I wrote this so I could cut and paste when I got my internet back again...I'll try to keep up with posts. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I am staying well! We've had an absolutely beautiful day today...sunny and warm...not hot. The past few days and especially at night its been cool. In fact last night we were all wrapped in blankets watching a movie!!! Aunt Teddy, I don't know this place where 'your little boy' is living. I'll have to do some research. More updates later....

News from Haiti

Just when I thought I could take some time to update my blog we have no internet services. The team is watching a movie so its a pretty quiet night,

We have one day left in clinic then will visit a couple of orphanages and take them some supplies out to them.

Instead of our usual team dinner out, we chose to make dinner for the staff. We bought and prepared tacos and rice and refried beans. About 15 staff members filled their plates and went back for seconds. It was so much fun for us and for them. We decided it had to be an annual event!

the HHH board has asked me to stay to help coordinate the volunteers they are sending to work in the new prosthetics lab and other areas around the city. I will be here for 12 weeks. It will be like last year but with the exception of continuous teams and more people. There will be many changes for HHH and Haiti and I look forward to being involved once again.

I had to send one of my nurses home earlier than her anticipated departure date. Katy began having flank pain and we suspected a kidney stone. After a painful night unable to lay down, at 6 am she was ready to go to a hospital- anticipating this we had already contacted a urologist so I called him and off we went to CDTI- or Sacred Heart Hospital.

An american team of docs were there working in the courtyard so several of them consulted as no Haitian staff had arrived yet- finally some one came and did an ultrasound and declared her problem was Gallstones. Katy is only 23, in very good health, active with a good diet but ok...at least we knew it was something. A total of 6 physicians saw Katy - 3 Haitian, and all agreed it wasn’t critical that she have surgery or require medivac emergency departure so it was decided we would make arrangements for her to fly out with the therapists scheduled to leave the next day at 1 pm. They gave us lots of medications to make her comfortable so after 7 hours at the hospital we returned home with a drugged up girl. Melissa and I went to the embassy to try to secure a seat on the same flight- they were not helpful and told us to go to American Airlines...where we got her on priority standby. The short of it is that she doesn’t have to have surgery, is feeling much better but sad that she had to leave. It didn’t even sound as if they were certain she had gallstones....but possibly a virus.

Its been raining a lot yesterday and again this evening. Cool and cloudy all day, I’ve worn long sleeves all day. Seems very strange to ‘feel’ cold in Haiti. Its very difficult to imagine what the people in the tent cities are having to deal with, especially the ones that don’t have a real tent but card board and sheets. Many have told us that when it rains they try to find a wall to stand next to or a car to sit in. Noel told me he has about 12 people in his tent we gave him...I think it is a 6-8 man tent. Can’t imagine how they manage to sleep but then he did have 16 in his van before he got the tent. Some just have tarps for protection.

The little neighbor kids that have been helping our team carry our supplies to the tent and back at the end of the day. Today they picked up a lot of garbage- fatra for me.

Once the work is done they get their daily vitamin , glass of milk with instant breakfast and today for their hard work, each got 1/2 half a power bar. I’m hoping I don’t give them

diarrhea. They were wild and crazy the first few weeks but this week they have been mindful and polite and helpful. They are a ragged little bunch, worn and torn clothes, some have shoes or what would pass for shoes as opposed to being barefooted.

They yell madam gail madam good morning. we are hungry. do we get milk today?

I say after our work is done, and you finish picking up the garbage. One day, only 3 were there -

Lisa returned from the Miami tent today- she’s been there since last Friday working.

Several others worked the weekend and came home Monday afternoon. Every week a new team comes in to work in a large tent out at the airport. Lisa reported there are too many doctors that do nothing and not enough nurses -sometimes trying to manage 40 patients per nurse. Today we had a patient carried into our tent clinic on a ‘stretcher’. He had been injured in the quake with falling debris but with no apparent serious injury until this week when his legs became very edematous and blistered and he couldn’t walk. We got him loaded into the our van and took him to the Miami tent and they turned him away, so the team took him to General Hospital where they received him. Whether or not he will survive we won’t know but it was difficult for the team that had worked at Miami to expect to receive help only to be turned away. They felt betrayed by the good American doctors that came to help....

Everyone has an agenda, everyone has a motive, everyone has expectations and everyone will come away changed by the experience. You have to check the baggage at the gate or leave it at home. There is no place for it here. Haiti has enough of its own to deal with.