school. We teach caregivers at orphanages basic skills to help them care for the children as best that they can. It's usually a two day school and at the end they get certificates and prizes and such and it makes them feel good about themselves and accomplished and it's great seeing them have self-confidence like that. But on to a more selfish note. I hate teaching. This is actually my least favorite part of the whole trip. I know that sounds terrible and selfish and everything of the sort but I really don't like it much. I don't like being in the spotlight, I don't like being the teacher and for whatever reason I feel very ill-qualified. Needless to say it causes me much anxiety. But I can say I enjoy the looks on their faces as they're learning. I taught with Jordan and Katie told us after that we made a fantastic teaching team. See Jordan is a bit wild and crazy. He's always moving, dancing and is just plain nuts sometimes. I'm very quiet and reserved. So Jordan would get them all riled up and moving and then I'd let them sit and relax and just listen! We balance each other out well. Regardless of the fact that it's not my favorite, I'm glad that I do it, I'm glad Katie makes me hahaha!

Lastly a fun little story. So I'm sitting at the table at this orphanage. I've got a headache and I'm achy. Just feeling blah. Jordan is up teaching. I turn to Katie and and ask her if she has any ibuprofen with her, I didn't bring mine. She unfortunately does not. No worries, I'll make it. So when Jordan is done I get up to teach a section of the curriculum. When I'm done Katie motions me over, and is chuckling, "Look at this," she says. In one of the bags with our toys and teaching materials are 3 lonely, loose ibuprofen. They had fallen in this bag when we were making individual packages from large bottles. Nice huh?! Someone's looking out for me :D

Clinic Day One

Monday we were off and running, ready to dig in and start working :D I went to the clinic in Calebasse. First day of clinic always has a few growing pains, trying to figure out how things flow best, where everyone fits best, and occasionally (usually) a little bit of mass hysteria. I'm pretty sure that's why they send me on the first day, I'm a fairly mellow person, easy going, and tend to be able to calm and reassure people. It's nice to be needed! But once we've got a rhythm things just roll on. As expected we saw a variety of pain complaints, generally lower back pain and joint pain, stemming from the hard labor they perform. Also lots and lots of hypertension. 200's/100's. For my medical friends, yup very high! And they walk around like that all of the time. It was a great day to start off the week though!

Working Hard

Don't tell Paul I said this but he did awesome. Seemed very comfortable and dived right in.

This being my third year I think I finally felt comfortable in my role. One thing I still have difficulty with is a somewhat feeling of inadequacy and helplessness. Yes, yes, I go Haiti to "help" and believe me, I do feel that I help. It's an overwhelmingly great feeling of accomplishment. The feeling of helplessness and inadequacy comes from the area of "follow-up." Not a very well known concept in third world countries. We do what we can, we give these people a month's worth of treatment; whether it be antibiotics, antihypertensives, analgesics, and the like. And then you pray that the medication works and that maybe, just maybe they'll be able to find some sort of follow-up or continuation of care. I've said this before but it feels as if you're putting a bandaid on a gaping chest wound, like a drop of water in a pool. But I've also been told that if you help keep someone out of pain or from having a stroke for a month then it was worth it. Regardless, I think that is a the part of this I will never get used to, and I suppose that's a good thing.

Better Late Than Never

I've been home from Haiti for about 9 days and I'm just getting around to blogging about it. My apologies to the 2 people who actually read this blog. I'll be better. Two reasons I didn't blog while in Haiti; 1. The internet is not very reliable and especially slow when 15 people are on it and 2. I don't have the patience to play battle with this incredibly slow and unreliable internet. So without further ado....HAITI 2012 (pictures to follow as I don't have them at present time.)

The first two days in Haiti serve several purposes: Preparation, Relaxation, and Assimilation. We spend two days preparing for the coming week by making assignments to the various location we will be visiting. We prepare and organize the various supplies so graciously donated by people for our trip.

We relax a bit, because in the coming week there might not be much of that. We lay by and play in the pool. Yes, a pool in Haiti! The Healing Hands for Haiti compound has a pool and it definitely is an amenity. The first year I went to Haiti was after the earthquake and the pool was still under construction. I can't believe what I was missing that year!

Sunday night we went to the Montana, a hotel that overlooks Port-Au-Prince. We got there in time to see the lovely sunset and have dinner. It's nice to sit down and begin to get to know the other members of the team and catch up with others you've know before.

Assimilation takes a little more than 2 days for many things I realize, but two days is what you have until you must submerse yourself in Haiti. Those of us who have been there before try to re-aquaint ourselves with the blazing heat and humidity, the mosquitos, and the local cuisine while those who have never been before try to get used to and make sense of everything going on around them and everything they are seeing, much to their dismay by the end of the trip they still will not be able to makes sense of many of it.

Sunday night we crawl into bed under out mosquito nets getting ready for the week to come! More to come :D

The Great Civilization.....The Greeks!

I'm Greek, well more accurately my grandmother is Greek. And if you know anything about the Greeks know this, they love to eat and if you're not cooking for 14 then what's the point? Therefore my grandma is a sensational cook. The first question commonly out of her mouth upon your visiting is "Are you hungry? Can I make you something?" Love her to pieces! She makes this bread called "Monkey Bread" which is essentially just rolls stacked upon each other and it makes it so that you can just pull the bread apart. But if ever I was in love with something in the form of carbs, I love this bread. And what do you suppose I received for Christmas? A Kitchen Aid mixer (not the one pictured here, this is my grandmother's 40-year-old kitchen aid which was her mother's)! Perfect for making bread and all sorts of marvelous things. Therefore I figured it was about time to learn to make this marvelous bread. So while I was home my sister and cousins and I made an appointment for cooking camp and the soaking of knowledge began. It was an all day process culminating in two loaves of monkey bread, one for Carlee and I and one for Kelsey and Lindsay and my favorite chocolate bundt cake (since I'd just had a birthday) and many Veda-isms that shall live on. A fabulously productive day I'd say.

A little bit more knowledge from the kitchen of Veda....

• You don't need to cover your bread as it is rising, doesn't make a bit of difference
• "We'll give it a try and if it works out we'll say great and if it doesn't we'll say 'Well damn that was stupid'"
• Three things that must be replaced immediately if they ever go out.....the mixer, the TV, and the garage door opener.

Kelsey and Lindsay rolling out their dough, mine is in the oven and smelling absolutely fantastic by now.

Veda and her now bread-baking granddaughters!

Carlee and I rolling out our dough while grandma advises as to the proper technique.

The finished product!

I'm told I'm a lot like my grandmother which suits me just fine. She's a little bit stubborn, a little crazy, and a little obsessive about her hair. She yells at the TV when she's watching sports, especially her favorite team, she keeps an immaculate kitchen while she cooks/bakes, and she may just swear a bit too much. These are things I'm quite certain I inherited from her and I couldn't be happier.