The Rest of the Story

We've now been in our respective homes for the last 10 days, which gives one a little perspective on the experience. We are always amazed at the numbers of patients that we see in a short period of time. This trip, we saw more than 800 medical and dental patients over 3 days. As in the past, the last day of clinics was the busiest with the sickest patients who walked the farthest - 4 hours one way- to see us.

We feel that we are making some progress toward our goal of sustained, and sustainable, healthcare for our communities. We succeeded in hiring a nurse - Evins Joicin, who is the director of clinical programs at the Episcopal Nursing School in Leogane. Evins will consult with Dr. Alex and Dr. Patrick, our Haitian physician team members, as necessary. He will travel up the mountain every two weeks to provide patient care and additional meds as needed.

Before we left for Haiti, we checked the weather to see whether a storm was brewing in the Atlantic, since this is hurricane season. There was nothing there. Every night, it rained ard and then would clear by 8am. One morning, Tuesday or Wednesday, I walked into the courtyard in front of the hospital and chatted with a couple of our interpreters while we waited for others to come down. There was a beautiful rainbow in front of the hospital entrance. I commented that in the United States, rainbows are good luck. Mario, one of the translators, told me that in Haiti, rainbows are bad luck. I expressed my surprise and then Valeri, the other translator, explained that rainbows in that direction mean a hurricane is coming and that rainbows behind the hospital are good luck. I assured them that no hurricane was coming since we had checked the weather before leaving the States.

A few days after we returned to the US, Hurricane Sandy hit Haiti. There was massive devastation and more than 30 deaths. Leogane was flooded waist deep. Then Sandy proceeded to the US and hit the northeast. The last few days, we've heard of hundreds of thousands of people without power and homes being destroyed. What we don't hear from the US is the news we heard from Haiti - the gardens are destroyed and there is no food. The people are hungry. There is no reliable electricity in Haiti, so lack of power is not a hardship. Lack of food is.

Please pray for the people in Haiti and in the US as they recover from Sandy.

Greetings from Leogane! We have no internet at  the guesthouse. The person who can fix it is in Canada, so we've bought an air card with some minutes, just to give everyone a quick update and say that all is well. Everyone sends love to their friends and family.

We've had two wonderful clinic days, yesterday in Gressier at St. Phillippe and St. Jacques, and today at Jasmin at St. Joseph's. We saw more than 250 people  each day in the medical clinics and more than 100 each day in the dental clinics. John has  had a fabulous time interviewing our  patients with the assistance of his translator, Mario. The Gressier people would like a permanent medical clinic and the Jasmin people would like a better road. That's not surprising. The road to Jasmin is the worst I've ever seen it.

The school at St. Joseph's is finished! It is amazingly beautiful! There are two buildings with 3 classrooms each, a separate adjacent building with biofuel toilets - separate rooms for boys and girls, and a separate building for a kitchen. Of course, there is no food, but they have hope for food! There are solar panels on top of one of the classroom buildings and 6 batteries, which will be powered by the sun and the poop! There is also a huge cistern under the buildings which is filled from the rain collected off the roofs of the buildings. The youngest children will continue to meet in the church and grades 1-6 will meet in the classrooms, in actual separate spaces in which their teachers will not compete with other teachers for their attention.


I don't know if you can even imagine what a gift this school is to the children. When I first went to Jasmin in August 2007, there were 120  students, who met inside the church. They had a couple blackboards with holes in them and few books for the teachers. With Christ Church's support, the school grew and spilled into the yard around the church. The equipment and supplies improved and the teachers have been paid regularly. This last school year there were 420 students who met under a tarp at the top of hill behind the church as the school was being built. These students now have beautiful buildings in which to learn. Thank you to eveyone who contributed to the fund to buy the land and thank you to the Finn Lutheran Foundation for the buildings!

I brought  gorgeous wall maps donated by my cousin's husband who works for National Geographic. The lay leader was excited to see these and they will be proudly hung in each new classroom. The rooms have blackboards, but they need desks. So, stay tuned for details.

Of course, the reason I and others return to Haiti again and again is the people. Our priest Kerwin has been his usual gracious host, and we got to see his wife Rholcie and children Kercie and Rholker briefly over the weekend. Our guesthouse host is Janeene, who is ably assisted by her staff. Dr. Gladys, the medical director at the hospital warmly greeted us. We were surprised to see two of our student nurses working at the hospital when we returned today. They both graduated and have jobs there now! We have most of the same translators from prior trips, and of course Dr. Alex is with us again. When Dianne and I were here after the quake, Patrick, a Haitian doctor worked at the field hospital with Dianne. He is helping out in our clinics this trip.

Of  course, we love seeing our friends in Gressier and Jasmin. We see many of the same patients each time that we come. Today, as I was working in the pharmacy, my little friend Sopharia, who helped me in the  spring came running  in and gave me a huge hug! That was wonderful! She came with her mom  and 5 brothers and sisters this time. She remembered how she had helped complete the medical labels and fillthe bags and helped me for awhile as she waited to see Dr. Dianne.


Tomorrow we go back to Jasmin and will treat the patients who walk from Nicholas to see us. This is a 4 hour walk one way! Today Sandra told me that here renews her soul and reminds her of what is really important. I think that everyone of us would agree with her.

Terry

October 12-20, 2012 Pilgrimage to Haiti

Our team is completing preparations for our next Haiti adventure. Our team is transcontinental once again. Our largest contingent is from Christ Church, Norcross and includes two new team members - Sandra Durbin and John Duke. This is John's first Haiti trip. John is a professional filmmaker and he'll be filming our exploits.Sandra and her RN sister Jennifer Scheible who is joining us from Arkansas have traveled to Haiti to work in mobile medical clinics with another group in the past.  Returning team members from Norcross include Daphne Gary, Leslie Freeman, Steve Franzen, and me. Our Minnesota team from St. John's includes our medical leader Dr. Dianne Pizey, and RN/acupuncturist Cynthia Miller. This is Cynthia's second trip with us. Dianne's son Graham Chapman will be traveling from LA for his second Haiti trip. Our Iowa friends are returning with us - dentist Dr. Terry Shively and his wife Stevie. They are joined by their friend Jane Weist.

As in the past, we will have several Haitian team members,including Dr. Alex Lebrun and dentist Emmanuel Bastian, a new Haitian doctor whom Alex is arranging, five nursing students and seven translators.

There's always something different every trip. This time is no different. We will not have American guesthouse managers this trip. Mr. Louissaint, the accountant at the hospital is our contact and will be  runnning the place while we're there. Dr. Bob Sloane, a past guesthouse manager, has been instrumental in communications, etc. We decided to order meds in the states from Blessings International in an effort to reduce the cost of the medicine. It's less expensive, but we have to haul it with us, so that has presented a few issues. The Haiti Health Ministry is trying to have more control over meds coming into the country so we  had to get a letter  from Dr. Gladys Memnon, Hopital Ste. Croix's Medical Director, acknowleding our work, and confirming that the meds are current and  will not expire for at least 6 months from our entry into  the country, and that the meds will not be resold. We also have to take a detailed inventory of all meds.

Please hold us in your prayers throughout our trip. I will try to update our blog daily during our  trip, but internet access can be unreliable,  so don't panic if you don't see an update. Haiti is definitely a no news is good news kind of place. Terry Franzen