our little life in Kenscoff

the house (yes the sky IS this BLUE)
a local artist
the washer-woman




what we do when we're not watching TV and surfing the net...God bless this beautiful country!
photos by Trish VanderKooy (thanks Trish, also for the visit!)

Kenscoff, Haiti (where impatients bloom all year round) photo by Hillary Prag

Our friends hosted a BLESSINGWAY for us last Sunday! It was WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT! We were/are ABSOLUTELY blessed. THANK YOU to those who were with us in body and/or in spirit both near and far. And thank you to Haiti for calling us home for the incredible event coming up.

There were head garlands
and oils and blessings for belly, big sister, Mama, and Papa

and the most beautiful quilt (a creation by Hillary and Pamela Prag)
but most of all the company of friends
photos by BEN DEPP

Here is bambino Meralus-Van Geest-deGroot's position last week! as demonstrated by Gabriela's Dora doll who Gabriela insists is named Gabriela Dora (just like her).

POSTERIOR
That's why i've been doing belly-dancing-on-all-fours for an HOUR a day!
By doing the belly dancing belly-down, the heaviest part of the babe (the SPINE) will be encouraged to drop to the front of my belly! And it feels fabulous actually. The midwives said i can give birth this way if I like : ) And they (the midwives) also said, no more of these:
photos by: Hillary Prag and Matthieu Van Geest

MINUSTAH IS YUCKY

Last night Gabriela and I were looking at some of her baby pictures - so she could try to see and remember what it was like to be a baby. She loves doing it. We came across this picture that we took at the airport, when she was three or four months old. She is being held by three Brazilian MINUSTAH soldiers - MINUSTAH is the UN Mission here in Haiti.

She started asking questions:

Gabriela: Is that MINUSTAH?
Matt: Yes.
G: Is their truck stuck?
M: No, they just parked there. They aren't in the truck because they are holding Gabriela in the picture!
G: I don't want to go in MINUSTAH's truck!
M: That's ok, you don't have to go in their truck.
G: PAPA!!!! I DON'T WANT TO GO IN MINUSTAH's truck!!!
M: Ok, you don't have to. But why don't you want to go in their truck?
G: Because MINUSTAH is yucky!

Now, I'm not particularly against the UN Mission here in Haiti though there clearly are some downsides - but Gabriela seems to have some very particular political views about the legitimacy of their presence here! Our little activist!

The MIDWIVES came to visit Friday. In Senegal (and probably France & Quebec etc.) a midwife is called a "Sage Femme". Here in Haiti one of the ways they are called is also "Sage Femme" if they are trained and "Femme Sage" if they aren't really "trained". Friday we met Stephanie, one of 3 Sages Femmes who is hosted by Haitian Ministries for at least the next 6 months to train Haitian Staff at Haitian Ministries. (Stephanie was delivered to our house by two Femme Sage, Beth & Tara, of Haitian Minsitries, and Paige, a 14 year old DOULA).
I can't think of a more empowering idea for Haitian women!!!! Stephanie, who had been in Haiti 2.5 days casually measured my bump, pulse, found the head, feet, arms, and heartbeat and then showed us the babe's position using Gabriela's Dora doll. And then she sat really close to me, looking me in the eye and told me candidly since you're an athlete, you'll love the high of giving birth but "birth is not a pain you can just push through". "This pain, you'll have to accept and embrace if you want the baby to come out of you." And, she said, double up on the avocados and find some liver to eat!
So our bambino's head is down although not quite at the exit but overall slightly posterior. Babies can be delivered posterior but labour can be longer and more painful (what can be called back labour). SO Stephanie showed me an exercise to encourage the babe's spine to line up about with my linea nigra (that light line that runs down a pregnant belly). I call it the belly-dancing-on-all-fours! I've been doing it every day...after doing it 30 minutes last night there was some rolling inside me and i felt some kicks on the other side. We'll see (feel) on the next visit, Friday!!!!
SO i have a bunch of homework (eating protein, belly-dancing, reflecting on pain) along with my usual de-cluttering (which apparently we now call nesting), teaching yoga, and regular work of living in Haiti and God willing (and Stephanie's prediction) I'll have another couple weeks to do it!
While in Canada thi summer talking to friends about pregnancy and post-partum, one said "make sure you have your freezer stocked with good things you like to eat". That was funny to me since barely can keep water cold in our beer-fridge sized fridge, not to mention spontaneous trees falling down on to electrical lines. But of things slightly more predictable, October marks the end of the rainy season and the curbing of the mosquito population.

when a tree falls...

In case you haven't heard from us...no we're not in labour but this happened in front of our house, a major road w/ no way around! No one was hurt! Lots of men came with machetes and hacked away for about 12 hours. Incredible!!!!! machetes! Public transportation trucks are passing now but the wires aren't transmitting any power from their pile on the road. We're buying ice and praying that our fan works (on batteries) night by night : ) to chase the mosquitoes.

we're climbing mountains as usual

Hi everyone, just a note to say all is fine with us. With two electric rackets (plus the one our neighbours swing from their chairs on their porch), we are getting along better with the mosquitoes who buy the way won't be here when some of you visit b/c they take vacation with the rainy season! It's a bit violent but also rewarding to electrocute 11 in one swing. Gabou's back in school. I'm teaching one reg. yoga class and starting a prenatal class as well. We're filling some hours everyday with emptying our house. I have met some of the midwives and WE will meet more this week when they get off the plane. We are planning for a home visit this Friday! We started making a birth wall where we've taped up ideas, inspirations, fears, and positions for different stages of the BIRTH. We also are looking at a cottage to rent on the weekends up in the mountains for after the birth. That's where we went today and to do our favourite day hike to the Janey Wynne Forest Reserve where we took these pics to share with you.

Haiti Makes Bid For 2216 Olympics

Haiti Makes Bid For 2216 Olympics

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI—Emphasizing the country's warm tropical climate, vibrant culture, and long-term plans to cultivate farmland capable of sustaining actual crops, the Haitian Olympic Committee formally announced its bid Monday to host the 2216 Summer Games.

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Officials say the Games will be broadcast via satellite should the country happen to develop a space program by then.

Organizers of the LXXXI Olympiad, which would be held in the capital city of Port- au-Prince, said the event will showcase the many attractions that are sure to be conceptualized, financed, and constructed over the next 207 years.

"These Olympics will be the greatest the world has ever seen, provided inflation doesn't render the Gourd worthless and we manage to stumble into some kind of lasting stability in the next 20 decades or so," declared committee president Jean-Edouard Baker, standing beside a stack of burning tire shavings where he believes the Olympic flame may one day be housed. "2216 is our time."

Haitian leaders believe Port-au-Prince to be the ideal location for the games due to a number of civic improvements that could, in theory, be made there.

According to Baker, the city will try to compensate for its lack of passable roads and safe bridges by building a high-speed rail system which, "with a little luck," might someday connect to an Olympic village.

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"This is the place where we may be able to possibly erect an aquatics center," said Baker, gesturing to a partially submerged field piled high with rusted-out Jeeps. "We're hoping that within a century or two we'll be able to raise enough food to feed enough workers to move enough dirt to make a hole deep enough to contain an Olympic-size pool."

Added Baker, "We don't have much in the way of potable water, but that hole ought to fill on its own when the next hurricane strikes."

Representatives from the International Olympic Committee flew to Port-au-Prince Monday to survey the proposed site, landing on the country's longest of four paved runways. A brief and heavily armored tour of the city's marathon route gave planners the chance to show visiting delegates the many wonders that may eventually make up Haiti.

A banquet was held that afternoon in a dilapidated structure that local officials plan to tear down and rebuild as a multipurpose stadium. They said they hope to name the facility after a great leader who will rise to power at some point in the future—perhaps in the 22nd century—and bring peace and prosperity to the Haitian people.

Between bursts of automatic gunfire and the frantic screams of U.N. peacekeepers deployed in the area, Haiti made its case to the IOC.

"We want at some point to begin neutering the stray-animal population, so that elite runners from around the world will not have to leap over so many frail and lethargic dogs in order to cross the finish line," urban designer Antoinne Darbouze told IOC representatives. "And yes, once we can get our hands on enough asphalt, we'll have roads in places where they're absolutely necessary."

A local artisan also gave a presentation at the banquet, showing attendees how replicas of Olympic medals could be carved from indigenous fruits and then dyed colors that are similar to gold, silver, and bronze.

"By 2216, we hope that Haiti will be an inspirational place for the world's greatest athletes to compete," said René Préval, president of Haiti, a nation whose government has been repeatedly ranked as the most corrupt in the world. "And who knows, at that point our great-great-great-grandchildren may have eliminated the near-constant threat of protozoal diarrhea."

Despite the many challenges faced by the small island nation, the IOC remained confident that Haiti is, in the sense that it has not yet been officially eliminated from consideration, a real contender for the games.

"Haiti has a long way to go to meet our standards," said IOC president Jacques Rogge, pushing away a goat that had entered through a hole in the wall and was craning its neck to reach his plate. "They need to do a lot to build up their sporting facilities and hotel infrastructure, in addition to improving environmental conditions, developing a financial sector, and quelling civil unrest."

"We're not going to make any decisions for the next 200 years," Rogge continued. "Though after seeing Haiti firsthand, I can honestly say the country faces some stiff competition from Atlantis."

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/haiti_makes_bid_for_2216_olympics