Re-entry

Morning Rises over Deschapelles

Bonswa all - Many, many thanks for all your prayers and words of support during the last 3 weeks. I arrived home around 10pm Saturday night and am slowly working my head around getting myself back into the Western World. It was a wonderful and challenging 3 weeks. There were many opportunities to teach which felt really good and sustainable. I taught rehab techniques to nurses in the northern town of Cap Haitian the first week, and split the second 2 weeks between teaching in the rehab technician training program at HAS and working with the Hanger team in the amputee rehab program. There is some amazing work being done there - http://www.hanger.com/Pages/JayTewHaitiBlog.aspx for more details. The patients are incredible, they are so strong and so determined and do so well in spite of every wall they are up against. The tech students are eager and hard working and we had a lot of fun teaching the pediatric portion of the course. There are lots of joys and lots of obstacles and lots of work still to be done. It was bittersweet to head home to all the creature comforts we know here. Life is so green and lush it almost hurts my eyes. Thank you for all your prayers, please keep them coming as the work is only beginning. It is wonderful to see the Haitian people starting to take on some of their own solutions but there is much training that needs to be done. Thank you to each one of you who made this trip possible - through donations, prayers and support. Those who are able to go are only able to do so because of the support of those who stay behind.
Bonwet - mesi anpil. Lauren

"May God bless you with the foolishness to think you can make a difference in the world,
so that you will do the things which others tell you can not be done."

Inhale, exhale repeat

A transition in my work this week as I am spending most of my te at the rehab tech program at the hospital, helping out at Hanger if I can but that is getting harder to do. We are working on teaching play techniques for children with disabilities. It's quite an amazing program but there is a lot to cover in a short period of time. There's a lot of everything to teach, accomplish, try to guide and improve. Sometimes it feels so daunting and it's all you can do to remember to breathe.

Arielle's new leg

We started our Friday by walking some of our to-be graduates from Lascale, a previous TB solarium which is now used to house up to 30 patients and one family member each, to the clinic. The walk takes an able bodies person a good 15 minutes over uneven terrain, crossing a small ravine and up and down hills. The strength, endurance and balance of these people is really amazing. Some of them are single amputees, others are bilateral. They are so excited to be able to do the walk and it does some amazing things for their confidence. Arielle and her mom came in the afternoon for their fitting. Mom has been fit with a new support for her leg and Arielle got to tale her first steps. She's got some work to do as her rei
sidual limb has some scarring and a bit if a contracture but her smile lights up the room. That us why we do this work. Regardless of political struggles and red tape we are making a difference in peoples lives. The next step of the challenge is to train more Haitians how to do this kind of work. I've had one of the rehab techs from the hospital with me most of the week trying to fill Jim
with as much information as I can. Sustainability is the key to lasting change...