"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive...then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman

Friday, April 30, 2010

New Beginnings


Today as we watched portions of the Healing Hands clinic remains being taken down and away, in between all of the sadness and emotion, it occurred to me that much better things will rise from the rubble.  Not just Healing Hands, but other businesses and organizations now have a unique opportunity to rise above the enormous loss of life and property to create what's been needed all along.

It's overwhelming to see the destruction everywhere, but little by little there are signs of hope and new beginnings.  We've met with so many organizations with big plans and for the most part the right idea of capacity building, training and sustainable outcomes.  I hope we're here witness the wins - both big and small. 

 

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Some Joy Amid the Rubble







It's great to see kids on their way to school again, albeit surrounded by rubble. We were able to spend some time at the Healing Hands Prosthetic Workshop and see the smiles of many new amputees walking again for the first time since January 12th. Markets and street life appear to be business as usual but the tents surrounding everything are a constant reminder that life here has changed forever.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Our first (very full) day

The 3am alarm came what felt like 10 minutes after we turned the light off last night, but we jumped out of bed ready to head to the airport. By 7:40am we had our luggage through Haitian customs and were ready to go.

We had a few very good meetings today with Healing Hands partners and the Disability Cluster and Deb even had her first interview.

At dusk we found a ride home for our first cold water shower and some time to unpack. The packets of tuna and bags of almonds made for a delicious dinner. We're hoping to get to the market tomorrow after we finish our day of more meetings.

Initial observations of progress/changes since our trip in March:

- Traffic seemed to be controlled in some areas but overall still takes forever to get anywhere
- More women had their "shops" open
- Any chill we felt in Minnesota is gone. Daytime temp was 100 and extreme humidity with full sun took care of that! A constant stream of sweat running down our backs feels good at this point.

Now we're trying to figure out why Verizon's promise that our new World Blackberries would work fell through and why our emails aren't working. Ahhh... the beauty of technology in a country with limited electricity. We'll enjoy it when we can get it!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Ready to GO!

We're in the final stages of prep for our departure to Haiti. We've been so many times in the past 8 years but this time we're not on vacation and won't be returning to work here in the U.S. any time soon.

We leave Tuesday and are hoping all of the angst about selling our home, leaving jobs that we love, and the difficulty of saying "see you soon" to our friends and family fades as we begin this new chapter in our lives.