Victoria Briggs, or Miss Vicki as she’s known by everyone here, has been planning on celebrating her birthday in Haiti for the last year. She knew that she was going to be in Haiti this year and wanted this birthday to be special. She planned the menu, games for everyone to play, and the music that would play during the party!

All of the staff were invited and some brought their children and grandchildren to the party.  Some of the older children from the Toddler House came too. 

They played games all Saturday afternoon.  They played musical chairs, pin the basket on the market lady’s head (instead of pin the tail on the donkey! ), they also had a contest of who could carry something on their head to the finish line!  Everyone had lots of fun and Miss Vicki was extremely happy with her party.

We are moving into a new office in Colorado Springs.  When we moved into our present office right after the earthquake, we needed to find some place quickly. Our old office in the basement of a home was overflowing with donations and the neighbors were complaining about all of the delivery trucks coming five or six times per day!

So we found a small office with a warehouse attached in an office complex not too far from our original location.  It was available right then and we moved in within just a few days.  We found out later that this office became available because the cabinet company next door was having financial difficulties and had to give their lease up on this office.  So from the beginning, the owners of the cabinet business were not happy that we had leased the office.  They were verbally abusive to our staff and volunteers.  We decided to bring this to the attention of the owner of the complex and he suggested that we move to another office away from this business.

So, the GLA office is moving into another location within the same complex but in another building.  The office is a little bigger as is the warehouse.  It is also newly renovated and they renovated it with our suggestions of what would be good for GLA.

We need some volunteers to come and help us move.  If you are able to help on one or more of the moving days – September 1, 2, and 6, 7 – please call 719-638-4348 or send an email to jean@glahaiti.org. 

We would so appreciate any help anyone can give to help us move!

I have had a couple of people write asking how they could help Mitha’s children go to school.  I estimate that it will cost about $500 USD per child for tuition, books, shoes, uniforms, backpacks, and supplies for the year.  That is $1000 USD total to see that her two children attend school.  If I could find 10 people willing to give $100 each, their schooling for the 2010-2011 school year would be paid for!  Can you help?  If you can donate even $10 that would help so much.  Please donate via the below PayPal button using a credit card.  You can make a difference in the life of a child!

I have not blogged in a week!  I cannot believe that it has been that long, but I guess it has been!  So I am really sorry that this entry tonight is so long!  I will try very hard to blog each night again!! 

I have had a busy week.  We sent three babies home to live with their biological mothers.  they came to us shortly after the earthquake and had grown and done well with us.  It was time for them to go home.  Please pray for them.  Each one has their problems with their mothers.  Woodson was a premature baby who is now big and healthy.  Jude’s mother is young and has some learning difficulties and maturity issues but there is an American nurse who will supervise her care of Jude.  Then there is Luc whose grandmother would not accept him in her home and the mother is young and still in school.  Luc’s mother did not want to take him home, but wanted us to baby sit for him until she was finished with school.  She did not want the paternal grandmother to care for him, nor the maternal grandmother and she did not want to take time off from school to care for him!  But there came a point that we had to insist  that she must take responsibility for him.

I have been sick since June with a stomach issue.  I thought it was giardia and took medication, but I just could not get well.  I would have terrible stomach pains, diarrhea, and nausea.  I might get better for a couple of days and then it would come back.  Being a nurse, I thought of all of the things it “might” be!  Monday at staff meeting, I could hardly hold my head up!  Thankfully, I started on another round of the antibiotic Cipro and Tuesday and today, no more pain or problems!  I am so thankful that I am finally feeling well again!  I do think it is giardia and I think I am getting it from the water, so I am only drinking bottle water right now.

We are getting a whole house water treatment system put in soon.  This was donated by donors in the Netherlands through Flash who used to work with us for adoptions to the Netherlands.  Hopefully, this system which will filter all water going through the pipes into the house will allow me to drink the water again!  We should have less problems with the baby drinking the water also.

  Tuesday, we had Mitha’s memorial service.  Pastor Brandon Jordan led the service and we had about 40 people there.  Several of our staff got up and spoke about Mitha and how much she loved the children.  We talked about all of the children whose lives she has affected in the last 6 years.  Mitha was always patient and kind.  The children loved her very much.  Mitha had been attending Bible study with all of the ladies at GLA and Pastor Brandon presented her family with the song book and Bible that she was memorizing verses to get.  All of the staff signed the books and her family was very touched by the presentation.

She has two children and her husband is just a very simple farmer.  I really need some families who will sponsor her children in school this coming year.  They have lost their mother and it was her salary that paid for their schooling.  there are many of you whose children were loved by Mitha and she changed their lives.  Would you help change Mitha’s children’s lives?  They need you.

Tuesday and Wednesday, we have been so busy at Fort Jacques trying to sort and bag up all of the remaining donations and get them sent to churches and orphanages.  We worked so hard and tonight I am feeling pain in my back and hip as is several others of the staff!  We lifted lots of boxes and moved them around.  Now we are ready for the next 4 containers to come out of customs.  They wanted to bring them to us today, but I have asked them to space them out over the next two weeks. 

John left today for his father’s burial in Illinois.  They had a memorial for his father in Florida which John was not able to attend.  John will be speaking at his burial in the Maroa, Illinois cemetery at 11 AM on Saturday, September 28.  Please say a prayer for John and his family.

I had planned on going to Colorado around the first of September for a month.  Our Colorado annual fundraiser is September 18 and so I need to go out and help.  I also had been so sick off and on that I felt like maybe it was stress related too and needed to just go out and rest for a little bit.  BUT since the containers are coming out in the next couple of weeks, I will probably stay until about the 10th of September and then go to Colorado and return early in October.   Pray that everything goes well here in Haiti while John and I are gone.

We are starting to get the art of distributing donations down to a well thought out system now!  As we make up family bags, we make sure and get an accurate count of how many bags we have for distribution.  Melissa than makes up a numbered ticket for each sack.  We then give the numbered tickets to the Mayor of Kenscoff who distributes them to families in the area that need assistance. 

We give them a date to come to the Mayor’s distribution area and they are lined up early that morning waiting for our staff to come.  The Mayor ropes off an area where we put the truck and it helps give boundaries to the people so they do not shove up against the truck and the people handing out bags.  The people then hand over their ticket and they receive a bag of donations.

People are still suffering from the effects of the earthquake in January.  Some organizations are trying to build homes but there are still so many people (estimated 1.5 million) who are still living in tents and the government is arguing over where to relocate the people and where to get land to build homes for them!

Land owners are out to make a quick million or two on large parcels of land.  They are asking way more than the land is worth and asking the government or NGO’s to pay this to build houses for the earthquake survivors!

Please pray for Haiti and the housing situation.  Pray that a solution will be found and housing can be built and people can throw those tents away!!!

Two weekends after the earthquake was supposed to be a staff retreat for the GLA staff.  We all felt we needed time to rejuvenate and just rest.  Well, that never happened because of the earthquake!  The hotel we were supposed to stay in, lost part of their rooms in the earthquake, so we didn’t even have a place to go if we had wanted to!

Well, we feel even more exhausted than we did back at the beginning of January and again thought we would try to have a fun and relaxing weekend on the beach.  We have had 4 containers come out in the last month.  We were really tired and decided after Friday’s container to go to Jacmel for Saturday and Sunday and just relax.  We called and made reservations at our favorite Jacmel hotel, the Cyvadier, but Christophe LANG, the manager, only had 4 rooms.  It was not enough for all of us, so some went to the Hotel Kabik Beach Club. 

It turned out that it was very nice and the staff was wonderful!  The rooms were big and spacious and reasonable.  It was not right on the beach like the Cyvadier, but it was across the road from the beach.  This is a photo of the beach.  It was beautiful and sandy in places.

The food at the Cyvadier is first rate and I still love it the best, but I would stay at the Kabik again if the Cyvadier is full! 

I think the Kabik was great for the kids.  Patrick and his family stayed in a “villa” with its own private swimming pool!  We all spent most of our time at his “house”!   

On Saturday, a large group went to see Basin Bleu,  a spring and multiple waterfalls that goes into a rocky canyon and the water is very very blue! 

Lots of people were there swimming.  There were some UN soldiers from Brazil and other visitors. It is an hour drive in the truck from the hotel and then a 15 minute hike on foot.  I stayed back at the hotel with my granddaughter,  Lilly, and grandson, JJ.  They spent the day swimming in the pool.  Everyone said it was beautiful and so much fun and were glad that they had made the effort to go.

We arrived back at the orphanage today.  We all had a great time.  Now, everyone has to go to Fort Jacques and unload another container that is on the road as I write this update!  YIKES!

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Baby Angela came to GLA from another orphanage because she was sick.  She desperately needed an IV because she was severely dehydrated with diarrhea.  We had seen her a week before and gave her medication and an antibiotic,  But she still was not getting any better, and so they brought her back for us to see.

Poor Angela was so dehydrated that the nurses could not find a vein.  I finally found a vein in her left foot.  We stabilized the catheter and started giving her fluids.  The other orphanage sent a nanny to stay with her and our nurses were responsible for watching over her care.  During the night, the IV infiltrated and the nurse did not catch it until the morning. 

Because Angela was also malnourished, her circulation and the condition of her skin was not good.  The skin started breaking down due to the swelling and the skin started dying.  We had already started treating her foot the next day but it just was not getting better.  The Pediatrician changed the treatment when she visited.  I saw it over the weekend and was shocked at how it looked.  The skin was dead and you could see the muscle!  I started a different treatment for the weekend. Then on Monday, it was still very bad so I decided that we needed to send her to the plastic surgeon and see what she said.

Well, she said that Angela needed a skin graft!  It cost us $2500 USD for the surgery.  She asked us $4000 to do the surgery, but we had given her lots of medical donations and narcotics for pain control right after the earthquake and she gave us a good break.  But it was still a lot of money and an unexpected expense!

But Angela is doing great and the foot and donor graft sight on her left thigh are looking very good.  We did not take photos of the before, but here are ones taken today. 

It started off as a very strange day today.  I had the  Canadian Broadcast Company here talking to me and then another visitor from the Norwegian Church Aid Alliance brought a child from Cite Soleil that the mother wanted to give for adoption.  We were frantically trying to get ready and go to Fort Jacques because a container was on its way up the mountain and we need to be there to unload it!

I arrived in Fort Jacques just as they were  finishing up unloading the first truck.  There were wonderful barrels on this container from Canada.  We can store lots of things in them to keep them dry and even use them for water storage!  Everything is well marked so we know exactly what is in each container.  We will start sorting it on Monday.

The second truck arrived and again there were wonderful items on the truck.  There was food, clothing, baby supplies, diapers, formula, shoes, shoes, and more shoes!  We have two organizations coming next week to fill up their trucks with clothing, shoes, and other supplies.  The other Canadian container did not arrive at the warehouse in time to be unloaded, so will unload it about 11 AM on Monday morning.

As we were finishing up unloading the second truck, Magaly arrived and she was very sad.  She had received a call that one of our nannies, Mitha, had died.  Mitha had been sick for about a month, but we did not think it was serious.  She could not eat and would throw up.  After I gave her some antacid pills, she was a little better.  But I encouraged her to go to the doctor and see what was wrong.  Everyone encouraged her to go.  I would much rather pay for her to go to the hospital than be paying for a funeral now!  But Mitha didn’t like doctors or maybe she just was always afraid to spend the money.

Mitha was our nanny that was always calm.  She never yelled or had problems with the other staff.  The kids loved her and many times their first word was “Mitha”!  If we had a child that needed extra attention or just a little extra loving, that child became Mitha’s child.  All of Mitha’s children thrived.  When she was on vacation, she would call to see how her “babies” were doing.  She was the best nanny!

Please be in prayer for Mitha’s husband and two children.  For those of you who knew Mitha, if you would like to help with her funeral expenses, please donate through Paypal.  I know her family would appreciate it very much.

We will miss Mitha very much.  More than I can express.  The whole house is sad tonight.

I was sitting in my office today and the most beautiful singing started in our dining room.  It was like a choir of angels! 

It was my Haitian staff singing in wonderful harmony during their weekly Bible study with Pastor Brandon Jordan.  Brandon and Nikki Jordan run our guesthouse.

I was sitting there listening to them sing and then they were laughing at something Pastor Brandon was saying and I could just hear joy in their voices!  It makes me feel very humble to listen to them because they have risen above the suffering, grief, shock, anger, incredible loss, and fear that they have experienced since January of this year. 

I sat there and wondered if I could have been that strong if the orphanage had fallen down, or one of my loved was hurt?  I would like to think that I am that strong, but do any of us really know what we would do if put to the test?  All I need to know is that God is always with me and I never have to go through anything alone. 

My Haitian staff truly believes that only with God by their sides can they get through the daily trials in their life here in Haiti.  The first thing many of them did when the earth shook that fateful day was start praying and then singing. 

God is close to their hearts and He gave them a beautiful gift…the voices of ANGELS!

John just returned to Haiti from Florida last Friday.  He had been called to come because his father was very ill, in the hospital, and not expected to live.  He was able to spend 5 days with his brother, sister, and father.  His dad was alert some of the time, knew John, and was doing a little better.  I told John that it’s better that he was able to visit with him while he was still alert rather than going to Florida after he had died!

Today, we received word that John’s father had died peaceful this morning with John’s brother at his side.  His death was unexpected at that moment, but we all knew that he was not doing well.  He could not eat or drink without choking and he told the kids that he wanted nothing special done to keep him alive.

Please pray for John, Joe, and Julie and all of their families during this difficult time.  John’s dad was a Christian and he is now in heaven with Charlene, John’s mother.  John will be going out in the next week to speak at the graveside service.  I will not be able to leave right now.

Thomas J. Bickel, your family will miss you, but we rejoice that you are reunited with mom finally!