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.