SANTIAG After a little over 5 weeks, Santiag is doing much better! He still doesn't nap on schedule, but he is eating almost everything we give him. Of course, some times we have to open his mouth for him, but he swallows it anyway. There have only been a few instances of making himself vomit in the past couple of weeks,and that is a tremendous improvement. He is smiling more and crying less. He seems more confident that we aren't ready to leave him at any minute, but still he has abandonment issues. We all want to hold him and love him to assure him, but he still pushes us away and fights getting too close. We will draw him in a little more each day until he can't remember the pain of living unloved, in a bed for a year. He is really a very sweet boy who has had too many problems in his short little life. Too many children are seen as disposable here in Haiti, especially those that are HIV+. Santiag has AIDS & TB and is on medication for both. The TB meds are for 6 months and the AIDS meds are for life. Please pray for Santi's continued improvement and for the health of other HIV+ babies around the world.....Trisha
Lange, me, Zoe, Mika and Fenan worked our tails off over 3 weeks to prepare for the 2nd floor pour in Feb. This group has been pretty static over two years now, even though there have been large lapses of time, when there was no money to build.
<<< The pour lasted all of 6 hours with about twenty people and was very successful. We gained over 900 sq ft of "dry" living space. We are aiming to finish off another 600 (<<<orange boxed areas) and will work on finishing the rooms and temporarily move most of the kids beds to the classroom.....and maybe knock off the final 1/3 (blue box) later this summer. We will be working on finishing the kitchen and then use the shakoun as it was originally intended, a toddlers playroom.....but it too, has been a unique room to hang out in with people who come to visit, so I don't believe the toddlers will have complete control over it!
It becomes more and more like a home everyday. The courtyard is the center of activity......and as you can see the bikes are always out during the day. We have consistently had problems with people stealing trees, goats ripping up things in the garden, people cutting our donkeys lose and sometimes just generally harassing us. We guard our kid's bikes with a passion! We're in a mood to tighten things up around here and circumvent any mob rule .....it is the reason our children can not be out and about, that is, due to their disease and the ignorance of it that abounds. We will start soon to put the entire 8 acres behind a wall. We have always felt the Master's protection, but familiarity breeds contempt and the incidents have been constant.....please keep us in your prayers.....Ray
