I calmly asked the Haitian technician what he thought of my scan and he pointed to the same area right away which was visible on multiple slices. It looked like a cerebral infarct to me and the technician agreed. In other words, it appeared that I had a stroke at some time in the past.As I stood there in the trailer staring at my scan, I was wracking my brain how I could have stroked. I thought that strokes were for old people, or for people with bad blood vessels and uncontrolled hypertension. Strokes definitely were not for me.However, I did remember that during the summer of 2016 when I was talking with my brother Tom on the phone one morning. At about five minutes into our conversation, I became unable to speak. I knew what I wanted to say but could not form the words. I was aphasic except for a few words like “yeah” and “ok”. I could understand everything my brother was rattling on about, but I couldn’t respond. I remember being somewhat concerned by this, but I couldn’t tell him that I could not talk.Tom and I kid each other a lot…in fact, we are very very hard on each other in ways that only brothers can be with one another and still maintain a close friendship. Finally, after much silence, Tom became frustrated and said to me, “Well, obviously you don’t want to talk with me and so I will see you later.” And he hung up.No one was home at the time. Maria and Luke were gone. I had no one to explain this to even if I could have talked. I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see if my face appeared normal. It did. My other motor and sensory abilities seemed ok as I did a quick neuro exam on myself. But when I tried to say something like, “the toothpaste is in the cabinet”, nothing would come out.About 10 minutes later, I noticed my vision was becoming abnormal with flashing jagged lights (scotoma) blocking part of my visual field. I immediately recognized this symptom because temporary visual loss has been part of my migraines with aura that I have been experiencing for decades.So, as usual, I laid down on my bed to get ready to deal with a painful and nauseating migraine that almost always follow the visual loss. The scotoma lasted its usual length of 20 minutes and then the headache started.With the onset of the pain, I tried to speak again. And lo and behold the words started coming out clearly and I could speak in complete sentences. I happily spoke out loud to myself as the headache became worse and worse.The migraine lasted its usual four hours and then went away. I was happy because the headache was gone, I could see clearly, and my speech was back to normal.So there I was inside the Wyclef Jean CAT scan trailer in Haiti staring at my infarcted brain and wondering if my episode of aphasia last year was causally related. Migraine patients are considered to be at higher risk for stroke. I hoped that my infarct, so obviously present on the CAT scan, was due to a “complicated migraine” and not secondary to something else. And to confuse things a little more, I didn’t think this old stroke was the cause of my persistent headaches.I thanked the CAT scan technician for his help (aside from the two extra “spins of radiation” I had received) and headed back to my guesthouse in Port-au-Prince.I didn’t want to, but I knew I needed to return to Peoria for a more definitive workup including an MRI scan. I called Maria and told her that this wonderful Haitian trip needed to end.
Most shops were closed, as were schools because students could not get to class. Government offices were technically open, but most employees could not get to work.President Jovenel Moise was out of the country to attend the UN General Assembly but has said the money will go back to the public in the form of services and new infrastructure.
'Revolution has just started'
Last week, protesters brought parts of Port-au-Prince to a standstill to protest the government's budget plans. The demonstrations, at times, turned violent."These little thieves in parliament voted for this budget to help the government exploit the people," protester Marco Paul Delva, who stood by a barricade of flaming tires near the legislature, told AFP news agency.Traffic in the centre of Port-au-Prince and on key routes around the city grounded to a halt after protesters threw stones and tires across roads.Although demonstrators gathered in relatively small groups, the protest took police by surprise - and they were unable to intervene in some blocked-off areas.Protesters directed their anger towards politicians who approved an unpopular budget earlier this month that raises taxes on products including cigarettes, alcohol and passports.
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| Anti-government protests in the centre of Port-au-Prince on September 12, 2017 [Hector Retamal/AFP] |
"The revolution has just started. Jovenel Moise will have to retract his taxes, or he will have to leave immediately," Jacques Menard, a 31-year-old protester, told Reuters news agency."And this is a warning because the next phase can be very violent."At the same time, foreign aid to Haiti is slowing. The country is one of the poorest in the Americas and suffered a devastating earthquake in 2010 and the worst of Hurricane Matthew last year."If Jovenel Moise is intelligent, he should refrain from publishing the budget; otherwise he will have to face a series of street demonstrations that will further complicate the situation," former presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moise said on local radio last week.The government has defended the budget, saying that many of the things protesters are unhappy with are untrue."There are people manipulating public opinion," Economy and Fiance Minister Jude Alix Patrick Salomon said before last week's protests.By: Aljazeera| September 18, 2017
The Haitians took an accidental route from their impoverished Caribbean homeland to Tijuana, a city of about 2 million that borders San Diego and also has large pockets of Chinese and Korean immigrants.Brazil and its neighbors took in the Haitians after that country's 2010 earthquake. As construction jobs for the 2016 Summer Olympics ended and Brazil descended into political turmoil, they crossed 10 countries by plane, boat, bus and on foot to San Diego, where U.S. authorities let them in on humanitarian grounds.Then President Barack Obama shifted course in September and started deporting Haitian arrivals. Many decided to call Mexico home.After struggling as a schoolteacher in Haiti, Abelson Etienne moved to Brazil in 2014 to work at a factory that made cable for lighting products. He arrived in Tijuana in December after a harrowing journey with his wife who, despite the U.S. policy shift, was allowed in on humanitarian grounds, presumably because she was seven months' pregnant.Etienne, a 27-year-old who studied chemistry in college in Haiti, settled into a routine of six-day weeks and three double shifts, earning him 1,900 pesos (a little over $100), mostly for his wife in New York City and the infant son he hasn't seen. On Sundays, he sleeps until the afternoon and goes to church.
"There's so much work in Tijuana," he said while a pot of fish stew with mangoes and tomatoes simmered on an electric burner in the two-room apartment that he rents with three other Haitians. "I've been treated very well in Mexico."The Mexican government is giving Haitians one-year, renewable visas that allow them to work but not bring family. Rodulfo Figueroa, the region's top immigration official, says Mexico is practicing what it asks of the U.S. and other countries."We believe that there's a humanitarian case to be made for these people to find better lives in Mexico," said Figueroa, the National Migration Institute's delegate in Baja California state, which includes Tijuana. "Our policy is to have the Haitian population do what they need to do to have status in Mexico."The new arrivals, currently numbering around 3,000, are manageable in a country of 122 million. Central Americans, who come illegally in much larger numbers, are typically deported, although Mexico is granting asylum more often.Rodin St. Surin, 36, is among hundreds of Haitians who found work at Tijuana's export-oriented factories. CCL Industries Inc., a Toronto-based company that makes Avery office products for retailers including Staples, Wal-Mart, Target and others, needed help after moving manufacturing from Meridian, Mississippi, last year.The plant hired St. Surin and 15 other Haitians in May for its workforce of 1,700 during peak back-to-school season. They inspected and packaged binders at the back of a giant, spotless floor where machines also churn out labels, folders and markers around-the-clock."I'm very comfortable with these people," said Mario Aguirre, the plant's operations director and a 43-year industry veteran. "They have given us very good results. They don't miss work, they always arrive on time. We'd like to see the same attitude in everyone."The factory offered 1,500 pesos (about $85) for a six-day week, with health coverage, paid vacation and a free shuttle to work. St. Surin, who left Brazil with hopes of joining a cousin in Miami, sends earnings to a caretaker for his three children in Haiti, whom he hopes to bring to Tijuana."Mexico could become my home," he said outside a crowded, graffiti-covered building where a nun allows about 50 Haitians to live rent-free on a street shared by cars and stray dogs. They tap a neighbor's hose for water to bathe, and cook meals on a campfire under a large canopy.The Ambassadors of Jesus Church, which sits on a rugged dirt road lined by agave and used tires, housed up to 500 Haitians last year on floors strewn with mattresses, making it perhaps the largest religious or civic aid group. Its pastor, Jeccene Thimote, wants to build a "Little Haiti" of 100 houses nearby at the bottom of a canyon where the sound of peacocks and roosters and smell of pigs permeate the air. He built three houses before the city halted construction for lack of flood controls.Thimote, 32, survives on two hours' sleep, rising to pray at 5 a.m., serving as foreman for a crew of 10 Haitians building a house in one of Tijuana's wealthiest neighborhoods, and working the night shift at RSI Home Products Inc., a California-based company that makes cabinetry for The Home Depot and Lowe's.Thimote, who was among 160 Haitians still living rent-free at the church this summer, sends his earnings to Haiti to settle family debts and support a 3-year-old daughter. He hoped to join a cousin in New York when he left Ecuador last year, but considers Mexico better than Haiti, saying, "There's more poverty there than here."The church has adapted. Every Wednesday night, Haitians gather for a rousing sermon in Creole. Mexicans attend a Sunday service in Spanish. A Haitian and Mexican recently announced plans to marry at the church.By Elliot Spagat, 
Designer Joelle Jean-Fontaine is a master in her craft, using rich colors and loud patterns to help distinct her work from the rest. Joelle is from Boston, and uses some of her surrounding landscapes to inspire her work. Her brand I Am Kreyol is a company that encompases all things fashion; with a ready-to-wear clothing line that provides styling services for magazines, music artists, & of course all of her loyal clientele. As a young woman, she aspired to be an architect. While in her second year of college, she soon became pregnant and decided to place her passions aside to take care of her growing family. She was a stay at home mom for three years, during which she started to experiment through a variety of creative outlets to maintain her sense of self. As a hobby, she began taking clothing apart and putting them back together, teaching her how to sew and design items that she says she had only previously seen within her inner subconscious. She has placed years of hard work into her craft, with help from her mother and family she has taken her dreams to the next level. Her company is a hit, her designs are superb and she has been cordially invited to debut her newest collection in Oxford Fashion Studios London Fashion Week.
I Am Kréyol’s Spring 2018 line, The Lotus Collection, is a well curated ensemble of looks that incorporates over exaggerated structural design elements such as bouffant sleeves and bustled tails with full length sheer skirts. The collection philosophy represents the lotus flower and its audacity to grow in unfavorable environments, how its beauty conquers all obstacles seen throughout. It illustrates a woman’s tenacity to be strong, resilient and powerful in the midst of adversity.By 
Join us in helping the people of Haiti 
NPR hails McCalla as a “virtuoso”, and The Guardian calls her latest album “powerful”, while PopMatters gives her the title of an “innovator” that can “transport those who listen intently to another place and another time.”Whether McCalla is singing in English or singing in French, playing the cello or playing the banjo, creating new Creole jazz standards or plucking classical strings, the one thing she always does is inspire. Born in New York then taking up roots in Louisiana, where she still resides, Leyla has always stayed close to her Haitian heritage, while seamlessly connecting it to the vibrant culture that surrounds her.The Center is located at 340 N. Escondido Blvd. in Escondido. The Ticket Office can be reached at 800-988-4253. Tickets can also be purchased online. To learn more, including performance dates, times and ticket information, visit artcenter.org.
"For Your Eyes Only," by Gabriel Coutard, an example of the artwork that will be for sale during the annual Vassar Haiti Project art sale and auction this weekend at Vassar .