cupids shuffle

I added this video to show that the children of Haiti know and do some of the same things that I personally do. In this video the kids are doing a dance to cupids shuffle, a dance. A link to this dance is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24_zoqu4_Q&ob=av2e

The kids there might have learned this dance from people who came to help out in Haiti, or they may have known this dance. But i thought that it was cool that they could perform this dance because i personally love this dance. I used to always do it at bar/bat mitzvahs or dance parties. I also thought it was cool how one of the girls, Fiana, was doing the dance without a leg. This was really cool to see because she could hold all her support on her one leg and still do this dance. Fiana and her friends were also really happy performing this dance.

One of the doctors in Haiti had told me that the week before i had arrived in Haiti, there was a dance party for all the children. I wish that i could have been there for this because it would have been fun to watch and dance with the people there. When the doctor told me this, i thought maybe the kids had learned this dance and the words at that dance party that they had. If I ever have a chance to go back to Haiti, i want to set up a dance party like this maybe at the hospital again.

miracles in Haiti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygt3sHpsKms&feature=player_embedded

This is a video that i also found on the hospital web site. It was made to show why people why they should donate money to Haiti or do some sort of community service for Haiti. 

I thought that is video showed really amazing photographs and i also thought that it captures many moments. I want to maybe start a club at Brookline High School to raise money for Haiti and also to learn more about the current situations in Haiti. If there is currently a Haiti club at the high school maybe i will even join that club. There are still a lot of things that still need to be worked on in Haiti. For example, many kids are homeless and are not receiving an education. Also many people are starving everyday. I wish that I could do something about this. 

I would encourage those who look at my blog to look at the link for the video because it is really amazing. While watching, also pay attention to the words on the photographs. When watching this video I was really happy to see some of the people who I helped when i went to Haiti. One of my favorite images in this video is at 1:50. At this part, the girl is so happy and has a beautiful smile. I also like the caption that says "joyful" that is shown with this image. It makes me both happy and sad to see this video. Tell me what you think of the video and if you liked it!

Visit http://www.crudem.org/

I was curious as to who made the magazine that i have talked about in my past two posts so i searched "Hospital Sacre Coeur" on google. When i did this i was happy to see a link to a website called CRUDEM home. So i clicked on the link and it brought me to this website:
http://www.crudem.org/

From there i clicked on a button that said news so i could read about what was currently happening in Haiti. There was an article called "Moving forward" added on July 25, 2010 that i read through. This article read:

 "Six months ago Hôpital Sacré Coeur had grown to 420 beds and had just moved the patients from the local schools which had been converted into hospital wards to the hospital tents in preparation for the reopening of the schools for the students. We had almost 100 volunteers a week and were still accepting patients from PAP who required definitive surgery for their injuries. We were so busy trying to obtain supplies, care for the patients, and feed the patients and their families that we couldn’t plan beyond the next day. 

As the weeks turned into months we were amazed that we still had 100 volunteers a week and continued to care for 400 patients and their families. Thanks to the generosity of many individual donors and organizations we were able to find the resources we needed. Our volunteers and staff continued to perform miracles each day and the reputation of Hôpital Sacré Coeur spread throughout Haiti.

 At our last board meeting in June we decided that Hôpital Sacré Coeur  needed to remain at 120 beds and that we could support that doubling of our size. Now we had to plan the renovation and expansion necessary to accommodate that growth. This expansion will not only include an increase in our bed capacity but also a permanent increase in our operating rooms to 3, new delivery rooms, expanded lab, new outpatient clinic space, and a new supply depot with a bar code system to track supplies throughout the hospital.

  Our fully equipped prosthetic lab was delivered in May and we have fit 26 patients with artificial limbs. There are another 50 waiting. To fulfill our mission of training Haitians to care for themselves we have been training local Haitian staff to become prosthetists. We have prosthetists rotating to our hospital each week to work and to teach. Since a large number of the amputees are children they will require refitting over the years as they grow. We will be able to help them thanks to our training program.

 The current census at the hospital is 147 with 74 patients from the earthquake and 73 local patients. We are allowed to remain in the tents until February 2011 so we need to create permanent bed space over the next 6 months to allow us to permanently house 120 patients. Your support has helped us deal with the unexpected challenges of the earthquake and will enable us to continue to provide the needed care to the people of Haiti. Thank you for all of your support and prayers."

After reading this article, even though it was posted a couple of months ago, i was overcome with joy to hear how much better the conditions in Haiti have gotten. The hospital has seemed to be fixed up a lot and be able to fit more injured Haitians. This was also able to happen thanks to the many people who have volunteered in Haiti and the people who have donated to Haiti. 

Below the article that i read were many more articles that seem really interesting to read. One talks about how girl scouts raised money for Haiti and another one talks about sponsoring a leg. For those who are reading my blog, I would recommend visiting the website and watching some of the videos and reading some of the articles that are posted. For me at least, it is really fascinating to hear about the progress that is going on it Haiti!

Fiana

As i kept looking through the magazine that I told about in my last blog, I saw a picture of one of the girls who i helped named Faina. It was so cool to see her in this magazine. In this article it talked about the injuries of Faini and the process of helping her get better. On the right side of this article are four pictures. 

The fist picture is of Medical staff pictured in the hospital Scare Coer with tools to fix her injuries. Next to this picture was a picture of Faina in a hospital bead hooked up to an IV. She was pictured with a skull fracture and meningitis. This is "inflammation of the meninges caused by viral or bacterial infection and marked by intense headache and fever, sensitivity to light, and muscular rigidity, leading (in serious cases) to convulsions, delirium, and death." She looks frightened and hurt in this photo. In the next photo she is pictured in regular clothes in a bed with something hooked up to her hand to end her anemia and malnutrition. She is sleeping in this image. In the last image Fiana is pictured sitting on a bench with only one leg smiling. By her smiling it shows that her treatment has helped her and that she is feeling a lot better. It personally makes me smile that she is now in good condition and happy.

I also liked to see this last picture of Fiana because she was one of the girls who i helped in my time in Haiti. 

local artist paints Post-Earthquake Landscape

I was talking to my dad about getting in touch with the kids again and he said that that would probably not be possible because some of the kids were put into foster homes or brought to other places in Haiti. But he told me good news as well...

In the mail the other day we got a magazine/book that was issued from Haiti. The title says Bon Mouvel. Below this it says "Volume 1 Issue 1 Fall 2010." This made me think that this was not the only volume that we were going to get. As I was skimming through it I saw pictures of some of the girls that i helped and also pictures of doctors who visited Haiti. 

While going through this magazine one picture caught my eye. It was a painting of the Post Earthquake landscape. It was painted by a local artist in Haiti named Cesar Iline. The caption under the photo said:

"When the earth stopped shaking on January 12, local artist Cesar Eline grabbed his brushes and paint. In short order and with profound artistic perception, Eline captured the multitude of the events and emotions that tumbled across the Haitan landscape. Eline, 26, lives in the village of the Trois Ravine, a community dedicated to the long-term care of over 150 displaced children. With his usual gracious generosity, Eline donated this extraordinary painting to he CRUDEN foundation."

This painting is very colorful and depicts the ground cracked and not put together. It also shows people crying and one woman dead or hurt. Two other people around her are trying to help her, but can not seem to reach her because of the cracks in the ground. In the background, there are a bunch of houses stacked up on the ground, as if they had collapsed. Telephone poles are ruined and the weather is really dark. In the top right corner of the photo, there is a hand reaching up to the sky and clouds. It shows only the hand and it looks as if the hand is touching the sky. I don't understand why this hand was depicted in the picture. Another part of the photo that i noticed, but did not see at first glance, was a kid in the background crying in running around. Right by that was another kid who had follow into a crack in the ground. 

This painting captures many emotions and in my opinion is an amazing and very artistic.

painting nails

In Haiti i did not only spend my time with the children, but for one day i spent my time in the hospital tents painting people's nails. I did this with another girl who was a Junior in high school, named Julie. I went through every single tent asking anyone if they wanted there nails painted. Most of the people wanted this. It was amazing to see how people were so happy to see their nails after i was done painting them.

There was this group of four women all laying in bed by each other talking in Creole. I asked them if they wanted their nails done. The first woman's nails who i painted had lost a leg and had had surgery on the other leg. I painted her toes on her one leg pink with white flowers, and when i was done she gave me a hug. After this she started teaching me some Creole and i started teaching her some english. I was really astonished by the amount of english she knew in the first place. I really enjoyed talking to her and getting to know her. She introduced me to the other women who she was friends with, and they all wanted their nails done as well. They all kept telling me how beautiful and nice i was. Julie painted one of the woman's nails, while i painted someone else's. When we were all finished were said goodbye and moved onto another tent. All the woman were so grateful and happy that i painted their nails. In some cases it made some of them feel less self conscious about not having a leg or an arm.

chances

I would love to go back to Haiti and see if the poverty and the infrastructure has improved at all. But I would also like to go back just to see the kids who i spent most of my time with. The kids in the pediatric center really made an impact on me and showed me that they are able to be happy, even after everything that they have gone through. I could tell that me, my brother, and this other junior girl helped them to feel better and smile. I know this because by my second day, right when i would enter the pediatric center, all the kids would yell, "Jackie, Jackie, come here!" Also this one boy named Jacky, ran up to me and gave me a hug right when i would enter the pediatric center in the morning. This made me really happy. 

While i was there, i also spent time with one girl named Faina. She was a little shy and spent most of her time in the better trying to shelter from the intense heat. She lost her leg and hurt her hand during the earthquake. I did some occupation therapy with her by painting with her hurt hand. By her painting it would move and work the muscles in her hand. This would eventually make it better. She loved painting and when she was done with one of them, she made another painting, and gave it to me. After she gave me one of the paintings, she gave me a hug. By her painting me a picture and giving me a hug, i could tell that she liked me and was happy that i had spent time with her. It also made me happy that she gave me a hug and a painting because it showed me that she was happy and that she liked me.

I would love to have the experience to go back to Haiti again and see how everyone is doing!