Tucked away and hidden back down a narrow alley somewhere near the center of the village of Anse-a-Galets is the "Kay Po." The Poor House as it is known to the locals. In the poorest Western Hemisphere country, in one of the poorest sections of that country is this little "kay po," the poor house. Where the poorest of the poorest of the poorest live, er... exist. About 20 of them, young children to old adults cohabiting this tiny, dingy, filthy place. Many are crippled. A few of them are blind. One guy is missing a leg. One little child runs around naked. It is heartbreaking even to the most seasoned of Haiti travelers. The "house" is really two small little buildings with a total of 5 rooms... dark and dirty. The people live in a state of hunger and thirst.
I brought a team down last October/November and introduced them to the people of Kay Po and they did many things during the two weeks there (washed the black walls and painted them light yellow, poured nice smooth cement floors to replace the dirt ones, distributed clothes, supplied them with food, played with the kids, and basically just loved on them. There are many stories and memories of those two weeks, vignettes of the love of Jesus being experienced all over the place.
Here's one...
Dawn, a nurse who works in my office, gave manicures and pedicures to several of the elderly people. Their nails were so long and curled and thick and filthy (it's not like they had water to wash with). She especially "took" to an old woman called Lizena. She moved slowly and hunched over a bit. She could see some, but you could tell she had catarracts and couldn't see all that well. Dawn spent a lot of time with Lizena, talking sweet to her. She soaked and scrubbed and washed Lizena's hands and feet, then applied a beautiful polish to them.
By late in our time there, most of the others in the kay po had received clothes that we had brought down, but for some reason, Lizena hadn't gotten anything yet and Dawn had intended to find her something before we left for home. Problem was... Hurricane Tomas decided to pay a visit and we had to high-tail it home a day early (a harrowing story I'll share another time), and Lizena got nothing.
This has bothered Dawn ever since. So when she found out I was going down a few weeks ago, Dawn found a nice blue dress she thought Lizena would like and asked if I'd mind going down to the kay po and find Lizena and give her the dress.
The pictures tell the story. Click on them to get a better look. See how beautiful Lizena is.
There are not many people on this earth that know about kay po. But I do, and Dawn does, and a few others. When I stopped by a couple weeks ago they had no food. Except for a half wheelbarrow of half-rotted mangoes they had no food, because I checked. So I did what I felt Jesus might do in that situation. I bought them some rice and beans and oil and charcoal to cook it with. Totaled about a hundred bucks and I calculated it would last them two weeks. Good news: that was a pretty good way to spend a hundred dollars. Bad news: that was about two weeks ago.
Kay Po would be such a great starfish.
This Saturday, July 2nd. 9 AM - 12 Noon. My house.
Tucked away and hidden back down a narrow alley somewhere near the center of the village of Anse-a-Galets is the "Kay Po." The Poor House as it is known to the locals. In the poorest Western Hemisphere country, in one of the poorest sections of that country is this little "kay po," the poor house. Where the poorest of the poorest of the poorest live, er... exist. About 20 of them, young children to old adults cohabiting this tiny, dingy, filthy place. Many are crippled. A few of them are blind. One guy is missing a leg. One little child runs around naked. It is heartbreaking even to the most seasoned of Haiti travelers. The "house" is really two small little buildings with a total of 5 rooms... dark and dirty. The people live in a state of hunger and thirst.
1. My wife says we have way too many hostas (this, friends, is simply not true).
Infectious diarrhea is the #1 cause of illness and death on La Gonave. Not malaria. Not TB. Not HIV/AIDS. In Haiti, diarrhea kills more than any one of these diseases.
Sadly, we have discovered that fewer than 10% of the households on the island have a latrine, a fact which factors into why the surface springs (from which so many islanders draw their water) are tainted with disease-causing microorganisms.
Not too long ago, after a few days off, I arrived to my desk to find a large ziploc bag full of knitted infant hats that one of my patients had dropped off for me to take to Haiti the next time I went. Her knitting group had made them. So of course, in packing last week, I squeezed the bag into my luggage among all the banana plants, et.al.
Kindness is always win-win. Always.
Another partnership we are establishing is with a micro-loan bank called Fonkoze. I visited with the local branch director while in Haiti last week, and we will be collaborating in offering small loans to would-be business owners. Micro-finance is widely-regarded as the most important economic development model for transforming economies in the Third World.
I attended a Rotary meeting in Lowell, MI yesterday, as a guest of my good friend and colleague, Dr. Jim Lang. I was seated next to Miss Michigan Katie LaRoche with whom, over meatball stroganoff, I had a very interesting discussion about her platform of human trafficking. She was there as the guest speaker for the hour, giving an articulate and passionate talk about the fact that trafficking is not something that is just a problem in other parts of the world, but that it's also a problem right here in the USA.
3) Had there been any cases of diarrheal illness in the household? No, in every case.
Check out the soil in the third picture. These bananas are just a few months old. The last pic shows what the bananas will look like after just 18 months. What's more, each plant will produce sucker offshoots at the base of the plant that can be split and planted, and the process of growing, producing fruit, and reproducing is repeated.
Having just returned from Haiti, and with several awareness events coming up, I really have alot to blog about and lots of cool pictures to share. I'll keep this one short, as it's getting late and I'm pretty travel-weary.
The anesthesia machine at our mission hospital has bitten the dust and we need to replace it. Without it, all we have is spinal block anesthesia, which suffices for below-the-belt surgeries (C-Sections, hernias, and lower extremity surgeries, and the like) but we need general anesthesia for pretty much everything else. International Aid has a refurbished unit for us (pictured here) for $3,000. The other option would be to get a $20 mallet, which patients do not care for. Most mallet anesthesia patients wake up with zinger headaches.
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