The day ended with a night with RAM

I know I have a lot of catching up to do and where to start? Frontwards or backwards...


I left off on Wednesday with the nursing seminar, the OT seminar soooo





I can move on to Thursday which is over a week ago (can I remember that long ago after all that has happened)?
Chris and Maggie put on a diabetic seminar with the nursing students and the rest of us visited General Hospital's pediatric unit and abandoned childrens unit. This hospital reminds me of a civil war hospital that you would seen in Gone With the Wind. It is the large state run hospital downtown. There is no other comparison that I can make. Gabe who has worked in Ghana and Nicaraugua (sp?) agreed. The hardest part is a visit to the abandoned childrens unit. Its is sad and depressing. I will never understand how it is run. If I had the funds, I would do whatever I could to take it over. (My family should never tell me if they win the lottery- except if they saw it they would feel the same way) It is hard to think about, let alone to talk about a place that exists like this; I don't think words can describe it - There are more than a dozen large cribs, some had 3 children sharing the space. They ranged in age from infant to maybe 12 years. Its doubtful the baby still survives as I write this as she was so malnourished- next to a chubby little guy in a nursery sized crib- his head and feet touching the ends.
One little guys wrapped his arms about me -I could have taken him with me easily! Everyones emotions were on edge when we finally left.

We left and stopped at several pharmacys looking for meds to buy for our trip to Jacmel only to be told they didn't have any. Traffic was its usual craziness and I took the opportunity to take the team shopping to Haiti's version of Walmart - a little boost to help the economy and a stress reliever!

I was able to make arrangements for our team to visit St. Joseph's for an afternoon performance by the Resurrection Dance Troupe. This is a group of young men and boys that at some point in their life lived on the streets of Port au Prince. This is a very inspiring and emotional story. The team needed to have a positive view after this mornings visit to GH. The St. Josephs website is 'under construction' - www.sjfamilyhaiti.org but you can google the resurrection dance theater of haiti and learn more about them.

After the show, everyone made preparations for our early morning departure to Jacmel...and then we went out to the Oloffsen Hotel and enjoyed the ambience and music of RAM. Another cultural experience for Team Portland.