Consider Haiti

Consider the Haitian Pig

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:05:37 +0000

We saw a lot of livestock on this last trip to Haiti. I have LOTS of donkey pics (yee haw!). We even saw a few pigs, especially in Fonde Baptiste, in the mountains. I wish that I would have investigated whether they were HAITIAN pigs, US pigs, or FRENCH/CHINESE/GUADELOUPEAN pigs! Apparently it makes big difference.

So, why should you consider the Haitian pig?

Because Haitian kids are often severely malnourished.There used to be a lot more pigs around to help feed them.
A US policy eradicated the Haitian pig because of fear of the African swine fever. It was a mistake.
We “replaced” the pigs we killed with US pigs, but…Oops, we forgot to check if they would survive in Haiti. Most did not.
Many families kept Mango trees to feed their pigs. Since they no longer had pigs, many chopped down their trees for charcoal money. Deforestation is a BIG problem in Haiti.
Many Haitians raise goats now instead of pigs. Goats eat small trees that pigs do not. More deforestation.

All this to say: we need to pay better attention to what’s going on with US policy towards Haiti.

Please consider reading this article on pigs in Haiti called “Saving Haiti’s Bacon” at New Scientist Magazine. That’s where you can find out about the FRENCH/CHINESE/GUADELOUPEAN pigs.

Is it a Haitian, a US, or a French/Chinese?

Back in the States

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:07:04 +0000

It’s been four days since the Mission Manna team got back from our trip to Haiti. Re-entry into the states has been an adjustment. The extreme between rich and poor is so great that it’s hard not to feel guilty in the midst of our relative wealth.

To help deal with the loss of leaving our Haitian friends behind (most want to come to the US and cannot), I have been pouring through the 500+ images I took. Pretty soon, I will comb through the video, too.

Here is the first batch of images: It’s a group of portraits of kids and team members.

On the plane to charlotte!

admin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:04:01 +0000

Yes!

Today at Piyat

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:55:43 +0000

We had our busiest clinic of the trip. We saw in excess of 320 children. That is a lot. We are all sitting around waiting for dinner and are eager to get home.

It has been a fabulous week. Although the work was hard, it was very rewarding. It was worth the long hike into the mountains.

The burned boy who was at the clinic in the Spring showed up today. It was good to see that he was doing well.

Piyat

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:56:19 +0000

We just got back from Piyat where we saw 320 kids. All is well with Mission Manna!

Back from the mountain

admin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:40:41 +0000

We had two good clinics in the Mts. 216 kids showed up in Ivorie and 212 in Fonn Baptiste.

The road was better than we have ever seen it and we had great weather.

Tonight, a few off us will go to St Marc to talk to the rotary club about a grant that originates in India.

Tomorrow: The Mountain

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:42:57 +0000

We had another great day in clinic. It’s SO GREAT to be seeing kids that are doing better six months after our program started. You can see that the parents are equally (well, actually MORE) thrilled than we are.

We were also encouraged that the St Marc hospital is in much better shape than it has been. PLUS we met a doctor today! He was very amicable and encouraging. It’s good to build that relationship since St Marc is the nearst hospital to Montrouis. We offerd to give him some of our soon-to-expire IV fluid, so hopefully our exchanges can be mutually beneficial.

Tomorrow we head up the mountain to do two clinics (on wed afternoon and one Thursday morning). The tropical storm, Omar, seems to be heading NE, so it should miss us.

We may post an update tomorrow, morning. If not, you will hear from us on Thursday.

Sous Borgne clinic

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:47:49 +0000

We had another great clinic today. We saw about 12 kids in the MM program and they all look great! The total number of kids was about 160.

After that we toured the hurricaine-damged bridge and the market.

Montrouis Clinic

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:47:24 +0000

We saw 200 kids today in clinic. Many with malnutrition. The kids on our akamil program are doing well. We saw ten of the thirty kids. We will see more in Sous Bogne tomorrow.

We also saw the ten boys at the house of bread orphanage. They are as good as always and their English is getting better, too.

Dinner will come soon and the Prestige is flowing already.

We made to montrouis!

admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:48:56 +0000

All is well with mission manna! We are in the hotel and had a great lunch. And at least we have Internet for now. We will organizing meds and going to the orphanage to check those kids. There is lots of storm damage but everything is running.

We hope all is well at home. We are great!