Day 2 at Montrouis

We got up early this morning do go out fishing.  Well, attempted fishing anyway.  The water was beautiful and so were the sights.  So glad we did that.  We got back to shore a bit late and sprinted to throw on our scrubs and head back to the orphanage.  We did a clinic for the community, about 70 in all came through.

These guys had to catch the bait before we could attempt to catch some fish

Amazing water!

One of the two sweet boats we had

Tired of waiting

Work of Art Orphanage (formally known as Poor Children's Orphanage)

We went up to Montrouis to see how everything is going at Work of Art Orphanage (the orphanage we spent 2 days at last year).  We did a clinic for all the kids at the orphanage/school and the caregivers.  It was a pretty smooth morning.  Then we headed off to Indigo Beach for a little R&R and some fun.

Wanted to bring this little guy home

We are awesome

Beautiful sunset

RAM

A few of us went to see RAM play at the Olaffson late last night.  It's a famous voodoo rock group.  It was actually pretty fun and not as crowded as we thought.

Food for the Poor

Lynda, Paul, and I went out to Food for the Poor Orphanage to finish the Care Giver's School.  We had a fun morning racing through topics to help add a little education to what these fabulous care givers already know.  It was my first time at Food for the Poor and I was very impressed.  The compound is an oasis.  It was so peaceful, bright, colorful, and had a positive feel to it.  The care givers seemed to really love what they do and were happy.  Those that attended our class were attentive and inquisitive. Food for the Poor is dedicated exclusively to children with disabilities.  It's heartbreaking to see.

With Steevenson, our interpreter

The graduating class

They gave us a very yummy meal as thanks

Passing out fleece dolls

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.

2 Years Ago Today

I can't believe it's been 2 years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti.  I'll be going back at the end of February and I can't wait to see my friends and the progress that's been made since last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lj0ILVefZQ

You Are Loved

Some photos from my trips to Haiti

Crazyness?

Xavier had organized a clinic today at the orphanage for the kids from the village. A few of them showed up yesterday and we had to turn them away. We were worried that it was going to be a mad house and that adults would be upset that we wouldn't treat them, but it really wasn't too bad.

Xavier did a great job of setting up the benches better to create a barrier and had communicated well that we would only see the first 100 kids. Once we got our system going, things ran pretty smoothly and we were able to see all the kids that came. Hatian babies are BEAUTIFUL! We saw 3 or 4 babies that were just a couple months old. It was a little bit overcast for part of today so it wasn't nearly as hot as yesterday. We passed out toothbrushes and toothpaste to everyone that came through today because the institute had donated so many. We also bought a lot of the paintings that Xavier, Maxon, Silvestre, and the kids had done. Xavier is really doing a great thing there. He teaches kids how to to the traditional Carribean art in a small school in his home. After the earthquake there were 20 or so kids that showed up without anywhere to go. So he and his wife took them in and started Poor Children's Orphanage. They keep it going through the proceeds from the artwork and donations from people. Xavier makes sure that all the kids go to school as well. He is a good man.

Poor Children's Orphanage

We headed up to Mont Rouis today to do a clinic with Poor Children's Orphanage (we're helping them pick a better name) and deliver all the supplies we had collected for them. We saw a lot of kids and staff, probably around 40. It was pretty chaotic, but we got the job done.

The children there are beautiful! After a successful clinic we headed to Club Indigo for the afternoon and to spend the night. Back in the 70s it was a Club Med and it was a beautiful and relaxing break.

We brought our 4 interpreters (Big Mac, Lesly, Matt, and Stevenson) with us and it was so fun to watch them. They had never done anything like that before and had never gone swimming. We tried to teach them to swim. It was pretty entertaining. I met a famous Hatian poet at dinner and his wife (who is from Argentina). Super nice couple.

Farmacia

We did one last outreach clinic up in the mountains today. I triaged for a little bit (in Haiti I'm apparently qualified to be a nurse) and then spent the rest of the time in the "pharmacy" (small room in the school we were set up in with a table full of drugs we had brought). I'm getting pretty good at reading doctor's handwriting and writing "1 fua pa dua" one pill a day. I also got to actually be a nutritionist (finally using my degree) and give counceling to one lady with diabetes and a lot of high blood pressure patients. It's hard to councel on what to eat because, like the woman with diabetes said, they don't get to choose what they eat, they just eat whatever is available. It's heartbreaking really.

Also, some of the teachers were asking if we could somehow help them with a school food program. They said so many of the kids come to school but can't learn because they are just too hungry to pay attention. Hopefully we can get them in contact with a "food for the poor" type program. We were up in the mountains and the ride up was really beautiful. Because of the deforrestation, there is a lot of errossion, but someone has come in a taught the people terracing. It's amazing to look across to the other side of the mountain and see crops moving up the mountain on terraces. There were also a lot of vegetable gardens and cows. It's good to see that they are able to produce food in large quantities.

Bath Time

Today Emily, Jordan, Miriam, and I went out the warehouse at Medishare hospital to help organize. I can't remember the last time I've been as dirty as I was today. There were about 15 Hatians working so we all teamed up and moved dirty boxes all over. There was rat poop everywhere and cockroaches. My hands and arms were black by the end of the day. We had a lot of fun though. A few of the workers spoke some English so that was fun to be able to talk to them. We took a break for a minute and a few of them danced for us. Madness (yes, that is his actual name) did quite the booty dance. He also has a brother named Fitness. I don't think they know what their names mean in English. The power has been out at the guest house for most of the afternoon. We also ran out of water to our bathroom on the 3rd floor last night and this morning, but it really wasn't that important that we were clean before going to the warehouse. Luckily the tank got refilled so we could shower when we got home. Tomorrow I'll be going out to another outreach clinic. They were going to announce the election results tomorrow night but it's been postponed until Monday. Something about false ballots I think. It's probably better though for us because from what our interpreters have told us, most of the people want the pop star guy to win, so if the former first lady wins they will all think that a scandal happened and there will be rioting.