Jerry's newest update

Hello there.

None of us have been on the blog tip recently so here goes one. A lot has happened and changed and we are still crazy busy. I got CRRRAAAZZZY sick. Worse than I’ve ever been in my life. Seriously. Vomiting so hard that my body would propel upwards off the bed into the air with each mighty spew. I needed i.v.’s, anal suppositories and shots of Tylenol in my ass cheek. I had a 102 fever at one point. And I was pretty much horizontal for three and a half days. Whoa!!!

Luckily, I had two awesome supportive friends and five nurses and midwives hooking up the medical work. I Couldn’t have picked a better place to get sick than at Bumi Sehat, the birth center opening up in Jacmel,Haiti of which our group has taken some active roles in. I would have never gotten that treatment at home without racking up a 5 grand medical bill. Here I am in Haiti getting free and professional medical care. You’d think it was Canada. Well, with the continued occupation of Jacmel by the Canadian military it just might be the next one.

Now that that is over I have taken to returning to the birth center and am going to start building shelves for the medical supply room. It feels good to have something to do. I was feeling really homesick while I was vomit sick and uninspired but now that I am back in the game and have a project to get down on I have felt a lot better about being here for another couple weeks. And though I have critiques about the organization itself I ultimately think that it will be a positive force here. Today, with the networking done by MESS (the student group we have been working with) for Bumi Sehat, 35 women were seen for pre-natals. Ivy did an excellent job of getting the two groups connected so that they can begin what will hopefully be a long-term mutual collaboration. Way to go Ivy.

I got to see the awesome builder crew up at the dome comprised of one other foreigner and a group of Haitian guys that are getting paid to do a lot of the labor and building. What they can finish in the four days while I was sick is so awesome. A 9 foot deep by 5 foot wide hole for a water cistern, cement work around the entire dome to prevent flooding, and the supply room in the dome is almost fully done. The guys up there are totally cool. They were happy to see that I was better and tonight we all played music, hung out, and they even got me to dance, a feat that few have achieved.

Sadly, Waffle returned to the states. I have missed his presence. There is definetly a bond that forms when you travel out of your element long term with somebody, and it’s really too bad to not have him around for the remainder of my trip. Luckily, we live in the same region and will be kicking it soon enough.

The memorial service for Flo is tomorrow and I am sure that Ivy will have beautiful things to say about it afterwards and I will let her give the details. So keep watch for that blog.

I still feel that Haiti has given me more personally than I will be able to give back to it. This place is great. I already feel like it has changed my life, and my whole perspective on shit. Glad to be here, in these final two and a half weeks. If anyone knows about a boat I can catch some where off the island back to Florida let me know. JERRY