Lauri’s Blog

Hey, thanks for those of you who have asked about my dad, Larry and his surgery. He had his knee surgery on Tuesday and they thought he’d be released to come home yesterday but perhaps due to his age, they have kept him until today still. I haven’t heard forsure, but the plan was that he’d go home today. He came through surgery well and has been doing physical therapy. He’ll use a walker at home. The other nite, there were severe storm and tornado warnings in Bismarck, North Dakota so they rolled all the hospital beds out into the hallways. My dad had to sit there for two hours. Medicare will pay for a nurse to come to the home a bit so that will help tremendously as I’m sure he and my mom won’t be able to figure out how to do baths etc. I still wish I was there now to help them more.

This cake photo has nothing to do with my dad…I’m just showing off! Lauri

This is Sammy and his teacher Trish on their last day of 4th grade in June. I’m so excited that I now know how to add photos on my blog. watch out world!

Don’t worry, it’s not me…but a friend is riding his bike all the way from Washington state to New York to raise funds for poverty. How cool! We’ve been close friends with this Dutch family here in Haiti for years. The wife Coby taught Sammy Pre-Kinder here at Quisqueya Christian School. The husband, Ad works with Christian Reformed Mission and their office is across the street from our house. Ad is going to attempt this cyclying trip from Sea to Sea from June to Aug.

If you are interested in learning more about Ad’s trip or if you can make a donation towards ending poverty, please look at his blog:  http://bikingC2C.blogspot.com

Or if you’d like to look at the website: www.SeatoSea.org then look up his name as a particpant and for the donations towards: Ad de Blaeij, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

We’re so proud of Ad! Pray too for his health, strength, and even that he has fun!

I’ve been having a hard time lately and am feeling tired of living in Haiti. It will be 15 years this fall, since I first came to Haiti and at times like this, it feels like I’ve been here forever.
One reason I’m extra homesick is that I’m missing my parents a lot. As they get older, it’s harder to be away from them. Recently my parents have had more health issues. Today my dad is having total knee replacement surgery on one knee. I wish I could be with them to help. Dad will be 85 in July. My mom has macular degeneration and is losing her vision to the point where she can’t read or drive. Those were two activities she enjoyed. My mom always had a book in her hands. Or the phone would ring and a girlfriend would tell her about a program at the museum and she could run off without dad. Now, neither of them will be able to drive for awhile. They keep teasing about dad laying down in back and being able to ’see’ and mom being able to ’steer’ and they’d get around town fine that way!! Look out Bismarck, North Dakota!
I’m also just burned out from life in Haiti. I still love Haiti with all my heart but I feel worn from living here. I’m sick of the way our house runs, or better yet, doesn’t run. I don’t have patience anymore for getting buckets of water from the cistern, running out of cooking gas for the stove, and countless things breaking down.
Our family is going to St Petersburg, Florida from July 14 to Aug 3rd. I’m hoping that I’ll feel better after a break away.

We’ve been doing so many dental workshops lately, that I constantly have the tune of our song, “Brush Your Teeth” in my head! Since school got out, we’ve been on a whirlwind tour of presenting our dental seminar for orphanages, schools, children’s homes and all over. Last week we had a busy week including a visitors from the States. Our friend John is translating the book, “Where There Is No Dentist” from English into Creole so we’ve had fun working with him. He also brought a treat with him for us…a laptop computer. Yipee!! Marly’s new clinic out by the border of the Domincan Republic is going well, just growing slowly. We’re wrapping up filiming our little video, so hopefully you can see more of what I’m talking about soon. I’m also supposed to be working in the school library when I’m not off running around.

We’ve been doing so many dental workshops lately, that I constantly have the tune of our song, “Brush Your Teeth” in my head! Since school got out, we’ve been on a whirlwind tour of presenting our dental seminar for orphanages, schools, children’s homes and all over. Last week we had a busy week including a visitors from the States. Our friend John is translating the book, “Where There Is No Dentist” from English into Creole so we’ve had fun working with him. He also brought a treat with him for us…a laptop computer. Yipee!! Marly’s new clinic out by the border of the Domincan Republic is going well, just growing slowly. We’re wrapping up filiming our little video, so hopefully you can see more of what I’m talking about soon. I’m also supposed to be working in the school library when I’m not off running around.

Here’s what Sam says…
“My class had a big party. We ate all kinds of stuff: pizza, pop, candy, sour spagetti, and chocolate kisses. We had a delicious cake. It said “Congratulations 4th (but it was crossed off) 5th graders”. My mom made it. One of the students came late. I got my report card and I did very well. I can’t wait to sleep in tomorrow!”

Now from Lauri:
Tomorrow I’m going with Marly to the Mennonite clinic out in the country side. We’ll do a dental seminar for the patients who are waiting outside to see the other doctor and Marly. I’ll assist Marly so the exams will go faster too. We made up a new exam form to use. Then Friday we have one more staff meeting at school and then week I’ll work part at the library and part doing all our different clinics. Chow!

We are officially in rainy season now in Haiti. Our only ‘lunch room’ for the students here at school is outdoor picnic tables. So usually once in the fall rainy season and once in the spring we have to figure out some other creative solution when it happens to rain during lunch hour and we have almost 300 kids to feed. Yesterday was even worse though. It started pouring at 2:55pm. Yes, you guessed it school is released at 3pm so there the teachers were..stuck with a class full of kids anxious to get out and play in the mud.

Over the last few years we’ve not had many visitors in Haiti. I guess this isn’t a top rated tourist place. But when it rains, it pours. Now we have friends coming and it’s during our busiest week.
Here’s what we have on the plate so far for June 7-13th:
- graduation for QCS. It’s going to be held at Caribe convention center this year. oh la la.
- we’re going to Sherry’s school of 100+ students to do more dental exams on Monday
- Marly’s sister has her birthday and brother has wedding anniversary
- We’re going to our friends’ David and Alicia’s orphanage Tuesday to follow up on some dental work and also do more filming for our video while Ryan is already at their house.
- Two friends are coming in with a mission group from Mission To Haiti. John is the one who is translating “Where There Is No Dentist” and we want to work with him on Thursday on the book some. Also our friend Janet, who had assisted Marly on previous teams, is coming for a week as well.
- Marly has started working out at Son Light the lovely Mennonite mission clinic near the border of the DR. He’ll be seeing patients there every Thursday. Next week I’m going along to help conduct on dental education workshop. They say some of the people travel for hours on donkey to come to the clinic.
- Our dear friend Bob and his family are moving to Boston June 11. I’ve been close friends with Bob for many years here in Haiti and will miss him terribly. He’s about the age of my dad and as active as Sam! He originally came to Haiti with Habitat for Humanity.
- Our friend Patti the counselor from the DR is coming and we have a couple appointments set up with her during that week also. We have found that blending our two cultures in our marriage is most difficult especially when it comes to how to parent our boys.
- Friday I’ll conduct ‘Book Club’ discussion at our elementary school library. Most families travel to the States or Canada for the summer vacation but I still want to offer something for kids who might be around and are bored. I’ve told them their homework for the summer is to pray everyday, read everyday and try to visit a library somewhere.

So…like I said - when it rains it pours! We’ll indeed be busy bees that week in June!

Yesterday was a day off school here, a holiday called Corpus Christi. Our family was honored to spend the day with our friend Sherry at her school, doing dental exams for the students. We’ve known Sherry from our church for years but this was the first time we visited her impressive school. The school is in Sherry’s home, or better stated, her home is the in the school. (I think all she claims for herself is her bedroom and even that one of the teachers had his computer set up in there). She has over 100 students spread out in rooms and balconies throughout her home. Sherry hires Haitian teachers who speak English and uses the A Beka curriculm. We did our dental workshop with 2 classes and then did exams and treated those children’s teeth. Sherry started a new class this year for older students who had never been in school before. Basically these are like 12 year olds who are in kindergarten. What’s amazing too is that most likely no one in their families have ever attended school before either. Most of Sherry’s students from from a very poor area known as the sewer ravines. She does amazing work, also going down into the crowded housing (if you call their dwelling a ‘house’) and finding out who needs medical care and helping them. So these kids that we saw had never seen a dentist before and some had some pretty serious issues. Marly can always tell when kids have been sucking on the skins from almond trees as that leaves a certain stain on the teeth. We will be going back to finish the rest of her students in a couple weeks. Wish you could join us. As we feel asleep exhausted after our long day of work, I was thinking how many more kids in Haiti have never seen a dentist. Then I thought of how many in the world…then I thought…
What is your profession? Can you use it in needy places of the world? Check this fun website…
www.missionfinder.org

On our way to Sherry’s house (which is close to the orphanage where I adopted Sam) we saw quite unusual displays by peoples’ houses. I have always heard that this holiday is known as Fete Dieu, God’s birthday. Here is the little I understand of this holiday:
- First Thursday after Trinity Sunday (which must follow the church calendar with Easter being early this year)
- hang out colorful sheets, silky bedspreads and tablecloths on the road (okay whatever)
- carry communion, set up strange altars (like we saw) and praise God.
Interesting. I’m glad we went on that street since I had never seen anything like it before. My best word picture still stands with ‘whatever’

We started filming for a video that is being produced for us (by Agape Flights) as a way for us to send greetings to our churches this summer since we aren’t going to the midwest this year. Stay tuned!
Love, Lauri and men (Sam is at a sleep over party tonite, I miss him already and he’s been gone 30 minutes)

Our family had a great weekend. I’ll start backwards. Saturday nite we stayed with friends Bob and Carole at the mission where they work. It’s called Love A Child and was founded by Bobby and Sherry Burnette. If you get a chance, look at their amazing work on their web site. OUr friends Bob and Carole (from Minnesota) lived in Port-au-Prince and just moved out there in Jan. They have such a lovely home that made my house feel like a mud hut. They even had remotes for the ceiling fans! We enjoyed taking showers, having a/c and Marly even got up in the night just to have more of the ice cubes! Sunday morning we went to their lively Haitian church service. The boys looked at the fish farm, petted the horses and we greeted the orphanage kids.
We drove back home (just under 2 hours) and ran into a bunch of Flag Day parades. Yesterday was Haitian Flag Day so many school had organized their kids to march in the streets. Adorable!
Saturday afternoon we first drove out to Fond Parisien which is almost to the border of the Dominican Republic (DR). We went to the compound of the Mennonite Missionaries. They have a wooded place set right on the lake. Their mission director from the States was here now and he wanted to interview Marly to see if he could come and help in their dental clinic. After a comfortable visit, we went to tour the medical clinic. Wow! It’s very nice - clean, organized and well equipped. The dental room is much nicer than Marly is used to working in so he would love to use the tools and equipement there. We are in ‘negotiations’ now about how offten Marly could drive out there, what services he’d offer, what is reseasonable to charge poor Haitian patients etc. He may drive out there again this week to meet with them again.
Friday nite here at home was one of our most fun times as a family. Some friends from church organized a ‘Family Fun Night’ for families with young kids. We had such a blast! Our sanctuary has folding chairs and just plain cement floor, so we cleared out the chairs and made it into a rollerskating rink! We brought along all our trykes, scooters, rollerblades, skateboards etc and sped around in circles. I can’t count how many times Joey got rammed into by other kids but just got back up on his feet and kept going! We broke up into teams and played some fun relay races and acted our Bible stories. We had a pot’blessing’ dinner. It was my day to be blessed indeed since I love taco salad and about four yummy taco salads showed up! yipee! I had seen some creative recipes I was anxious to try out. I made a cheese ball with cream cheese and fun ingredients. They I shaped it into a block and with black olives I made it look like dice. Then I made a scrabble board with egg salad between crackers for the letter blocks. On each I printed a letter and put together ‘Family, Games, Fun’ etc.
If you remember, please pray for Marly and this new venture with the Mennonite clinic. We’ll keep you posted.