Friday

The rehab therapy clinic was busy today seeing about 20 patients. It was a fun and light atmosphere with Justin Beiber and Celine Dion playing on Melanie’s computer. Suzie was able to help an older gentleman with a significant cancerous tumor on the right side of his face. He was struggling with pain and eating because of the heavy growth. Suzie gave him a collar to support his neck and tumor, some Advil, and worked with him on eating. Vickie was able to do range of motion with several patients and did some wonderful scar therapy with a few of them. Melanie was able to give the splint that Lisa made to a girl who had a significant injury to her leg and right arm nerve damage from an injury sustained in the earthquake. This girl was walking 20 miles a day because the tap-tap’s would not let her ride with her splint. She also found the rough ride on the damaged roads difficult to endure. She was also able to work with several more patients and provide scar therapy. Melanie was asked by Kristi to provide some range of motion and therapies for a child that remains comatose. She worked with the mother teaching her how to perform the therapies and stressed the importance of frequent repositioning. Global Therapy Group showed up about the time that Melanie was providing care and were able to be involved in the therapy session. This was a wonderful opportunity to ensure that care will continue for this child.

Kristi spent the day making sure that previous clinic patients were followed up on. A few of the patients had been discharged home. After many phone calls it was discovered that there is not a cardiovascular surgeon in the country to perform surgery on a 21 year old woman who was in desperate need of a mitral valve prolapsed repair. However, a referral to a Haitian cardiologist may allow her to get medical care in the Dominican Republic . . . if she can afford to pay. The 31 week premie is doing well, gaining a little weight and breastfeeding. Some of the feedings are being supplemented to increase growth. The boy brought in to the clinic last week in a comatose state is now opening his eyes. He has shown a little improvement by withdrawing to pain. He was more reactive with range of motion today.

The International Foundation for Physically Disabled (IFPD) group returned this afternoon from Les Cayes. It was a long and dusty drive, but the group seems to be getting used to the unique driving patterns with traffic here. It was nice to all sit at the table and discuss the week over a wonderful meal, part of which was avocados given to the group by our premie's dad. The group traveled down to the village, Bidon, to again see Justin. We were struggling with how we were going to communicate to him how to care for his foot and continue the antibiotic therapy as we would not be returning. The neighborhood draws you in. Everyone is so genuine and a pleasure to be around. Once arriving and seeing that Justin had again not gone to the hospital, we were desperate to communicate to him the importance. Just as we were sitting down to try to show him how to cleanse and dress his foot, a group of journalists from England walked by. They happend to have a translator that communicated in the most thorough and effective way about his care that we had experienced all week. We had a wonderful conversation about what he had understood and what we wanted him to do. The improvement was significant with his foot now that he had been taking his antibiotic and now he will know we will not be returning and what he will need to do to care for himself once we are gone. Small miracles!

The group returned to the guesthouse and gathered in the front room. We were all able to share the best and worst of our experience in Haiti. This was quite a therapeutic opporunity for the group to share with others thoughts and feelings that others who have not experienced Haiti would understand. It was powerful and meaningful and thought provoking. Thank you Jan, our fearless group leader, for your strenght and support. Haiti is now a part of all of us. Many plan to return as their love for the people is so great.

The rest of the evening allowed for half of the group to go dancing as we all prepare to leave tomorrow. We will be packing in preparation for leaving in the morning. We will be leaving behind such wonderful memories! Bon Swa!

Thursday

Dell, a Canadian student volunteer, was working with one of the babies who had a stroke previously when our occupational therapists arrived. Melanie was very encouraged by this and excited to see that the work will continue to progress when they leave as Dell had jumped right in with his previous training by the therapists. The physio clinic was slower today with only 8 patients. The occupational therapists, Suzie and Melisa, were able to do some great work with a 2 year old. They were able to get him into a donated umbrella stroller and he was also able to hold a sippy cup with both hands. Our teenage with an amputation and nerve damage on her left hand was able to walk a good distance today. She really likes Justin Bieber, and Melisa brought her a music video on her laptop for her to watch. She loved it!

The medical clinic closed with Stacie, our Nurse Practitioner, leaving for home. The work continues on a smaller scale with Jon Louis’, a Haitian physician, continuing to see patients. The Canadian student volunteers remain quite helpful to him as he has a very large patient load. With the clinic closing, Kristi continued to follow up on some patient. She also was able to go with Lisa, Vickie, Jamin, and Lorne to help build John’s “stick” house (wood construction). John, a Healing Hands for Haiti employee was quite grateful for the help and looks forward to being able to move out of his tent. The rainy season is quite a challenge for those living in tents. It was great to see Haitians learning a new trade while helping each other out.

Thursday was also another follow-up for Justin’s lacerated and infected foot. The group traveled to his neighborhood to ensure he had taken a tap-tap to Hospital Generale for evaluation. He was not home and his wife stated he had gone to work. Frustrated, the group decided to wait for him to ensure he will go and get the surgical debridement, evaluation, and IV antibioltics t he needs at this time. While they were waiting, they played basketball and futbol (soccer) on the community playground. The 10 year old boys really gave the group a run for their money on the futbol field. Wow! To play futbol on a gravel field with no shoes was amazing! They were amazing! They were able to follow up with Justin and found that he had actually gone to the hospital before work and could not wait any longer before he went to work. It was discovered that he had been judiciously taking his Advil, but not his Keflex . . . hmmmm . . . the challenges of language barriers.

Thursday from Jana

I am writing this from my perspective, as the prosthetic guys are just too busy to get to a computer. and our internet access is so very limited. Actually I don't quite have words to tell you about what we are experiencing here. So if my writing seems confused and out of order and chaotic, it is either due to heat stroke :) or a very true reflection of daily life here. I have started to converse in a few short sentences in Kreyol. Mostly pleasantries, but the Haitians just enjoy it so much. And I don't mind being the subject of their laughter! But I think I have gained some trust from them, because if their prosthetic leg bugs them they come to tell me! Unfortunately there's not much I can do there. But I know just the guys who can! AJ was in his own little heaven yesterday - he got invited into the surgery to witness an amputation... halfway through the femur the electricity went out and someone ran in with a flashlight! Most of the people they casted earlier this week, were fitted with prostheses today and we are working with another group of PT's from Montreal and things are really going well. AJ has done serial casting on 3 kids with club foot - seems to be something very common here. One PT knew of at least 8 more. But he has tried to teach someone here his method, and hopefully that will help. They were very interested in that. My little 5 year old friend, Florika, had someone carry her from the rehab centre to the clinic to come and tell me I still owed her bubbles! She really stole my heart and I was quite sad to say goodbye (kenbe fo) but I was able to tell her that I thought she was "belle" (beautiful). I have been sewing makeshift shower curtains from rescue sheet (sewing machine didn't like that much) and real ones from fabric. And teaching some of the women at the rehab centre to sew. They made two pillows and a little skirt and we had a lot of fun while listening to a soccer game. Everyone knew Brazil was playing, but no one could tell you against who! Other than that I am sweeping the floor, making training notes for the local staff, and making sure that everyone keeps drinking water. We have not had a warm shower since our arrival, and there is actually very little point in towelling off - half an hour later you are just as wet again. We have done a few crazy Haitian things - like 6 on a quadbike! And I fell off - did not get hurt. But I was hesitant to even get on with just one other person and an exercise ball :) Did okay that time. Tonight we are heading to the beach for dinner. I am going to try and upload a few pics with this note - will see if the internet speed allows me. We are exhausted - last night I was asleep by 8.45pm! But none of us would trade this for anything.

Wednesday

The therapy clinic was only open for half the day on Wednesday, as it is not generally a busy day. Suzie and Melanie were able to see a few patients and do some great work with them. Jamen was able to manufacture a foot brace for a girl with a large wound on the bottom of her foot so that she could walk without pressure and also to keep the area clean. He is quite creative!
The medical clinic closed down by noon. The Canadian students have been a wonderful resource and their enthusiasm for getting things done is encouraging. They will all make great physicians and medical professionals some day. The dad of the premie infant that we have paid to stay and have been so involved with came to the group with a piece of paper and a very large smile. He was very genuine and was trying to explain something and we were struggling to understand without our translators handy. Once we had our translator, Big Mac, he was able to read the note the dad was handing to us. He has been so appreciative of the dedication to his son and the help he had received, he was asking to have Jan be the godmother of his son. . . . . . WOW!

Once the clinics were closed, the group headed off to see down town Port-au-Prince. The conditions were hard to take in as we saw the devastation that has left so many thousands of Haitians homeless. Pictures, even by professional photo journalists, cannot describe the destruction and devastation that was seen. I struggle to even write in words what we saw. It made shopping for souvenirs seem frivolous and was difficult to feel good about spending money. There is so much needed here. Where do you begin. Suzie and Vickie remind us of a parable once shared: a little boy was walking along the beach one night and saw all of the starfish that had come to shore. He started tossing the starfish one at a time back into the sea. Each time he did this he was asked "why do you bother". He again was walking along with his father and shared what others had said as he was tossing in a starfish. His father replied "but you helped that one".
Stacie, Deb, and Jennie began packing for home. They were wonderful to have and Stacie left with a heavy heart the next day not knowing if the care for the children she had been entrusted with would be the proper care or would continue. It is a worry that we all struggle with.

Tuesday from Jana

After a night of very little sleep (apparently rooster in Port-au-Prince get up at around 3am) , and then a breakfast of papaya, mangoes, pineapple and bananas 5 of us (Michael, Dan, AJ, me and Carolyn) packed a van and set of with our driver, Jean-Jacques, for Les Cayes. Between his broken English and AJ's broken French they were able to communicate quite well. In Jean-Jacques words: "Driving in traffic here is very complicated." That is an understatement. Traffic here truly laughs at all the road safety rules we know! As we were driving through the devastation that the earthquake brought to Port-au-Prince, it was heart breaking and gut wrenching and hard not to wonder where all the relief money went! We were all taking pictures non-stop: I think in a way to cope with what we are seeing and processing it through the eye of a lens somehow makes it easier. Pigs, goats, cows, dogs and donkeys mingling with the people between the earthquake rubble and tent cities, the burning garbage and the roads lines with plastic bottles are just some of the images that stood out. But there are also the signs of hope: music everywhere, smiling faces, vendors selling their goods, little LOTO shacks in the rubble and the school children - all dressed in colourful, super-neat uniforms and ribbons in their hair. We also saw quite a few open air schools along the road. When we got to Les Cayes after a four and a half hour drive, we unloaded and jumped to work. Caroline started doing physical therapy pretty much as she stepped inside the clinic. The guys sorted a bit, and then managed to cast six new amputees and do a few adjustments in the afternoon. One 5 year old girl stole my heart - Florika. She lost her one leg in the earthquake. After dinner, the guys came back to work on some casts they took earlier, and I was given a sewing machine to make some shower curtains with fabric I brought with me for the rehab clinic. I was in heaven! We are all getting around the language barrier and have two wonderful interpreters. It is an amazing experience... we have a lot of pictures and I will upload them if I get a chance. Today we are right back at it at the clinic. I am doing lots of organizing for them and learning about soft casts and shrinkers and knee braces. There a two babies here today with turned in feet: AJ has been casting them while teaching the local personnel how to do it. We are also working with Isarak, who is deaf, and helps the guys out in the clinic. It is just amazing to see the spirit of co-operation that exists! June and Karen who runs the clinic are wonderful and everyone just works so well together.