The children of Haiti forever in my heart!

Here are some of the beautiful children I was able to meet. This children live in absolute poverty - they lollipops, toothbrushes, soap and crayons I was able to give to them put smiles on their faces.

I am home!!!

Last night when my plane touched the ground in Dorval I whispered a prayer of thanks. God had taken us to Haiti and back and we were all well and so happy to have had this experience. I was blessed with a wonderful group of people to travel with. Our team had been touched with the poverty and the hardship of the people of Haiti - but we also knew we had given something back.

I will be forever blessed by my experience. The faces of the beautiful children, the warmth and generosity of people who are so poor and so broken, the appreciation on the part of so many teachers, leaders and pastors who received our training... all these things warm my heart.

The situation in Haiti is so difficult - as I mentionned the people are incredibly resilant, but their hearts are broken by the fear, the corruption,the poverty, the grief of losing their loved ones. This is a picture of Raymonde - the woman who was pulled out of the rubble with absolutely nothing - not even clothes because she was naked. Her daughter died in the earthquake. Her faith in God is what is giving her hope to continue on!

I want to thank you for your support of my trip. I am back at school today and so many people told me that they were reading my blog and following what I was doing! I will be adding some photos in the next couple days so keep looking!

The last post from Haiti

I woke up this morning with really mixed emotions! I am so excited about going home and hugging my daughters (Marc will be in Malaysia until Friday evening!... but I am excited to see him too!) This is the longest I have ever been away from them so I look forward to being back together as a family.

But my heart is heavy to have to leave this country and all the needs behind. I have been so touched by their beautiful smiles, their friendly manner, their open hearts. I have been privileged to meet so many amazing people.

All together we trained over 700 people here. Our training sessions responded to a real need and I thand God that the doors were open and we could respond to these needs. Yesterday I was at a Christian University in Limbé that has close to 500 students. We did a trainning sessions for young men and women studying to be teachers, pastors and chruch leaders. They were so hpappy to get the training.

I also visited a medical clinic who has had their numbers double since the earthquaake. I gave them all the medical supplies that I had brought that were donated by the Work Oriented program at Laval Liberty High School where I work. They were so pleased to get the items I brought.

I then stopped at an orphanage and shared all the craft material with them. I have been able to give money to a number of groups because of the generous donation of a church in British Columbia.

Everywhere I go I feel that the people need so much more! I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity and I know that I will never be the same because the people of Haiti are now in my heart and in my prayers.

When I get back to Montreal I will load some photos onto the blog and share with you the many lessons learned from this trip! Thank you for your prayers for the past few days. I have felt your love and your support for my work here!

My last full day in Haiti

It hardly seems possible but today is my last full day in Haiti. Yesterday we thought we were going to be going to the school where there was the mud-slide but instead we ended up doing another training session with 60 more people. Many of them were traumatized and scared. One lady told me that she did not know what to do because she was so frightened to send her children today becausesomething could happen to them while they were at school and she was at work. She just wants to keep them close to her at all times. This is a country full of scared and grieving people.

I can hardly imagine how hard it is going to be this morning in the schools across this city who are opening their doors for the first time in several weeks. Many children and many mothers will be facing separation anxiety. It seems like one of their major fears is that a tsunami will hit their region. As I looked out onto the bay and the ocean yesterday I could only imagine how fearful it might be to live in this area with that concern. All I could do yesterday is to try to reassure these people - none of us can know what today or tomorrow holds, all we can do is trust God with our lives and live with confidence for today.

Last evening we had dinner with a missionary couple who have been in Haiti for over 25 years. Dana, the wife, told me about their life here, raising their children in Haiti (they have three children who are all at university now in United States), the loneliness that they have faced, but also the depth of love and devotion they have for the Haitian people. A few years ago she and her husband were kidnapped and her husband was held for ranson. They had demanded $350,000 for him. They let her go to gather the money - but they held on to him. She had to negotiate with the kidnappers over the cell phone on several occassions. She told me how people around the world had heard about the situation and began praying. Two days later they accepted $5,000 and released her husband. It was a miracle. What an amazing woman of faith. She actually was able to tell her kidnappers after this all happened that she forgave them and that she wanted to know about her faith in Jesus Christ. WOW!!!

Today, I am going to a town called Limbé where there is a small university. We will be doing another training day with students, many of whom are now in Limbé but had been in Port-au-Prince on January 12th. Many of them are trying to recover from their shock and grief.

Yesterday I went back to Bethany - the housing project with Jacinthe and Josianne and we gave out soap, toothbrushes, shampoo and crayons for the children. It started out quite calm - but it turned into quite a mob scene and Pastor Voltaire had to step in and calm down the crowd. Desperate people all around.

Today, we hope to stop at an orphange on our way back from Limbé to distribute more of the supplies we have brought with us. All the medicine and bandages will be given to a hospital in Limbé that has received lots of people from Port-au-Prince but none of the supplies from the various NGOs working further south. Interesting how the people can get through on the roads from Port-au-Prince but the supplies are being blocked by the government that wants kick-backs!

Church Haitian Style

This morning I went to church at a Baptist Cathedral! There were about two thousand people at the service - which was three hours long. One of our team members José was the preacher for the service. All the women and girls were dressed very fancy and many of the women were wearing fancy hats or doilies on their heads. It was very traditional and very long! Children sat through the whole three hour service without fussing... something I have never seen in my church experience. The choir in this church was bigger than all the people in our church in Montreal. There were even hundreds of people out in the streets listening to the service on huge speakers.

This afternoon we had a tour of an area called Cité du people - a slum like I have never seen before. There was garbage everywhere and pigs and children picking through the garbage. It was beyond even my worst thought. There is so much garbage and no system to dispose of it. This could be a beautiful country - the coast is lovely - yet the garbage and the filth of the streets completely destroys the beauty of the nature.

I also visited a small community project that the church has started for women and children. It is called Bethany. It has about 18 small aparments where primarily older women live - some with their grandchildren who have been abandoned by their parents. It is very small and crowded but it gives these ladies a safe place to live.

We are hoping to visit a couple orphanages and schools in the next couple days. I am hoping to be able to distribute the supplies and the money that I brought with people in those locations.

News from Port-au-Prince

OUr two team members who left us the first day to go to Port-au-Prince returned late yesterday afternoon with news and photos of their experiences. They did three days of training there with over 200 people. They shared stories and pictures that told of the devastation of buildings and of people. Many people are living in tents - those are the lucky ones because not everyone can even get their hands on a tent. Many others just have tarps and plastic that they have managed to hang up. The city is still full of rubble and debris because all the heavy equipment is sitting at the port unable to enter the country because the government is demanding that the foreign companies and governments pay duty. I also heard that further north, near Goniaves where there are thousands of people in refugee camps, the roads are blocked by the Haitian government demanding money from the humanitarian organizations.

The corruption here within the government is unbelieveable. Most of the people I met do not trust the government and cannot understand how anything can change. We are praying that with the eyes of the world now on Haiti that the government will be more responible an will be willing to make the necessary changes to help the people.

Josianne told us the saddest story of a young couple in Port-au-Prince. They had been in love for years and been in engaged for close to 8 years while they tried to put together enough money to get married. Finally on January 8th they got married and on Jaunuary 12th the husband died in the earthquake. This young woman is in a terrible state of grief. We hope and pray that some of the tools and support that people received through our training sessions will help people like this.

One of the waiters here in the hotel told us that his brother lost his wife, his children and his leg. I will give this waiter some money to share with his brother who is so devastated.

The stories go on and on... everyone knows someone who has died or or has lost his arm or leg. One lady who lives here in the Cap believes that another earthquake or tsunami will hit here soon. She told me that all she asked of God is that she would want to live or die - she didn't care - but she did not want to lose an arm or a leg. Many people here are so frightened to amputation. They know that those who have been amputated will have years of misery before them.

My thoughts and prayers are with this people. There is still so much to be done to give them a life of hope.

Rain and Overcast

I guess the good Lord did not want me to be tempted to see this as a tropical vacation rather than a mission to help the suffering people of Haiti because since we got here we have not seen the sun and it has been raining almost non-stop. I just looked at the forcast for the next few days and each day it seems like there will be cloud and rain. In reality when I am training people all day long it is probably better that it is a little cooler than usual. But even the Haitians are complaining that it is cold and wonder where the sun has gone!

Today we decided to have bigger groups and just run two longer sessions rather than four shorter ones. It was a bit of a break not to have to repeat the material four times. Today with the Sunday School teachers I led an activity where half of the group had to write one of their fears about the future on a piece of coloured construction paper. The other half had to write down a promise of God from the Bible. We made a construction paper chain with one fear attached to one promise. With this activity the people could help children in their churches to see that God can meet our needs and respond to out fears. It was really interesting to see them shouting out their fears and respond with a corresponding promise. Afterwards I gave some of the people some construction paper, siccors and glue so that they could do the project with kids in their churches.

As I have been talking about grieving among children and how to help the many children who have had a parent or a loved one die, the participants of the seminars have been sharing their stories and those of people they know. There are close to 100,000 people in the Cap who were traumatized by the earhquake - close to 500,000 in the whole region. It seems like everyone I have talked with knows someone who has had a loved one die. Today a lady told me about a little girl whose parents had died and she asked me when it would get better for that little girl. Unfortunately I could not give her a date or time. I did reassure her that with time and with the support of loving people around her that little girl would learn how to go on with her life even though it would never be the same.

This afternoon José and Josianne, two of our team members are returning from Port-au-Prince. I am anxious to hear about their experiences there and to know more about what is happening there now - about 7 weeks after the earthquake.

The early bird gets an internet connection!

I do not usually like getting up early in the morning. At my house it is Marc and Jessica who get up earlier than me... but in Haiti I get up early because it gives me a better chance to get an internet line to be able to write to my family and update the blog. Since there is not much to do in the evenings I have been going to bed by 9:00pm so getting up at 6:00am is not so hard.

Today we will be doing a training session with Sunday School teachers and I hope to be able to help them with tools to comfort and encourage the many children who are afraid and in mourning!

Sharing messages of hope

I just finished my day of training - it hard to believe that I have already done 12 training sessions with over 200 people in total. I have been finishing each of my sessions with an activity that I get the participants to do which they can then do with the children in their schools. I give them a piece of paper and ask them to make a picture which expresses their emotions or grief. I have found that when the sharing time starts the men and women really open up and share with us their fears, their sadness, their grief and pain. Some of the drawings are really profound. I have often had tears welling up in my eyes when I hear their stories and their fears about the future. It seems like many people here in the Cap are holding their breath because they expect an earthquake or a tsunami to hit this region of the country. They do not believe the suffering is over and they really are in fear for their lives and their families.

It has been raining here all last night and all day today - but people walked for miles in the train and waited outside to participate in the training session. I am so impressed with their willingness to participate in these sessions. One of the things that is really blessing the participants is that I am giving each of them a few cards and letters that the students in the schools where I work have written. They are so touched by the messages of hope and courage that the children of Laval have written to the children in Haiti. Since school is not in session here I cannot go and deliever the letters to the children myself - so I have asked the teachers and principals to take a few cards to their students. I am hoping that I will receieve some letters and messages in return to share with the students in my schools.

Yesterday I met five little girls who were so sweet. I gave them each a finger puppet and it really made their day. Today they were waiting for me outside the school where we do the training and I was able to give them some crayons and paper. Three hours later they were still there with their pictures for me to take back to my daughters in Canada! They love getting their pictures taken so I have lots of beautiful photos of these dear children.

Tomorrow we have another long day of training sessions then I am told we have a four hour church service on Sunday morning! Should be an adventure!

My first day in Cap Haitian

This morning I woke up at 3:00am in order to get on the 6:00am flight to Haiti. They weighed every piece of luggage and every passenger before loading the little plane with 25 people and 10 roosters that were crowing the whole journey... it was a once in a life-time experience! I have been in taxis with chickens while I was in Africa but this is the first time I have ever flown with roosters!

We arrived at 9:30am to our hotel and were told that there were over 100 people waiting for us at a training centre at 11:00am. After quickly getting settled we gathered our materials and started our first day of training. We divided the group into four smaller groups and they rotated through the four sessions. My workshop was on working with children, and my colleagues did workshops on understanding the dying process, post-traumatic stress syndrom and self-care when caring for others. In the training today I would guess that about 15 people were in Port-au-Prince on the day of the earthquake and escaped with their lives. Many of them are still traumatized by what they experienced and what they saw that day and the following days.

It was a challenge to connect with the participants - the Haitians are a very formal people. All the women were wearing skirts or dresses (except the three of us who were leading the training!) and they each stood up to introduce themselves or to answer or ask a question. It took me a while to understand them and I think they are struggling to understand me! French is not their first language and it is not my first language so we are all adapting to find the language to communicate with each other.

The hotel we are staying at is nice. There are big spacious area with tables and chairs - an open lobby (where I am right now) with free wireless from time to time! I have tried several times to get on line so I am hoping this works. There is even water in the swimming pool now! It is very hot and humid so that pool could come in very handy when I get a chance!

Tomorrow we have a training session with the educational leaders of the city. People from several schools are coming. I heard that there will be about 75 people tomorrow. Right now the schools are all closed until March 15th because of the mud-slides that happened here a couple weeks ago. Four children died and all the schools decided to close until they could assess the emotional affects of those deaths and the earthquake on the children of the Cap.

There is certainly a United Nations presence here - I saw hundreds of people standing in line waiting for the food distribution program to give them rice. The pastor who welcomed us today and is coordinating our trip told me that he estimates that there are about 250,000 people in Cap Haitian who are displaced from Port-au_Prince because of the earthquake. Unfortunately there is not the infrastructure to meet the needs of all these people and many people have no job, no money, no food and no where to stay.

I am thankful that we made it here safely and continue to pray that God uses us to meet the need of these people who have been so traumatized.

Our luggage made it safely through American customs!

I was very concerned about all the medicine and products that I was bringing across the border into the US en route to Haiti. At the airport this morning we had no problems with customs or with the weight of our luggage. We made it safely to Fort Lauderdale and tomorrow morning we are off to Haiti. I need to get up at 3:00am to catch the flight for Haiti! This trip is challenging in many ways!

Today it has been fun getting to know the team I am with. Really amazing people with so much to offer in different ways. I am blessed to be working with these people and know that it will be a learning experience for me just spending time with them. I will be telling you more about them soon!

If you get a chance there was an article in the Montreal Gazette this morning about our trip - here is the link:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Helping+people+work+through+their+grief/2629786/story.html

I will hopefully write more tomorrow... from Haiti!

I am off to the airport!

Within an hour I will be leaving for the airport - the first leg of my trip is to Fort Lauderdale. I am praying that we will not have any problems at American customs because we will be staying overnight in Florida and I am bringing a lot of supplies to leave in Haiti. I hope that the customs officer will somehow allow us to pass with suitcases full of medicine, bandages, soap and shampoo!

My suitcases are right at the limit - another concern because of the little airplane we are taking tomorrow morning at 6:00am from Fort Lauderdale to Cap Haitian. They are much more strict about weight limits!

I will keep you posted about my journey. I appreciate your prayer and your support!

I'm off!

300 people awaiting the training seminars

I just read an email from my brother who is coordinating the project that I am going on to Haiti (although he is not actually going on the trip because of a broken shoulder!) and he informed us that his colleagues in Haiti have confirmed that over 300 people are planning on attending one of our one-day workshops in Cap Haitian. He heard that the need is so great that the response has been much higher than they originally expected.

There was an article in this morning's Globe & Mail that underlies the importance of the work that we have been asked to do. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/project-jacmel/invisible-scars-haunt-haitis-quake-survivors/article1483614/

The invisible scars that many Haitians are carrying around will be a challenge for years to come - my prayer is that the training sessions we can offer will help equip a few teachers, pastors and leaders to accompany people who are grieving and facing post-traumatic stress.

On a personal note - Marc is on his way to Malaysia. He left last evening and has a 27 hour trip to make before arriving in Kuala Lumpur sometime tonight. The girls are now in the Ottawa area where they will be staying with their loving aunts and grandma who will be spoiling them for the week. Everything is coming together for the trip and all the arrangements that had to be made.

Getting ready to go!

Today I received cards from the children of several of the schools that I work in. These kids had spent hours creating beautiful cards with messages of hope and concern for the children of Haiti. One girl who is in grade 6 handed me a bag with four home-made dolls that she had made for me to take to Haiti. I was so touched by their love and concern.

I have been buying supplies and collecting the items that my friends and colleagues have been donating. It is quite overwhelming. I am hoping that I do not surpass my luggage limits. I am trying to bring the bear minimum myself in terms of clothes and personal items in order to max out on items that I can leave behind for the Haitians.

Yesterday we had a special visit from Georges Laraque (for those who do not follow hockey he was a Montreal Canadian and he is a spokesperson for World Vision) come to the high school to thank the students for raising money for Haiti. He was so gracious and just encouraged kids by playing ball hockey with them! It was great!

I still have a lot to do before I leave but as each day passes I am feeling more and more blessed to be part of this team to do this project!

Overwhelmed by the generosity

A couple weeks ago my colleagues at the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board and I had the joy to present World Vision with a cheque of over $35,000 to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. This money came from children across our school board who gave money to help the people of Haiti. There were children who were bringing in their piggy banks and taking money from their savings in order to help out. One young boy gave his Christmas money that he was saving to buy a computer. It was amazing. In total our school board raised over $53,000 to help Haiti!

As I have been getting ready to go to Haiti myself I have been so touched by the response of people. Students are writing cards and letters for the children of Haiti, the high schools where I work have donated money for me to buy pharmaceutical supplies, my church collecting supplies for me to take along, my colleagues bringing in toothpaste, crayons and hand-sanitizer! It is amazing.

I know I am not going alone - I am going with the thoughts and prayers of each of my friends and family members!

Why am I going to Haiti?

When people hear that I am going to Haiti for a week there is a mixture of surprise and excitement. I am not a doctor or a nurse, I have no training in disaster relief, I do not work for a relief organization. I am a wife, a mother and a Spiritual Animator. What do I have to offer? I guess my answer to that question is that I can try to offer help and consolation to grieving children and their families. My goal is to help train some teachers and pastors to work alongside children who have gone through tragedy.

In the past few weeks I have seen people respond with such incredible generosity and compassion for the people of Haiti. Everyone can make a difference. Children from my schools were bringing in their piggy banks and donating their allowance money. These children are making a difference. When asked if I could go to Haiti, these children inspired me to try to do something to make a difference.

I am going with a team of counselors, pastors and others (like myself) who have training and experience in accompanying people in the grief process. We will be split into teams of two or three people and we will be providing several one-day training sessions to Haitians. The people who have been setting up our visit told us that the Haitians are anxious to get additional tools and resources to help their friends and family who have lost loved ones. Our little group of grief counselors will try our best to help them. There are several of these seminars already planned for the week we are there, but when we get to Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitian other opportunities for training and counseling will probably open up and hopefully we will be in the position to respond.

I am going for seven days - not very long in light of the despair and need in Haiti at this point. But I cannot go for a longer period of time. My daughters agree that I should go to Haiti, but it will not be easy for us - I know my limits and theirs! I hope and pray that the seven short days will make a small difference in the lives of the people I am in contact with. Haiti will change my life - I need to be ready for that!

This blog is to keep the people I know and love informed of my trip and what I am experiencing. I know I have a privilege that many other people would love to take advantage of. I do not take it lightly that I have been invited to go and that I have this opportunity. For me, this trip is a mission. I believe that God has opened this opportunity for me to go and I need do what I can. I pray that I will be able to make even a small difference and will be able to bring a little hope and comfort to the people, especially the children, of Haiti.