by Jonathan LaMare
We are back in to the full swing of things after what has been a very busy September, even without the typical two full Brtisionary groups visiting us! Back to school season was a huge hit, and having 66 children out of the house each morning by 8am, we are able to pay attention to a lot of new projects here at Be Like Brit!
I had a very trip to Worcester, working with Cherylann, Melissa, Doreen, Alycia, Bernie, Len - and more! - at the Operations Center there. My twelve days out of Haiti included a quick visit to my hometown of Plattsburgh, NY for some time with friends and family. I returned to Worcester last Sunday in order to attend our Board of Directors meeting - a first for me! What an insightful experience to participate with this amazing group of individuals who work so hard to help steer the Be Like Brit Foundation on the continued path of success and sustainability!
On Tuesday, September 22, 2015, I flew back to Haiti with Dr. Michael Taylor, Dr. Anna Chin, and Dr. Anna Bingham. The doctors are Fellows in the UMASS Medical Global Pediatric Health program, and I was so thrilled to enter into a working agreement when Dr. Taylor visited us for the first time in February of this year. It is especially helpful to us to have MDs on hand with such a specific and relevant focus - global and pediatric align perfectly with our situation, and because of their training, the doctors have a keen eye to health issues we might not see in the USA. We are proud of the fact that our children are in excellent health, major progress from the days when they were first enrolled into our program! We can't thank Dr. Taylor, Dr. Chin, and Dr. Bingham enough for their incredible work, and we look forward to another week with them here in Haiti where they will be working in other community clinics, conducting education workshops with our staff and children, and enjoying the beautiful children, too!
While our caregiver staff and our medical personnel are busy keeping the children safe and healthy, we are always working to improve things here in general, too! Len lives by the motto of "constant and never-ending improvement", and as a result, he keeps us on our toes with regular weekly goals and more aggressive monthly and annual goals, too. Len challenges everyone to contribute to an area that falls outside of their job description, fostering a true sense of teamwork and collaboration. This makes for an engaging work environment, where everybody benefits from the skills and knowledge of our collective selves!
Recently, we noticed that one of our railings had come loose, and while we had it secured right away by our very own Macguyver, (Cupidon!), it launched a discussion around how best to secure the open hallways and protect children and adults alike from injury or falling. For those of you who follow BLB closely, you will know that the 3-starred railings were made from the plywood that framed the building and held it in place during construction! Not wanting to be wasteful, the leftover wood was fashioned into the railings you see in place today!
We then decided to replace just two sections with metal railings to match the front railing on the building around the Britsionary Dining area. We've had our discussions around which one we prefer, but we would LOVE it if our readers would weigh in with their own opinions, too! So, which do you prefer? The wood design you see above with the three stars? Or the metal spindle railing you see below? We will be adding stars to the metal railings, too, but don't have that image to share just yet! I will tell you that given the climate here, I'm more keen on the metal railings! Also, no slivers!
What do you think!?
We are busy making these improvements ahead of October because we will be VERY busy for most of the month with friends, Britsionarys, and other visitors making their way to Haiti and to Be Like Brit! September is always a bit slower with this as most people are busy with back to school season and the end of summer and arrival of the fall. This gives us time to reset and to prepare for the rest of the year! We are blessed that our Britsionary trips are scheduled from October of this year through August of next! While we do still have some space available on many of those trips, they are filling up quickly! If you want to be a Britsionary, email Melissa at Melissa@BeLikeBrit.org for more information on available dates and trips!
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| Cupidon - our very own Macgyver! |
Every week in Haiti there are funny and interesting moments that leave us scratching our heads. I have decided to start a "never in my life did I think" series - a funny and lighthearted way to recognize things that happen here in the course of a day or a week which are just outside of the scope of normal, every day life. This past week, you may have seen the photo I posed on Facebook of Madona (our nurse) and the UMASS doctors. Madona was practicing suturing on a pig's foot - not anything unusual or out of the ordinary for medical students around the world. A pig's flesh (apparently) most resembles that of human skin, and with 66 little ones running around, knowing how to suture can be an invaluable skill.
Madona did a great job, and the Docs were very impressed with her ability and skill! While we can always go to the local hospital, more often then not, they don't have the supplies necessary to suture, and if we do it in house, we know we can control the sterility of the environment, too! Madona's training was comprehensive and thorough, and we were even happy to see her practicing later that night with another one of our employees who is in her final year of nursing school!
We've come a long way here at BLB in just a short amount of time! We have lots more coming, too, and I am so excited to tell you that in October, I will be traveling to Florida to meet with the President and CEO of Kid Orange Tech, Peter Smith, who along with his family has donated the ABCMouse.com Early Learning Program to Be Like Brit. We started out with just one touch screen computer for this program, and now have a computer lab with 7 of these touch screens and media carts, as well as 7 tablets on which the program can operate! I'll be meeting with Peter and his team to get a few days of training on not only how to use the program, but on how to use the "back end" of the program. Assessments, reporting, and more are all so important to the successful implementation of this program, and we look forward to taking full advantage of all of the features ABCMouse.com has to offer and from learning from the experts on how to best implement, use, and monitor our children's progress!
Be sure to stay tuned for an exciting and busy month! Cherylann and Bernie landed in Haiti yesterday and we will have lots of excitement to share with you throughout the week! Keep your eyes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more! As always, thank you for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!!!
