Saturday, October 9, 2010

Meet the Fam

I wanted you all to meet the other expats that I live with here in Leogane, so you can put a face to the names I keep talking about.


First, meet the new CNP Country Director, Katherine Goulliart (we all call her Kat). She is a nurse midwife with years of experience here in Haiti. She worked at CNP as the maternal and newborn care coordinator before becoming the Country Director. She has a fascinating life story - from being a French Australian, to performing in the circus to living in refugee camps in Vietnam, there isn't much she has not done in her life. She has more energy than anyone I know. There isn't a day that goes by where we don't hear her laughing hysterically.


Next, meet my friend Kara Telesmanick. Kara has worked for CNP for over 3 years. She is the Program Manager and has devoted so much time and effort to CNP, and has done tremendous work, especially following the earthquake. Before coming to CNP she did Peace Corps and lived in Bangladesh and also worked in South Africa. Kara is a vegan who is obsessed with dogs like me (her two Haitian dogs are now living with her parents in the states). She is an amazing dancer and is rarely found sitting down on our nights out dancing because all of the guys want to dance with her. Kara is laid back and easy to talk to, but also is totally fun to have around. I am going to miss her so much when she leaves to go to Medical School in December!!!






Meet Guesly Pierre. I have known Guesly since I started coming to Haiti in the summer of 2008 when he and Kara taught me dance lessons. You can always find Guesly singing and laughing. He just completed law school here in Haiti before the earthquake and has worked for Save the Children leading relief efforts after the earthquake.






Kara and Guesly are now married! They were married in June of this year here in Leogane. They are amazing together and it is so great to have them here in the house.





Courtney Latta is a graduate of Elon who has worked for CNP for a year and a half. She is amazing and volunteered her time working as an intern before the earthquake and came back the earthquake to complete her internship. As of October 1st, she is officially an employee of CNP! She conducted all of the training sessions for the new monitrices (community nutrition workers) this summer and is going to be writing a training manual for our PD Hearth program.






There is never a dull moment with Courtney around. She provides constant entertainment and is always telling the most ridiculous stories. She has had more near death experiences than anyone else I know . She has been struck by lightning, almost drowned when she went into SVT while playing drowning victim in her lifeguarding class, and had a showdown with a King Cobra in Zambia. We never know what will come out of her mouth next, especially when she starts a story, "This one time when I...."

Courtney also loves to laugh and she may or may not snort when she laughs. We are working on breaking her Haiti record of 8 snorts in a row....







I should also mention that Courtney is a very kind, understanding, and generous person. Courtney is also my roommate and has a lot of patience to be able to put up with me.


Next, meet my other boss, Michael Ritter. Michael and I both went to Emory for our MPH. He has been working here in Haiti for 2 1/2 years with household point of use water treatment programs. Gadyen Dlo was originally started by CNP, but Michael took over the program following the earthquake and has expanded it tremendously. Michael speaks amazing Kreyol and his Haitian staff loves working for him. He is always coming up with amazing and innovative ideas and is an extremely hard worker.
















Michael is also super laid back and has a lot of patience -. I don't know how he manages to live in this house of mostly girls. He is totally a trooper (but I think he secretly enjoys being surrounded by us girls, even when we give him a really hard time....).


Elisa Marino is the Program Coordinator. She came to Haiti as a volunteer and was able to take over for the former CNP employee who was running the Stabilization Center. Elisa is a registered dietitian and has an MPH. She is meticulously organized and does a fabulous job running the Stabilization Center. We are all hoping that she will stay and take over Kara's position when Kara has to leave us in December.






Elisa is from the Southern part of Italy. She and I both love to cook, but Elisa is amazing at making bread. While it is a bit challenging with the humidity here, she has made us everything from pizza dough to olive bread to focaccia bread and totally spoils us. Elisa and I are both very strong-willed, outspoken, opinionated people, but we get along great and enjoy spending time together.
Elisa is also a great friend who is a wonderful listener and I know there isn't anything she wouldn't do for us. She is always there when we need her.










Last but not least, meet Pierre Chackal (pictured on the far right). He just joined the CNP team a few weeks ago as our much needed Finance and Operations Manager. He came to us from Montreal. He and Kat previously worked together in Haiti. We are happy to have him on the team.

For people who live and work in the same house, we all get along surprisingly well. I am very lucky to be surrounded by so many unique and amazing people!!! They all definitely make my time here even more special!