Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.  St Francis of Assisi

April arrived, with Easter; ESPWA and my birthday, all in the same week!

The ESPWA team are on Ileavache to work on a project over in Grace Orphanage. The week would not be complete without a visit to l’Oeuvre St Francois to see all their friends and the children.   And they also make it to ‘my first birthday’ at Kay Ailish with our Haitian friends and neighbours. Two of the volunteers make time to do some work for two of the families.  One family get a handrail fence so their son can safely play outside and also use the rail to help him stand and in time hopefully walk.  Another family get a handmade swing for their boy and he is the centre of attention every time we pass.

The MTI team are back for two more days of training and start on the practical sessions including how to feed the children with Special Needs.  The staff progress really well thanks to their previous training with the CRC team from Dublin.

Easter is the time of our two biggest festivals on Ileavache, the religious celebrations and a music festival in Recif.   At the local churches there are programs every day, including some with an early start of around 4:30am.   After church, everyone can head to Recif, think main stage at Electric Picnic and you’ve generally got the idea of size and volume.  There is live Haitian Jazz and Konpa bands from Port-au-Prince playing every night.  Everyone comes to Ileavache at Easter time.  Motos are brought in from Cayes on small boats, to provide enough taxis for everyone to get around the island.

Rain cuts both church and music festivals short on Easter Saturday and Sunday.  It takes a few days for the route to dry out enough for the motos to get back to Madame Bernard from Recif.  The shortened fesitval weekend is not good for local businesses especially with so little other employment on the island.

The rain is not unexpected as April and May are rainy season, so it is now time to prepare the gardens for planting. Work starts on the garden in the orphanage to clear and clean the land for the new seasons planting.

Bruce Leeming of Friends of Ileavache makes it down to visit the island.  The weather in the US finally cleared up enough for him to sail down.  Bruce and the team bring gifts for us at the orphanage including towels; diapers; soya milk and 2” water hose pipe that was proving very difficult to buy in Haiti.  We are providing business support to the talapia fish farm project that Friends of Ileavache have in Samafè, near Kaykok. Along with making it a viable fish supply business under local ownership, we also want to create a tourist visitor centre there.

Alongside the care of the children and the facilities work, our other biggest plan for 2015 is to look at the food security and the top five to ten challenges for the orphanage.  It is a practical way we can help the orphanage.  If we can improve food security and nutrition, it will make for a more sustainable program and improved health for the children.   We will be focusing on the garden for vegetable and fruit production.  We are looking at a poulaye (chicken farm) for the locality to supply both meat and eggs and we hope that the fish farm can be one of our fish suppliers once we establish steady stocks there.

Two women from Ileavache head back to LaMardelle for another weeks training on Chache Lavie and the planning for the implementation of the program.  As part of the support for this program we have been looking at the health program for Ileavache and Katie organises a meeting with relevant health personnel.  The needs identified include access to clean water; nutrition; an ObGyn for the island and more support for the community health workers.

The very next day I get a call from Cayes from a water contractor looking to review the supply of water to Ileavache.  He comes across at the weekend and we spend Friday and Saturday visiting sites to review the potential for the installation of water treatment on Ileavache.  The water samples he takes are not promising and he’ll be back for a follow up visit in May.  In the meantime he is looking at the option to supply 5 gallon drums of water at a reasonable cost so that we no longer need to go to Cayes to buy all our drinking water.

The second half of April is completely taken up with preparation for the Haven trip.  Well not completely as there is the small matter of Damien’s birthday – more cake!

The local women’s group, ORFAIV, are hosting ‘repetition’ (practice) two days a week.  The idea of a community group putting on a concert had been a little hard to explain.  These women are market traders teachers; mothers and farmers – it is normally only artists that would put on a music show.  On Sunday afternoon, all of the Haven volunteers are invited to a concert. Most of the ORFAIV women are already in the local choirs so the vocals are incredible and they all know how to dance.  They write their own lyrics for some of the songs, celebrating life on Ileavache.  The children from the orphanage all get to go which makes it a very special day out for us all.  The concert is a great success and we’ll be hoping to do this again in the future.

The week includes the inaugural Ileavache 5km run.  Current Ileavache residents, Katie; David; Warren and myself all participate.  We are particularly delighted with the local turn out including some friends; some of the workers from the Haven week and the ladies football team.  So-so and Yolin are the first man and woman home respectively.

In the orphanage lists of work for the Haven week are agreed and then renegotiated with little extra items added! Thanks to John Moore and the Haven team for all the wonderful work on behalf of the orphanage, you can see all the progress on their Facebook page and to Warren, who arrived with the ESPWA team at the start of the month and stayed on in Ileavache to prepare for the Haven volunteer trip.   It is so great to see all three Irish NGO’s working hand in hand to make this a better place for the children & staff.

By the end of April we have a new book depot for school books; a new office for administration; a new kitchen; renovated showers; spruced up toilets and the renovation of the playground is finished.  There is work completed to the runoff water on the roof and the UV water system has a new home.

Sr Flora is on holidays in Canada so has not seen any of the work yet although she knows it is all in plan.   Thanks to Haven; Digicel for the office furniture and moving the wifi; and the Haven volunteers who bought us a freezer, we really appreciate your support and generosity.

The end of the volunteer trip marks the end of Katie and David Turnbull’s stay on Ileavache.  The have become fast friends, neighbours and colleagues.  A chorus of Molly Malone takes us away from Madame Bernard, we wish them all the best and a swift return to visit us here again.

And so we arrive at the May bank holiday weekend already.  The Cycle4Haiti takes place from Dublin to Galway.  We hear the weather is bad and makes for tough cycling so well done to all of you.  This month really feels like together we have managed to achieve the necessary; the possible and the impossible!