David
Barb & Dick
Me?
John, our leader
Katie
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
March Mission to Haiti
Hello once again.
Here comes the March mission, rushing forward like the proverbial March Lion. We leave on March 23 in order to get to O’Hare airport for a 6:15AM flight from Chicago to Miami. Our small team is made up of 9 nurses, 2 non medical people, and your favorite pharmacist-me! There are 4 people coming from the state of Washington, 1 from Minnesota. 1 from Kentucky, and 6 (I think-I do not have addresses on two but I assume they are from Illinois) from Illinois. I am not sure, at this point, how many are FOTCOH experienced workers and how many are first timers. We do not have a USA physician. We will need to rely on Dr. Frantz Nelson. He is a Dominican Republic trained Haitian physician. He helps out Dr Garron Lukas, our FOTCOH surgeon, during Garron’s trips to Haiti. He also works with Dr Martinez, the Jacmel OB-GYN physician who has our operating suite in his office and lets us do surgeries there. So this will be a most interesting mission. I doubt that we will be able to do much in the way of treating new patients and I think our focus will be on refills for existing Haitians. It is a wait and see situation, for sure.
The geographical separation of the team is making it hard to get all of our needs shipped in our two 50 lb allowed baggage. For example, I have almost 280 lbs of vitamins and no way to get them in to Haiti on time unless I have them carried in. In times past, we have had bags seized by Haitian customs when they contained medications. The customs people want us to pay them a duty in order to get our bags. This causes a long delay and often costs hundreds of dollars. Not a good use of FOTCOH’s donations, for sure. I am still hopeful of a better solution. In the mean time, I will ship out the excess that I have so it will be there for the May team.
One other issue that I should mention is my health. During the Valentine’s Day week last month, I drove with my wife, my sister-in-law, my nephew and his girl friend to Dallas Texas for a wedding. It was about a 14 hour ride. The ride down was uneventful except for some ice we encountered around Springfield, Mo. We enjoyed ourselves at my nephew’s wedding. On the way home, I allowed my 47 year old nephew to drive my BMW X-5. He proceeded to drive around 95 MPH while returning calls on his cell phone. Needless to say, that made me quite tense. The next driver was my wife. She recently had cataract surgery on both eyes and this would be the first time she drove with her “new” eyes. Again, I got just a little tense helping her to navigate the St. Louis Mo. Interstate puzzle. We arrived home around midnight on Friday. Saturday was a great day and we caught up on a few projects. Sunday was a different story. My back and right leg hurt so bad I could not get out of bed to go to Mass. I went to my internist on Monday for my regularly scheduled yearly checkup. He prescribed a muscle relaxant. This did not make any dent in the pain. On Tuesday, I had a therapeutic massage and that gave me some relief. On Wednesday, it was off to the Chiropractor. Dr Mark has now worked with me regularly since and I am relatively pain free-IF I do lots of stretches and exercises. I have also been seen by a rehab doctor who specializes in spinal trauma. So now it is almost two weeks later. I am spending over 1 hour in the gym each day, doing lots of stretches, going to the chiropractor 3 times a week for bone cracking, spinal traction, and heat/ice therapy. I have just come from the spinal rehab doc and she will give me a spinal injection of Lidocaine & steroids on Friday, March 14.
That should ease the inflammation and pain and allow me to go on the mission as planned. I will have to figure out which exercises I can do during the trip and at the clinic to avoid the flare ups. There is a lot of arthritis on L-5. I must be getting older. HA!
As I stated earlier, this should be a most interesting mission. I hope I have not bored you with my medical problems. I also hope you will continue to follow the blog. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Here comes the March mission, rushing forward like the proverbial March Lion. We leave on March 23 in order to get to O’Hare airport for a 6:15AM flight from Chicago to Miami. Our small team is made up of 9 nurses, 2 non medical people, and your favorite pharmacist-me! There are 4 people coming from the state of Washington, 1 from Minnesota. 1 from Kentucky, and 6 (I think-I do not have addresses on two but I assume they are from Illinois) from Illinois. I am not sure, at this point, how many are FOTCOH experienced workers and how many are first timers. We do not have a USA physician. We will need to rely on Dr. Frantz Nelson. He is a Dominican Republic trained Haitian physician. He helps out Dr Garron Lukas, our FOTCOH surgeon, during Garron’s trips to Haiti. He also works with Dr Martinez, the Jacmel OB-GYN physician who has our operating suite in his office and lets us do surgeries there. So this will be a most interesting mission. I doubt that we will be able to do much in the way of treating new patients and I think our focus will be on refills for existing Haitians. It is a wait and see situation, for sure.
The geographical separation of the team is making it hard to get all of our needs shipped in our two 50 lb allowed baggage. For example, I have almost 280 lbs of vitamins and no way to get them in to Haiti on time unless I have them carried in. In times past, we have had bags seized by Haitian customs when they contained medications. The customs people want us to pay them a duty in order to get our bags. This causes a long delay and often costs hundreds of dollars. Not a good use of FOTCOH’s donations, for sure. I am still hopeful of a better solution. In the mean time, I will ship out the excess that I have so it will be there for the May team.
One other issue that I should mention is my health. During the Valentine’s Day week last month, I drove with my wife, my sister-in-law, my nephew and his girl friend to Dallas Texas for a wedding. It was about a 14 hour ride. The ride down was uneventful except for some ice we encountered around Springfield, Mo. We enjoyed ourselves at my nephew’s wedding. On the way home, I allowed my 47 year old nephew to drive my BMW X-5. He proceeded to drive around 95 MPH while returning calls on his cell phone. Needless to say, that made me quite tense. The next driver was my wife. She recently had cataract surgery on both eyes and this would be the first time she drove with her “new” eyes. Again, I got just a little tense helping her to navigate the St. Louis Mo. Interstate puzzle. We arrived home around midnight on Friday. Saturday was a great day and we caught up on a few projects. Sunday was a different story. My back and right leg hurt so bad I could not get out of bed to go to Mass. I went to my internist on Monday for my regularly scheduled yearly checkup. He prescribed a muscle relaxant. This did not make any dent in the pain. On Tuesday, I had a therapeutic massage and that gave me some relief. On Wednesday, it was off to the Chiropractor. Dr Mark has now worked with me regularly since and I am relatively pain free-IF I do lots of stretches and exercises. I have also been seen by a rehab doctor who specializes in spinal trauma. So now it is almost two weeks later. I am spending over 1 hour in the gym each day, doing lots of stretches, going to the chiropractor 3 times a week for bone cracking, spinal traction, and heat/ice therapy. I have just come from the spinal rehab doc and she will give me a spinal injection of Lidocaine & steroids on Friday, March 14.
That should ease the inflammation and pain and allow me to go on the mission as planned. I will have to figure out which exercises I can do during the trip and at the clinic to avoid the flare ups. There is a lot of arthritis on L-5. I must be getting older. HA!
As I stated earlier, this should be a most interesting mission. I hope I have not bored you with my medical problems. I also hope you will continue to follow the blog. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Saturday February 2, 2008
Happy Ground hog day! Yes, we are on the ground and back in the USA but it was quite a trip. I was up at 4 AM to see Larry & Kay Shank, Dory and her mother, Boyer and crew, an all of our bags off to Port-Au Prince on the bus. After that, I just relaxed and kept the coffee going till every one was up. We tap-taped to the Jacmel airport at 7 and I think our plane arrived at 8AM. The flight over the mountains was as beautiful as ever and I enjoyed it. Then it is the race into and out of the small airport, board the bus, and drive to the mail airport. There we claimed our bags and totes and proceeded through the first security. The Miami plane passengers made up the line to the ticket counter so we stood for 1 hour while they checked in. After our turn to check in, we cleared immigration with no lines and that was unusual. Next came the second security screening and again encounter no wait time. Next I proceeded to the upstairs shopping/eating area for our traditional hot dogs & beer. I browsed though the shops for awhile, purchased my 5 bottles of rum, and went to the departure lounge, and the third security screening. The inbound flight was late so we sat for quite awhile. We landed in Fort Lauderdale around 2 PM and it took 1 hour to deplane, pass through immigration, get our bags and pass through customs. Next we walked to the terminal 3 where our next plan was located. We ate some lunch (I had a great salad) and waited for the next flight. At the gate area, American Airlines announced that we had a plane but no flight crew so we waited. It seems that the pilot was in Miami and had to be driven to Fort Lauderdale. The first officer was due in on another flight so we did not leave Fort Lauderdale much before 6:30 PM. We arrived in Chicago and had to circle to the west to land. When we landed, the announcement was made that we had no gate so we waited some more. When we exited the plane we supposedly had short time to get from the H concourse to the G concourse for our next flight. Various rumors floated that the plane as either on time, delayed or canceled. We were able to contact Kay & Larry who were joining us on the last leg (they were flying with frequent flyer miles and had different connections). They told us they were t the gate and the flight was set to go. So we rushed to G and were told that, again, there was no crew for the plane. So, at 10 PM we were finally told that the flight was canceled. American Airlines did contact Peoria Charter Coach and the 10 PM bus was held up so we could run over to the bus staging area to catch it for our ride home. We arrived at Peoria airport at 1:30 AM after stops in Pontiac and Normal to discharge passengers. I got a ride home with Mary & Jay Hedges and walked in the door at 2:00 AM. So, yes, I am tired today.
Some small points then it is off for a nap. It was fun watching Dory, the small Haitian girl that we brought back so she could have an operation to correct some birth defects and her mother react to the snow and the cold. I ordered a Strawberries and Cream Frappacino from the Starbucks counter and let her try the last of it. I never got it back as she loved it. They did shiver in the cold as they had no warm clothes so we loaned them some of our travel blankets. They were going to go to Shellie and Jerry Coleman’s but it was decided that they should sleep at Sue & Eric Behrens’s home due to the lateness of our arrival back in Peoria. I wonder if Dory gets to play in the snow today.
I need to finish my inventory but I’d better leave this and spend some time with my wife. So, until next time, I‘ll sign off for another day. Thank you for all your prayers for our safe return.
Some small points then it is off for a nap. It was fun watching Dory, the small Haitian girl that we brought back so she could have an operation to correct some birth defects and her mother react to the snow and the cold. I ordered a Strawberries and Cream Frappacino from the Starbucks counter and let her try the last of it. I never got it back as she loved it. They did shiver in the cold as they had no warm clothes so we loaned them some of our travel blankets. They were going to go to Shellie and Jerry Coleman’s but it was decided that they should sleep at Sue & Eric Behrens’s home due to the lateness of our arrival back in Peoria. I wonder if Dory gets to play in the snow today.
I need to finish my inventory but I’d better leave this and spend some time with my wife. So, until next time, I‘ll sign off for another day. Thank you for all your prayers for our safe return.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thursday January 31, 2008
I have time for a quick note before breakfast. It was another night of tossing and turning in bed. I will be so glad to get back home for a good night’s sleep. I am not sure if it is the mattress or the location of the bed that causes a problem, but whatever the reason I have not slept well these past few days. I suspect it is the mattress as I have been experiencing some back and shoulder pains during the day. I suppose I could take something for that. Guess I’ll run down to the corner store for some shopping! Speaking of that, I think that the white wine has been a hit with everyone, it is almost gone. I’ve been asked by Larry to purchase rum at the airport for the golf outing. I understand that Eric has the money for it. That will make transferring it to our checked baggage in Ft. Lauderdale interesting.
The night before last, many of the team played a card game called “Spoons”. It was a noisy bunch. Last night they played scrabble and it was a lot quieter. I spent some time on the roof watching the stars and airplanes overhead. I must get a star chart for here. We had another wonderful dinner of spaghetti with both red and white sauce. It seem strange to say that while the news coming from Haiti to the general public is about children eating mud cakes, we are eating so well here. If you ever get the time, reading about the poverty here in Haiti is sad but interesting and the poverty seems to be getting worse as he prices for corn and grain escalates due to the demand for it to make biofuel.
In a little while we will begin our last day of clinic. The gates will close at 10:00 or 10:30 AM and I hope we have the Haitians through the pharmacy line by noon. After lunch, I will have a crew of 6 people taking inventory for me. I use two in each room, one to count and the other to record on the sheets that I have prepared for them. After that, I’ll ask them to cover the inventory and otherwise protect the medications from dust and mice. I’ll tabulate the sheets here so that I can check if there are any strange numbers that occur. Because we have sent many more than 12 patients each day a supply of medications to last until the May clinic, and because of the record number of patients we have seen, I have used much more medications than we had planned for. My hat is off to this crew. Everyone has pitched in and worked very hard. There are VERY FEW sharp words even when you have 16 people giving you orders, as we had last night when the reservoir valve caused water to come shooting out of the holding tank. Poor Dick had just stepped into the shower and everyone was calling for him for help, even on his cell phone.
Breakfast is on so I’ll wrap this up. I am not sure how much more time I will have to write to this blog from Haiti. We have been requested to have our bags and carry on luggage ready for overland transport to the Port-Au-Prince airport by diner time this evening. The airplane we will use to fly to PAP is rather small and cannot accommodate much more than our backpacks. I’ll need to get packed and ready and that might just include my laptop. I will be posting pictures of this mission after I get some at our picture party. I did not bring a camera in this mission. I would not have had time to use it. The weather forecast for Chicago and Peoria for the next few days sounds cold and snowy. As I read it, we can expect to see 7 inches or more of fresh snow. BRRRR! I only hope it does not mess up our flights, especially that last leg from Chicago to Peoria. Larry and Kay are flying from PAP to Miami to St Louis to Chicago and meeting up with us for the last flight into Peoria. They used frequent flyers miles on this trip and their itinerary is different that ours. So food on and I’m out of here. By the way, thanks for reading my blogging.
The night before last, many of the team played a card game called “Spoons”. It was a noisy bunch. Last night they played scrabble and it was a lot quieter. I spent some time on the roof watching the stars and airplanes overhead. I must get a star chart for here. We had another wonderful dinner of spaghetti with both red and white sauce. It seem strange to say that while the news coming from Haiti to the general public is about children eating mud cakes, we are eating so well here. If you ever get the time, reading about the poverty here in Haiti is sad but interesting and the poverty seems to be getting worse as he prices for corn and grain escalates due to the demand for it to make biofuel.
In a little while we will begin our last day of clinic. The gates will close at 10:00 or 10:30 AM and I hope we have the Haitians through the pharmacy line by noon. After lunch, I will have a crew of 6 people taking inventory for me. I use two in each room, one to count and the other to record on the sheets that I have prepared for them. After that, I’ll ask them to cover the inventory and otherwise protect the medications from dust and mice. I’ll tabulate the sheets here so that I can check if there are any strange numbers that occur. Because we have sent many more than 12 patients each day a supply of medications to last until the May clinic, and because of the record number of patients we have seen, I have used much more medications than we had planned for. My hat is off to this crew. Everyone has pitched in and worked very hard. There are VERY FEW sharp words even when you have 16 people giving you orders, as we had last night when the reservoir valve caused water to come shooting out of the holding tank. Poor Dick had just stepped into the shower and everyone was calling for him for help, even on his cell phone.
Breakfast is on so I’ll wrap this up. I am not sure how much more time I will have to write to this blog from Haiti. We have been requested to have our bags and carry on luggage ready for overland transport to the Port-Au-Prince airport by diner time this evening. The airplane we will use to fly to PAP is rather small and cannot accommodate much more than our backpacks. I’ll need to get packed and ready and that might just include my laptop. I will be posting pictures of this mission after I get some at our picture party. I did not bring a camera in this mission. I would not have had time to use it. The weather forecast for Chicago and Peoria for the next few days sounds cold and snowy. As I read it, we can expect to see 7 inches or more of fresh snow. BRRRR! I only hope it does not mess up our flights, especially that last leg from Chicago to Peoria. Larry and Kay are flying from PAP to Miami to St Louis to Chicago and meeting up with us for the last flight into Peoria. They used frequent flyers miles on this trip and their itinerary is different that ours. So food on and I’m out of here. By the way, thanks for reading my blogging.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday afternoon January 30, 2008
Just a few notes before I take my shower. I am really tired tonight. I do not know the patient count today. I hope the providers did not try to get to the 500 patient levels. I know we saw a large number of patients as the pharmacy was busy from start to finish. The rain last night seemed to have triggered a demand for cough syrup which, of course, we are out of. We are at the point where I hesitate to package more medications as I will have to unpack them tomorrow afternoon and inventory them. I will also need to print out the inventory count sheets for the people who will be helping me inventory. I know we treated a bad burn case today and used up the remainder of the hard pain meds. Garron was unable to do surgery today as his Haitian nurse anesthetist had her baby overnight. He had been dreading that event.
I, again, want to compliment my help in the pharmacy. Mary Hedges and Sharon Doran are doing just an OUTSTANDING job. They are even putting up with me. Many of you know just how hard that is to do sometimes-especially when I am tired. I did not sleep well again last night. I will be glad to get back to my own bed. My choice of beds, near the toilet/shower was not a good choice as the activity runs all night long-doors banging, lights coming on, etc. It will be interesting on the March team when there are many less men than women. I have already requested the third floor. I am especially thankful for my tower fan. I know, it is 17 degrees in Peoria as I write this but it is 90 degrees here now.
Not much news from home today. I did hear from my son today. I’m still hoping to hear from others. I understand we will have spaghetti for dinner this evening so I will go and take a shower and relax a bit before dinner. I will try to get more posted a little later. Bill just offered me a glass of wine. AHHH!
I, again, want to compliment my help in the pharmacy. Mary Hedges and Sharon Doran are doing just an OUTSTANDING job. They are even putting up with me. Many of you know just how hard that is to do sometimes-especially when I am tired. I did not sleep well again last night. I will be glad to get back to my own bed. My choice of beds, near the toilet/shower was not a good choice as the activity runs all night long-doors banging, lights coming on, etc. It will be interesting on the March team when there are many less men than women. I have already requested the third floor. I am especially thankful for my tower fan. I know, it is 17 degrees in Peoria as I write this but it is 90 degrees here now.
Not much news from home today. I did hear from my son today. I’m still hoping to hear from others. I understand we will have spaghetti for dinner this evening so I will go and take a shower and relax a bit before dinner. I will try to get more posted a little later. Bill just offered me a glass of wine. AHHH!
Tuesday January 29
It is 5: 15 pm and I am done. I am frightened to know the count but I suspect it was another record day. When the numbers are in I will let you know.
We are starting to run out of some medications. Not my favorite topic. We are out of steroid inhalers. There are some other meds but I will not bother you with them. OOOPs, the EDH electric power went off again and we need to fire ip the generator. Thank you Caterpillar tractor...
Some random thoughts:
This has taken me almost 1 hour as I have been interrupted about 10 times!!
For those of you who have been here will recall our friendly (?)watchdog. Well, Dick managed to awaken him about 12 midnight last night when he switched over from EDH (Electric Department of Haiti) to the generator as EDH had failed again. Any how, the dog was frightened and barked for almost 1/2 hour. Yes, I did not sleep well last night.
My two regular helpers in the pharmacy are doing very fantastic. I just hear we hit 495 patients today. Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think I would be doing drugs with Mary Hedges in Haiti?? Sorry Jay and family. I just had to put that in.
And as for Sharon Doran, I am not sure where to begin and where to end. I am sure her friends and family fully understand my dilemma. She treated me to a cold glass of wine at shift end tonight. She looks out for me.
In that same vein, my good biddies Debi Yandell and Jody & Chip Moodie are such a blessing. As many of you know, I am rather lost with out Donna, my wife, here to watch out for me and they are trying to substitute with scrubs etc.
News from Jane Gray is that she has a better tan than Donna but she misses you tanning with her. Sue Behrens and Kay Shank say hello and tell me every day how much they miss you-as if I don't.
Food has been great. Today's lunch was rice with a black bean sauce. Heavenly!!! Tonight, Larry is serving the Mexican Bomb." I hpe I have enough loperamide.
It is raining outside and the cool small of fresh rain is nice. I am sitting on Raj's throne (his usual internet station) because the air is blowing stronger than in my usual corner.
Carla read what I wrote about her and has approved. A side note to her family, “Thank you” for sharing her with us. She is a WONDERFUL person and such a big help to everyone here. I'll bet you miss her there in Indiana!
The birthday girl is getting quite a tan bt now she is another year older. Dr Wendy has a sun burned back from today. Dr Bill gets tired about 2:30 each day and we can tell by the way we cannot read his handwriting. It is just more to tease him about.
Enough of my rambling, off to the shower, if it is open then supper, the dreaded meeting and bed. We had a new shipment of wine today. Yeah!!! It is POURING down rain right now. Everybody is back from the beach and the rain is blocking the internet so this will have to be posted later.
Itis now 5:30 AM Rained a long time last night. We lost EDH power due to a fuse that blew out on our service outside. The generator ran all night and still going strong. I'l send this off now and write more later.
We are starting to run out of some medications. Not my favorite topic. We are out of steroid inhalers. There are some other meds but I will not bother you with them. OOOPs, the EDH electric power went off again and we need to fire ip the generator. Thank you Caterpillar tractor...
Some random thoughts:
This has taken me almost 1 hour as I have been interrupted about 10 times!!
For those of you who have been here will recall our friendly (?)watchdog. Well, Dick managed to awaken him about 12 midnight last night when he switched over from EDH (Electric Department of Haiti) to the generator as EDH had failed again. Any how, the dog was frightened and barked for almost 1/2 hour. Yes, I did not sleep well last night.
My two regular helpers in the pharmacy are doing very fantastic. I just hear we hit 495 patients today. Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think I would be doing drugs with Mary Hedges in Haiti?? Sorry Jay and family. I just had to put that in.
And as for Sharon Doran, I am not sure where to begin and where to end. I am sure her friends and family fully understand my dilemma. She treated me to a cold glass of wine at shift end tonight. She looks out for me.
In that same vein, my good biddies Debi Yandell and Jody & Chip Moodie are such a blessing. As many of you know, I am rather lost with out Donna, my wife, here to watch out for me and they are trying to substitute with scrubs etc.
News from Jane Gray is that she has a better tan than Donna but she misses you tanning with her. Sue Behrens and Kay Shank say hello and tell me every day how much they miss you-as if I don't.
Food has been great. Today's lunch was rice with a black bean sauce. Heavenly!!! Tonight, Larry is serving the Mexican Bomb." I hpe I have enough loperamide.
It is raining outside and the cool small of fresh rain is nice. I am sitting on Raj's throne (his usual internet station) because the air is blowing stronger than in my usual corner.
Carla read what I wrote about her and has approved. A side note to her family, “Thank you” for sharing her with us. She is a WONDERFUL person and such a big help to everyone here. I'll bet you miss her there in Indiana!
The birthday girl is getting quite a tan bt now she is another year older. Dr Wendy has a sun burned back from today. Dr Bill gets tired about 2:30 each day and we can tell by the way we cannot read his handwriting. It is just more to tease him about.
Enough of my rambling, off to the shower, if it is open then supper, the dreaded meeting and bed. We had a new shipment of wine today. Yeah!!! It is POURING down rain right now. Everybody is back from the beach and the rain is blocking the internet so this will have to be posted later.
Itis now 5:30 AM Rained a long time last night. We lost EDH power due to a fuse that blew out on our service outside. The generator ran all night and still going strong. I'l send this off now and write more later.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday January 28, 2008 6 PM
We saw 488 patients today. No wonder I am exhausted. I have had two small glasses of white wine and one beer. Dinner in 1/2 hour and then, a short meeting-I hope, and off to bed. I did not plan to write to the blog tonight but I wanted to share that number with you. I do not know how we are getting through this but I can tell you that my helpers, Mary, Sharon, Carla and Debbie are keeping me sane and on track. Found the 80,000 HCTZ today that I thought were some where or another. Box was turned around with label towards the wall. I am still upset at Lynx Air. Mark and I placed an emergeny order with MAP USA this morning and we hope to have it in Peoria on February 14. The next question is how to get it to Haiti. Any one with any ideas, please shout them out. Time to get out into the cool breeze. I am quite stinky!
Monday morning, January 28, 2008
Hello from Haiti.
It was nice to have a restful day yesterday; I know we all needed it. I spent some time on Saturday night up on the roof. The moon was late in rising and several of us just stretched out as star gazed. It was beautiful. I have got to bring back that star chart so we can tell what we are looking at. I did the same last night, but only for ½ hour.
Up early Sunday morning and we had a nice prayer service on the terrace. Some great readings, some words on the reading by Papa Dick, some great sharing by team members and an agape sharing of wine/water and some bread. After that, we enjoyed a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Yum! After that, it was just relaxing. Some team members wandered over to the beach. I took some time and read one of the books that I brought along and I think I even caught a bit of a nap.
Around 2 PM we took to the road and headed for the Cap Lamondue hotel. It was filled with police, probably from Port-Au-Prince who were in town for Carnival. There were also several Haitian families at the pool. The view was as beautiful as ever. For those of you who have been here before, the ship that is stuck on the sand bar and has been there for as long as I can remember has been cannibalized even further and may soon be nothing but a memory. Dinner was typical Haitian. The manager told us that the 7 orders for goat were burned so 7 of us had to make another choice. The food arrived in shifts and most of the entries were cold. My conch ended up to be garlic shrimp. Oh well, It so Haitian!!!
Jacmel was packed with people and we had to divert from our planned route home due to the crowds. I have been riding in the front seat of Son-Son’s tap-tap. It is quite a treat to watch how careful he is with his driving. You would not believe it until you have seen it. People seem to jump out in front of you, cars and motorbikes pass you with a blare of horns in an area where there are on coming cars and trucks. On coming traffic is frequently on your side of the road. There are no lane markings so the road is fare game and not for the faint of heart.
We are expecting that many of our Haitian employees will be hung over today... Boyer stayed out late on Saturday night and was a bit under the weather yesterday. I wonder how he will be today. We have yet to have rain. It got cloudy yesterday while we were at the pool. I know my wife will be thinking that it is always cloudy on the day we go to the pool!
I spent some time talking with Carla on Sunday. She told me she had read my comment about her on this blog. She is a vey caring person with long red hair and her face got red when she told me about the comment. I’ll have to look back to see just what I said. There is more about her to tell. She has had to drop out of the last semester of her nursing school in order to take care of her mother who has been sick. Carla’s family is taking care of her mother in her absence. Carla comes from a small family but very many of her relatives live nearby. Carla’s family runs a printing business in Indiana. She even volunteered to come back on the March trip until I told her the current price for the air fare. I would love to have her along as she is a very big help to me in the pharmacy all the while keeping the lab going, giving the shots, and filing the dossiers for Barb. Unfortunately, she was given a rhum punch drink instead of a fruit punch drink at the hotel and wisely refused it. And Carla did not swim in the ocean or in the pool. I do not want to get her in trouble with her family by reporting otherwise. But it is tempting! Ha.
Today is Beth Kramer’s birthday so there may be another cake for tonight’s meal. Our internet connection is very slow again today. It was like that last night. It starts out fast and then you wait as if it were a dial up connection. It is almost time for breakfast. I have to get Garron’s meds for his surgical patients ready. So, I will close this for another time and try to post it for you.
It was nice to have a restful day yesterday; I know we all needed it. I spent some time on Saturday night up on the roof. The moon was late in rising and several of us just stretched out as star gazed. It was beautiful. I have got to bring back that star chart so we can tell what we are looking at. I did the same last night, but only for ½ hour.
Up early Sunday morning and we had a nice prayer service on the terrace. Some great readings, some words on the reading by Papa Dick, some great sharing by team members and an agape sharing of wine/water and some bread. After that, we enjoyed a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Yum! After that, it was just relaxing. Some team members wandered over to the beach. I took some time and read one of the books that I brought along and I think I even caught a bit of a nap.
Around 2 PM we took to the road and headed for the Cap Lamondue hotel. It was filled with police, probably from Port-Au-Prince who were in town for Carnival. There were also several Haitian families at the pool. The view was as beautiful as ever. For those of you who have been here before, the ship that is stuck on the sand bar and has been there for as long as I can remember has been cannibalized even further and may soon be nothing but a memory. Dinner was typical Haitian. The manager told us that the 7 orders for goat were burned so 7 of us had to make another choice. The food arrived in shifts and most of the entries were cold. My conch ended up to be garlic shrimp. Oh well, It so Haitian!!!
Jacmel was packed with people and we had to divert from our planned route home due to the crowds. I have been riding in the front seat of Son-Son’s tap-tap. It is quite a treat to watch how careful he is with his driving. You would not believe it until you have seen it. People seem to jump out in front of you, cars and motorbikes pass you with a blare of horns in an area where there are on coming cars and trucks. On coming traffic is frequently on your side of the road. There are no lane markings so the road is fare game and not for the faint of heart.
We are expecting that many of our Haitian employees will be hung over today... Boyer stayed out late on Saturday night and was a bit under the weather yesterday. I wonder how he will be today. We have yet to have rain. It got cloudy yesterday while we were at the pool. I know my wife will be thinking that it is always cloudy on the day we go to the pool!
I spent some time talking with Carla on Sunday. She told me she had read my comment about her on this blog. She is a vey caring person with long red hair and her face got red when she told me about the comment. I’ll have to look back to see just what I said. There is more about her to tell. She has had to drop out of the last semester of her nursing school in order to take care of her mother who has been sick. Carla’s family is taking care of her mother in her absence. Carla comes from a small family but very many of her relatives live nearby. Carla’s family runs a printing business in Indiana. She even volunteered to come back on the March trip until I told her the current price for the air fare. I would love to have her along as she is a very big help to me in the pharmacy all the while keeping the lab going, giving the shots, and filing the dossiers for Barb. Unfortunately, she was given a rhum punch drink instead of a fruit punch drink at the hotel and wisely refused it. And Carla did not swim in the ocean or in the pool. I do not want to get her in trouble with her family by reporting otherwise. But it is tempting! Ha.
Today is Beth Kramer’s birthday so there may be another cake for tonight’s meal. Our internet connection is very slow again today. It was like that last night. It starts out fast and then you wait as if it were a dial up connection. It is almost time for breakfast. I have to get Garron’s meds for his surgical patients ready. So, I will close this for another time and try to post it for you.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Sunday January 26, 2008
Just back from the beach and in need of a shower. We only saw 217 patients today and were done around 12:15 PM. Not bad. I sure have great help from everyone. Ti Moulage beach was crowded with lots of Haitians, UN personnel, and visitors. You can feel the economy is improved. There are now two restaurants on the beach and they were full. We had a problem with the food as Michelle, the lobster man, did not serve us lobster for the beach buffet. He, Dick, and Boyer got in to a heated argument. Otherwise, the fish, rice and beans, fried plantains and the Haitian fish (What kind you ask? They have no idea so fish is fish. Mine had a green tail if hat helps you). Oh yes, and the heads and eyes were still on the fish. Are you still hungry? The fish were also quite full of small bones this time. It was nice to relax and shop. We had over 6 vendors to make our selection from. Yes, Donna, I did not but ANYTHING. Your good buddy, the artist, was so disappointed not to see you. He came up to me right away looking for you! Ha!
So this will be short. I have to help Kay get ready for tomorrows prayer service and several people want to get on the internet. Love from Haiti
So this will be short. I have to help Kay get ready for tomorrows prayer service and several people want to get on the internet. Love from Haiti
Saturday morning January 26
Hello from Haiti!
After a good nights sleep I am not quite as mad as I am sad. Very early yesterday, morning, one of my room mates, Raj. Decided it was time to get up. That woke me up. I waited till Raj finished in the bathroom, and then I got up, washed up, and got dressed. Imagine my surprise when I liked at the clock and it was 3:30 AM. So I lay back down and never did get back to sleep. So last night, after another great meal and our usual meeting, I was in bed by 8:45 PM and feel more rested today.
I know that this clinic, or any clinic for that matter, is not about patient numbers but is about serving those Haitians who come to us for care. FOTCOH has developed a monster in that we have patients returning clinic after clinic for refills of medication who still think they need to be seen by a provider in order to get more medicine. During this particular clinic, we have tried to establish a new procedure where some of our providers do a check on the patients and send them directly to pharmacy for refills and we give them a two clinic supply of medications. This new system is not a big hit with the Haitians as they complain about new problems AFTER they are given their refills. Another important reason is that the next team, for the March mission, has only 15 volunteers. They will have enough on their hands during that mission so we are trying to lighten their burden. Incidentally, I will be returning on that mission as there was no other pharmacist available. We are trying to recruit more pharmacists and we would appreciate help in spreading the word to any other pharmacist you might know. So, as you might suspect, the conversations between my pharmacy interpreters and the patients gets a bit heated and loud. It makes me glad, sometimes, that I do not speak Kreole so I can’t tell what they are calling me!
Back to patient numbers, yesterdays count was 435. Yes, folks, that is not a misprint. I do not believe that I have ever been part of a mission that saw over 400 patients before. In addition, we had a visit from the Haitian Connection people from Peoria who were on their way home to Peoria from working in Bodaire Haiti. That is way up in the mountains near the border of the Dominican Republic. We are getting tight on some medications. This problem with Lynx Air is serious and forces me to be creative and also to say sorry we do not have the medications. Sadly, it is Garron’s surgical meds, some comfort items such as stool softeners and eye drops, some baby vitamins, and some dandruff shampoo (that is a big problem here and the head is usually full of infection).
This morning, I am on the east side of the clinic watching a lot of storm clouds blocking the sunrise and heading this way. We may have rain at the beach this afternoon. We plan to shut down at noon and head for the beach around 1:45. Tomorrow, after a prayer service, a special breakfast, and a little rest, we will head for the pool at the Cap Lamondue Hotel for R & R.
I must say a word about my wonderful helpers this year. I was a bit fearful as the mission approached because my normal helper, Carol Steiner, would not be on this mission. However, Sharon Doran had helped last July and I was sure that Mary Hedges would do well there also. To my most pleasant surprise, they are not only doing well, they are doing SUPER well. We do get help from Carla Haycox, our nursing student who is doing the lab and giving my shots. I keep teasing her that she is doing my wife’s job and she just smiles and nods. Debbie Yandell, on of our triage nurses, also comes to help when triage is done. Chip Moodie and Jane Gray are assisting in pill packing. Oh my, the beautiful sun has burst through the clouds and I know that this will frustrate the English majors, but I had to tell you of it’s beauty.
It is time for breakfast and I MUST get a jump on the day as I left the pharmacy in shambles last night to rush to the internet to find out about my shipments. So I have a mess at the start. Everyone is well here. Garron is another year older, after his birthday party last night, but I will not tell you how old he really is. I am enjoying your comments and would love to hear more from you. I was tickled to death to see a comment from my wife. Thank you dear, very much! Please know that all of you are in our thoughts and prayers!
After a good nights sleep I am not quite as mad as I am sad. Very early yesterday, morning, one of my room mates, Raj. Decided it was time to get up. That woke me up. I waited till Raj finished in the bathroom, and then I got up, washed up, and got dressed. Imagine my surprise when I liked at the clock and it was 3:30 AM. So I lay back down and never did get back to sleep. So last night, after another great meal and our usual meeting, I was in bed by 8:45 PM and feel more rested today.
I know that this clinic, or any clinic for that matter, is not about patient numbers but is about serving those Haitians who come to us for care. FOTCOH has developed a monster in that we have patients returning clinic after clinic for refills of medication who still think they need to be seen by a provider in order to get more medicine. During this particular clinic, we have tried to establish a new procedure where some of our providers do a check on the patients and send them directly to pharmacy for refills and we give them a two clinic supply of medications. This new system is not a big hit with the Haitians as they complain about new problems AFTER they are given their refills. Another important reason is that the next team, for the March mission, has only 15 volunteers. They will have enough on their hands during that mission so we are trying to lighten their burden. Incidentally, I will be returning on that mission as there was no other pharmacist available. We are trying to recruit more pharmacists and we would appreciate help in spreading the word to any other pharmacist you might know. So, as you might suspect, the conversations between my pharmacy interpreters and the patients gets a bit heated and loud. It makes me glad, sometimes, that I do not speak Kreole so I can’t tell what they are calling me!
Back to patient numbers, yesterdays count was 435. Yes, folks, that is not a misprint. I do not believe that I have ever been part of a mission that saw over 400 patients before. In addition, we had a visit from the Haitian Connection people from Peoria who were on their way home to Peoria from working in Bodaire Haiti. That is way up in the mountains near the border of the Dominican Republic. We are getting tight on some medications. This problem with Lynx Air is serious and forces me to be creative and also to say sorry we do not have the medications. Sadly, it is Garron’s surgical meds, some comfort items such as stool softeners and eye drops, some baby vitamins, and some dandruff shampoo (that is a big problem here and the head is usually full of infection).
This morning, I am on the east side of the clinic watching a lot of storm clouds blocking the sunrise and heading this way. We may have rain at the beach this afternoon. We plan to shut down at noon and head for the beach around 1:45. Tomorrow, after a prayer service, a special breakfast, and a little rest, we will head for the pool at the Cap Lamondue Hotel for R & R.
I must say a word about my wonderful helpers this year. I was a bit fearful as the mission approached because my normal helper, Carol Steiner, would not be on this mission. However, Sharon Doran had helped last July and I was sure that Mary Hedges would do well there also. To my most pleasant surprise, they are not only doing well, they are doing SUPER well. We do get help from Carla Haycox, our nursing student who is doing the lab and giving my shots. I keep teasing her that she is doing my wife’s job and she just smiles and nods. Debbie Yandell, on of our triage nurses, also comes to help when triage is done. Chip Moodie and Jane Gray are assisting in pill packing. Oh my, the beautiful sun has burst through the clouds and I know that this will frustrate the English majors, but I had to tell you of it’s beauty.
It is time for breakfast and I MUST get a jump on the day as I left the pharmacy in shambles last night to rush to the internet to find out about my shipments. So I have a mess at the start. Everyone is well here. Garron is another year older, after his birthday party last night, but I will not tell you how old he really is. I am enjoying your comments and would love to hear more from you. I was tickled to death to see a comment from my wife. Thank you dear, very much! Please know that all of you are in our thoughts and prayers!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday afternoon January 25 5:11PM
I am boiling mad. I have just ended another day of over 350 patients-maybe even over 400 and I check my email before dinner-with a glass od cold Sauvignon Blanc wine or two. Incidentally, Jean Michel,one of our main Haitian employees and a Mormon minister, has joined me in hoisting a glass of wine. I nearly dropped the bottle when he asked for it. Ha! Back to the mad. On December 26, I shipped 10 cases of medications to Lynx Air and they got them on January 2 BUT they are still in Fort Lauderdale as they are "backed up" from the holidays. We needed those medications NOW not months later. I wish I were in the States to call them and vent my anger. I would never have dreamed that our meds would be this delayed. You can imagine my tone when I call them next week when I am back in Fort Lauderdale. WE HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER WAY. On the good news side, Dr.. Matha Willi, Dr Patel, Pharmacist Tom Rickey. Sister Rachel Bergschneider and some others stopped by today on their way home from their mission in the Haiti mountains. I ran out of the pharmacy, squirt gun in hand, and shocked everyone as I sprayed Martha with cold water. It was a riot!!! That team had a great mission and it was good to visit with them. It is an early supper tonight so I will stop and continue to boil!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday evening January 23, 2008
It is almost dinner time and I am going to start this now and finish after dinner. I have just had a nice shower, a glass of white wine, a few peanuts, and about ½ hour of just sitting at the end of my work day. Life is good-almost.
We are again experiencing internet problems. After we got out on the net this morning, we again experienced the problem of getting out and seeing the indication that there is a problem with our account. Help is supposed to be on the way, yet tonight. I’ll have to wait and see on that one.
Last night, I joined the boys on the porch about 8 PM and we finally struggled off to bed at 10:30 pm so it was a very short night. To top that off, we smoked a very nice Cuban cigar. I enjoyed the smoke but I can still taste it in my mouth. Last night, I brushed my teeth 3 times and the taste stayed with me. Bet you are laughing at me for that!!
On Tuesday, we did see 317 patients plus about 20 of Garron’s surgical patients. I am not sure, at this moment, the count for today. It was estimated in the millions but we had to cut off the estimator’s beer as it is affecting his estimates. I suspect it will be near to Tuesday’s total
.
Lots of screaming kids today made for one of the nosier clinics I can remember. So far, the only mosquitoes we encountered were on the bus in Port-Au-Prince. We did see a bat last night. Maybe he is keeping the bugs in check. The entire crew’s health remains great. Debbie’s ankle swells up in the evenings but is down in the morning. Sharon Doran seems to attract insect bites and we are wondering why she is the only one bothered by that. No speculation, please!
We have had interesting cases galore. I hesitate to write about them. I do not want you to worry. I do not want you to think about all of the sickness, stress, and conditions here. We had one small baby with HIV and that was a tear jerker. Today, we had a VERY cute 18 month old girl in the pharmacy line. She has a little backpack, a darling dress, pigtails with bows, and beautiful large brown eyes. Sharon beckoned to the child and she ran into Sharon’s arms. That lasted a short while and when I tried to get a picture; our girl decided that Mom was where she wanted to be. We tried for several minutes before we could get her to look at the camera. We put her down, to fill her order and she promptly decided to come back into the pharmacy and sit right in the middle of the traffic lane. That is like sitting at the center of the busiest intersection in your home town at supper time. The traffic did not bother her at all. She played with her stuffed toy, tried to make eye contact with Sharon, her mother, and even me. That was a real treat. We had several large families today. I think there were about 8 sets of 7 family members. That is a challenge for the pharmacy as well as the interpreters. We were not done tonight until sometime after 5. There was some sort of a crisis involving treatments late in the afternoon that slowed down the providers.
It is now early on Thursday morning so I’ll post this to blogspot. AsI told you earlier, our internet help is on the way and he arrived after supper and gave us the password so that we could log on. It seems that Hughesnet noticed the increased activity on this account and needed to check it out. I will help Dick to store it in a safe place. I need to write more but I want this out for you now.
We are again experiencing internet problems. After we got out on the net this morning, we again experienced the problem of getting out and seeing the indication that there is a problem with our account. Help is supposed to be on the way, yet tonight. I’ll have to wait and see on that one.
Last night, I joined the boys on the porch about 8 PM and we finally struggled off to bed at 10:30 pm so it was a very short night. To top that off, we smoked a very nice Cuban cigar. I enjoyed the smoke but I can still taste it in my mouth. Last night, I brushed my teeth 3 times and the taste stayed with me. Bet you are laughing at me for that!!
On Tuesday, we did see 317 patients plus about 20 of Garron’s surgical patients. I am not sure, at this moment, the count for today. It was estimated in the millions but we had to cut off the estimator’s beer as it is affecting his estimates. I suspect it will be near to Tuesday’s total
.
Lots of screaming kids today made for one of the nosier clinics I can remember. So far, the only mosquitoes we encountered were on the bus in Port-Au-Prince. We did see a bat last night. Maybe he is keeping the bugs in check. The entire crew’s health remains great. Debbie’s ankle swells up in the evenings but is down in the morning. Sharon Doran seems to attract insect bites and we are wondering why she is the only one bothered by that. No speculation, please!
We have had interesting cases galore. I hesitate to write about them. I do not want you to worry. I do not want you to think about all of the sickness, stress, and conditions here. We had one small baby with HIV and that was a tear jerker. Today, we had a VERY cute 18 month old girl in the pharmacy line. She has a little backpack, a darling dress, pigtails with bows, and beautiful large brown eyes. Sharon beckoned to the child and she ran into Sharon’s arms. That lasted a short while and when I tried to get a picture; our girl decided that Mom was where she wanted to be. We tried for several minutes before we could get her to look at the camera. We put her down, to fill her order and she promptly decided to come back into the pharmacy and sit right in the middle of the traffic lane. That is like sitting at the center of the busiest intersection in your home town at supper time. The traffic did not bother her at all. She played with her stuffed toy, tried to make eye contact with Sharon, her mother, and even me. That was a real treat. We had several large families today. I think there were about 8 sets of 7 family members. That is a challenge for the pharmacy as well as the interpreters. We were not done tonight until sometime after 5. There was some sort of a crisis involving treatments late in the afternoon that slowed down the providers.
It is now early on Thursday morning so I’ll post this to blogspot. AsI told you earlier, our internet help is on the way and he arrived after supper and gave us the password so that we could log on. It seems that Hughesnet noticed the increased activity on this account and needed to check it out. I will help Dick to store it in a safe place. I need to write more but I want this out for you now.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Wednesday update January 2008
Tuesday morning January 22
Back again at the computer in the quiet of another morning dawn’s light. I had a restful night’s sleep as I went to bed just after 9 PM for a change. I was very tired after a very busy day here at the clinic.
Fist of all, I can report that my wife had her eye surgery yesterday and it went very well. Papa Dick allowed me to use the cell phone and I was able to call her just as she got back from the hospital. That surprised her very much and relieved my worries here. It seems strange that a cell phone call is the least expensive way to call.
After a great coffee cake breakfast by Larry Shank we began to tackle the task of setting up the clinic. Dr Raj and Sharon Doran helped me at the start and after lunch the rest of the team pitched in to help. We were able to package almost all of the drugs that are pre-packaged as our fast movers by 3:30 PM. In the seven or eight times tat I have been here, I have never been as ready to open as I am this morning. However, we are missing the six cases of product that I shipped out on December 26, 2007 and we will try to contact Lynx Air this morning to see what the problem is. I am very concerned about that.
Many of the team members went to the beach yesterday afternoon for a swim. As usual, I stayed behind to finish up and clean up from our set up. My goodness, that was a lot of up’s. Ha! Later in the afternoon some of the group of us who stayed behind walked up to Son-Son’s bar for an outing. For those of you who have been here before will know that is a rare thing for me to go to Son-Son’s. On my first visit to Haiti and my first trip to Son Son’s I lost the bridge to my glasses in the dirt and never did find it. So I resorted to try to make do by putting a band-aid on my nose so the wire bracket would not hurt as much. I was rescued by a local eye doctor who had come for a visit. He took my glasses back to his office and repaired them for me. So going to Son-Son’s is not among my favorite experiences. This time, we were met by the group who had gone to the beach and we had a nice time. A pick up truck pulled up to the bar, with a load of blancs. Blanc is the name we are given by the Haitians as a team of respect because they do not know your name. The driver of the truck was Michelle. She runs the orphanage nearby and has adopted the child named Cristala Belle. Christala Belle was the baby born in the latrine last July when we were here and we cared for the baby. Michelle will be bringing the baby in for a check up and I am vey happy about that.
Last night’s dinner was chicken pot pie and I managed to wolf down two helpings. I must have been hungry. I realize I forgot to tell you that our supper on Monday was one of my favorites. I enjoy the rice and beans and the tomato-onion sauce that is put over it. We finished up the left-over’s at lunch on Monday. Can you tell that I have not been down to breakfast?
This is quite an experienced team. There are only three people here for their first visit. Dr Wendy, Dr Raj, and Carla, our student nurse are the rookies. However, they have jumped right in to the mix and I know that they will do well. There are no strangers here. Only friends that can take the teasing. With that in mind, I must report that Jodie Moody was the recipient of the “Monkey Butt” award. This was given in recognition of her very bad rash that she acquired in May 2006.
It is time to eat breakfast and get to work. The internet satellite is down so I will not be able to transmit this until later. Darn, we can’t call the cable company to complain because we can’t get a dial tone to an outside line..
Here I am, back at you at noon. The satellite is still not working so that we can get out onto the internet. The lunch time gossip is that we have already let over 200 people through the gate so we will have a big day. The other news report is that there was an accident on the road between Port-Au-Prince and Jacmel last night and three people were killed and an unknown number are injured. As you know, that is the road that we were on the night before. We rode, in fear of such an event the entire route. We are still suffering from the absence of the six cases of medications that I shipped out on December 26 and delivered to Lynx Air in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 2, 2008. We are attempting to contact the people of Lynx Air to get our shipment here. It contains medications for surgery, baby vitamins, and some other very important items. It breaks our hearts to tell the people today that we do not have what they need on hand-especially on the very first day of clinic. We MUST look for other ways to get the medications here in time.
It is humid, warm, and sunny here as I take a lunchtime break. We called back to the November team leader this morning and she was busy shoveling snow off of her driveway. I am very pleased to report that the team is working very well and adjusting to the work load. It is always a little rough on the first day of clinic. The internet is still not up so I’ll get back to my post and publish this later.
Hello again. It is now early Wednesday morning and the internet connection is back. I will catch up with the blog later today but I’ll publish this now. What’s with this snow and cold in Peoria???
Back again at the computer in the quiet of another morning dawn’s light. I had a restful night’s sleep as I went to bed just after 9 PM for a change. I was very tired after a very busy day here at the clinic.
Fist of all, I can report that my wife had her eye surgery yesterday and it went very well. Papa Dick allowed me to use the cell phone and I was able to call her just as she got back from the hospital. That surprised her very much and relieved my worries here. It seems strange that a cell phone call is the least expensive way to call.
After a great coffee cake breakfast by Larry Shank we began to tackle the task of setting up the clinic. Dr Raj and Sharon Doran helped me at the start and after lunch the rest of the team pitched in to help. We were able to package almost all of the drugs that are pre-packaged as our fast movers by 3:30 PM. In the seven or eight times tat I have been here, I have never been as ready to open as I am this morning. However, we are missing the six cases of product that I shipped out on December 26, 2007 and we will try to contact Lynx Air this morning to see what the problem is. I am very concerned about that.
Many of the team members went to the beach yesterday afternoon for a swim. As usual, I stayed behind to finish up and clean up from our set up. My goodness, that was a lot of up’s. Ha! Later in the afternoon some of the group of us who stayed behind walked up to Son-Son’s bar for an outing. For those of you who have been here before will know that is a rare thing for me to go to Son-Son’s. On my first visit to Haiti and my first trip to Son Son’s I lost the bridge to my glasses in the dirt and never did find it. So I resorted to try to make do by putting a band-aid on my nose so the wire bracket would not hurt as much. I was rescued by a local eye doctor who had come for a visit. He took my glasses back to his office and repaired them for me. So going to Son-Son’s is not among my favorite experiences. This time, we were met by the group who had gone to the beach and we had a nice time. A pick up truck pulled up to the bar, with a load of blancs. Blanc is the name we are given by the Haitians as a team of respect because they do not know your name. The driver of the truck was Michelle. She runs the orphanage nearby and has adopted the child named Cristala Belle. Christala Belle was the baby born in the latrine last July when we were here and we cared for the baby. Michelle will be bringing the baby in for a check up and I am vey happy about that.
Last night’s dinner was chicken pot pie and I managed to wolf down two helpings. I must have been hungry. I realize I forgot to tell you that our supper on Monday was one of my favorites. I enjoy the rice and beans and the tomato-onion sauce that is put over it. We finished up the left-over’s at lunch on Monday. Can you tell that I have not been down to breakfast?
This is quite an experienced team. There are only three people here for their first visit. Dr Wendy, Dr Raj, and Carla, our student nurse are the rookies. However, they have jumped right in to the mix and I know that they will do well. There are no strangers here. Only friends that can take the teasing. With that in mind, I must report that Jodie Moody was the recipient of the “Monkey Butt” award. This was given in recognition of her very bad rash that she acquired in May 2006.
It is time to eat breakfast and get to work. The internet satellite is down so I will not be able to transmit this until later. Darn, we can’t call the cable company to complain because we can’t get a dial tone to an outside line..
Here I am, back at you at noon. The satellite is still not working so that we can get out onto the internet. The lunch time gossip is that we have already let over 200 people through the gate so we will have a big day. The other news report is that there was an accident on the road between Port-Au-Prince and Jacmel last night and three people were killed and an unknown number are injured. As you know, that is the road that we were on the night before. We rode, in fear of such an event the entire route. We are still suffering from the absence of the six cases of medications that I shipped out on December 26 and delivered to Lynx Air in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 2, 2008. We are attempting to contact the people of Lynx Air to get our shipment here. It contains medications for surgery, baby vitamins, and some other very important items. It breaks our hearts to tell the people today that we do not have what they need on hand-especially on the very first day of clinic. We MUST look for other ways to get the medications here in time.
It is humid, warm, and sunny here as I take a lunchtime break. We called back to the November team leader this morning and she was busy shoveling snow off of her driveway. I am very pleased to report that the team is working very well and adjusting to the work load. It is always a little rough on the first day of clinic. The internet is still not up so I’ll get back to my post and publish this later.
Hello again. It is now early Wednesday morning and the internet connection is back. I will catch up with the blog later today but I’ll publish this now. What’s with this snow and cold in Peoria???
Monday, January 21, 2008
Monday morning in Haiti January 2008
Hello again from Haiti at sunrise. We have returned to Cyvadier, Haiti for another medical mission to the people of this area. We left Peoria, Illinois at midnight on January 19, 2008. The temperature was 1 or 2 degrees below zero and we were dressed for Haiti and not for Illinois. So we were quite cold as we loaded our 40 or so bags and totes into the bus. The ride to Chicago started out with a lot of excited chatter but it was soon quiet as everyone tried to rest. Surprisingly, I managed to sleep for about 1 hour of the 2 ½ hour trip. At 2:30 we arrived at O’Hare airport. We scrounged up 4 large baggage carts and hauled our freight into the lobby by the international ticket counter. We have learned, over the years, that there is one of the digital scales available for us to check the weight of our bags. Many were overweight and some under weight so we were able to redistribute some items to keep under the 50 pound weight limit. At 4:15 AM, the American Airlines people were ready to check us in and we had all done that and passed through security by 5:00 AM. The wait at the security line was a mere 20 minutes, even at that time of the morning and with 3 lanes open. It is always amazing to see how people act when going through the security check point. Some folks just do not have a clue, will not read the posted signs, and will not listen or follow directions.
After a delicious cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast from the airport MacDonald's we boarded the plane at 5:45 AM and had a pleasant flight to Miami. I managed another hour of sleep during the 3 ½ hour flight. It was raining and 66 degrees in Miami. We arrived at terminal E and our connecting flight was in terminal D so we only had a short tram ride in from terminal E and a short 15 minute walk to terminal D. We normally go out of terminal A which would have been a 20 or 30 minute hike. In terminal D, we were pleasantly surprised to find a Monitor bar. After 2 of those in a row, I needed to find some food. The wait for a Uno’s sausage pizza was almost 20 minutes and I am sorry to report that it was not worth the wait. The pizza was undercooked and quite blah! Our flight left Miami on time at 2 PM, at least, on time out of the gate. We taxied for a very long, slow time and were finally airborne. We arrived in Port-Au-Prince at 4:10 PM, passed through immigration and into baggage claim with our usual speed. Our baggage was coming off the conveyor belt as we entered the baggage claim area and Boyer was there to greet us. After all the bags arrived we were short on of Garron Lukas’s bags. The rest of us breezed through custom with out stopping and made it to the front door. We were halted there for several minutes to collect the group for our assault on the crowd at the airport’s exit doors. We were met bay several our Haitian employees who helped us to keep the crowd of Haitians, who were trying to help us in order to make money, away from our bags. There were two buses waiting for us and, after about 5 minutes of Haitian debate we piled all of our bags and carry-on’s into one bus and all of us into the second bus. Then, much to our frustration, we sat for 1 hour waiting for word from Garron about his bag. As dusk approached the mosquitoes invaded the bus and we spent a lot of time swatting at them. Finally, Garron arrived and we were off at twilight through Port-au-Prince at 6PM. Our trip through Port-Au-Prince was the usual stop and go, strange smells, crowds of people on both sides of the road, and wild and crazy drivers of cars, buses, trucks, and hundreds of motorbikes. The trip over the mountains was uneventful. You get used to the smell of hot transmission fluid and the smell of burning brakes. There was a full moon so some of the scenes of the mountains were picturesque. At about 8:40 PM we arrived in Jacmel and ran into Karnival so we had to back up and try another route through the city. Our driver did pretty well until he neared the iron market and we were stopped by a rah-rah band of about 300 fans. After a short wait, we arrived at the clinic a little after 9 and the bags were right behind us. Supper was at 10 and some relaxing until close to midnight, then it was off to bed for this guy. I awoke at my usual 5:00 AM and that catches you up to this moment.
Today, we will unpack our bags, the many cases of supplies and medications that have arrived, and set up the clinic for our patients. There are about 100 outside at the present and I am sure there will be many more by Tuesday when we will open. This is a very experienced team so we should have a good clinic in terms of serving the Haitian people. Our clinic is fully operational at the present. There are no known water of generator problems. The weather forecast is for humid days with highs of 85 and lows of 73 degrees. That will be a blessing. I am enjoying a beautiful sunrise as I write this on the third floor balcony, in a rocking chair. The goats who live in the property east of us are crying. Last night, one of the baby goats sounded so sad as we sat here and listened to its cries.
Thanks for reading this blog. Please keep us in your prayers as we are praying for you at each meal and through out the days. As always, your comments are welcome. Bonde bene ou!
After a delicious cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast from the airport MacDonald's we boarded the plane at 5:45 AM and had a pleasant flight to Miami. I managed another hour of sleep during the 3 ½ hour flight. It was raining and 66 degrees in Miami. We arrived at terminal E and our connecting flight was in terminal D so we only had a short tram ride in from terminal E and a short 15 minute walk to terminal D. We normally go out of terminal A which would have been a 20 or 30 minute hike. In terminal D, we were pleasantly surprised to find a Monitor bar. After 2 of those in a row, I needed to find some food. The wait for a Uno’s sausage pizza was almost 20 minutes and I am sorry to report that it was not worth the wait. The pizza was undercooked and quite blah! Our flight left Miami on time at 2 PM, at least, on time out of the gate. We taxied for a very long, slow time and were finally airborne. We arrived in Port-Au-Prince at 4:10 PM, passed through immigration and into baggage claim with our usual speed. Our baggage was coming off the conveyor belt as we entered the baggage claim area and Boyer was there to greet us. After all the bags arrived we were short on of Garron Lukas’s bags. The rest of us breezed through custom with out stopping and made it to the front door. We were halted there for several minutes to collect the group for our assault on the crowd at the airport’s exit doors. We were met bay several our Haitian employees who helped us to keep the crowd of Haitians, who were trying to help us in order to make money, away from our bags. There were two buses waiting for us and, after about 5 minutes of Haitian debate we piled all of our bags and carry-on’s into one bus and all of us into the second bus. Then, much to our frustration, we sat for 1 hour waiting for word from Garron about his bag. As dusk approached the mosquitoes invaded the bus and we spent a lot of time swatting at them. Finally, Garron arrived and we were off at twilight through Port-au-Prince at 6PM. Our trip through Port-Au-Prince was the usual stop and go, strange smells, crowds of people on both sides of the road, and wild and crazy drivers of cars, buses, trucks, and hundreds of motorbikes. The trip over the mountains was uneventful. You get used to the smell of hot transmission fluid and the smell of burning brakes. There was a full moon so some of the scenes of the mountains were picturesque. At about 8:40 PM we arrived in Jacmel and ran into Karnival so we had to back up and try another route through the city. Our driver did pretty well until he neared the iron market and we were stopped by a rah-rah band of about 300 fans. After a short wait, we arrived at the clinic a little after 9 and the bags were right behind us. Supper was at 10 and some relaxing until close to midnight, then it was off to bed for this guy. I awoke at my usual 5:00 AM and that catches you up to this moment.
Today, we will unpack our bags, the many cases of supplies and medications that have arrived, and set up the clinic for our patients. There are about 100 outside at the present and I am sure there will be many more by Tuesday when we will open. This is a very experienced team so we should have a good clinic in terms of serving the Haitian people. Our clinic is fully operational at the present. There are no known water of generator problems. The weather forecast is for humid days with highs of 85 and lows of 73 degrees. That will be a blessing. I am enjoying a beautiful sunrise as I write this on the third floor balcony, in a rocking chair. The goats who live in the property east of us are crying. Last night, one of the baby goats sounded so sad as we sat here and listened to its cries.
Thanks for reading this blog. Please keep us in your prayers as we are praying for you at each meal and through out the days. As always, your comments are welcome. Bonde bene ou!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
January mission to Haiti soon.
Heello from sunny Florida. I am here resting up for the next mission to Haiti with The Friends of The Children of Haiti (www.fotcoh.org). We leave late Saturday night, January 19 and will return on Friday evening, February 1. This years team is made op with many experienced members and some new ones also. I will miss my wife this time, as she has elected to stay in Peoria, especially since I'll be making 3 missions in 2008. I believe that I have shipped all of the medications that we will need for this mission. I will have to carry in some supplies, however that I just realized that I had not sent. I'm looking forward to another great mission. I do enjoy my work in Haiti and I do believe we are making a difference in the lives of many people there. I will try to post to this blog on a daily basis-depending on how tired I am at the end of the day.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Our last night at the FOTCOH clinic
Why did I take that shower before supper? I am sweating as much as when I finished work. Today we served around 200 patients for a total near 2600 patients. No wonder we are all tired. I understand we were unable to see about 16 patients at closing time today. One young man was about to be turned away when he suffered a severe asthma attack and was rushed to the breathing treatment area. I have no concept of time when we quit for lunch. After lunch I had some really great help with inventory and I was able to review it and check out the questions that I had. Most of the questions centered on Dr. Bill’s handwriting. Dr Nelson is here and we think he is in love with one of the volunteers-no names mentioned. The child that Donna and I recently acquired as a sponsor child came to the clinic during inventory and I fell in love with him immediately. He has red curly hair and a very proud papa. Red hair in this population means malnutrition, so I inquired if he had been seen during the clinic. Renel acted as interpreter and told me that the boy was well but I asked Dr. Bill to look him over just in case. He is a fine healthy boy. I gave him s Snoopy with a soccer ball, another soccer ball and a small rubber ball and one of my gliders. I think it was Jane who shot the pictures and I am anxious to see them. I wish I had shaved today for that picture and the further video interview with Dan for us to use to recruit more pharmacists. There is nothing like seeing me at my worst.
This has been a great team to be apart of and sadness abounds among the team as we realize that the experience is about over. -Of course, we still have the adventure of Jacmel airport, the flight in the small planes to the small airport in Port-Au-Prince, the ride in the truck with all of our luggage to PAP airport and the zoo that is PAP airport. We purchased rum in Jacmel today and it is in our checked baggage, We fly into Ft. Lauderdale and I hope to be on the cell phone to my wife as soon as I get my feet on the ground. I have tried to reach her on the VOIP phone but have missed her each time. I am going to post this. You will not have to hear from me till sometime on Saturday when I am back home. Thanks for being my readers. Thanks for all the kind remarks and most especially thanks for the prayers. Bonde Bene Ou! May God bless you!
This has been a great team to be apart of and sadness abounds among the team as we realize that the experience is about over. -Of course, we still have the adventure of Jacmel airport, the flight in the small planes to the small airport in Port-Au-Prince, the ride in the truck with all of our luggage to PAP airport and the zoo that is PAP airport. We purchased rum in Jacmel today and it is in our checked baggage, We fly into Ft. Lauderdale and I hope to be on the cell phone to my wife as soon as I get my feet on the ground. I have tried to reach her on the VOIP phone but have missed her each time. I am going to post this. You will not have to hear from me till sometime on Saturday when I am back home. Thanks for being my readers. Thanks for all the kind remarks and most especially thanks for the prayers. Bonde Bene Ou! May God bless you!
Thursday morning
It was another night of tossing and turning in bed. I will be glad to get home and rest on our comfortable mattress. Yes, I corrected Marna’s name on the picture blog. Sorry Marna but thanks for catching it. Speaking of Marna, the beautician who practices in Haiti with out a license, I never did explain Marna’s moon and some of you might get the wrong idea. Yes, this the time of the new moon, but that is not it and she defiantly did not moon me or anyone else. She is helping me in the pharmacy and part of our job is to draw pictographs of the rising sun, the noon time sun, the setting sun, and the crescent moon. The joke came when I noticed that she put the moon the opposite way that is displayed on our pre-printed labels and I teased her about it. Yesterday the joke was she shot more people that a certain Marine that we know as we gave a lot of shots of Rocephin to patients. I also spent some time reviewing the importance of reading the label of the medication prior to drawing up the medication as we have the Rocephin in two different concentrations available. All of the nursing students are eager to learn and everyone enjoys the teaching opportunity. I am encouraging all of them to use this experience and the tutors as references when looking for work as we all worked under some extreme conditions and all have had to multi-task, think on our feet, react to sudden changes, and provide that most important gift of our love and our care. Again, I wish to mention how great this team is to be a part of.
Dr. K and I are still fighting and no serious blows have landed yet, just a lot of smiles and laughs. Dr. Edwards has finally come to realize that if I do not understand what he has written, (I’ll let you figure that one out) that I proceed with out consulting him and provide the medication that I think he might have been trying to write. It is late in the day usually when that occurs because 11 AM is late in the day, isn’t it? I told Dr Elsa that I was upset because I had no issues with her yesterday. She misses her daily running here; no one seems to want to go for a run with her. People are starting to pack up, I have inventory sheets to print up and Garron's surgery medications to prepare, and all before breakfast so I’ll spell check this but not check for typos just to keep my readers on their toes. Thanks again, Gayala for the feedback. I’ll try to write after we finish up later today.
Dr. K and I are still fighting and no serious blows have landed yet, just a lot of smiles and laughs. Dr. Edwards has finally come to realize that if I do not understand what he has written, (I’ll let you figure that one out) that I proceed with out consulting him and provide the medication that I think he might have been trying to write. It is late in the day usually when that occurs because 11 AM is late in the day, isn’t it? I told Dr Elsa that I was upset because I had no issues with her yesterday. She misses her daily running here; no one seems to want to go for a run with her. People are starting to pack up, I have inventory sheets to print up and Garron's surgery medications to prepare, and all before breakfast so I’ll spell check this but not check for typos just to keep my readers on their toes. Thanks again, Gayala for the feedback. I’ll try to write after we finish up later today.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wednesday evening
It is almost 6 PM and I have enjoyed 3 beers to celebrate the last full day. We saw somewhere over 300 but totals not in yet. I did edit out some of my typos but left the evidence. What was I thinking? What was I drinking? That Haitian rum devil got a hold of me again. Ha!
So it is off to the shower with a promise of another early dinner. Hopefully I will not have to work on a computer again tonight. I'm told that Aaron will be happy to pay the bill for getting Marna's running again. She claims that he pays all the bills. Gayala- is that true??
BTW. Thanks for all the comments. I love posting them.
So it is off to the shower with a promise of another early dinner. Hopefully I will not have to work on a computer again tonight. I'm told that Aaron will be happy to pay the bill for getting Marna's running again. She claims that he pays all the bills. Gayala- is that true??
BTW. Thanks for all the comments. I love posting them.
More pictures from Becky Reeser's camera
Thanks Becky!!!
Basin Bleu
Waterspout
Getting water from our reservoir
Becky and the lady with breast cancer 
Wednesday early
I am just back from Son-Son’s bar. We celebrated Sharon’s birthday tonight with a cake, a very brief team meeting, and a walk to Son Son’s for a drink. I came back with the first wave. I do not know why I took a shower after dinner as I am drenched with sweat again. Today we saw 383 patients and I think the number was 336 yesterday. We were still done by 4:30. I want to say thanks to all who come into the pharmacy to help. It is wonderful to have such great helpers. I am thrilled to death! David is not feeling well today. I think his peanut butter diet and lack of water is catching up with him. We are experiencing satellite problems and all of our internet feeds are as slow as or slower than dial up. It is very frustrating for all of us. The VOIP is not working well either. I tried a call today and could not get through.
Also, I have not been able to download the pictures that I promised as the feed from My Space came in garbled and blurry. I will try again later. Today was OCP and condom day at the pharmacy as well as many STD’s. Garron reports that surgery went well except for an anesthesia problem with the last patient. The pharmacy is out of all vitamins and getting very low on dispensing bags. We only have 1 ½ days to go. I’ll need to look into the bags for the September team for sure as well as vitamins. I think I have figures out why we are out. I dispensed an 80 day supply for a 63 day gap. If you count over 1500 patients times 20 that is a lot of product. Prefilling the vermox doses is helpful. We have used all of the 2 and 4 oz bottles for BB Sirop and the iron prep. We have pre-labeled the BB Sirop and the Lugol’s solution. The doe charts for the Ivermectin and Chloroquine are helpful. I wish II had the file with the Griseofulvin doses but my son has been unable to send it to me. We have used all of Preckshot Professional Pharmacy’s Ivermectin and are using the blue veterinarian bottle. The look on the faces of the children tells me that I still do not have enough sugar to mask its taste. I did get involved in a treatment today of a lady with a carotid aneurism. I was able to us Hydralazine to bring down her blood pressure to a much lower level than when she came in. The aneurism is big and pulsating and it would frighten anyone who has seen it. Or nursing students are getting quite an education here in Haiti. They see things here on a regular basis that that they would seldom have the opportunity to see in their training. They are all helping in the pharmacy and we discuss what the drug is, why it is given, what to expect, etc. They are eager to learn and such a great help. And they tease well! I got into a little trouble today with my water gun. A little boy of about 5 years old did not like it when I sprayed his leg. The look on his face almost made me cry, so I put on my clown wig, made him a glider, and got him some candy. I am amazed that those 5 cent gliders and bracelets are still here. I wish I had more time to give them out as I almost always get a beautiful smile. I’m going to signing off now. I have not slept well the past two nights and the crowd is noisy in the dining area so I may opt for the third floor balcony in a chaise lounge. Some of the girls are getting bug bites but I must not be as tasty as they are.
Ow it is 5 AM and the internet is working better. I must laugh at myself, along with every one else about my comments, or is that typos, on ant virus and shit the light. I’m sure there are more as I am not taking enough time to proof read before publishing. If I get this published, I must go to the pharmacy for a video session and it will be before 6 AM. The things I get my self into. I stayed up till 10:30 last night helping Marna and Becky with computer problems
Also, I have not been able to download the pictures that I promised as the feed from My Space came in garbled and blurry. I will try again later. Today was OCP and condom day at the pharmacy as well as many STD’s. Garron reports that surgery went well except for an anesthesia problem with the last patient. The pharmacy is out of all vitamins and getting very low on dispensing bags. We only have 1 ½ days to go. I’ll need to look into the bags for the September team for sure as well as vitamins. I think I have figures out why we are out. I dispensed an 80 day supply for a 63 day gap. If you count over 1500 patients times 20 that is a lot of product. Prefilling the vermox doses is helpful. We have used all of the 2 and 4 oz bottles for BB Sirop and the iron prep. We have pre-labeled the BB Sirop and the Lugol’s solution. The doe charts for the Ivermectin and Chloroquine are helpful. I wish II had the file with the Griseofulvin doses but my son has been unable to send it to me. We have used all of Preckshot Professional Pharmacy’s Ivermectin and are using the blue veterinarian bottle. The look on the faces of the children tells me that I still do not have enough sugar to mask its taste. I did get involved in a treatment today of a lady with a carotid aneurism. I was able to us Hydralazine to bring down her blood pressure to a much lower level than when she came in. The aneurism is big and pulsating and it would frighten anyone who has seen it. Or nursing students are getting quite an education here in Haiti. They see things here on a regular basis that that they would seldom have the opportunity to see in their training. They are all helping in the pharmacy and we discuss what the drug is, why it is given, what to expect, etc. They are eager to learn and such a great help. And they tease well! I got into a little trouble today with my water gun. A little boy of about 5 years old did not like it when I sprayed his leg. The look on his face almost made me cry, so I put on my clown wig, made him a glider, and got him some candy. I am amazed that those 5 cent gliders and bracelets are still here. I wish I had more time to give them out as I almost always get a beautiful smile. I’m going to signing off now. I have not slept well the past two nights and the crowd is noisy in the dining area so I may opt for the third floor balcony in a chaise lounge. Some of the girls are getting bug bites but I must not be as tasty as they are.
Ow it is 5 AM and the internet is working better. I must laugh at myself, along with every one else about my comments, or is that typos, on ant virus and shit the light. I’m sure there are more as I am not taking enough time to proof read before publishing. If I get this published, I must go to the pharmacy for a video session and it will be before 6 AM. The things I get my self into. I stayed up till 10:30 last night helping Marna and Becky with computer problems
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Early Tuesday
There are lots of things I want to publish but I have to get the medications ready for our surgeon, Garron, by 6:15 AM and it is already 5:45 AM. I will publish as much as I can with this post with a promise of more later. My laptop picked up a virus last night, as did Josh Bradshaw’s. I was glad for the anti (corrected from ant) virus software as it cleared it up with a reboot. The laptop was really running slow, even at shut down so I know something was up.
The crowds Monday morning were tremendous. It was said that the word on the street is that you will get into the clinic with baby in tow. We wondered how so many babies showed up at the gate. With that said, it was a “cute baby” day with sets of twins, children grabbing at me as I passed by, my favorite-the screaming child, accidents on the floor of the pharmacy waiting area, and lots of tears from me when I was least expecting them.
I cannot resist mentioning Marna’s moon. I did find out that she teases well and smiles a lot. Her family should be proud of her. That makes me compliment the young people on this team. They are some of the best that I have ever worked with. This whole team has gelled and there is laughter aplenty, helpers when ever needed, the laundry and dishes are no problems, and live is as good as it can be here with these wonderful team mates. With that said, I must report that Beth and I are fighting and I plan to in the battle, but I fear her battle tactics. It involves her orders and I really think she just wants me to keep on my toes but it gives me the break to go out and ask “What is this for? Why did you order this? I cannot read this!” And then we go round and round. She claims I am killing her! For her fan club, ask her about the ocp.
On Sunday night, really it was early Monday morning; I got up to shut (corrected from shit) off the lights in the kitchen and walked (corrected from waked) in on the girl’s slumber party gab session. They were whispering so I was not (corrected from nit) disturbed by the sounds but rather the light. This morning, when I again got up to douse the light, I had no surprises. Just more to teases them about today.
Garron arrived sometime in the afternoon and saw patients up until he had his surgery schedule filled. Dr Nelson worked with him and I believe there are about 30 people he plans to operate on. Today will be the 13 year old boy. This reminds me it is time to go down and prepare his meds so I’ll write more later today.
Yes, we have a birthday to celebrate today. Sharon is now an older woman!
The crowds Monday morning were tremendous. It was said that the word on the street is that you will get into the clinic with baby in tow. We wondered how so many babies showed up at the gate. With that said, it was a “cute baby” day with sets of twins, children grabbing at me as I passed by, my favorite-the screaming child, accidents on the floor of the pharmacy waiting area, and lots of tears from me when I was least expecting them.
I cannot resist mentioning Marna’s moon. I did find out that she teases well and smiles a lot. Her family should be proud of her. That makes me compliment the young people on this team. They are some of the best that I have ever worked with. This whole team has gelled and there is laughter aplenty, helpers when ever needed, the laundry and dishes are no problems, and live is as good as it can be here with these wonderful team mates. With that said, I must report that Beth and I are fighting and I plan to in the battle, but I fear her battle tactics. It involves her orders and I really think she just wants me to keep on my toes but it gives me the break to go out and ask “What is this for? Why did you order this? I cannot read this!” And then we go round and round. She claims I am killing her! For her fan club, ask her about the ocp.
On Sunday night, really it was early Monday morning; I got up to shut (corrected from shit) off the lights in the kitchen and walked (corrected from waked) in on the girl’s slumber party gab session. They were whispering so I was not (corrected from nit) disturbed by the sounds but rather the light. This morning, when I again got up to douse the light, I had no surprises. Just more to teases them about today.
Garron arrived sometime in the afternoon and saw patients up until he had his surgery schedule filled. Dr Nelson worked with him and I believe there are about 30 people he plans to operate on. Today will be the 13 year old boy. This reminds me it is time to go down and prepare his meds so I’ll write more later today.
Yes, we have a birthday to celebrate today. Sharon is now an older woman!
Early Tuesday
There are lots of things I want to publish but I have to get the medications ready for our surgeon, Garron, by 6:15 AM and it is already 5:45 AM. I will publish as much as I can with this post with a promise of more later. My laptop picked up a virus last night, as did Josh Bradshaw’s. I was glad for the ant virus software as it cleared it up with a reboot. The laptop was really running slow, even at shut down so I know something was up.
The crowds Monday morning were tremendous. It was said that the word on the street is that you will get into the clinic with baby in tow. We wondered how so many babies showed up at the gate. With that said, it was a “cute baby” day with sets of twins, children grabbing at me as I passed by, my favorite-the screaming child, accidents on the floor of the pharmacy waiting area, and lots of tears from me when I was least expecting them.
I cannot resist mentioning Marna’s moon. I did find out that she teases well and smiles a lot. Her family should be proud of her. That makes me compliment the young people on this team. They are some of the best that I have ever worked with. This whole team has gelled and there is laughter aplenty, helpers when ever needed, the laundry and dishes are no problems, and live is as good as it can be here with these wonderful team mates. With that said, I must report that Beth and I are fighting and I plan to in the battle, but I fear her battle tactics. It involves her orders and I really think she just wants me to keep on my toes but it gives me the break to go out and ask “What is this for? Why did you order this? I cannot read this!” And then we go round and round. She claims I am killing her! For her fan club, ask her about the ocp.
On Sunday night, really it was early Monday morning; I got up to shit off the lights in the kitchen and waked in on the girl’s slumber party gab session. They were whispering so I was nit disturbed by the sounds but rather the light. This morning, when I again got up to douse the light, I had no surprises. Just more to teases them about today.
Garron arrived sometime in the afternoon and saw patients up until he had his surgery schedule filled. Dr Nelson worked with him and I believe there are about 30 people he plans to operate on. Today will be the 13 year old boy. This reminds me it is time to go down and prepare his meds so I’ll write more later today.
Yes, we have a birthday to celebrate today. Sharon is now an older woman!
The crowds Monday morning were tremendous. It was said that the word on the street is that you will get into the clinic with baby in tow. We wondered how so many babies showed up at the gate. With that said, it was a “cute baby” day with sets of twins, children grabbing at me as I passed by, my favorite-the screaming child, accidents on the floor of the pharmacy waiting area, and lots of tears from me when I was least expecting them.
I cannot resist mentioning Marna’s moon. I did find out that she teases well and smiles a lot. Her family should be proud of her. That makes me compliment the young people on this team. They are some of the best that I have ever worked with. This whole team has gelled and there is laughter aplenty, helpers when ever needed, the laundry and dishes are no problems, and live is as good as it can be here with these wonderful team mates. With that said, I must report that Beth and I are fighting and I plan to in the battle, but I fear her battle tactics. It involves her orders and I really think she just wants me to keep on my toes but it gives me the break to go out and ask “What is this for? Why did you order this? I cannot read this!” And then we go round and round. She claims I am killing her! For her fan club, ask her about the ocp.
On Sunday night, really it was early Monday morning; I got up to shit off the lights in the kitchen and waked in on the girl’s slumber party gab session. They were whispering so I was nit disturbed by the sounds but rather the light. This morning, when I again got up to douse the light, I had no surprises. Just more to teases them about today.
Garron arrived sometime in the afternoon and saw patients up until he had his surgery schedule filled. Dr Nelson worked with him and I believe there are about 30 people he plans to operate on. Today will be the 13 year old boy. This reminds me it is time to go down and prepare his meds so I’ll write more later today.
Yes, we have a birthday to celebrate today. Sharon is now an older woman!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Sunday evening
I have some words on the day while the light is still with us. We had a prayer service early this morning at it went well. Kathy Roehm had sent along some songs that I thought Josh could play. It turns out that Josh does not read music after all. Jon Wagner, who had restrung the guitar with new strings, played “Amazing Grace” and “Just a closer walk with Thee” for the service. CJ, Barb, and Diana did the readings and the responsorial verse. Bruce read the gospel and brought it home for us as we server the Haitian people. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast and most were off to Bassin Blu. We had someone stay behind and require an IV but I have been sworn to silence unless the bribe money reaches an acceptable amount. I have picked on this team mate before and I enjoy teasing h__. Put your thinking caps on to guess whom it is. Ha Ha! I though about taking a nap while they were gone but I was unable to fall asleep so, for the first time since I have been here, I was able to relax and read one of my books. There was one injury from the waterfall and I was asked to apply triple antibiotic ointment to someone’s back. I hate these secrets as much as you do but let’s say I did nit mind the application. While I am into the teasing mode, I have to mention a pediatrician who still hates decimal points and continues to try to sneak in pediatric doses for full grown adults. She claims to just be testing me. I have also been teasing one of my dark haired pharmacy helpers that she often thinks too much-or was that stinks too much. I think it was one or the other.
Our trip to Ti Moulage was an adventure as there was some sort of a festival in Cayes Jacmel as we passed through and the one main street was crowded with people. We had our beach party outside of the place we normally go but that was the only difference. I brought along my backpack so the shoppers, and there were many, could purchase their art, statues, jewelry and rocks. I think CJ spent all that he brought, I had to loan Eric $ 20.00 and Dick and Barb $ 18.00. I spent a total of ZERO. I hope Donna will be pleased. The best bargain I saw were the straw hats at $ 2.00. The tee shirt lady wanted $ 8.00 per shirt and did come down to $ 7.00 but had no takers. We did buy some statues for the upcoming golf outing for FOTCOH. Have yu made your reservation yet? Have you volunteered to help FOTCOH at the golf outing. It is on August 6 at Arrowhead country club amd you can let Mary Hedges (mary123158@aol.com) or leave a message with Larry Shank at 691-4846. We really need your help. This is FOTCOH’s biggest fundraiser and we do need the money. But I need to go back to the beach story. The water temperature was near 85 degrees based on my experience with our 86 degree pool in Illinois, There was a strong undertow so we asked all not to swim out too far. The waves about 100 yards out were still around 4 to 6 foot. The beach wmore crowded with Haitians than I have seen in the past. The funny looking house with the blue concrete filled barrels for pillars has been worked on and all of the cement sacks that were mixed into the flooring were covered up with a new layer of concrete that looks like a product called dryvet in the states but this was gray in color so it may have been cement. The food at the beach was delicious as ever but a few team members, no names mentioned-darn, had queasy stomachs and did not eat. One of those queasy folks just stopped by and told me I could release her name but I am a good boy., right?
One of the most interesting things at the beach was the appearance of two water spouts and the beginnings of a third one. They were part of a cloud formation that appeared to me to be about 5 miles out into the Caribbean and headed westward and not towards us. The first one lasted about 10 minutes and then the second one completed its formation and it lasted about 8 minutes. That attracted the attention of the entire beach population. Everyone agreed that is was unusual. I understand that a waterspout is a precursor of a hurricane so I’ll need to check the weather forecast. Our ride home was the usual bumpy ride through the crowds at Cayes Jacmel. When we arrived at the turn off for our compound, the people in the streets cheered us and that made us feel good. The ride in and out of the compound in the truck and tat tap is an adventure in trying to dodge the vegetation that hits the passengers as we sway back and forth under the trees. To our dismay, we found some of them have thorns. Ouch! So now it is dark and we are trying to stay cool. A shower is in order for me. Poor Sharon rode home in the tap tap directly under my arm pit and there was little I could do but apologize. It is time to go, fill requests for aspirin, steroid cream and triple antibiotic ointment. You would think they would be able to find it themselves. Ha! There are 3 full days and one hectic half day left. I still hope to see our new sponsored child and have spoken to Boyer about it. Wish me luck on that one. I did get some news from my family today and I feel better about that. Keep us in your prayers. We prayed for you today
Our trip to Ti Moulage was an adventure as there was some sort of a festival in Cayes Jacmel as we passed through and the one main street was crowded with people. We had our beach party outside of the place we normally go but that was the only difference. I brought along my backpack so the shoppers, and there were many, could purchase their art, statues, jewelry and rocks. I think CJ spent all that he brought, I had to loan Eric $ 20.00 and Dick and Barb $ 18.00. I spent a total of ZERO. I hope Donna will be pleased. The best bargain I saw were the straw hats at $ 2.00. The tee shirt lady wanted $ 8.00 per shirt and did come down to $ 7.00 but had no takers. We did buy some statues for the upcoming golf outing for FOTCOH. Have yu made your reservation yet? Have you volunteered to help FOTCOH at the golf outing. It is on August 6 at Arrowhead country club amd you can let Mary Hedges (mary123158@aol.com) or leave a message with Larry Shank at 691-4846. We really need your help. This is FOTCOH’s biggest fundraiser and we do need the money. But I need to go back to the beach story. The water temperature was near 85 degrees based on my experience with our 86 degree pool in Illinois, There was a strong undertow so we asked all not to swim out too far. The waves about 100 yards out were still around 4 to 6 foot. The beach wmore crowded with Haitians than I have seen in the past. The funny looking house with the blue concrete filled barrels for pillars has been worked on and all of the cement sacks that were mixed into the flooring were covered up with a new layer of concrete that looks like a product called dryvet in the states but this was gray in color so it may have been cement. The food at the beach was delicious as ever but a few team members, no names mentioned-darn, had queasy stomachs and did not eat. One of those queasy folks just stopped by and told me I could release her name but I am a good boy., right?
One of the most interesting things at the beach was the appearance of two water spouts and the beginnings of a third one. They were part of a cloud formation that appeared to me to be about 5 miles out into the Caribbean and headed westward and not towards us. The first one lasted about 10 minutes and then the second one completed its formation and it lasted about 8 minutes. That attracted the attention of the entire beach population. Everyone agreed that is was unusual. I understand that a waterspout is a precursor of a hurricane so I’ll need to check the weather forecast. Our ride home was the usual bumpy ride through the crowds at Cayes Jacmel. When we arrived at the turn off for our compound, the people in the streets cheered us and that made us feel good. The ride in and out of the compound in the truck and tat tap is an adventure in trying to dodge the vegetation that hits the passengers as we sway back and forth under the trees. To our dismay, we found some of them have thorns. Ouch! So now it is dark and we are trying to stay cool. A shower is in order for me. Poor Sharon rode home in the tap tap directly under my arm pit and there was little I could do but apologize. It is time to go, fill requests for aspirin, steroid cream and triple antibiotic ointment. You would think they would be able to find it themselves. Ha! There are 3 full days and one hectic half day left. I still hope to see our new sponsored child and have spoken to Boyer about it. Wish me luck on that one. I did get some news from my family today and I feel better about that. Keep us in your prayers. We prayed for you today
Sunday morning
Wow, I slept in today as it is almost 6 AM. I did not get my planned nap yesterday so I will try again today while many of the group makes the trip to the waterfall. Saturday was a short day at the clinic and we finished at the pharmacy at 12:30 PM. For those of you keeping track, we treated 142 on our first day, 324 on the second day, 342 on the third day, 293 on the fourth day, and 200 yesterday. That totals 1301. So we have done some good work and, at that pace, should see over 2000. As I feared, we will have to limit the adult vitamins but I expected that. I am not sure that my scoop method works well for those tiny pills. I had extra help again as the time to close drew near and they are more experienced in what goes on , they are swifter and have less questions. The doe chart for the chloroquine liquid saves time, pre-filling the vermox oral syringes saves times, and the pre-printed bag labels are still a blessing. Last night was our trip to Jacmel. The first wave left the compound around 2 PM to shop at the art stores and experience the city. I have been warned NOT to make mention of any purchases of paintings, statues, and jewelry, so in keeping with my promise I will not even begin to have you imagine a US dollar figure that might have boosted the Jacmel economy. For those who have been here, Boyer’s brother Jacky, stopped by yesterday and invited me to come outside the compound gate to look over his selection of paintings, statues, and jewelry. He has about 20 oils and some of them are eye catching. Donna has already warned me not to buy any as we have no where to hang another one. Jacky’s prices were $ 20, $ 40, and $ 60 for the paintings. We will likely see more merchandise for sale this afternoon at Ti Moulage, the beach where we will swim and have our Sunday dinner. I’m not sure what time today we will have our prayer service but I imagine it will be early as they will have to leave for the water fall before 10 AM. Today will be a busy day of rest. Ha
During our meal at Ambians last night, a storm came in from the east. Weather here comes westward off the coast of Africa. I watched the clouds roll in and wondered if and when it would rain. Fortunately it occurred while we were eating. I was sitting in the row closest to the street and felt an occasional spray from the hard rain. The storm had a nice variety of lightning but I did not notice a string wind. There was a limb down in the road on our way home so there must have been some wind. We watched in sadness as the rain washed the garbage down the street and knew that it would soon end up in Jacmel bay. The team has spent enough time together that any and every one is open to be teased at any time. I took some teasing about my pretty pint Jacmel shirt and that was one of the reasons that I brought it along. There continues to be a tease about some undergarments and I would just love to name names but I fear retaliation or Haitian revenge. I’ve told my new pharmacy helpers that I plan to spread the word that they did drugs while in Haiti. Our visit to Ambians was much better that in February. We had the place to ourselves except for a few others during the evening. I did purchase a bottle of Argentine Chardonnay and shared it with any willing takers. I also had a rum punch and a Prestige. Serving the dinners turned out as usual. First the rolls, then 10 minutes later the butter, then 10 minutes later the salad. You begin to see the pattern. When the entrée was served it came out in shifts and they substituted some plates as they did not have enough of something, but I’ve forgotten just what that was. I had ordered the kabob and it was a good as ever. Luckily the rain stopped and we made it home fairly dry. As we drove down the lane from the main road into the compound we did get sprayed from the wet tree limbs. It’s time for me to help set up the prayer service so I’d better close this and get a move on. Thanks to those who have submitted comments to the blog. The only one I rejected was the one I could not translate but it appeared to be an advertisement or a link to who knows where so it will remain unpublished.
During our meal at Ambians last night, a storm came in from the east. Weather here comes westward off the coast of Africa. I watched the clouds roll in and wondered if and when it would rain. Fortunately it occurred while we were eating. I was sitting in the row closest to the street and felt an occasional spray from the hard rain. The storm had a nice variety of lightning but I did not notice a string wind. There was a limb down in the road on our way home so there must have been some wind. We watched in sadness as the rain washed the garbage down the street and knew that it would soon end up in Jacmel bay. The team has spent enough time together that any and every one is open to be teased at any time. I took some teasing about my pretty pint Jacmel shirt and that was one of the reasons that I brought it along. There continues to be a tease about some undergarments and I would just love to name names but I fear retaliation or Haitian revenge. I’ve told my new pharmacy helpers that I plan to spread the word that they did drugs while in Haiti. Our visit to Ambians was much better that in February. We had the place to ourselves except for a few others during the evening. I did purchase a bottle of Argentine Chardonnay and shared it with any willing takers. I also had a rum punch and a Prestige. Serving the dinners turned out as usual. First the rolls, then 10 minutes later the butter, then 10 minutes later the salad. You begin to see the pattern. When the entrée was served it came out in shifts and they substituted some plates as they did not have enough of something, but I’ve forgotten just what that was. I had ordered the kabob and it was a good as ever. Luckily the rain stopped and we made it home fairly dry. As we drove down the lane from the main road into the compound we did get sprayed from the wet tree limbs. It’s time for me to help set up the prayer service so I’d better close this and get a move on. Thanks to those who have submitted comments to the blog. The only one I rejected was the one I could not translate but it appeared to be an advertisement or a link to who knows where so it will remain unpublished.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Friday the Thirteenth evening
We were done before 5 PM today thanks to my helpers. They have been great. I did loose one this afternoon as she was really dehydrated but she came back near the end to help us finish up. I do not know the count today buy yesterday it was 342 patients. No wonder I was the first one in bed last night. Even with that I did not sleep well. That was the first night I have not slept well here. I may have been just too tired. Most of the team is at Son-Son’s. I chose to stay here andr\ sit down. So far I have had only two interruptions. One was to help prepare a shot for our miracle baby, Kristala who gets a shot daily for a few more days from her adventure of being born and being dumped. The second was to help Andrita, one of our housekeepers, with her acid stomach. I was asked by someone to reveal more about the squeeze, the lips, and the rash but no money was offered so I’ll hold out for further bids. I did discuss the flying bird with the husband of the person who started the joke and I can now reveal that it was a goose. The rest is up to your imagination. When Sharon had to lie down with her dehydration headache, I was given Becky Reeser to help and she did great. Janet Mai also pitched in, as did John Wagner so we had a great day, with a few laughs and a few squirts of the water gun. Some of the bracelets and gliders from the February mission are still here and I love giving them out when I have time. Boyer made a run to Jacmel today and brought back some wine for me for the weekend. Yeah. I will not be going to the waterfall on Sunday. I’ve been there twice and I’ll take that day off. Today was also a cry day for me when I took the time to play with the children as I constructed and flew the gliders and put the bracelets on the little girls arms. The look of surprise and joy in their eyes sent me crying back to the safety of the pharmacy. We had instances of Haitians writing on their dossiers this clinic and, today, I caught a patient going to two providers. Who, you might ask, was the second provider, and why did the provider not notice that the patient had already been seen? Three guesses, and the first to do not count if you consider the country of origin of this particular provider.
A note here, again, to say a special thank the people at Preckshot Professional Pharmacy for the Ivermectin solution. It is so beneficial. We are in trouble with ace inhibitors and adult vitamins. We will need to revisit that area and also to increase the kids vitamins supply for September. The Kids vitamins with Iron are GREAT. The baby vitamins are wonderful also. Dr Beth wanted something for kids who pee the bed today and will likely bring that issue up at medical advisory. We continue to have men’s complaints about painful urination and need to check on that issue. Many of the people who did not go to Son-Son’s are headed out to the south end of the property known as the rocks. There, after they navigate the sharp and uneven terrain, they will be sprayed by the crashing waves as the wind is from the south and mild. They will all come back wet and smiling. There remains two half days and 3 full days of clinic. Colson Mores brother came in right away to pick up the radio and pictures and came by today o tell me that Colson’s family would be coming in on Wednesday. I HOPE to see our new sponsored child sometime this weekend but I do not know just when that will be. I also tried to call home today on the VOIP line but I ony got the answering machine. It is quiet so I’ll go and enjoy a peaceful shower and maybe a short nap.
A note here, again, to say a special thank the people at Preckshot Professional Pharmacy for the Ivermectin solution. It is so beneficial. We are in trouble with ace inhibitors and adult vitamins. We will need to revisit that area and also to increase the kids vitamins supply for September. The Kids vitamins with Iron are GREAT. The baby vitamins are wonderful also. Dr Beth wanted something for kids who pee the bed today and will likely bring that issue up at medical advisory. We continue to have men’s complaints about painful urination and need to check on that issue. Many of the people who did not go to Son-Son’s are headed out to the south end of the property known as the rocks. There, after they navigate the sharp and uneven terrain, they will be sprayed by the crashing waves as the wind is from the south and mild. They will all come back wet and smiling. There remains two half days and 3 full days of clinic. Colson Mores brother came in right away to pick up the radio and pictures and came by today o tell me that Colson’s family would be coming in on Wednesday. I HOPE to see our new sponsored child sometime this weekend but I do not know just when that will be. I also tried to call home today on the VOIP line but I ony got the answering machine. It is quiet so I’ll go and enjoy a peaceful shower and maybe a short nap.
Friday the Thirteenth
Friday the 13th
It is a little after 5 AM, and it is nice a quiet and the sun is beginning to light the sky. Last night was Hamburger night and I recalled how that was Chip Moodie’s favorite meal. They got started late cooking them and I don’t know why because no one left for the beach or Son-Son’s. The burgers were well done but tasty anyhow. Our normal bakery is closed so we actually ordered buns in town and they were made for us. I understand that this bakery will only make buns by special order as only the blancs eat the buns. We had over night guests. Now that has happened before when a very sick blanc was brought to the clinic. This time it was a Haitian lady and her friend. Her asthma was so bad when she came in early yesterday. She came in at a time when our generator was down due to a broken belt and we had no power. You may recall that we have power from EDH via the lines from 2PM till 6 AM and then we use a Cat generator for the power. Thankfully, I could hook up her nebulizer to the large tank of Oxygen, and thankfully I remembered to bring along the regulator this time. She stayed here all day with her friend and some team members got up over night to give her treatments, Yes, she did eat with us. I forgot to mention that we had another of my favorite Haitian foods, the beet potato salad. I do not remember it as having the kick of a hit of hot peppers but it did. I also found out that it has quite a bit of garlic. But it is tasty…
As I recall, I was to tell you about the visit from the police. Early in the morning two Haitian police arrived at the clinic as patients. It caused a small stir, as I understand, and they were rushed through the system and the pharmacy line. I was handed their dossiers and got them filled and brought them out to my interpreters. The man with the family smiled, shook my hand, and thanked me in English. So, see, there was no police problem but I may have gotten the attention of team members families who may be reading this.
Our team meeting started after the hamburger feast. There is a pharmacy issue but Dr Bill and I put it off due to the lateness of the meeting and the need to keep checking on our patient. David Coleman was assigned to be the enforcer of the provider benches and that worked out well until he moved out of sight and then the Haitians rushed to the provider benches. It has to be hot for them and there is very little shade in the staging area outside the compound and not a lot more where the providers are sitting. I think we will continue to use an enforcer in that area. One of my interpreters took an extended lunch hour yesterday. Pharmacy was already backed up from a heavy morning load and that put us further behind. I did a quick run outside and could not spot him so this morning will be a lecture time. My pill packing girls have, for the most part, kept us up. I did not need to use team members to package last night. Hooray!
Another tidbit that came out of the team meeting was a comment about our Haitian physician. It seems that two young Haitian women came to triage to be seen. They did not present with any discernable symptoms (chief complaints in our terminology). They, both, insisted that they must see Dr Nelson and no one else. It turns out they wanted to have “a relationship” with the young doctor. When asked about the incident, the doctor told us that he was still learning.
The pill counting machine is officially dead. I asked Dan Hoehne to look at it and the circuits are fried and corroded. So the pharmacy committee will have to address that issue at some point or seek a donation of another machine. Last night, at the team meeting, we were discussing how our patients consistently seem to have elevated blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels due to the fact that they had not taken their medications. They claim that they ran out. Our suspicion remains that they feel that if they come in with the levels regulated by the medicine that they will not be seen nor be given more medications. I am going to suggest to the pharmacy committee that we, somehow, ask them to bring n their medication containers, both the empty ones and the partial ones. That would give us some indication of how the medications are standing up in our packaging and also if they are taking the meds at all. I just do not expect that this will be easy for us.
I’ve had no inquires about the squeeze issue, the lips issue or the rash issue yet so the auction remains open. Today, being Friday the thirteenth, some of the team is going to the voodoo ceremony that the Haitians will put on this evening. I think I’ll pass on that, sit here on the back porch with my Prestige beer, and think about home. Speaking of home, what is the Ray reaction to the cigars?? Let me know, please.
One last joke on myself, not only did I fail to bring along the correct file on my flash drive, and that I have been waiting for my son to go to my home and email it to me, but there is more. Last night, I was looking through some old files on this laptop and came across the file where I had calculated out the dosages for the Chloroquine liquid for children. It is aggravating that I have spent a lot of time, and frustration, calculating each child’s dose when I could have posted the chart and supervised the dispensing. As Dr. Nelson said, ”I am still learning”. Sun’s up, EDH is on, and so is breakfast. Love from Haiti!!!
It is a little after 5 AM, and it is nice a quiet and the sun is beginning to light the sky. Last night was Hamburger night and I recalled how that was Chip Moodie’s favorite meal. They got started late cooking them and I don’t know why because no one left for the beach or Son-Son’s. The burgers were well done but tasty anyhow. Our normal bakery is closed so we actually ordered buns in town and they were made for us. I understand that this bakery will only make buns by special order as only the blancs eat the buns. We had over night guests. Now that has happened before when a very sick blanc was brought to the clinic. This time it was a Haitian lady and her friend. Her asthma was so bad when she came in early yesterday. She came in at a time when our generator was down due to a broken belt and we had no power. You may recall that we have power from EDH via the lines from 2PM till 6 AM and then we use a Cat generator for the power. Thankfully, I could hook up her nebulizer to the large tank of Oxygen, and thankfully I remembered to bring along the regulator this time. She stayed here all day with her friend and some team members got up over night to give her treatments, Yes, she did eat with us. I forgot to mention that we had another of my favorite Haitian foods, the beet potato salad. I do not remember it as having the kick of a hit of hot peppers but it did. I also found out that it has quite a bit of garlic. But it is tasty…
As I recall, I was to tell you about the visit from the police. Early in the morning two Haitian police arrived at the clinic as patients. It caused a small stir, as I understand, and they were rushed through the system and the pharmacy line. I was handed their dossiers and got them filled and brought them out to my interpreters. The man with the family smiled, shook my hand, and thanked me in English. So, see, there was no police problem but I may have gotten the attention of team members families who may be reading this.
Our team meeting started after the hamburger feast. There is a pharmacy issue but Dr Bill and I put it off due to the lateness of the meeting and the need to keep checking on our patient. David Coleman was assigned to be the enforcer of the provider benches and that worked out well until he moved out of sight and then the Haitians rushed to the provider benches. It has to be hot for them and there is very little shade in the staging area outside the compound and not a lot more where the providers are sitting. I think we will continue to use an enforcer in that area. One of my interpreters took an extended lunch hour yesterday. Pharmacy was already backed up from a heavy morning load and that put us further behind. I did a quick run outside and could not spot him so this morning will be a lecture time. My pill packing girls have, for the most part, kept us up. I did not need to use team members to package last night. Hooray!
Another tidbit that came out of the team meeting was a comment about our Haitian physician. It seems that two young Haitian women came to triage to be seen. They did not present with any discernable symptoms (chief complaints in our terminology). They, both, insisted that they must see Dr Nelson and no one else. It turns out they wanted to have “a relationship” with the young doctor. When asked about the incident, the doctor told us that he was still learning.
The pill counting machine is officially dead. I asked Dan Hoehne to look at it and the circuits are fried and corroded. So the pharmacy committee will have to address that issue at some point or seek a donation of another machine. Last night, at the team meeting, we were discussing how our patients consistently seem to have elevated blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels due to the fact that they had not taken their medications. They claim that they ran out. Our suspicion remains that they feel that if they come in with the levels regulated by the medicine that they will not be seen nor be given more medications. I am going to suggest to the pharmacy committee that we, somehow, ask them to bring n their medication containers, both the empty ones and the partial ones. That would give us some indication of how the medications are standing up in our packaging and also if they are taking the meds at all. I just do not expect that this will be easy for us.
I’ve had no inquires about the squeeze issue, the lips issue or the rash issue yet so the auction remains open. Today, being Friday the thirteenth, some of the team is going to the voodoo ceremony that the Haitians will put on this evening. I think I’ll pass on that, sit here on the back porch with my Prestige beer, and think about home. Speaking of home, what is the Ray reaction to the cigars?? Let me know, please.
One last joke on myself, not only did I fail to bring along the correct file on my flash drive, and that I have been waiting for my son to go to my home and email it to me, but there is more. Last night, I was looking through some old files on this laptop and came across the file where I had calculated out the dosages for the Chloroquine liquid for children. It is aggravating that I have spent a lot of time, and frustration, calculating each child’s dose when I could have posted the chart and supervised the dispensing. As Dr. Nelson said, ”I am still learning”. Sun’s up, EDH is on, and so is breakfast. Love from Haiti!!!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Thursday 5:30 PM
Just a short note as I am happy to sit down. Pharmacy is closed. I had extra help in reducing the line and we were done at 6 PM. However, for anyone who has been here, imagine 10 people in the pharmacy trying to fill orders at the same time. Or, for you h=who have not had the pleasure, picture a 15 x 15 foot room with shelving and then 10 people with trays. Cramped? Noisy? Confusing? I am, however. most grateful for the help. I was really getting tired.
Later this evening or in the morning I will discuss the visit by the Haitian police. I may make mention of Marna's squeeze, Becky's lip, and Sue's rash. Of course, I could hold that information and sell it to the highest bidder.
I did have to remind a provider that she was a medical provider and not a lawyer when it came to shingle. I've encountered some interesting dosing when one forgets a zero here or there or even a tiny, insignificant decimal point. Also today in the pharmacy, I was just about given a flying bird by a provider. I leave that to your imagination.
The news I do want to share concerns a baby that I just saw. She was born Sunday and dropped in a toilet (yes,a latrine). The baby was rescued by the actions of an alert 17 year old. He had seen the pregnant lady and just a little later noticed her leaving and trail a path of blood. The UN assisted, broke into the concrete and lowered a Sri Lankan soldier down to rescue the child. Luckily the toilet was almost brand new and not as gross as you might be imagining. She came last night and tonight for a shot of antibiotic. She was adopted by an American family that has an orphanage here. The baby's name is Kristala and I may not have spelled it correctly but it means, in Kreole, Christ was here!
With that said, it is time for a Prestige or something stronger. I have to stop crying!!!
Later this evening or in the morning I will discuss the visit by the Haitian police. I may make mention of Marna's squeeze, Becky's lip, and Sue's rash. Of course, I could hold that information and sell it to the highest bidder.
I did have to remind a provider that she was a medical provider and not a lawyer when it came to shingle. I've encountered some interesting dosing when one forgets a zero here or there or even a tiny, insignificant decimal point. Also today in the pharmacy, I was just about given a flying bird by a provider. I leave that to your imagination.
The news I do want to share concerns a baby that I just saw. She was born Sunday and dropped in a toilet (yes,a latrine). The baby was rescued by the actions of an alert 17 year old. He had seen the pregnant lady and just a little later noticed her leaving and trail a path of blood. The UN assisted, broke into the concrete and lowered a Sri Lankan soldier down to rescue the child. Luckily the toilet was almost brand new and not as gross as you might be imagining. She came last night and tonight for a shot of antibiotic. She was adopted by an American family that has an orphanage here. The baby's name is Kristala and I may not have spelled it correctly but it means, in Kreole, Christ was here!
With that said, it is time for a Prestige or something stronger. I have to stop crying!!!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Wednesday afternoon
I am outside on the balcony, my favorite place here, enjoying the breeze and blogging. We would have been done today at 5 PM but I stayed to fill the prison order. More on that a little later. First and foremost a note to Donna: I miss you very much-especially today at lunch when Dan served potato soup. Almost made me cry! It’s harder this time for me than in the past trips by myself.
In other news, there was a problem with a certain female physician and her delicate garments. I was advised not to divulge many details as it might even embarrass me! Why is it that I always seem to be around when these incidents happen? Also today, one of my female pill packers was complaining about pain in her rather large breasts. I asked my interpreter for help in determine what she wanted me to do as I could not FULLY understand what she was telling me. After the translation, without further delay, I rushed her to Sara Baysinger’s bench so that I would retain my clean cut image! Ha!
At noon, when we tried to close the door and take a break, we had not one but two instances of people entering the pharmacy after they were told that we had closed and demanding service. The last one, I found out later, had pulled that act at every station in the clinic and we all fell for it. Oh well!
On the medical front, the Phenytoin issue has arisen and will be an issue at the next medical advisory committee. And then there is the prison issue. We were asked to visit the local jail this mission. Dr Bill, Sue, Dick, Eric and Dan H. made the trip. The word is, do not end up in Jacmel jail. It is retched. I filled the medication orders and almost all had worms and malaria. All were given vitamins and iron. There were some strange orders but this is not the vehicle to carry that knowledge. All of the inmates, male and female, are housed in the same area but there is restricted access that keeps the gang rapes in check.
I had addit onal help in the pharmacy today. I asked Sharon to come in and fill orders and she did very well. Dr Elsa also volunteered this afternoon and I had her calculating doses for chloroquine, Ivermectin and vermox. She also was a trooper and excelled in her work. At this moment, there are several people helping me package pills.
I seem to have drawn a crowd at my spot so I will run this through the spell checker and get it published.
In other news, there was a problem with a certain female physician and her delicate garments. I was advised not to divulge many details as it might even embarrass me! Why is it that I always seem to be around when these incidents happen? Also today, one of my female pill packers was complaining about pain in her rather large breasts. I asked my interpreter for help in determine what she wanted me to do as I could not FULLY understand what she was telling me. After the translation, without further delay, I rushed her to Sara Baysinger’s bench so that I would retain my clean cut image! Ha!
At noon, when we tried to close the door and take a break, we had not one but two instances of people entering the pharmacy after they were told that we had closed and demanding service. The last one, I found out later, had pulled that act at every station in the clinic and we all fell for it. Oh well!
On the medical front, the Phenytoin issue has arisen and will be an issue at the next medical advisory committee. And then there is the prison issue. We were asked to visit the local jail this mission. Dr Bill, Sue, Dick, Eric and Dan H. made the trip. The word is, do not end up in Jacmel jail. It is retched. I filled the medication orders and almost all had worms and malaria. All were given vitamins and iron. There were some strange orders but this is not the vehicle to carry that knowledge. All of the inmates, male and female, are housed in the same area but there is restricted access that keeps the gang rapes in check.
I had addit onal help in the pharmacy today. I asked Sharon to come in and fill orders and she did very well. Dr Elsa also volunteered this afternoon and I had her calculating doses for chloroquine, Ivermectin and vermox. She also was a trooper and excelled in her work. At this moment, there are several people helping me package pills.
I seem to have drawn a crowd at my spot so I will run this through the spell checker and get it published.
Early Wednesday
It is another beautiful morning on the balcony. As I sit on the rocking chair, a nice cool breeze from the North floats over me and the sun will soon jump out of the ocean. I managed to rig up my fan so that it blew cool (?) air over me last night. I propped it on the headboard and aimed it on my body. The fan is tall and somewhat square in shape so it stayed out all night. I realized this morning that I am not hydrating enough as I have slept two nights in a row with out awakening to urinate. So it is more water for me today for sure. Carol and I remind each other to drink but not often enough for me, it seems. There has been nobody being sick so that means health is excellent. That is a good thing.
The fishermen are rowing their boat around the point now. Today there are only two men on board. The waves are crashing on the rocks and there is a constant sound, like a big jet plane passing overhead, coming from the nearby rocks.
Time for some more coffee. It is fluid, isn't it.
The fishermen are rowing their boat around the point now. Today there are only two men on board. The waves are crashing on the rocks and there is a constant sound, like a big jet plane passing overhead, coming from the nearby rocks.
Time for some more coffee. It is fluid, isn't it.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Tuesday evening
It is now almost 9PM on Tuesday. A quick note about the time, we are on Daylight Savings time this year and so we are on the same time as Illinois. Go figure that one out! So, soon it will be bedtime as 5 AM rolls around quickly.
We are just done with our team meeting and there are no major issues. Ha! No one counted patients today but I have told one and all that it had to be 250 or more based on the work. At one time, there were not 5, not 6 but SEVEN providers sending me patients. No wonder we could never get ahead. We did manage to finish by 5:30 PM and I am very proud of that fact. I am still searching for items and there are boxes stacked on boxes in the store room and the pharmacy so the search is interesting. I’ve managed to find what I’ve been looking for after a period of time on or subsequent searches for the same item. The alphabetical system in the store room has been compromised and that makes it most difficult. The out of place items seem to hide well where they do not belong. The system is very Haitian.
All of my helpers are the same as in the past. My pill packers are as slow as ever and cannot seem to grasp the concept of scooping pills into a measuring device and putting them into the bags. The preprinted labels allow us never to run short of packaged pills at any time and I recommend it highly.
The temperature was in the 80’s today and it was very humid. There was thunder and lightning on the nearby mountains but no rain. It was just muggy. The power went off several times today. It seems a hose on the generator broke. We have generator power from 6 AM till 2 PM and then EDH power from the pole the rest of the time. The only problem was that EDH went out twice in the hottest part of the afternoon which meant no lights on the cloudy day and no fans.
The providers had lots of questions and they are fun and easy to work with, Dr Nelson, the Haitian physician, even came out to help for quite awhile. A note to Mark Purcell- I know now just what you meant when you described working with him.
Lots of patients with scabies, lots of ear infections this time and I wonder why. The kids are not in school so we expected loads of them but just the normal amount so far.
One more note to my family: My jump drive will not open for some reason and the files that I need to transfer to the computer here are locked. Please read my email to you and respond when you can. Thanks.
I am sitting on the balcony where I wrote from this morning and there is a nice cool sea breeze. I am sleeping on the second floor on the other side of the building and there is no breeze in there and it is very warm. By the way, there are no mosquitoes so far. That is a far cry from our last February trip. I do not miss them at all. But I do miss home, a lot!
I think that is enough for tonight. I’m tired and even a warm muggy bed will fell good.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thanks for the emails and comments.
We are just done with our team meeting and there are no major issues. Ha! No one counted patients today but I have told one and all that it had to be 250 or more based on the work. At one time, there were not 5, not 6 but SEVEN providers sending me patients. No wonder we could never get ahead. We did manage to finish by 5:30 PM and I am very proud of that fact. I am still searching for items and there are boxes stacked on boxes in the store room and the pharmacy so the search is interesting. I’ve managed to find what I’ve been looking for after a period of time on or subsequent searches for the same item. The alphabetical system in the store room has been compromised and that makes it most difficult. The out of place items seem to hide well where they do not belong. The system is very Haitian.
All of my helpers are the same as in the past. My pill packers are as slow as ever and cannot seem to grasp the concept of scooping pills into a measuring device and putting them into the bags. The preprinted labels allow us never to run short of packaged pills at any time and I recommend it highly.
The temperature was in the 80’s today and it was very humid. There was thunder and lightning on the nearby mountains but no rain. It was just muggy. The power went off several times today. It seems a hose on the generator broke. We have generator power from 6 AM till 2 PM and then EDH power from the pole the rest of the time. The only problem was that EDH went out twice in the hottest part of the afternoon which meant no lights on the cloudy day and no fans.
The providers had lots of questions and they are fun and easy to work with, Dr Nelson, the Haitian physician, even came out to help for quite awhile. A note to Mark Purcell- I know now just what you meant when you described working with him.
Lots of patients with scabies, lots of ear infections this time and I wonder why. The kids are not in school so we expected loads of them but just the normal amount so far.
One more note to my family: My jump drive will not open for some reason and the files that I need to transfer to the computer here are locked. Please read my email to you and respond when you can. Thanks.
I am sitting on the balcony where I wrote from this morning and there is a nice cool sea breeze. I am sleeping on the second floor on the other side of the building and there is no breeze in there and it is very warm. By the way, there are no mosquitoes so far. That is a far cry from our last February trip. I do not miss them at all. But I do miss home, a lot!
I think that is enough for tonight. I’m tired and even a warm muggy bed will fell good.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thanks for the emails and comments.
Welcome to Haiti
It’s Tuesday morning at 5:15 AM. The sun will be up in about 30 minutes. I am on the third floor balcony looking out to the Southeast. There is a small boat out on the water with 3 men fishing. The skyline is gray with the morning haze. The small breeze is refreshing and nice. It is probably 15 degrees cooler outside than in side the clinic so it is fun to sit here and watch the sun come up as I type.
On Sunday night at 11PM, I left for the airport. About half way there, I realized that I’d not packed my passport so we turned around and returned home to retrieve it. No matter, our bus did not show up until midnight. It took just a short while to load the bus and we were off on this adventure. The bus ride was uneventful. The DVD of “The Simpson’s” was the movie. I dozed a bit after that as it was hard to doze with the noise. We arrived at O’Hare at 3 AM. There were, already, several people there and a couple of large groups ahead of us in line. When we stated to check in at 4:30 AM we encounter our first problem. American Airlines, with its announced embargo, would not take our tote containers that we had specially purchased in response to that embargo. They told us that totes are, boxes and no boxes are allowed due to the embargo. It took many calls and almost 1 hour before we were allowed to check in. Whew. We managed to get checked in, through TSA security, etc with minimal problems. I had failed to remove my quart sized bag of shave cream so my bags were checked by TSA and I did not loose the product. Fortified by Starbucks coffee, we got on a full flight to Miami and arrived on time at the D concourse. Our next flight, in 3 hours was from the “A” concourse and that meant a 20 minute walk between terminals for our exercise. We ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant and Jane Mai, a second year medical student from Tampa, met up with us. She is a lovely young oriental who, influenced by meeting Dr. Paul Farmer, was inspired to work in Haiti and found out about our team. She is friendly and personable and will be a great asset. On a side note, this team has come together quite well and it will be another fun adventure.
Our plane was late and full leaving Miami. What else is new? When we arrived in Haiti, we cleared immigration in record time and I complimented the agent on the swiftness of the process. That was a mistake as it took more than 1 hour for our plane to be unloaded and, to our joy and surprise, our containers were the last to be unloaded in typical Haitian fashion. Now the process begins of getting your bags and boxes and get through customs. Someone else had my container so I switched with her and faced the music. After I had to show the agent how to open the ties-much to his surprise, he merely pawed through the box, picked up the bag of very powerful injectables, much to my dismay, and promptly put them back neatly and I was on my way. About 8 of us seemed to be targeted for inspection but no seizures and no customs charges. Yeah!. We departed the terminal, into the mob of people and our Haitian helpers guided us to the truck that would take our luggage to Jacmel and also take us to the small airport. We loaded up, like sardines in a can, and raced to the other end of the airfield. It too Carbintair about 45 minutes of Haitian stalling for us to get on the two small planes for our 18 minute flight over the mountains to Jacmel. Dick, Barb, Bruce, Dan, and, of course, Digone met us at the Jacmel end. We loaded our carryon and ourselves into the two trucks for the short trip to the clinic. Jean Michel, Eric and I rode the back bumper and Jean Michele and I chose to walk from the min road back to the clinic as Son Son’s Tap-Tap was dragging bottom as we drove over the rough rocky ground. It was fun to spend that time with Jean Michel, one of our main men, here in Haiti.
The clinic was as clean as ever and the new team members marvel at our luxurious accommodations. I began to uncover the pharmacy and prepare it to open. We ate one of my favorite meals, Thanks to our Haitian cooks, of tomatoes, onions, lobster in a stew, with rice and beans and pickly, the hot Cole slaw. It was a nice welcome. Our main bags arrived at 10 PM and we had them broken down in about a half hour. There was some leakage of shampoos inside the bags and boxes but no real damage that I can see. A quick note to the pharmacy committee that the new light bulb did not solve the problem with the pill counting machine so I will have some one here look at it but I will not count on it for this mission. Soon it will be breakfast and off to work. We give thanks to God for our safe journey here and for the many blessings He bestows on us.
On Sunday night at 11PM, I left for the airport. About half way there, I realized that I’d not packed my passport so we turned around and returned home to retrieve it. No matter, our bus did not show up until midnight. It took just a short while to load the bus and we were off on this adventure. The bus ride was uneventful. The DVD of “The Simpson’s” was the movie. I dozed a bit after that as it was hard to doze with the noise. We arrived at O’Hare at 3 AM. There were, already, several people there and a couple of large groups ahead of us in line. When we stated to check in at 4:30 AM we encounter our first problem. American Airlines, with its announced embargo, would not take our tote containers that we had specially purchased in response to that embargo. They told us that totes are, boxes and no boxes are allowed due to the embargo. It took many calls and almost 1 hour before we were allowed to check in. Whew. We managed to get checked in, through TSA security, etc with minimal problems. I had failed to remove my quart sized bag of shave cream so my bags were checked by TSA and I did not loose the product. Fortified by Starbucks coffee, we got on a full flight to Miami and arrived on time at the D concourse. Our next flight, in 3 hours was from the “A” concourse and that meant a 20 minute walk between terminals for our exercise. We ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant and Jane Mai, a second year medical student from Tampa, met up with us. She is a lovely young oriental who, influenced by meeting Dr. Paul Farmer, was inspired to work in Haiti and found out about our team. She is friendly and personable and will be a great asset. On a side note, this team has come together quite well and it will be another fun adventure.
Our plane was late and full leaving Miami. What else is new? When we arrived in Haiti, we cleared immigration in record time and I complimented the agent on the swiftness of the process. That was a mistake as it took more than 1 hour for our plane to be unloaded and, to our joy and surprise, our containers were the last to be unloaded in typical Haitian fashion. Now the process begins of getting your bags and boxes and get through customs. Someone else had my container so I switched with her and faced the music. After I had to show the agent how to open the ties-much to his surprise, he merely pawed through the box, picked up the bag of very powerful injectables, much to my dismay, and promptly put them back neatly and I was on my way. About 8 of us seemed to be targeted for inspection but no seizures and no customs charges. Yeah!. We departed the terminal, into the mob of people and our Haitian helpers guided us to the truck that would take our luggage to Jacmel and also take us to the small airport. We loaded up, like sardines in a can, and raced to the other end of the airfield. It too Carbintair about 45 minutes of Haitian stalling for us to get on the two small planes for our 18 minute flight over the mountains to Jacmel. Dick, Barb, Bruce, Dan, and, of course, Digone met us at the Jacmel end. We loaded our carryon and ourselves into the two trucks for the short trip to the clinic. Jean Michel, Eric and I rode the back bumper and Jean Michele and I chose to walk from the min road back to the clinic as Son Son’s Tap-Tap was dragging bottom as we drove over the rough rocky ground. It was fun to spend that time with Jean Michel, one of our main men, here in Haiti.
The clinic was as clean as ever and the new team members marvel at our luxurious accommodations. I began to uncover the pharmacy and prepare it to open. We ate one of my favorite meals, Thanks to our Haitian cooks, of tomatoes, onions, lobster in a stew, with rice and beans and pickly, the hot Cole slaw. It was a nice welcome. Our main bags arrived at 10 PM and we had them broken down in about a half hour. There was some leakage of shampoos inside the bags and boxes but no real damage that I can see. A quick note to the pharmacy committee that the new light bulb did not solve the problem with the pill counting machine so I will have some one here look at it but I will not count on it for this mission. Soon it will be breakfast and off to work. We give thanks to God for our safe journey here and for the many blessings He bestows on us.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Here in Haiti
We arrived late into Port-Au-Prince but were able to catch the plane to Jacmel so you know we have arrived safely. I am very tired and have been up now almost 45 hours so this will be brief. I just wanted you to know that we got here. I'll write more about our adventures tomorrow when I am rested. Yes it is hot and sticky. I am sweating quite well, thank you. Please know you are in our prayers.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Soon to be off
Tomorrow we will begin the July mission to Haiti. I am excited that I can return to assist the people in the Jacmel area as best that I can. I am hoping to meet up with Brother Nego. He is a youth minister in Jacmel. We've corresponded via email so far.
Our packing party went smooth but my bags are very overweight so I've had to remove some soap. baby blankets, lotions, food, and other items in order to accommodate some last minute medications. I hope we do not have problems at customs!!! Our new tote boxes, in response to American Airlines cargo embargo, do not hold as much bulk and 50 lbs comes very easily. Our weather forecast is for hot and muggy conditions. Please keep us in your prayers as you are in mine.
Our packing party went smooth but my bags are very overweight so I've had to remove some soap. baby blankets, lotions, food, and other items in order to accommodate some last minute medications. I hope we do not have problems at customs!!! Our new tote boxes, in response to American Airlines cargo embargo, do not hold as much bulk and 50 lbs comes very easily. Our weather forecast is for hot and muggy conditions. Please keep us in your prayers as you are in mine.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Team preparation for July Mission
We will soon have our second team meeting for the upcoming July medical mission. We will have a team made up of some first timers and some old timers. It should be a fun trip. Today I heard that the April-May team had some problems with American Airlines and did not get to arrive in Haiti until later than planned. That forced them to spend the night in Port-Au-Prince. They were also expected to arrive in Jacmel late this morning so that will cause them problems today. I'll keep you posted as I hear more.
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