Its been a little too long since I have posted to my blog. Mostly because I have been so very busy with team activity almost continuous since I last wrote.
This morning at 2 am, Haiti changed their practice and turned the clocks ahead 1 hour for the first time in many years. Apparently, the last time they did it was a little more than the country could take and they reversed the policy. Most people arise at dawn and go to bed with the chickens so to speak and less by what time the clock on the wall (if they had one) said.
For me, I like a later sunset. We had one of our volunteers scheduled to depart at 8:20 this morning so in order to get to the airport in time, we scheduled departure for 6 am- I got a wake up call at 6:35- no driver- yikes, we jumped into the van and using my fabulous Haitian driving skills we made it to the airport in 15 minutes! It helped considerably that their was minimal traffic on this early Sunday morning! Most likely I could have made it in 10 minutes if there were not so many potholes to slowdown for...a typical trip is 30+ minutes depending on traffic (can be longer).
Our clinic is getting closer to opening day. With painting, wiring, tiling, cabinetry, doors, roadwork etc frantically being completed, the plan is to receive 'keys' on March 30th. With a week to move from current clinic to the new one, get staff oriented and trained to begin receiving patients April 16th.
I have to say that I am excited, nervous, happy, and a bit reluctant to believe that it will actually happen as planned. I tend to be overly optimistic when it comes to time tables and should rein in the enthusiasm to avoid disappointment. But a little faith and hope can sustain one during these moments so thats what I will go with.
We have had some awesome teams come since I last wrote in my blog. Minnesota and a few days later, Team Canada Healing Hands (TCHH). While we had a very full house, Prestige eased any discomfort and they worked together like well-oiled machines. Several people provided specific education to the staff in the clinic- rehab nursing, speech therapy and more general mandatory ed to all staff. The awesome wheelchair seating team visited 6 orphanages and repaired many of the chairs and built 35 new specialized chairs (out of old chairs/ parts). I wish this team could come every 6 months! Another team of trainers provided specific spinal cord injury care training to professionals in Les Cayes, Jacmel and Leogane reaching out to over 70 participants. Before the earthquake few people sustaining a spinal cord injury survived long. We knew of less than a handful. Since the earthquake, we now have a documented data base of over 276 surviving injuries. Not all of these are from the earthquake but because of this type of training provided by our specialists, people are surviving their injuries and returning to their homes and communities. The hardest part now may be in bringing awareness through out the country that care is available and getting people sustaining injuries to that care.
A team from Utah followed them and provided care givers training to 2 orphanages over 4 days. The directors for these 2 places were so happy to receive the additional education for their staff!
The volunteers from Minnesota, TCHH and Utah deserve our thanks in a very big way! As do all of the care givers from physicians to social workers to rehab techs that are trying their best here in the country to provide on-going care to these very vulnerable and special people and their families.
Since I have returned from Christmas break, there has been a noticeable decrease in the tents camps near the airport. In fact, in the 2 areas at the airport all of the tents are gone- the park is being cleaned up. In Champs des Mars, work is continuing with support from Canada and IOM to help people find a more permanent and safe housing. As we drove around the National Palace yesterday, we could actually see the Neg Maron statue! As I did not want to disturb the people that were still there near the statue, I did not take a photo. They've had enough invasion by folks taking pictures. We drove around to check out the other statues in some of the other park areas around the palace and there are still way too many tents surrounding them to really get a view unfortunately. Still much work to be done. President Martelly has said that he wants everyone moved out by June and to have the parks opened up and cleaned up again. He is planning a Festival of Flowers for July to celebrate. We have to wish him well in his attempt. Recently, the Prime Minister (installed after 6 months without one) resigned after only 4 months of work. This will no doubt cause a slow down again, raising concern for the International community as well as the citizens. Haiti politics at its best is a problem, and this is significant problem to overcome once again. On top of this, there is also the oppositions claim that the President is not a Haitian citizen so is not qualified to be president- Sound familiar? Politics at its worst in US and in Haiti. Concern is not for the people they represent but for the power for themselves.
The picture above is a photo of Port au Prince in 1918. If I remember correctly from my tour of the palace in 2009, this was around the time that the palace was destroyed and new palace was built (I think it took about 7 years) and during this time the US sent in military to occupy the nation until 1934. You can look back on older blogs to see photos of the palace that I toured in '09. Driving by yesterday, we did see signs of active clean up in progress.
Enjoy your (extended) day and I hope you have a beautiful sunset.
