Videos for Fun

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I know people love to see the kids in action at the O, so here’s some for ya!

I was intending to have a conversation but it turned into “Simon Says Repeat!”

Maxwell—resident PAC1 terror and extremely happy little kid!

Vio, our head nanny, tickles Rosella

more coming…

New Photo Post April 2008

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Again I’ll let the recent photos from PAC do the talking! These kids look great!

Tessa!!!

TRISTYN AND FALYNE (OBERLINE AND FEDELINE) ARE HOME!

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A huge congratulations to our 2 newest American Citizens, Tristyn and Falyne, who have just come home to Oregon. Their new Mommy is busy and overwhelmed and giddy and ecstatic and sleepless and…..a million other things I am sure. She will send us photos when she has the chance!

Two more kids home! All Right! Here is their opinion of being at home with Mom!

O and F (now T and F) at HOME!

Woop Woop! Go Mama, we’re your kiddos, Go Mama, here we are now….!

Next we should have some Canadian kids going home, ad our Fab Four going to Florida, should be soon!

G’s First Visit Back To Haiti - Part 2 - Reunion

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Here was the big reunion! Marie scooped her up and told all the vendors in the street outside the orphanage that her baby who had gone home had come back to see her! Marie wanted a “ti ba”, a little kiss, but G was almost more interested in pointing out the goat that was walking down the street! She looked at things that she never noticed before, but we don’t have here, as amazing things….she pointed out every tap tap and every animal she saw in the street….fascinating things! Before she would not have given them a second glance.

Marie loves to surprise people, and I don’t think she told folks G was coming for a visit! She is very pleased with herself that she surprised everyone! You can hear her say “Vio……surprise!!” Vio is the head nanny, and not given to a lot of emotion but as i know her well, she was VERY happy to see G! G does not like to be the center of oohing and aahing in front of a lot of people, so she was a little subdued, and I’m sure just beginning to process the fact that she was back in a place she spent 1.5 years, sometimes sad sometimes not too sad. You can see Vio look her in the eyes and ask her “Ou oke?” Are you ok? And she nods. Then Vio uses her small amount of English to say “My name is Vio. What is your name?” Then later, Marie asks her “Do you want to go up and see your friends?”

G had forgotten her Kreyol by the time we took this trip. I was paranoid that this would kind of freak her out, but she was fine with ordering everyone around in English the whole time.

When G went upstairs, it was exactly like Jesus blessing the masses. She caressed each and every little face and head, with that same Mona Lisa expression. Most of these kids were new to G, but a few were there that she remembered. I would have given a million dollars to know what she was thinking.

G’s First Visit Back to Haiti - Part 1 - Getting There

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Sunday, Jan 27 - 5:10 PM - Intended Departure Time

Cast: 2 intrepid travelers from Northern California….
We are supposed to make 3 successive flights with not much time in between, from Sac to LAX, one from LAX to Miami, and one from Miami to Port au Prince. Intended Arrival Time in Haiti? 9 am Monday, Jan 28.

Well.

This trip started out with all the best! Gyrlande is excited to go, she really wants to see Matante! I drove us to the airport and Jason let us out, helped us with the bags, and was off. We had just about 200 lbs of luggage….the 2 donations bags were SO heavy. We had to inch our way to the skycap one bag at a time. I was exactly like Kevin James in that comedy sketch about how you have to pick up and strap on your 8 bags so you can move 6 inches in line, then put down and unstrap everything from yourself

So as I feared the heaviest bag was 7 lbs over. Actually I had thought that that bag was like 80 lbs! I must be losing muscle mass. It was only 57. So we took out 3 pedialyte and put them in another bag. After that we were fine.We happily toodled our way upstairs and through the security check. Gyrlande is a champ at carrying her own wheeled bag. So when we approached our Southwest airlines gate, here is where the first part of our trip started its descent into the toilet. In big flashing digital numbers was our intended departure time, 5:10, and a flashing red set of numbers that said 7:40. I walked up to the guy at the counter and said “what’s that 7:40?” and he said “there’s a weather delay.” Ok no panicking….”so what time is it supposed to get into LAX if we leave at 7:40?” “Scheduled for….9:20”

Oh, fab. Our American flight to Miami/PAP is supposed to leave LAX at 9:15. Ok, my rational mind said, perhaps the flight leaving LAX is also delayed! Hurrah! So I asked, but no luck, that flight was on time. I tried to get us on standby at the next gate, there was a plane leaving for LAX which was boarding right then….the guy holds up a paper with about 10 names on it. Slim chance there. So we are, as they say, screwed. So while G putzes around I proceed to get on the phone with American Airlines and speak to a very nice lady for a long time, actually until my battery runs out….there are 2 flights going to PAP later tonight, one leaving LAX at 11:20, thru Fort Lauderdale, and one leaving at 11:45 but going all the way through JFK! I would have been happy with either but hoped for the Fort Lauderdale one. Of course, they were full, but she said once I was at LAX I could try to go standby. Ok well, what can you do?

So G does great but does get restless waiting at the gate for about 2 hours to leave Sac. Finally we get on, and it’s a fairly short flight to LAX. G tinkers around with her peanuts and the tray and a crayon and napkin, and just starts to settle down with some blankets while I tell her a story, but doesn’t fall asleep. This turned out to be great because I really needed her to walk and carry her bag! We get off the plane and go to retrieve all our horrendous amounts of baggage. And of course. the American Airlines terminal is at the opposite end of the airport from the Southwest Terminal.

Realization of item #1 I forgot: The umbrella stroller that I made such a big deal about planning to bring.

Realization of bad planning #1: When you book your very long overnight international flight with your 4 year old in tow, avoid at all costs trying to book the first leg separately from the rest of the flight. I should have booked the whole trip from Sacramento, not used a different carrier and separate ticket for the Sac to LAX leg. Reason? Mainly because I forgot that WHEN YOU DO THAT YOUR BAGS ARE NOT CHECKED THRU, AND YOU HAVE TO RETRIEVE THEM AND GO THRU THE WHOLE SHEBANG AGAIN! Forgot about that part.

Sooooooo in a very long process of getting the bags, paying for a cart, hoisting them on just to be able to go outside and across the street to catch the shuttle to the American terminal, waiting forever for the shuttle, hoisting everything ONTO the shuttle, cart, and off again, getting a NEW cart, hoisting again, and walking around to find the American ticket agent, with G pretty much just sleeping atop the mountain of bags. The ticket agent was kind and gave us a cheaper room voucher .We had no choice but to get a hotel for the night, as it was around midnight and no more flights were going out to Miami that night.

We were shuttled over to a very nice Courtyard Marriott, and promptly crashed out for the night.

Monday, Jan 28

G awoke at around her normal time, about 8 (we were originally due to have been in Haiti at 9 am!) and we wondered what to do ALL DAY LONG until 1120 pm when our flight would leave! My vote was at least to get out and walk and maybe go to the store.

As it turned out, G would have been happy to spend all day riding the city bus around! Here was her opinion of being stuck in LA and riding around on the bus:
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We found out that one went down to a shopping area. I didn’t really want to spend 15 bucks on the hotel breakfast, so we set off in search of something else. We found an IHOP across from the shopping. My mistake was not bringing her jacket, it was really too chilly out for her. So we stopped in a Mervyn’s after IHOP and got her a cute sweatshirt with a horse and glitter on it. She grabbed a black formal dress and slung her arms thru the armholes and proceeded to prance about in front of the mirror.

Then we rode the bus around some more and went to a local indoor mall where I was told there was a playground. I was expecting something grandiose, but it actually just was an indoor area with those molded shiny soft sculpture things for them to climb on. Kind of underwhelming, but she seemed to enjoy it. After that I bought myself a chocolate and nut covered frozen banana, which I didn’t think she’d go for due to the chocolate, but go she did, and LOVED it. So that is our new favorite dessert. We then went across the street to Circuit City to get a new set of headphones for the computer so she could watch her movies. Thank God we did because those movies saved us during those many airport waits we would experience.

So then we rode the bus back to the hotel, and I was bound and determined to get her a nap before we had to check out. Of course by the time she was actually asleep, it was like 2:30 and late checkout was until 3! I begged the front desk to just let me have a little while longer so G could finish her nap. They did! So I did have to wake her up about an hour and a half later so we could not push our luck, and we schlepped ourselves and our baggage back to the airport. We went to the ticketing and apparently the guy last night did not actually BOOK me for the 1120 flight tonight. I was saved in there somehow. So I though to myself, WHY bother hanging around till 1120, when I could just take the 915 flight I was supposed to be on in the first place! What a great idea! Then we wouldn’t have to sit around the airport quite as long! As it turned out, I SHOULD have just waited for the 1120 one. It was one of those twist of fate moments, like the guy who later finds out that his broken shoelace which caused him to trip and fall and miss his plane, which ended up crashing. Only mine was the opposite. Why? Keep reading…

We sat around and watched movies, ate (G’s new love: Orange Chicken) and waited to board the 915 plane to Miami. G did great, as you see here:

I spent the time while she was watching movies making new yarn falls for her with beads on them. They came out really good!
Here she is veering into the expensive duty-free store, eyeing the pricey Omega watch. This kid is going to cost some poor sucker a whole lot of money when she grows up! Good thing there was no shoe store there…

We got on the plane. She amuses herself by reading me a story from the airplane magazine. So far so good! This is the long flight, so I am assuming she will fall asleep. So we start out…

And soon, as predicted…

Ok great. By a couple hours later, we were over Arizona and cruising nicely. Then…

Somewhere around Tuesday, Jan 29

Suddenly the captain comes over the intercom and announces that our plane has a squirrely gauge in the cockpit (not his actual words), and although they have it under control, they are going to divert and land in El Paso just to make sure and to fix whatever may be wrong. Oh goody! I only have about 2 hours to spare between my landing in Miami and my flight to Haiti. So I am hoping we’ll do maybe a kind of a “touch and go” sort of a thing…..maybe take 20 minutes or so? Well, that is not how it worked out. PLUS I came face to face with what I thought was my own mortality. After the captain made the announcement, the approach into El Paso was the bumpiest, bounciest, weirdest noise approach I’ve ever experienced. The plane was shimmying, shaking, jerking, and making those weird acceleration/decelerations. Of course I was sure that this was related to the mechanical problem he had mentioned, and figured that whatever was wrong had gotten worse and now something was breaking/shearing off/spinning out of control. Of course the captain never came on the intercom to say anything, and I wondered if perhaps they don’t like to announce that they have lost control of the plane and we will now be crashing and to make your peace with the Universe. I honestly was facing the idea of my own death and wondering how I felt about it. I think I decided I was ok with it, as panicking over something I can’t do anything about is not really my style, anyway.

Well, we landed without dying, and most of the passengers applauded. I wonder how many of them were also wondering if we were going to crash. Later I asked the flight attendant if we just almost had something tragic happen, or if that was a “normal bumpy landing.” She said “Oh that was just wind.” I was amazed! THAT was wind? That was some serious wind. Or perhaps it was a normal bumpy landing to me too, but it was in bad timing with the announcement of the mechanical problem! Anyway, it would have been nice for the captain or someone to come on the intercom and say “oh by the way everyone, this bumpy approach is wind, it has nothing to do with our mechanical problem!”

As for the 20 minute touch and go, we didn’t do that. We did a touch and sit and don’t go anywhere. We all sat on that plane for about 3 or 4 hours while they figured out that whatever they were doing was not fixing the problem. The opinions of the fussy, irritated toddler and preschooler and the barely-holding-it-together Mom in the row behind me was that despite being 2 am or whatever time it was, it was apparently somehow not a suitable time for 2 young children to just give up and fall asleep. My opinion of the near-death experience, the sitting on the runway, and missing my connection to Haiti was pretty much…

G’s opinion of same…

I had to wake her up to get off the plane hours later. But she just kinda rubbed her eyes, I plopped her on her feet, and off we went! I told her that plane had broken and we had to get on a new one. She later loved to tell people, when they asked about the trip “Our plane broke!” So we had to go GET ALL OUR BAGS AGAIN, then go to the ticketing counter to get rebooked. By the time I got to the ticket counter it was about 6:15 in the morning. I was assuming that somehow we could get to Dallas which connected to Miami fairly quickly, and still get on a flight to Port au Prince today. But no! She told me we couldn’t get to PaP until tomorrow. I was in disbelief. 2 days late to Haiti!!! Nothing like this has ever happened to me before on a trip!

So the deal we had was that we got a paid for room in Miami overnite, and some food vouchers. We also had a couple hours before boarding our flight to Dallas, and somehow Ms. Congeniality’s opinion of that was:
, whereas I just wanted to really just find that pilot and tell him that he COULD HAVE had the decency to make sure we all knew that we were not going to crash, and then fall on my face and go to sleep, oh yeah, and then we had about 5 hours to spend in Dallas before going to Miami. More airport time! Hurrah!

Travelling with Kid Tip #1: BRING A SMALL LAPTOP TO PLAY MOVIES OR A PORTABLE DVD PLAYER! I would have been lost without those movies for her to watch. You have to hunt sometimes for a free wall plug at the airport, but it’s worth it.

We got from El Paso to Dallas only after sitting on the airport runway in the plane for, oh, about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes. Weather in Dallas was bad. Of course! G’s catch phrase for this trip was “why we not going yet?” LOL

G slept much of the way from El Paso to Dallas, and when we got there, we happily used our entire $20 food voucher at TGI Friday’s, to which we said “FREE FOOD!”….
and even ordered dessert. But after eating the entire thing, including our slice of cheesecake, we said…
ugh! can we get a normal night’s sleep? And My God, can I possibly epitomize the term “pasty faced” any more???

So we moseyed on over to our gate and plopped down and she watched another movie or two. This was our 4th airport and we still had 2 to go! I felt like we’d been in every airport in America at this point.

The plane from Dallas to Miami was unlike any other on this trip. Mainly, because it left on time and had no issues! Plus, it was not full and we were able to stretch out on the row of 5 seats. G was not into sleeping on this trip, and did get a little whiny and bratty, but not horribly so, comparatively speaking. Once in Miami we walked thru the world’s longest airport, stopped and spent our vouchers on pizza at Sbarro, encountered some Haitians working there, and I promptly spoke some Kreyol to all of them. We took our pizza, found the curb, plopped down, ate it,
and waited for the world’s slowest shuttle to pick us up and take us to the Comfort Inn. As we were seeing every other hotel’s shuttle come through twice, and not ours, I was not feeling the Comfort at that point! We had landed at about 9:35 and we got to the hotel around 1100!!! We had to get up at 5 to catch our flight at 7. So yet another night of not enough sleep. The Comfort Inn had no washcloths, a pubic-hairy towel hanging over the bar, the world’s slowest shuttle (oh, I already mentioned that), but it did have comfortable beds although at that point I would have happily slept on a bed of nails. Remember I had had no sleep the night before, as it was the Great El Paso Windy/Landing/Waiting/Deplaning/Rescheduling Festival.

Wednesday, Jan 30

So what seemed like a half hour later, the wake up call was coming in. I made the vicious mistake of waking up first and “quickly” checking my email. DUMB! I should have just plopped us both in the shower immediately. So anyway, we RUSHED to get out and downstairs (I left my jacket in the closet) and of course the world’s slowest shuttle was supposed to leave on the half hour, and we and another couple was there right before the half hour, but no shuttle. Ten minutes later, it shows up. So off we go to the airport, dislodge ourselves, do the security check thing again, and off to the gate we go. We got G a slice of lemon cake, and me a cinnamon roll, plopped down on the floor at the gate, were warned by a blan who was going to Haiti also that they had just shampooed the carpet and it might be wet. G made quick work of the clean carpet by quickly crumbling lemon cake bits all over it. We boarded late (of course) and I called Marie to say HURRAH I am on the flight arriving at 9! Then we promptly sat around on the plane while they announced that there was a mechanical problem and were trying to fix it. (OF COURSE there was a mechanical problem!) I called Marie to say forget it, I’d just call HER when we arrived! After about 45 minutes, maybe, we finally took off. The flight attendant told me that they ALMOST had to deplane us and switch planes!!! I was laughing by this point.

So the rest of the flight to Haiti was uneventful. G did…
yet again, and woke up just about when we were going to land. I could not believe we were finally in
…HAITI!!! Over 48 hours late! I felt like I had been around the world in 80 days.

PICKUP ALERT PICKUP ALERT!

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We have a pickup in progress, folks! Michelle is in Haiti right now picking up her 2 darlings, Zayne and Addison! We can’t wait to see photos at home!

Next up? Oberline and Fedeline going to Oregon, and Andrice going to France!

Yours truly and Baby G will be heading off to Haiti on Jan 27 to do some work at the O, G can hopefully catch up with old friends (and remember her Kreyol, I hope), and I want to drink as much Haitian Lemonade as my stomach can handle.

One of the Funniest Videos Ever

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Here is Baby Jean, home just a couple of months. This give you an insight to his newfound vocabulary and what a day in his world is like Make sure your volume is up….

RECENT IBESR INSPECTIONS

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IBESR (Haitian Social Services, in charge of monitoring orphanages) recently had its unannounced inspections. Here is the report we got, written by one of the moms who talked to the director:

As many of you know IBESR inspects the orphanages and provides them with the licensing they need to legally operate. Inspections are unannounced and can occur at anytime. Both PAC 1 and PAC 2 have recenty been inspected, and of course passed with flying colors. During this inspection IBESR, UNICEF, and a child advocate were all present. They evaluated both
O’s for cleanliness, staff ratios, size and room for the children, activities for the children, meals, medical care, etc.. They even
went so far as to interview three of the older children (Sonson, Louveline, and Maudeline) to assess their experiences of living at
PAC. They asked the children questions like, Are you ever hungry?, Do you have fun here? Do you feel safe? The children gave complete praise in all their answers of Marie, their nannies, and PAC.

IBESR went so far as to say that they were “proud” of Marie’s orphanage and that they wish all could be so good. They said that
even after only 4 years of running an O she is doing a better job than some that have been around for 20+ years. They also stated that the O was not overcrowded and had room for additional children, had 9 nannies at PAC 2 for at the time 37 kids (now 40). It is because of this good standing with IBESR that Marie is called by them directly to take in additional children in need of care. They know that by placing children with Marie they will be well cared for.

Of course, we parents of PAC already knew that

Recent video from PAC2

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This was an unannounced visit to PAC2 which found Marie’s daughter Nerlande giving a math lesson!

[youtube:]

Wow!

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It’s amazing to see what happens to the kids when they get home. Case in point, here is little Lilly. They could not diagnose her in Haiti, she did end up having a not-so-usual parasite, and we think it also might have been failure to thrive after leaving her birth mom. We credit Marie and her staff with keeping Lilly alive until she could come home.

Here is Lilly January 2007 when her new Mom and Dad came to get her. She looks about 6 months old (she was 14 months)! She could barely sit up for long periods, much less stand, cruise, or walk.