Leogane

We went out to Leogane today to do a clinic at Lamb Center Children Home.  We saw about 66 kids and 12 of the adult care givers.  Part of the team will come back out tomorrow to finish up with the care givers and see some kids that will be driven over from another orphanage.  I was in charge of height and weight and graphing those numbers on growth charts to leave with the orphanage.  The kids looked really pretty good and healthy.  I did a nutrition assessment of their meal schedule, which already looked great.  Miriam had made sure that the kids were now getting three meals a day instead of just the one they were getting when she arrived a month ago and every day had at least one serving of dairy (not common from what I've seen).

The ride home should have only taken 45 minutes, but because of traffic it took 2 and a half!  At least we got to really take in the surroundings.

Pharmacy work at Malik

We saw over 90 patients today in Malik.  I got to assist in the pharmacy with Pharmacist Paul.  There were a couple windows in the room we were in so we decided to do a "drive through" pharmacy to avoid crowds.  The system worked great.  

Making the trek down to the "clinic."

Don't I just look like a pharmacist?

A view from our "drive through window" with interpreter Johny

I really am a nutritionist

Today was a lot of fun.  Joyce and I went to the Healing Hands Clinic to train the head nurse, Nurse Betty, on nutrition.  We weren't sure how it was going to go, but it all turned out way better than planned. Betty went to nursing school in Cuba in the 80's and worked there for years.  When I found that out, we had a ball speaking in Spanish.  We ended up sending our interpreter to help in the pharmacy because it was easier for me to do the interpreting.  Betty was great.  Very knowledgable and very open to learning from us.  We ended up teaching for about 3 hours and helped her get ready to turn around and give a nutrition inservice meeting that afternoon to the staff.  We spent the majority of the time on diabetes and hypertension, both very prevalent among Haitians.  All in all, I think it was a success.  

 This guy needed a lot of nutrition help

Church and the Montana

We went to church this morning which is always fun.  I love how beautiful the people are here and how they really wear their Sunday best to church.  I can never understand what is said in the meetings, but everyone is reverent and attentive.  I talked with a guy who knows Spanish (and English, French, and Creole).  He lived in Chile for a couple years but came back to Haiti after the earthquake to help his family.  He works for Old Navy and Gap in Haiti, not get paid much at all.

The girls

We went up to the Montana for dinner and for the great view.  This is a really fun team.

The boys

After dinner we came back to sort meds to get ready for the week.  This should be great!

Enjoying the fruits (literally) of Paul's mad mango diving skills

Made it to Haiti

I made it back to Haiti today without too many problems.  I'm a bit tired from the red eye flight, but feeling pretty good. Only one of my bags didn't make it, but it should come on Tuesday with the next Delta flight.  Everything looks pretty much like how I left it a year ago.  All 10 girls on the trip will be sharing a room.  It's quite a sight to see with all the mosquito nets and barely any walking room.  Who needs privacy anyway, right?  This seems like it will be a great team and I'm excited to get going on our projects.