March 2010
18 posts
Home
The last two days were a different pace and tempo, likely because I am gearing up to go home. We spend most of the morning seeing the last team off and cleaning the bedrooms to prepare for the new team. I am disconnected from this team; they are all old friends and I make small talk and try to be helpful but there is not much to do. They are still running around trying to figure out what to do,...
Day 5.1
We trudge through the dirt road up to the school about a quarter of a mile. A man from America is here with a big tractor to smooth out the road after the rains have made it a squishy mess. Gravel and baseball-sized stones are scattered over the mud to give it some semblance of solidity, but it only takes a few days for the thick mud to engulf the stones and suck them down so far you cant reach...
Day 5
I try to wake up early to see if I can weasel my way into something interesting and the Wisconsin people start early. I walk by a procedure room window and peer in to see one of our cooks is coaching a woman who apparently has been in labor for about 12 hours. He and a nurse have been up all night coaching and cheering her on, and I wait with them because she seems close.
Jaime and Mike are part...
Scoreboard
15 Hysterectomies (2 vaginal)
1 Mini Lap tubal ligation
3 Breast mass removals
1 circumcision
1 Distal tip penisectomy
1 Hand trauma reconstruction (sort of)
1 Bilateral below the knee amputation
9 Hydrocele/Hernia
1 Post partum tubal ligation
10 lump/bump/lipoma removals
2 Vaginal deliveries
45 total procedures in 3 days as of 3/6/10 1500
Day 4
Good day today. Grace, a doctor here who has been in Haiti for a few months and a good friend of the PA who is sick found a private jet that will medevac her to Miami, FL. I went along for the ride and pushed meds while we jumbled along the mile of muddy road to the main street. I was sitting in the back seat behind shotgun, where the PA was sitting. She had an IV in her right arm and would twist...
Day 3.1
One more entry before bed. Creole words learned* thus far Hello Goodbye Good morning Good evening Excuse me Blood Broom Really exhuasted today. I wonder if I am cut out for this sort of thing. I am a soft and squishy American, and I miss being comfortable. I also miss feeling competent and capable. I envy the doctors and anesthetists, because they have a definitive role and most** of the equipment...
Day 3
Too tired to write anything with any kind of structure, so here are some random things from today and last night.
Last night a Haitian doctor spoke to all 20some of us about traditional Haitian medicine. Here are some of the bullets
1. Haitian mothers refuse to hold or see their newborn baby before the afterbirth is cleaned. They will not give the baby the first breast milk (the best kind)...
Day 2
Day 2 The day begins bright and early. I wake up at 5 because the chickens are loud and the Haitians who work here are up and singing, shouting, and clamoring. I sleep a bit more and shower, and head to the clinic. Breakfast did not get mentioned and I decide not to bring it up. We tackle the storeroom first, myself and the 2 other women with me. They are in their 60’s and I like them. ...
Day 1
March 2 I run into the woman im supposed to meet in Miami as we are boarding, and after the flight there is a shuffling of bodies towards the front of the plane and already I am separated from the group of 4. I follow the mass of luggage and bodies out of the jetway and down a broken escalator and around a corner to what I imagined was immigration (I hope I’ve filled my form out right, I...
The Bags Are Packed
I’m all packed, and ready to go…
My flight leaves tomorrow morning out of DFW at 0600 and I’ll be plane-hopping for most of the day. I’ll catch up with some of the other team members in Florida and I think we will share the same flight into PAP.
I’m half excited, half nervous, and each time I feel either I try to shake it off and ingore it, and preoccupy myself with...
February 2010
2 posts
A New Hope
If you read my last post you probably realize that today is the day I was going to refund all the donations given and give up on going to Haiti anytime soon. Contacts fell through, trips fell through, and some people who were very hopeful of putting teams together called and said there was no way they could send anyone down. My very last contact who was exploring the situation in Haiti tossed my...
Sigh
Well folks, the Haiti thing is just not working out. Here is the deal:
In one week (2/11), if I dont find a way down there, I will give everyone’s money back. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Maybe I can go later on, because I am sure they will need lots of help.
Thank you all so much for donating, it was really amazing to watch how quickly you all responded and helped, knowing very...
January 2010
5 posts
Setback
Disapointing news…
Today Bryan from EFCA called me and introduced himself and asked me if I had time to talk. My heart immediately sank, and it didn’t seem like anything he had to say was going to be good news. I could almost hear him wincing as he explained the situation in Haiti that basically prevented me from getting on a plane.
He explained that PAP was beyond my imagination of...
Frustration
Sorry for the delay in getting an update to you all, but I’ve been working like a Hebrew slave lately.
Here’s whats going on.
I mentioned in previous posts that the organization is leaving every Saturday for the next three weeks. I was a candidate for a seat on the plane leaving this Saturday, pending confirmation from the airline rep in Haiti. She has not contacted me or the EFCA...
Dibs on that seat...
Just wanted to update you all on the status of the trip with some more details since the whole thing has been pretty vague. As of now I am waiting on confirmation of my plane seat this Saturday.
Who:
I will be working with EFCA Crisis Response. I honestly have no clue what denomination that is, who they are or what they do. I spent some time reading about them today but it doesnt particularly...
We're half-way there...
Getting ready to head to church tonight, hoping my phone rings with good news.
Still waiting on some absolute details on the “when” of the trip, but you all have been awesome. In less than 24 hours I’ve raised about 25% of what I need for the trip! I had no idea that this would work at all and I’m very excited… Just hoping everything goes smoothly. I’m sure you...
Help!
I have finally found a way to Haiti and some people to work with. I wont bore with the details just yet, but I will be going in the next two weeks, maybe as early as this Saturday. The organization is flying teams out of Ft. Lauderdale into Cap Haitien, the northernmost part of Haiti. There is a hospital there that is receiving a lot of the injured, who have been evacuated there due to the lack of...