A Three Hour Tour of Leogane and Cutting and Stitching at Cinic

What a week of clinics! There was more cutting and stitching during this trip than in all our prior trips combined. The culmination was Wednesday at Jasmin, when Drs. David and Rudolph treated a young man who had a machete wound on his arm, which resulted in Pere Kerwin making an emergency trip down the mountain with this young man and another woman  with a head injury loaded into the back of his pick up truck. It was quite exciting and a wonderful learning experience for our nursing students. While all this was going on, Drs. Dianne and Dennis continued seeing patients outside. Dr. Alex assisted  and observed the treatments . After this event, Drs. Rudolph and David stitched up a woman's head. Luckily, David spent much of Sunday night repacking our wound kit, so we were well prepared for all these emergencies. My little friend Sofini came to see me after school today. What a relief to know that she is fine.

Sofini with the dark shoes is to my left.

Our entire team at the end  of the clinics.

Today was organization day, inventorying the meds and supplies, and re-packing for our next trip. Then, some of us went up to St. Phillippe and St. Jacques to see the schoolkids. Sadly, they were in the middle of exams, so we only got to see the  little ones. Of course, they are incredibly cute.

 Pere Kerwin shared with us that the congregation has managed to raise about $4000 of the needed $10,000 to purchase the land which is adjacent to the school so that a new  church can  be built. The old church crashed down  in the earthquake shortly after it was completed. The new school building is situated on the land where the old church was located. If anyone reading  this is moved to help with this project, please send your tax deductible donations payable to St. John's Episcopal  Church, marked St. Phillippe and St. Jacques Building Fund, to St. John's at 4201 Sheraton Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55410.

Madame LeBorde prepared a delicious soup for us to sustain us on our way back to the guesthouse where we had second lunch, also soup jamou  (pumpkin).

Following lunch, we set out with one of our interpretors, Marco, to the Episcopal nursing school (FSIL) and then  to Obama Beach where we saw the boats coming from LaGonave filled with charcoal.

This is always one of my favorite parts of the trip. The walk through town, and then out into the country and to the beach gives a beautiful snapshot of this area.

 

Tomorrow,  we are  off to Jacmel for  our last full day in Haiti, which we will spend at the beach.

This has been an amazing  trip, as usual. The amount of new construction in Leogane is really something to see. The  old spirit seems to be back.  Today, a young man took a video of us on his  phone as we walked  up the road through Leogane. What a turnabout!