The end of trip wrap up

Well, as with most things in Haiti, the internet was far from reliable. Sorry we weren't able to always get updated posts out. We all made it home safely and I wanted to do a quick wrap up for the rest of the trip. Thursday and Friday the team was split between Institute d'Espoir Orphanage, the clinic in PAP, and caregiver school, where Tessa spent the days painting a magnificent mural. Jenna and I taught the basics of amputation rehab to the rehab techs in the afternoon on Thursday and Krista taught basics of speech therapy to them Friday afternoon. The clinic is quite an experience with the techs having varying levels of experience and analytical understanding. It was a bit of a challenge to get them to have us treat with them for the purpose of education rather than just handing us patients to see for them. The clinic space gets pretty crowded and with our docs working with the clinic physician staff the place was crawling with people. Thursday night we headed to the Hotel Olafson to hear the well-known vodoo rock band RAM. They were wonderful and a late night meant a quieter start to the morning. Overall the time went so fast - so many things that we tried to do and accomplish in such a short time. It's hard to see right now how sustainable it all is. Wish we had had time to do more education and caregiver training so that hopefully the work will last. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows this will not be my last interaction with Haiti. The country is so desperate and so sad and so full of hope and pride at the same time, beautiful and terrible all in the same breath. We return to the states with a renewed appreciation for everything we previously took for granted, and a renewed resolution to continue to make a difference wherever we are. Thank you again for all your prayers and support!

Again we split into groups to divide forces today. Some went back to Cool River, others stayed in the clinic, some went back to caregiver school, Krista taught another bunch of nursing students and Lex, Jeff and I went with a group to Lamardelle, a crèche (a temporary orphanage for children waiting to be adopted) where another medical/rehab clinic was set up. Gina Duncan, a Haitian who spent many years in Canada, does a remarkable job with the crèche, it is clean, organized and well-equipped and the children are darling! We went in to see two children with neurological involvement in between clinic times. The clinic itself ran fairly smoothly – we around 80 patients for a variety of general medical, orthopaedic and neurologic issues. Always a bit challenging to try to guess what we might need when packing the night before, then to get it loaded into (and onto) the vans and then figure out how to make do with what we have when inevitably we don’t have things that we need. Lots of patients with strokes and general deconditioning, as well as old orthopaedic injuries today. One of the hardest things is to convince the Haitian people of how to work to get better; I find they are often looking for the pill they can take. It was a long day and then a mad dash home to shower and change before a trip out the Resurrection Dance Theatre of the Saint Joseph Boy’s Home. Ana amazing evening of very talented dance and drumming presented entirely by boys who were rescued from street life. A wonderful evening and beautiful talent – what a gift.

Devide and conquer..

Morning came early after a late return from Jachmel last night. The group split up into smaller teams for the day – Jeff and Dave went to present at Notre Dame University, Krista provided education to nursing students on oral motor control and aspiration, some stayed to go to the clinic, some went to Mefibochet to teach caregiver school and Lexy and I went with a group to the Cool River orphanage. The orphanage is run by a group of sisters who came very much for the children and run a tight ship on a shoestring budget. There orphanage is sparse and built into the hillside making manoeuvring difficult, even if you are able-bodied. The clinic ran MUCH better than last week – more organized better set up and more caregiver interaction for teaching. The sisters were grateful for all interaction and the children very sweet – they sang a hello sing to us as we arrived! We were able to spend more time with hands-on therapy and nursing education – even got a few kids into the Cascade DAFOs that were donated. This evening we took a trip downtown to see the Palace and national monuments with a guided tour by Jeff.