Medical Team blog

If you would like to follow the medical team blog but not sure how, it's easy.

Go to haitiarise.org and scroll down til you see the buttons on the right hand side. Click the 'team blogs' button. There will be a link to the team blog. They have posted many photos.

We will be off to the beach this afternoon. It's a bit of a lazy day.

Wade started teaching a Sunday School class of new believers today with Marc and he preached. Church in Haiti is very worshipful and inspiring.

Wall

These photos show the post and panel construction style of the wall around approximately 7.5 acres which will house the children's village, church, school, soccer field, etc.

Haitian workers are still working on it. They are doing a section of it in blocks because there is already a concrete foundation in the ground from another building. It is getting very close to being done.

Medical Team and Clinic

This is day 3 for the clinic. This is a remarkable team of caring, giving, health care professionals who are working very hard to help as many people as they can. Yesterday, they saw 151 patients. The people have to pay $3 Haitian (.75 U.S.) for a ticket to get in. This is just a token amount, however, they take it more seriously and only the really sick people come. If the clinic was free, many people would come just for a social visit!

A 57 year old woman who was clearly very ill, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Probably cervical cancer. She came here on her own. Once she was diagnosed, many of the team dropped what they were doing. They and some of the interpreters gathered around her to comfort her and we prayed with her. We tried to call her sons, but could not reach them. Eventually, a couple of our guys drove her home.

A 5 year old orphan came in with scabies. Her parents died and she went to live with some relatives, but they decided they did not want her, so they kicked her out. Her 14 year old cousin is looking after her, but where and how they live are very sketchy.

A mom came in with her 1 1/2 yr old baby. He was very under developed for his age. She was 8 months pregnant when the earthquake hit and she was caught under rubble. She was actually carrying twins and gave birth to one of them, but that baby did not survive. When she was found, she was taken to the hospital where she gave birth to the second baby. They made her leave the hospital right after because they were afraid of after shocks bringing down the hospital. She had no support or means to support her baby. She was unable to breastfeed and rarely has money for formula. Mom is suffering with anxiety attacks and post traumatic stress disorder. She was given formula and some clothes for her baby. They also gave her some medication to help her cope.

These are just three of the 151 the team saw. The team is tireless and helping anyway they can. They are amazing!

Night Out

Sunday evening, we went to a restaurant called Mondy's and had goat, fried plantains, spicy cole slaw, and beet & potato salad. Very yummy! While we were eating, Haiti Idol came on the tv in the restaurant. Kelly is now in the top 4! We got to see him sing. He sang a love song mostly in English, which is quite unusual, but he had the audience on their feet, waving to the music and cherring loudly. The judges all thought he did a fine job, but one of them didn't seem overly impressed with Kelly's affect on the audience.

As we drove through town, we went by the place where we did a rice distribution in February. It was a tent city of just over 200 families. It is now gone which means that those families now have homes and this area is now a field for soccer or ball. It is encouraging to see rebuilding taking place. We also noticed as we arrived and drove through Port au Prince, that there is not as much rubble lying around and there are some new buildings (stores, barber shops, and some new roads complete with signs). Very encouraging.

Play Time

Last Sunday, we went to a privately run beach on the outskirts of Grand Goave. There is a hotel and restaurant there. This is the sunset from where we were sitting on the beach. We had lobster and fried plantains at the restaurant. Not quite like Hickory Smokehouse or Kwangton's, but still a fun day.

Tonight, we are going to go to a local restaurant with Marc and Lisa for goat and fried plantains. We'll have a Coke to!

Help from Home

As we prepared to come to Haiti, many friends and family gave gifts of various kinds to help out and to brighten someone's day here. Wade's work place gave us several soccer balls to give away. These are two very happy boys!

Thanks to all!

Families

This is one of the families we visited this past week. We gave the kids some match box cars and the girls some pretty things for their hair. We assured them that Jesus loves them very much and prayed with them. They were so thankful. This is one of the highlights of being here.

Just Another Saturday!

The day started at 6 a.m.........

-no water

-asked the Security Staff to start up the generator

-drove Marc & Lisa's children and their Nanny home

-helped Franky with his English class by supervising a test (had to report a cheater)

-gave an oral English test

-explained air conditioning and furnaces to Franky and he just shook his head and laughed and said that we must be prepared for everything!

-gave a tour of the properties to a group from California who are part of a mission near Port au Prince. They came in a tap tap (a 2 hour ride) and stayed for lunch.

-did some more preparations of rooms for the medical clinic which starts on Wednesday

-made another attempt to upload a photo unsuccessfully

And it's only 4:30!

Tomorrow, we will be formally introduced to the church and will say a few words and hopefully skype with our boys.

Clean Up!

The team left at 4:30 this morning, so we woke up here alone. It is a very strange feeling. This is a first. Meal times are much quieter!

We have spent a few hours 'fall' cleaning and organizing rooms and furniture for the medical team who arrive Wednesday.

As of a couple of days ago, Marc is experimenting with running this campus on generator power and battery power instead of city power, which is quite expensive and unpredictable. It's going to take a while to figure out how much to run the generator and if it is a working plan or not. So when we have the ability to have the 'air' on, we take it!

We hope to get a couple of pictures posted soon.

You know it's hot when...

You know it's hot when your yogurt covered raisins melt in the room with the air conditioning on!

You know it's humid when no matter how long to towel off, you never get dry!

We've just come out of a couple of very humid days.

The team is slowing down, however, they have completed approximately 450 ft of the wall, which is awesome.

The last couple of days we have been without power fairly often (we're thankful for the generator).

One young man from the church, Kelly, that we met in February, is in the top 8 in Haiti Idol (like American Idol)! Last night at church, this was announced and people were encouraged to vote for him and we prayed for him.

Today is another work day, with a trip to the market thrown in and visitation of homes later this afternoon. It's going to be a good day.

It's the weekend!

It's Saturday morning and some of us will be off to the market. It will be a huge cultural experience, not like any markets we know. There will be all kinds of wares, and fresh meat of all kinds. So fresh that it will be cut in the open under the sun and surrounded by flies! The bakery makes bread in a stone oven. Yummy!!

Some will work on the wall this morning. Yesterday 20 posts were erected and some slats were laid. Wow!

There is a really good photo gallery on the website, which quite accurately shows what it is like where we are here in Grand Goave. haitiarise.org

Tomorrow is church at 9:00, then most likely off to the beach in the afternoon.

School

In my earlier entry, I meant to say that a permanent school will be built as one of many buildings on the new property, not that there will be many schools. I tried to edit the entry, but again, with the photo, it took too long to do that.

A Haitian work crew has begun to sand the walls of the inside of the Medical clinic, so a few of the team will be able to paint.

There is always something to be done.

So far we are all safe and healthy. Thanks to all of you out there praying.

Playing in the school yard before classes start

Haiti Arise started this school which has pre-school to grade 5 with 300 students after the earthquake because so many others were destroyed. A permanent school building will be one of the many built on the new campus once the wall is completed.

The Wall, Internet, Heat, and more!

We never know what's coming around the next corner here in Haiti. I have been trying to post a photo or two, but the internet can be sketchy here at times. Just logging in can be tricky - fairly unpredictable.

It is very humid here. More so than in February. The temperature is not much different though. With all of us being from western Canada, it is very noticeable. The team tends to go strong in the morning, but the afternoon heat/humidity brings a slower pace.

They are making great strides on the wall around the property. The bobcat has been working flawlessly - thankfully. It is needed to take the concrete posts and slabs from this campus to the new property. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

This afternoon, I went with Marc and Lisa to see a few of the houses that Haiti Arise has built for some families who lost their homes in the earthquake. These homes are concrete (24 x 24) with three rooms in them. One would be a living room with two bedrooms. Kitchen and bathrooms are outside. These homes look like mansions compared to many. Which makes me extremely grateful for all I have.

Day One

Well, we arrived safely yesterday afternoon. Marc, Lisa, children and 15 team members and us, met up in Miami and flew out together. The team is here largely for the purpose of working on the security wall around the property which will enclose the childrens' village, a school, church, a rec centre, etc The property is approximately 7 acres. The team comes from Surrey, BC, Saskatoon, SK, and Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Strathmore, (Alberta). Although we did arrive safely, once we got here and unloaded the vans, Marc realized that 3 of their 4 bags did not get here! So he booted it back to Port au Prince to hopefully get them. Thankfully, they were still sitting there on the cart. How amazing is that!

As this is Marc & Lisa's first full day here after four months, there is lots of organizing to do. Wade and Marc are out with the team at the wall.

I have just set up an office area in a medical supply room and am going to start on a few admin. projects that Lisa has given. She didn't waist any time putting me to work!

Oh yeah, we got the big room! It is a huge room with lots of windows, a piece of balcony and of course air conditioning! It feels like a suite.

We are thinking of every one at home, but as you all know, we are loving being here, too.

A little R and R before heading off to Haiti.

Psalm 46:10

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

The Countdown is on!

Monday morning is rapidly approaching. Our floor is covered with piles of the things to be packed. Oragnization is the 'name of the game' right now.

The best news..... all the encouragement, support and committment of people to pray for us as we go off on this journey. It is very inspiring and exciting!