[For those of you new to Haitian Courier, you will be receiving periodic emails about my experiences in Haiti this summer. I promise I won't fill up your inboxes! See photo captions at the bottom.]
Boujou Mezanmi (Hello Friends)!
It's been a while since I last updated you on my travels to Haiti/Kenya. In fact I didn't send out a newsletter about the last month of my stay in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last year. I will give you a brief update on that a little later.
Anyhow, this summer I will be going to Haiti again! This time I will be volunteering at a clinic in northern Haiti called Bethesda Medical Clinic for 8 weeks. Since I'm not there yet (I'm leaving this Saturday), I don't have much to say, but I'm sure that it will be a challenging and rewarding experience!
I've set up a
blog where I'll be posting
more frequent updates (so I don't fill up your inboxes) and
pictures! (Given I have time to do that.) You can check it out here:
http://zanmihaiti.blogspot.com/
Updates on my final few weeks in Haiti last year:
With many of your help, I was able to buy a new return ticket to extend my stay in Haiti. This turned out to be pretty crucial because Rev. Baek, the president of the Lakay Lamou Orphanage, was still in Korea, and we were to start the construction of a new orphanage site once she came back. Rev. Baek was there during the last two weeks of my stay in Haiti, and she came back with a couple visitors who bought many bags of rice and distributed them among people in Cité Solei (one of the most impoverished, unstable part of Port-au-Prince).
I ended up supervising the construction for 2 weeks, which was a lot of fun! I grabbed some medical supplies from the orphanage and opened a little first-aid clinic at the construction site where people (mostly kids from the neighborhood) came and got treated for minor injuries and pain. In this way I got to interact with the workers and the neighbors very closely.
At one point during the construction we got into some trouble with the city because we hadn't obtained permission to construct on the land, and we had postponed it for too long. They came with rifles, made us stop working, and began to take away our construction supplies! People were yelling at each other, and it was quite chaotic. Somehow we calmed them down and immediately went to the city office to get the construction permission (which cost a fortune, but we were able to bargain it down to 33% of original fee).
Leaving the orphanage was pretty tough. After spending 4 months with the kids, it was hard not to get teary-eyed (and if you know me, you also know that I hardly ever cry). Even though I won't get to see the kids again this summer (I'll be in a different city), I'm super excited because I'll get to use Creole again!
Thanks again to everyone who supported me on my previous trip to Haiti, and thanks to those who are supporting me this summer! I hope you'll enjoy the newsletters as I try to help you vicariously experience living in Haiti!
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
God Bless,
SunMin Kim
PS.
If you'd like to read the archives of Haitian/African Courier, click here.
Photo Captions
Left: On one of my trips to
Zanmi Lasante. I brought a friend with me because he needed to see a dentist.
Center: At the new orphanage construction site. On my last day at the site, I took a picture with the kids in the neighborhood who often visited me.
Right: A view of Cité Solei. It is probably some of the densest, most awful housing in the western hemisphere.
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