We finally got rid of the puppy today, albeit to a guy who seemed genuinely caring and they had an instant bond. Though does he look a little like a puppy fur handbag farmer…?  Anyway, good.  Its not that I don’t like dogs, I do.  But a couple of the short termers, who leave really… Read More »

At the last minute I took a call from one of our partners, Walkabout Foundation.  They had someone in town who could collect ‘some’ wheelchairs.  The process had not been finalised yet and we (evidently) were not ready but could I please sort it.  Yes, “pa gen pwoblem” (no problem), I said.  Little did I know… … Read More »

The VV chickens had not been as productive as was hoped so I took in some google, and then took expert advice and we butchered a sideboard found wanting.  We sliced it in half created sides, walls and a removable roof.  Then added legs (OK, so it was a sideboard in a former life).  We… Read More »

I brought a couple of small but meaningful decorations and made the tree and stand.  I may have over-engineered the stand; got a contractor at the hospital to fill a buck of cement for me – it weighs about 30kgs…  I bought the lights here, and they are so tacky my oppo put tape over… Read More »

With the introductions complete I started to go back to the key staff and begin to find out what it was they wanted and expected of me over the next 12 months.  At the same time, I am ploughing through the Management Accounts to try and understand better the financial challenges ahead.  And there is… Read More »

The group I came out with have now left, after a successful community engagement project to educate around the identification and treatment of pre-eclampsia.  It is without argument a killer, particularly in a low resource country where traditional medicines, and alternate treatments and beliefs to scientific medicine, are rife.  A really important issue. It was… Read More »

Spirits were still high after receiving the fantastic news in the week that another charity, Living Water, had agreed to sink a new well for the hospital.  It’s not that the current well was running dry but at only 10’ deep the quality of the water had always been in question; the lack of either… Read More »

Week one has been busy, a slog in fact.  I have met so many people in the few days I have been here so far and trying to keep up with their names and roles has been tiring, let alone understanding their challenges and where I fit in.  And the language of course.  I have… Read More »

Haiti is a beautiful, but broken country.  Forested mountains, golden sands and clear blue seas.  But the streets are strewn with rotting rubbish, feral dogs and families of goats.  Outside the capital Port au Prince, there is very little power.  In down-town Cap-Haitien, the second city, one or two of the more affluent businesses have… Read More »

The Village is very pleasant and quite cosy actually, aside from the ever-present mozzies.  There is a bank of filters to make the water drawn from the well drinkable.  When the sun shines, we have power, when it doesn’t shine, we have a generator, though when there is a fuel shortage, we have an early… Read More »