Saturday Night in Haiti

After a long day of travel yesterday, and a long day of counting and packaging pills today, we are enjoying a relaxing evening. Some of us are agonizing about the GA-FL game and others could not care less!

Our travel from Miami to Port au Prince via American Airlines was a disaster. The two hour trip morphed into a more than 12 hour ordeal due to mechanical problems with first one plane and then, another. The first plane had a cracked windshield. After trying to fix it all afternoon, the airline found another plane for us, but by then we had lost the crew. After the crew finally arrived, we loaded onto the plane, only to be told we could not  take off because someone had not gotten onto the plane, but their luggage had. So, all the luggage had to be removed from the plane, the errant bags found, and the remaining bags reloaded. Finally we were ready to go. By now it was after 7:30 pm. (Our flight was scheduled for 1:00 pm.) When we arrived in Port au Prince, we had a bumpy landing, and came to a stop. The pilot then announced that we had lost the nose steering gear and that we would have to be towed to the gate. After waiting for that to occur, we arrived at a gate, to be told that the hydraulic fluid had leaked out of the plane, so we would exit from the rear of the plane. Those of us in the back were happy about that! When we finally arrived at baggage claim, the bags did not arrive for a really long time because they could not open the baggage compartment of the plane.

Happily, Vundla at the Diocese of Haiti had arranged for someone to meet us to expedite our travel through customs and our drivers were patiently waiting for us. We were a little nervous traveling through Port au Prince at night, but no traffic made the trip much faster than normal. When we arrived at the hospital guesthouse, the usual porters were there to haul the14 large bags upstairs, and amazingly Janine had dinner waiting for us at midnight!

Today, we spent the day packaging meds. Throughout the day, various members of our Haitian team, including Frantz, Emmanuel, and Evens came to greet us. It was wonderful to see everyone.

Tomorrow morning, we will go to church for All Saints Day at St. Phillippe and St. Jacques, and then finish up the meds with the ever popular pouring of the liquid meds and creation of the STD and Prev Packs.

Now, some of us will play Bananagrams, before hitting bed early.

Another Halloween in Haiti

We are getting ready to spend another Halloween/All Saints/Gide Day in Haiti. The Americans leave on Friday, October 30, and will travel that day to the guesthouse in Leogane. Our American team has already suffered one casualty, as Steve Franzen will not be able to go with us as planned due to injuries he suffered in a recent car accident.

Our remaining healthy American team includes Dr. Dianne Pizey; Dr. Bob Rosenthal; Cynthia Miller, RN; Brenda Ziebel, LPN; Sandra Durbin; and me, Terry Franzen. Brenda is our only "newbie" this trip. We look forward to welcoming her to Haiti and hope she loves it as much as the rest of us do. Our American team comes from Minnesota, Georgia, and Maryland, and includes members of Christ Church, Norcross, GA and St. John's, Minneapolis, MN as well as non-member friends. We welcome all to join us!

Our Haitian team continues to grow, and we expect all will be veterans this trip, except for our new priest. (Of course, we thought that was the case last trip, but we had some last minute substitutions. Travel to Haiti requires flexibility!) Our Haitian team members include Frantz Codio, MD; Charenne Codio, MD; Rudolph Richeme, MD; Emmanuel Bastien, Dentist; Marie Lourdes Bastien, Dental Assistant; Evens Joicin, RN; Myrline Richeme, RN; Laguerre Gerry, Optometrist; and our new priest, Pere Sonley Joseph.

Our lay leaders at each location, Maxo Louis and his wife Elise at Jasmin and Joseph LaBorde and his wife who we know as Madame LaBorde at Collin assist with the organization and set up of the clinics. We will have 5 translators and 5 nursing students with us. We will not know who they are until we see them on Monday morning before the first clinic. Our skillful drivers are also very important members of our team, and Janine and her guesthouse staff keep us well fed and happy.

We are sad that Pere Kerwin will no longer be with us. He has been with us since the beginning in 2007, but has now been moved to a new position as Dean of the Cathedral in Port au Prince. This is an important position in the Diocese, so we are pleased for him, but we will miss him.

We are so looking forward to meeting and getting to know our new priest Pere Sonley Joseph and his wife, who live in Leogane.

I will try to update the blog daily while we are in Haiti. That is very much dependent upon the state of the electricity and internet, and my fatigue. So, no news is good news! We hope you will stay tuned and consider coming along with us sometime. Terry