I didn’t want to come here. Bangladesh. I had a lot on my plate between work and Haiti and finding time in between to be a husband and a dad. A friend of mine had approached me a while back to come and assess their charity and explore where they can improve and how Broken […]
Five years ago today, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and so many more were injured and irrevocably changed after the earthquake that levelled Port-au-Prince in Haiti. It only took a few minutes but families and communities were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. I remember the aftermath so clearly and that odd feeling of […]
Seems strange to write a blog at a time when our nation has been shaken to its core. The terror and hysteria that must have evolved in Ottawa on Wednesday was felt by every Canadian around the world and Team Broken Earth in Haiti was no different. Everyone was glued to the TV at the […]
Yesterday I left Port-au-Prince to investigate other potential hospitals and sites for Team Broken Earth. It involved 6 hours in a car driving through winding bumpy roads. The horn, I have come to realize, is more important than the brakes or transmission in a car in Haiti. Everyone communicates with the horn. It’s an amazing […]
Coming from an island in the raging North Atlantic, it might seem odd that a place like Haiti is more becoming like a second home. It’s been getting easier coming down here with every trip. I like to think that we’re getting it down, becoming more efficient, a little smoother. Sure, it is always tough […]
To spend a day at Port-au-Prince’s Bernard Mevs hospital is to see people suffering the worst of the worst – things like enormous tumors, horrible strokes, malnourishment to the extreme. But a day in the northern village of Bord de Mer Limbe is to see where the worst takes root. It’s a place without running […]
I’ve left Port-au-Prince and arrived in a small village in the Bas Limbé region of northern Haiti. I’m with a Newfoundland-based TBE team that will provide basic medical care in remote villages over the next week. It’s about an eight-hour bus ride, or a 30-minute flight plus 90-minute bumpy beautiful drive to get here from […]
“Help me! My baby fell off a tap-tap and his leg is broken!” The story – a common one in Haiti – is, this time, not real. The “baby” is a plastic mannequin of a toddler wearing navy blue sweatpants three sizes too big and missing an arm; his “mother,” a tall blond Canadian pediatric […]