Updated Wishlist

*AAdvantage Miles-as many as possible

*Public Health Van- $15,000

*Public Health Dirt Bike/Moto- $3,500

*Daily vitamins for all of the 640 children- $50/week x 52 weeks= $2,600/year

*Treated window screens for the children’s houses- $100/house x 35 houses= $3,500

*Toothbrushes $1/each x 640 children= $640

*Water quality tests for bacteria $5/each

*Medicine of all kinds (email me for an updated list of our most needed meds)

*Laptop for the clinic (can be donated)


It is best to make a monetary donation for all medicines as it is very difficult to get medicine through Haitian Customs. Medicine being shipped to Haiti can be held for up to a year in Customs before it is approved for release. Often times the medicine is never released because it expires in holding. By donating monetarily, you are helping us to purchase the things we need in Haiti while also supporting Haiti’s economy.


There are also several projects that are being developed in need of funding. Please email me for more information.

• Malaria/Dengue Fever/Filariasis Prevention Program


• Malaria/Dengue Fever/Filariasis Diagnosis and Treatment Program


• Malaria/Dengue Fever/Filariasis Education Program


• Community Health Training Program for children and house monitors

Lixier after surgery. The battle is not over for Lixier but his surgery would not have been made possible without the help of many, including Pwoje Espwa and St. Joseph's Hospital. Thank you!

Mark, Dora and Bruce helping out at the clinic. Dora is a gastroenterologist and Bruce is a cardiologist. Mark's going to be studying premed at Loyola in the fall.

Good News x 3

1-Lixier’s surgery was a success. He and his mother will be spending the next 30 days in the states so that Lixier can get the proper follow-up treatment he needs. I saw Lixier’s father the other day in town. He couldn’t stop thanking me for everything we’re doing for his baby boy. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for him to remain in Haiti while his wife and child are away. He misses them very much.

2. The bed bug project is underway! The first 10 houses of the 20 houses in the children’s village have been sprayed with insecticide, caulked, sealed, locked and painted. They’re beginning to actually look like homes! I’m still trying to raise some funds for the malaria program to get window screens put in all of the houses.

3.Hannah Winkler, a librarian at University of North Carolina in Greensboro is down for 6 weeks helping to establish a library for the children. She’s been working every day, cataloguing hundreds of books, organizing, processing and shelving them according to language, binding old books painting bookshelves and lots more. She’s fun and excited about being here. 25 years old, passionate and motivated, she’s already experiencing the difficulties involved in trying to get anything done down here.

Mark Brodie, a recent graduate of Dartmouth College. He’s also down here for 6 weeks helping me out in the public health field. He’s been a huge help in developing the bed bug project plan and is a big sports guy. He loves to play soccer with the kids and attracts quite the crowd when he goes for his morning jogs around the soccer field. The kids don’t seem to understand why someone would run just to run.
Mark’s parents came down last Sunday and will be leaving tomorrow morning. They are both physicians and very nice people. Dora is a gastroenterologist and Bruce is a cardiologist. Having never been to Haiti before, they wasted no time getting settled in. Their second day here, they were getting dirty with the rest of us working to fix up the children’s houses in the village. They worked all day long every day and never once complained. They fly out tomorrow morning to head back to the states. I wish they could stay longer. They’ll be missed.

Baby Update!

The baby boy (Lixier) with hydroencephalitis was just approved for his Visa last night! He and his mother will be leaving for the states on Saturday and Lixier is scheduled for surgery on Monday at St. Joseph’s Hospital. It was a long and stressful process but it looks like things will work out after all. However, surgery is only half the battle. His follow-up care will be crucial in helping him to stay alive. As it is very difficult to receive the post-operative treatment he needs in Haiti, the host family in the US has offered to house Lixier and his mother for 2 months.
I'll be going with them to the airport tomorrow morning to say goodbye and wish them luck. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

Training for a marathon

I love to run down here. It’s easy to get discouraged, and all too often, I find myself desperate for a break. My runs relieve any built up stress and help to clear my mind. I seem to get my best ideas when I’m running.

Seeing as how my runs usually take me through villages, I pass hundreds of homes and hundreds of families. The children run after me yelling “blan, blan” (white man), and begin laughing hysterically when I respond “M’ pa blan!” (I’m not white!). The older children usually stand on the side of the road cheering me on yelling out the little English they know, “How are you?” and “I am fine.” The adults shout out “bonjou” and “Sali,” (good morning, hello). It never ceases to amaze me the level of kindness these families show me. It’s as though they have nothing to be sad about. Haitians are a hopeful people, full of passion and pride. They continue to serve as my inspiration.

Last week when I was in Port-au-Prince trying to get the visa for Lixier, I met a woman at the guest house I stayed at who began telling me about a marathon in the Cayman Islands that’ll be held on Dec. 7th. I’ve always wanted to run a marathon but have always used my asthma as an excuse not to. Well, I decided to do it this time. I began training the day I arrived back to Les Cayes and have been running an average of 8 miles/day. Because of the unbearable heat, I can only run at dawn or dusk. The roads are rocky and the dirt paths are anything but flat. I figure that if I can train for a marathon running on small boulders that the real thing will be a piece of cake.

Teaching Summer English

Monday through Thursday, 8-9am, I teach begining English classes to 22 of the older boys and 2 girls at the Espwa orphanage. We started with the ABCs just three weeks ago and now they're saying complete sentences. I teach fully in English and only use Creole when I need to explain something more complicated or when I want to make sure that they understand. Every Thursday, they have a test on the material we covered Mon-Wed.

The classes are completely optional yet I rarely have a class that's not packed. The kids are desperate for knowledge and passionate about learning. Considering their lack of resources (text books, pens etc.) their work ethic is admirable and inspiring. For many of them, school work is the one and only thing they have control over in their lives. Studying vocab or solving math problems help them to put out of mind if even for an hour a day, the daily struggles they face.