haiti.

I mentioned before that I went to Haiti two weeks ago, and I finally had time last night to comb through some of the photos to share. The trip was short, only four days, but I am so glad I went. My grandmother - Grandpolly - was a big supporter of the Hopital Albert Schweitzer and she talked about it regularly when I visited her. Larry and Gwen Mellon founded and started the hospital in 1956 and dedicated their lives to it. So, much later in life when Grandpolly heard about the hospital and Gwen's connection with it, she became very interested in their work. Grandpolly died two years ago and last year I decided I wanted to find a way to continue her support and involvement with the hospital. I have also been missing being in the field and working in development like in my days past, so this was also self-serving. Nonetheless, I have been helping and talking with the hospital for the last year about how I can support them and earlier this year they invited me to come down for a visit. It was incredible. The hospital's scope of work is just astounding and seems never-ending, yet their operating budget is obviously not infinite and the need in Haiti where they operate is overwhelming.

I can go on and on about the hospital because it is impressive in so many ways.  98% of the employees are Haitian. Beyond just the emergency and medical services, the hospital is also committed to integrated community health systems - including water and sanitation projects, nutrition programs, reforestation initiatives and they have three smaller clinics up in the mountains. Located about 2.5 hours outside of Port-au-Prince, the hospital serves about 350,000 people - basically the size of Oakland.  There is lab testing available, and more recently they have added rehabilitation services and post-earthquake they opened a prothetic and orthotics lab. To even begin to understand it all, you have to see it in person...but for now, some pictures to help give an idea....

I couldn't take a lot of pictures inside the hospital because, well, it's a hospital - and to respect the patients, but here is part of the entrance room - that is full by 7 am with people waiting...

And one of the courtyards inside the main hospital...

The campus is expansive, with staff housing and various buildings and offices...

The orthotics and prosthetics lab (P&O) was opened after the 2011 earthquake. Both P&O labs in Port-au-Prince were destroyed and the hospital opened this lab within 90 days and it is now the largest in Haiti... 

Here is a beautiful archway near the hospital from an old aqueduct...

We also went to a nearby school. While the Hospital doesn't do any direct programming here, there is of course a clear connection with its public health mission and medical care...

We also spent a day visiting various pumps and water projects that are servicing nearby communities...

And this pump also happened to be at another school in the area which this hospital staffer spearheaded...

And we visited a home where one of the employees makes water filter systems and latrines...

We also drove up into the mountains another day to visit one of the satellite clinics. Hospital staff are driven up to the clinic early Monday mornings and spend the week there and are picked up and driven back down on Friday. And generally, they drive up the mountains and when they are dropped off, they have another 3 hours to walk to the clinic. These clinics are small buildings with just a handful of staff but they are taking care of people that are so far away from the hospital, they wouldn't otherwise get care. And the doctors and nurses are also visiting patients at their homes, taking care of pregnant women, and monitoring children's nutrition.

When we got to one of the clinics, they were weighing babies to check on their growth and nutrition. They do this weekly.

Just driving in the land cruisers, I had to hold on to the handles because it was so steep at certain points, as we passed women carrying their babies and toddlers for miles to get to the clinic.

A random tid-bit, but dotting the roads, it seems like these "banks" are everywhere. You can't go more than a mile without spotting one. They aren't actually banks...but your local lotto vendor...

On the drive back to Port-au-Prince to fly out, we stopped along the coast to take in the view and the ocean...

It is really hard to describe the 4 days, and especially in a blog. I can say that having lived in a lot of places, including some of the poorest in the world - rural Bolivia, the bush of Uganda, the thick of Chiapas, and Vietnam...Haiti is not like any of them. A colleague of mine that I was talking with last week put it so well, he talked about how Haiti just doesn't line up with the stereotype in your head. It does not feel like Latin America, in fact it reminded me much more of Africa - which of course makes sense given its ancestry and history. Yet, it also is so different from Africa. And the challenges are just never-ending. Obviously, the earthquake exacerbated that fact but it is also the naked mountains that have been stripped of trees and are startling deforested and some of the cultural and historical linkages that just complicate the problem-solving. I'll stop with this, but I am sure there will be more soon about the hospital, the amazing work they are doing and Haiti.....

pillow talk.

Salt & Sundry has a pillow very similar to this in their store, but it is about three times the price - crazy! But this Etsy version I love....just not sure I am willing to even put out this much for a little DC pride - but for anyone looking for a great housewarming present for a DC person - I give you this...

green thumb.

Ben and I have taken a swan-dive into the big world of gardening and we are loving it. Last night, after work, we went outside for 15 minutes to look at all our flower-children and inspect which ones were showing bulbs and which ones are struggling. And yesterday, Ben invested a solid 45 minutes into researching drip irrigation watering kits and we debated whether we are watering and feeding the azaleas enough. It is addictive and feels good. And on that note, Mols had passed along this Washington Post article last week, The Healing Powers of the Earth. It is all about why gardening is so good for you...beyond just being outside and getting your hands dirty - this claims the science behind it....

coming up roses.

This past weekend was a perfectly gorgeous two days of spring in DC. So, on Sunday, Ben and I decided to make the most of it with a full day of yard and garden work. Slowly but surely, we have been gardening and planting up a storm the last couple of weeks and our yard is finally coming together. A couple weeks ago, Ben's mom thinned her garden and sent down Iris bulbs for us to garden along our border wall and just inside the gate - we are really excited to see them bloom in the next month.

Here are some of the iris bulbs starting to show in front of the house...

And last week, we added annuals along the wall and in the yard to add a pop of color...

On Sunday, we decided to buy two Azalea Encore bushes to put in front of the porch. We anticipate they are going to grow wide and long and fill in nicely. With that said, we had to dig up the iris bulbs and move them out from the porch to fit the azaleas and then replant the iris bulbs again....

But here is the finished front with the newly planted azaleas and the replanted iris bulbs!

And finally, we decided to fix and build up the tree boxes that are on the south sidewalk of our house. They have been severly neglected and we wanted to start to beautify that part of the street - it was a long day - but it is all coming together slowly! Here is the before...

We made an early morning trip to Home Depot after measuring everything out and we beat the crowd to the lumber section and had them cut everything up...and Ben did the bulk of drilling and staking and drilling and staking...

 And here are the newly bordered tree boxes...

Next steps include figuring out what we can plant in the tree boxes that 1) cheap 2) we don't need to water/maintain and 3) dog friendly. If you have any suggestions - we are all ears...and in the meantime - you can find us watering a lot!

post-quake.

I went to Haiti last week (more about that soon!) and of course the 2011 earthquake and all it's devastation and the after-effects can't not be noticed. I was there to visit a hospital and inevitably ended up in a lot of conversations about development and aid. And at the same time, I had also picked up Jonathan Katz's book, The Big Truck That Went By - How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, and plowed through it on the plane. Anyway, I could go on and on about it, but having just come back from Haiti the Nepal earthquake has really resonated and particularly watching as the same international response (and mistakes?) are happening again. In case you want some interesting reading headed into the weekend, Katz wrote this NYTimes piece - How Not to Report on an Earthquake - I thought his book was incisive and this piece is just the connection that people need to be making right now as aid and money and people flood in....

hang it.

Oh hi...I know it has been a while, but happy friday! I have all these things I have been meaning to post about and just haven't had the time. But to hold you over at least for a bit - isn't this a fantastic pendant light?!

crack pie.

Scott came for a visit this week and guess what he brought?! The Momofuku Pie Mix - Crack Pie!!!!!!!

My enthusiasm right now might be confusing to those of you who haven't tasted the Momofuku Crack Pie and/or for those of you who haven't heard me talk about it. It is unbelievable. Ben and I tried it a couple months ago at a food festival and there just aren't words to describe how good it is. This is not exaggeration. So, you can imagine our excitement when Scott rolled up to our house with this. The Crack Pie itself sells for $44 (absurdly expensive!) and it is also up in NY which is probably best for the two of us. But now we have the mix. We can't wait to make it and I promise we will report back soon....in the meantime, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a slice of crack pie the next time you are in NY and then think of me and thank me later! Oh yeah...and thank you Scott!

P.S. It also turns out that the Crack Pie recipe is everywhere now - including Bon Appetit here, the cooking channel here, and Momofuku puts every recipe on their website to everything they sell here!