How we got a Cut Toe Epidemic...

"Paige. My toe is cut. It hurts." *sniff*

"Oh, no, Pierre. Come on. That hurts, doesn't it?"

"mmmhmm." *sniff*

"Ok. Let's wash it off, and bandage it up."

*sniff*   "Ok."

"There you go. All set. Just don't walk through the mud.  Here. Take a cookie to go because you were a great patient."

"Mesi."  *sniff* 

(The next day)

"Paige. My toe still hurts." *sniff*

"Ok. Let's take a look... Looks much better. But here, take a cookie to go."

"Mesi." *sniff*

(The next day)

"Paige. My toe hurts."

"Ok. Let's look. Nope. Nothing wrong with it... but here is a cookie."

"Mesi."

(The next day)

"Paige..."

"Pierre. Your toe is all better, remember?"

"But now I cut the other toe... and Eric cut his too... see?... We need you to wash them off... and we need a cookie..."

New Friends

Here is a shot of Fran, myself, and Tony.  We really had a great time for the week they were here.  We had a water balloon fight with the kids, the guys brought down a projector and showed movies every night to the boys, they painted the school, and just had a good time with the little ones. 

Delince and myself filling water balloons for the big fight. (photo by Fran)

The boys watching Spiderman.  Projector and movie provided by Fran and Tony. (photo by Fran)

Alexis and Fran pictured repainting one of the secondary school buildings. 

Baobab's Music Video

We just had some truly awesome visitors down here for a week.  Tony and Fran are from Massachusetts, and heard about Espwa through Peter and Linda.  Tony is into making videos, and Fran is into photography.  They both were great with the boys, and so encouraging and helpful with our music groups Baobab and Easy Cross.  

Here is a shot Fran took of Tony working on a music video for Baobab.  He took all the footage back to the States, but once he sends me the final copy I will work on getting it on my blog! Stay tuned!!

Ti Wilgins

Ti Wilgins fell asleep outside of English class yesterday afternoon. I snapped this shot just as he was waking up.

Ti Ti

Saw Ti Ti sitting on the ledge of Matante's house eating a mango and had to snap a pic.  

First Days of School

We launched the summer English program this week- and it has been a great success!  This year we are really working on English literacy, and not just focusing on conversational English.  So far it is working.  We have five classes a day, starting with preschool and ending with adults.  Each class has between 20-25 students... with a waiting list.
Biondy with his 7-12 year olds practicing the days of the week and months of the year at calendar time. 
Two former students, now turned teachers- Nesly and Biondy have great teaching strategies, and their students love them!
Aurel (a teacher's assistant) and myself helping the preschoolers with an alphabet puzzle. 

Dental Hygiene on Ille-a-Vache

Yesterday Fritzner, three Public Health Boys, and myself went out to the island of Ille-a-Vache to do a presentation on Dental Hygiene for the 75 children of a small school.  My good friend Lori from Phoenix, and her daughter Olivia, were staying on the island, and helped us set up this opportunity for outreach.  Lori supplied all of the toothbrushes, as well as shoes for the children, and our Public Health team educationally entertained the youngsters.  Overall, it was a great experience, and a lot of fun.  On the ride back, Sam, Delense, and Daniel were talking about how they would like to do training like that more often.  Hopefully this is the start of more regular outreach for our Public Health team. 

Missing Teeth

Rubens was playing on the jungle gym the other day, and I just had to snap a shot of him and his missing front teeth.  

Chicken Coop

Yes, I am back in Haiti for the month of July, and am so excited about it!

Yesterday, when I was walking through the village I saw these little chicken coops a couple of the boys made.  I thought they were so cute!  One of them had laid six eggs.