February with LOVE Takes Root

"Where there is great love, there are always miracles." Willa Cather

This is an exciting month for LTR.  The permit is in process and the work is ready to begin. Planning for March Trips is in full swing. These trips will include a eleven day trip with Denver School of Nursing, a week trip with Buena Vista University students, and our first Building Mission Group from First Congregational Church, Spencer Iowa.
Fundraising 2013 plan is in formation. Anyone who would like to host a small Fundraising House Party please contact us. The goal is to have 25 throughout this year throughout the country.
At the orphanage they have a new beautiful child. She is two years old with a shy quiet smile. All of the children are well! ROOTs for a Child have sponsors getting letters and pictures to them to be carried down by the groups in March. Also going is tee-shirts dresses and school supplies. The groups will also bring letters back to the sponsors.
May the month fill your hearts with the power of LOVE, CARING, and Growth.

It is a Happy New Year for Love Takes Root

First I must apologize for not posting this much sooner-due to my lack of experience at blogging, my multiple attempts to blog while I was n Haiti in November with our Treasurer, Doug Hart and the originators of Holistic Humanitarians (the group who has partnered with us under the umbrella of LTR with the purpose of raising the money to build the Medical/dental clinic), Angie Hedges and Joan Hunt, were met with dismal failure.  The good news is that our only failure during this trip was the inability to post a blog.  Tsis was undoubtedly the most rewarding trip I have had of the now 10 trips I have made to Haiti.  AS the saying goes, God works in myterious ways!

On  arriving in Port au Prince, I was pleased to see that things continue to improve at the airport and on the drive to Carrefour.  Road improvement, dismantling of tent cities and the general nature of things see tobe slowly but surely getting better-traffic on the other hand has not improved at all!  The following day we were able to get to LaConcorde to see the kids before Angi,Joan and I bid farewell to Doug who was to stay in Carrefour to work on mentoring Benjamine, Frantzcesse and Frantz as well as work with the kids while the rest of us proceeded to Jacmel.  The usul bit of disorganization followed as we checked into the Hotel de la Place, which I may add, I find rather charming in  a  rather odd way, but others find a bit disappointing.  I was then able to show Angie and Joan around Jacmel to include St Michelle hospital, the new land site, the new nursing school, etc.  During this time we were fortunate enough to meet with our neighbor and friend, Charle Eglin, wo was knd enough to introduce me to Dave Bird.  Dave as it turns out is an architect and commercial contractor from California who has vast experience in building earthquake proof stuctures.  Shortly after the earthquake of Jan 2010, Dave and his wife moved to the Jacmel area and have been workin with agroup called Calvary Interational Devotional Missions who contracts with other NGO's to do costruction.  Upon meeting Dave it was very obvious that he was the person to do our work.  I was able to view several of his projects, all of which were very good.  His knowledge and experience are invaluable and as luck would have it, he has agreed to put up our fence, arrange for the well to be put in by Water for Life as well as organize with Global Compassons the placement of a metal 18 foot diameter building which we will be able to use for storage of food and supplies which will be rodent proof!  Evrything seemed to be moving vey fastwith plans to start constructing the orphanage in February!!!  Now, we just had to get the money. (Miracle of Christmas #2!!)

Shortly after returning home from Haiti, we had our board meeting with agreeent to provde the money for the well, the fence andthe new storage building.  Barb and I then flew to Denver 2 days later to attend the graduation of daughter Cara from the Denver School of Nursing.  Cara and 14 other students had gone to Haiti with Barbara ad 2other professors to complete their Community Health requirement.  They all had a very rewarding time and were happy to see Barb again.  (This is where the #2miracle occurred.)  After the graduation ceremony, we were informed by a family attendng the ceremony, that they had approved us for a grant of 150,000!!!  (This was after Barb had opened the envelope and after peering at the gift without ner much neede reading glasses, said to m, "Ohlook, $1500.  It was then that I informed her that the gift was for $150,000 after which time the tears started flowing.)  This unbelievably kind gift has enabled us to start building the orphanage in February which we hope will be completed by May!!  I hope in the near uure to be able to share with you the details of the gift from this amazing family.

Since then, we have had a number of other very kind gifts and pledges which makes us very optimistic that we will be able to get this, our first project, done ahead of schedule.  We will keep all of you posted about the happenings as they occur and will post new photos as construction proceeds. 

It seems only appropriate that during this holy season of new birth and beginnings, that the beginning of this gift from God of a new home for the children of LaConcorde will also be born.  AS in the Christmas prayer we read in our church on Christmas Eve, "it is now the time for the true meaning of Christmas to begin!!"  Halleluiah!  God is Great!

Happy New Year to all-

Rick

WATER WILL BE FLOWING

LOVE Takes Root Board approved Water for Life to dig a well on the new land site!  It was approved to spend $5000.00 for this project.  The well will be the first of the building process as we will need water on site for the building project.  This will be a water source for the Orphanage, School  and Medical/Dental Clinic also.  The buildings will have cisterns for catching rain water on site also. Water is such an important piece of our well being.  In the United States so many of us take clean, easy access drinking water for granted. I am thankful for those who identify how important this is for  the rest of our world and donated to make this happen.  As Always, Grateful,  Barb

THANKSGIVING

LOVE Takes Root wants to wish everyone involved with this organization or anyone sending good wishes our way a very blessed Thanksgiving Day. Continue to share with others it makes your light shine brighter!  I am blessed to be able to spend my time facilitating all the amazing activity of LOVE Takes Root. I am touched daily watching the love, gifts and resources of so many work toward the betterment in a life of a child. Grateful,  Barb Wilkerson

Wrapping up in Haiti

Yesterday was our last full day in Haiti, and it was filled with emotion. We woke up in Jacmel and enjoyed breakfast before heading out on the town for one last adventure. Barb had promised Junior that she would bring him back some spices to cook with, so we went to the market to see what we could find. The market was jam-packed, and full of excitement. We finally found a few small packages of spices, and though we were able to find out what some of them were, a few others may prove to be a surprise back at home. We got back to the hotel and piled in a van to make the journey back to PAP. Surprisingly, everyone made it just fine and there were no incidents of illness! When we arrived back, we put our stuff in our newly assigned rooms (3 of us to a bed...cozy!), and headed to a nursing school in Carrefour. The students were very friendly, and we met different groups that were in varying years of their schooling. We all asked questions to get to know our similarities and differences, and realized that no matter the culture, we were all there because we had a desire to help others. We are so grateful that every school we had visited was so welcoming, and we hope to continue a positive relationship in the future.

Once we got back to the hotel, it was time for our wrap-up session. We had dinner with of the students and instructors, the Bastien family, the CPJF nursing school, and many of our drivers and translators on the trip. There were many beautiful speeches and thank you's, and a few of us got emotional thinking so fondly on the experience. The CPJF nursing school presented all of the students with certificates, and the mutual respect and appreciation was felt throughout. The power went out at the hotel, so our birthday celebration was a little dark, but we still all had fun.

This experience has been something different for each one of us, but I think we can all agree that we will never forget it. The kindness of the Haitian people has humbled us all, and made us reevaluate the way we live our lives at home. There will never be a way that we can thank the people involved enough, but hopefully we can make them proud with our future actions. Thank you LTR for letting the Denver School of Nursing experience the remarkable things that you do!

~Lindsey, Cara, Jessie, Sarah, & Jill

Pretty scenery, ugly car ride

This morning, we got up very excited to hit the road. We packed a bag and headed to Jacmel for our last adventure in Haiti. Despite our souped up van (AC and all!) and beautiful mountains, the twists and turns of the roads had different plans for us. Lindsey got motion sick as expected, followed by a pee stop in a community toilet for Jessie. We continued our journey and thought we were fine until Jill awoke to Cara losing her breakfast in her hands. Jill reacted with her quick nursing skills and helped Cara clean up and evacuate the vehicle, while Lindsey reacted by painting the side of the van Pepto pink. Needless to say, there was a lot of vomit. Finally, we arrived in beautiful Jacmel. The hustle and bustle had decreased ten fold from 2 hours earlier, and the population shrank with it. 

We started out the day by visiting the land for the new orphanage. We quickly realized how beneficial it was that we were able to see the current living arrangements before envisioning the new, and it brought up many questions. We wondered about living situations, the spread of infection from child to child, self-provided nutritious food, and water sanitation details.  Just as we were racking our brains, a nice man climbed a tree and cut us down coconuts to replenish our electrolytes and give us energy for the beach. We learned about the process of changing plans multiple times to reach the conclusion that a school and clinic would need to be added to the site that was originally going to be only an orphanage.    Barb and Frantz detailed how the land buying process occurred with official documents and a less than structured government. Upon leaving, we were able to truly appreciate what this project will mean for all of adults and children involved, and were so grateful for the opportunity learn from the process. 

Next, we headed to the beach that we had heard so many good things about from the other groups. Being Sunday, it was packed, and we were happy to find a positive response to our American presence. We spent part of the day relaxing and enjoying the culture, and were happy to see Haitian recreation activities. Although there are differences about personal space and cutural norms, we all still enjoy the beach in the same way. Wrapping this up at an ice cream parlor with reliable Internet, but must head to the hotel as we have a ways to walk. 

Lindsey, Cara, Sarah, Jessie, and Jill

Jacmel Journey

This journey has been a great one.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and took a tour of the town.  We went to the hospital to see where it was located.  This was a government owned hospital and was different than a private hospital.  There was no electricity so the patients were not being fanned to cool off nor many medications were being administered.  According to Dr. Ottis Haitians are very resilient to pain.  All they need after surgery is Tylenol, which surprised us. He did mention, however, that they are intolerant when it comes to the cold... good thing because we've all lost a lot of water weight sweating so much - it is HOT! We ventured to the beach but got distracted by some young guys playing soccer so we joined them in a game on the street.  That was a lot of fun! We made a big loop back to the hotel and just debriefed on what we did that day.  On Saturday we started off with a detailed tour of the hospital and it was how we expected it to be. Patients are all sharing one large room, it is all concrete and there were flies all over the place. Much of the equipment was malfunctioning including IV tubing, and as a previous group mentioned preterm babies were wrapped in foil.   It was hard seeing the patients suffer with out the right supplies needed to care for them.  The families are also very involved in patient care. They were the ones providing baths, bringing food and feeding the patients, and they are the ones to go buy medication at the pharmacy... if they have the money to do so. Some students went into the OR and their idea of sterility and scrubbing in is quite different than the states. After that tour we went to an Adventist church service and very much like a service in the U.S.  Then we went to the land where the new orphanage is going to be built.  It will be life changing for the orphans to experience the ample amount of outdoor space as many of the children have not seen the outdoors since they arrived at the orphanage.  It is going to house 100 kids and there will be a school for 200 kids, along with a medical clinic. There will also be land for a farm to grow produce. We also met the new neighbors who we ironically met that morning at the hospital. He helps run Vision for the Children, which helps collect supplies and provide medical care for Haitians in the mountains. He said it was a miracle we met him twice that day and would one day be neighbors. We thought so too.  Next we went to the beach and it was nice to swim in the Caribbean.  The local Haitians flocked to us wanting to sing and sell us items.  There was a fabulous band that played and sang Caribbean beach music with instruments they had made. We danced and had a very relaxing afternoon.  We took a tap-tap to and from the hotel and that was interesting to experience.  This morning, Sunday, we were able to see our translator's house which does not look like much on the outside but beautiful on the inside.  His whole family was there and excited to see us.  After that we took the journey back to Port au Prince and when we arrived we swam w`ith some of the orphange children at the hotel pool. Many of the children smiled for the first time while swimming. It was quite a special experience. Can't wait to spend more time with the kids the next two days!

Liza, Jennie, Genevieve, Ruby, and Tiffany