Live your love.

I thought this piece by Langston Hughes really summed up my time in Haiti: The night is beautiful, So are the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So are the eyes of my people. Beautiful, also is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people. -Langston Hughes

My roommate Anna shared this prayer with me when I left for Haiti. It is quite profound, so I thought I would share it as well: " We cannot merely pray to you o god to end war; for we know that you have made the world in a way that man must find his own path to peace within himself and his neighbor. We cannot merely pray to you, o god, to end starvation for you have already given us the resources with which to feed the entire world, if only we would use them wisely. We cannot merely pray to you, o god, to root our prejudice, for you have already given us eyes with which to see all the good in all men if we could only use them rightly. We cannot merely pray to you, o god, to end despair, for you have already given us the power to clear away slums and to give hope- if we could only use our power justly. We cannot merely pray to you, o god, to end disease for you have already given us great minds with which to search out cures and healing, if we would only use them constructively....

I wanted to share a theme of my time in Haiti. I read Ann lamott's book "Traveling Mercies" while here. I just love the way she writes and her stories about life. She said this that really caught my eye: "The thing about light is that it really isn't yours; it's what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself. So I sat still." I love this because light in Haiti is not something you take for granted. Electricity is a luxury here. My time here helped me to sit still and soak in the light (when we had electricity :)) Because it's not mine, it's something I must share! Photos of the beautiful place we stayed in Croix de Bouquet, Haiti. Courtesy of the very talented Callie Kraus

The team of therapists (Karen - OT, Kristin - OT, and Cristina- PT) Kenol doing residual limb desensitization in a bucket of beans Hanging out at the Chilean's house after a night of laughing and talking on the roof (Alejandro - Doctor, Natalia -Dentist, Paloma- midwife, and Julio- Doctor) Having a Basketball game with our patients! Alejandro and Natalia with Mandfred after the basketball game Erica (the new OT that just arrived) and I on my last night in Haiti. Our patient, Saladin with Karen (OT), Cristina (PT), and myself before he was discharged to go home for the first time since March! Today I am departing Haiti after spending one month here. I absolutely don't want to leave, but with my sister having a baby very soon- I also want to be there for that! On Monday of this week, a new OT arrived that will be replacing myself and the other therapists. Like me, she has also spent time volunteering as an OT in Africa (Uganda and Malawi)!! It's crazy because we have had very...

The chaos at the rehab center has calmed down a little bit the past few days. Our decision not to admit any new patients before we leave and the new therapist comes has really allowed us to Pour our energy into the patients we already have. We are seeing some nice progress from most of our patients, which has been exciting to see. We have had both of our stroke patients and our spinal cord injury patient up and walking with supports. We have been focusing on extensive training for their caregivers, which we're finding is very necessary in order to be discharged from here. We are also trying to really focus our energy on training the rehab nurse and our rehab tech (both from Haiti) on the work. Because we see most of these patients everyday or a few times a week, they have really become some of my buddies... I have begun to call them zanmi mwen , which means my friend in Creole. I learned that when i put my arm around one of patients with an above knee amputation, who knows s...

Having this weekend off has been really nice in order to get some rest and see more of Haiti. Friday we returned to more local art in Haiti in the village of the artists and Saturday we spent the day at the beach. The beach is only a little over an hour drive from where we stay and there is actually a paved road (with potholes of course) to get there. So 5 of us went to the beach, which included 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 ecuadorian, and an Indonesian! Their beach was mostly rocks and not too much sand but it was pretty to see the ocean with the mountains in the distance. When we tried to leave the beach we found that the car we took there didn't start. Luckily we found several local Haitians that knew a thing or two about fixing cars to help us out for a small price of course. We made it back to the grounds in time for a fiesta with our patients and other visitors staying on the grounds. We had Latin, Haitian, American, and Indonesian music with many different styles of dan...

Today was the six month anniversary to the horrible earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. Over 300,000 people died due to the quake... Many more left homeless and injured. We held a special vigil today to remember the fallen today, in which many of our patients attended. It was quite difficult to see the emotions of some of the Haitians. I could not imagine the pain they are experiencing. This weekend I got a chance to talk to a Mexican journalist who is here interviewing some haitian figures regarding the affects of the earthquake and the progress that has occurred since January 12. It appears that the gov't has made very little progress with rebuilding. Many of the large buildings in port au prince still remain collapsed and untouched. The roads are in complete shambles, making the traffic awful. We experienced that on saturday as we were out driving around going to see Haitian art. It took us hours only to drive a short distance. The journalist told me that many Ha...

This week I have had a chance to learn some stories about what happened the day of the earthquake. We are finding that the Haitians do not use the word "earthquake" (in creole) when speaking about it. They often refer to it as January 12th or "the event." The affects of that day will certainly last a life time. People are scared to return to their homes and or return to any home because of what happened. I met a Haitian teacher at the catholic seminary who's sister and brother in-law both died in "the event," leaving his niece an orphan. She now lives with his father and mother. His mother had a very severe stroke 2 years ago and is dependent for all her mobility and self care. They brought her into our rehab clinic today for therapy. In Haiti, the culture is similar in Latin countries where the family takes care of any sick or elderly people- there is no nursing homes or in home help. But there are so many people with similar stories because they ha...

What an interesting couple of days it has already been in croix de bouquet, Haiti. The airport was quite chaotic and small so it was hard to accommodate the big flights of people arriving. I got all my bags and found my ride! Thank god! We are living at a catholic seminary among seminary students, nuns, Haitian patients, and medical professionals. Most of the nuns speak spanish or Italian while the patients all speak creole, which is like french. I have met people from many different countries including Spain, argentina, Columbia, Indonesia, Mexico, Italy, Canada and of course Haiti and the u.s. Everyone is very nice and has a joyful spirit around them which makes it fun to be around! We have spent the past two nights playing music, singing and dancing in the courtyard! It's so great how music brings people together even though it's difficult to communicate due to the language barrier. On Sunday the other 2 therapists and myself spent the morning cleaning and organizing the reh...