Google+ WTN Haiti Partnership: November 2013

Nov 2013 - St. Vincent's Trip

Saturday, November 23, 2013

John's Reflection-"Baby Margaret"

​I had one of those ‘ah ha’ moments while on our last trip to Haiti that is bothering me. I can’t get it out of my mind and I would like to share it with you. During this trip I took several members of our group upstairs in the school to see ‘Drew’s kids’. These are the children at St. Vincent’s who are most severely handicapped. Most of the children had actually gone to class, but baby Marguerite Vincent was there. Marguerite is now close to 4 years old, so she is really no longer a baby, but for those of us who were there when she first came to the orphanage about 3 years ago, she will always be ‘baby Marguerite’. Baby Marguerite was baptized during that trip by Ollie Rencher and Father Sadoni with Allie Russo and John Robert serving as Godparents. Marguerite was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and came to the orphanage just before the earthquake. We all think of the earthquake as a terrible thing and it was, but with the extra medical help that was available after the quake, Marguerite was able to have surgery to get 2 shunts to help control the spinal fluid and relieve some of the pressure on her brain.

Monday, November 4, 2013

The LandfillHarmonic Orchestra, Music at St. Vincent's

In a slum built on a landfill in Cateura, Paraguay, a community came together to build a "Recycled Orchestra" out of so-called "trash" from the landfill. Teenagers from the community have come together to play these instruments, and the sound is pretty incredible. Watch the video below, or follow ths link to listen to the LandfillHarmonic Orchestra. Beauty and music can be made anywhere!


We may be distracted by many things when we consider our children at St. Vincent's and the people of Port-au-Prince. Visual cues, such as tent cities and unpaved roads, may lead us to negative thoughts, like clouds on a rainy day.