Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday Morning
I just lost my last hours worth of updates because of the internet connection :-// More later.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday
We got up for a (Whoa! Just saw a fat mouse? run past my feet! I guess it could have been a HUGE cock roach. What ever it was, it was 3" long dark and fast.) 7:20 breakfast and then walked 5 minutes down the mountain to a MEBSH church with Sheila (Dr Ruben walked down with us & took some good photos then he, Dr Noah, Max & Jennifer spent the morning at the hospital helping another Dr and seeing patients). Fortunately Dr Rudolph sat behind us and interpreted the services for us. The visiting pastor spoke about keeping harmful viruses out of the church like negligence, laziness (and begging from others) and not forgiving one another. It had a good message. They introduced each of us and asked us to sing a song, so we sang a couple verses of "How Great Thou Art". The second vs seemed very fitting being in the mountains and feeling the gentle breeze. The weather is beautiful. There was a little 3? yr old girl sitting right in front of me who kept playing peak-a-boo whenever she could get my attention.
After lunch we went down to the coast for the afternoon (with Dr Rudolph). The scenery was gorgeous and temp perfect! The girls were quite popular playing with the little kids. Max and I even got a little soccer-on-the-beach time in. Boy did those boys wear me out! (Unfortunately, Satan parked beside us with a party of young people.) How bold! Eventually they left and we were able to enjoy a meal seaside with fresh fish, chicken, fried plantain, white rice and cola. Then we walked the coast a bit, took some photos beside an old abandoned fishing boat (maybe it wasn't?) and headed back to the guest house. This evening the team did a little inventory, sorting, and some more rounds in preparation for tomorrow. I was trying to email and blog a little in the ER when Dr Ruben and I heard quite a commotion around the corner. I wasn't paying any attention at first, but the voices kept escalating with more people so I finally got up to check it out. There were about 20 people gathered with maybe 6 shouting at each other and pushing each other around, so Dr Ruben and I tried to break it up a little and calm the ruckus (it is suppose to be a hospital ER after all, with maybe 10 patients resting in rooms. The security guard was even in the middle of the pack. We tried to tell them to take their arguing outside to no avail. Finally I went and got Sheila in another building and shortly after that Dr Rudolph showed up and walked in. It ended up being a domestic dispute with several family members not agreeing on what was going on with their mother or something like that and the town mayor was one of the guys that happened to be there visiting! Oops, we didn't know we were trying to push the mayor out the door! We'll just say he wasn't acting like one :-) They seemed to get things settled down after an hour or so. I have to ask more details tomorrow.
Well, better go for now, 5 of the team came looking for me in the ER since I wasn't back yet, hoping I was still ok.
After lunch we went down to the coast for the afternoon (with Dr Rudolph). The scenery was gorgeous and temp perfect! The girls were quite popular playing with the little kids. Max and I even got a little soccer-on-the-beach time in. Boy did those boys wear me out! (Unfortunately, Satan parked beside us with a party of young people.) How bold! Eventually they left and we were able to enjoy a meal seaside with fresh fish, chicken, fried plantain, white rice and cola. Then we walked the coast a bit, took some photos beside an old abandoned fishing boat (maybe it wasn't?) and headed back to the guest house. This evening the team did a little inventory, sorting, and some more rounds in preparation for tomorrow. I was trying to email and blog a little in the ER when Dr Ruben and I heard quite a commotion around the corner. I wasn't paying any attention at first, but the voices kept escalating with more people so I finally got up to check it out. There were about 20 people gathered with maybe 6 shouting at each other and pushing each other around, so Dr Ruben and I tried to break it up a little and calm the ruckus (it is suppose to be a hospital ER after all, with maybe 10 patients resting in rooms. The security guard was even in the middle of the pack. We tried to tell them to take their arguing outside to no avail. Finally I went and got Sheila in another building and shortly after that Dr Rudolph showed up and walked in. It ended up being a domestic dispute with several family members not agreeing on what was going on with their mother or something like that and the town mayor was one of the guys that happened to be there visiting! Oops, we didn't know we were trying to push the mayor out the door! We'll just say he wasn't acting like one :-) They seemed to get things settled down after an hour or so. I have to ask more details tomorrow.
Well, better go for now, 5 of the team came looking for me in the ER since I wasn't back yet, hoping I was still ok.
Well finally! Yes, we did make it down here safely. But let me go back to Friday eve. The 4 Illinois girls decided to go to a local mall since they had plenty of time. They ate at a Cuban restaurant, Mojitos and experienced some great food! Then most of us met at the hotel (minus Noah, Max and Ruben because they flew through the night and got to the airport at 5:30 Sat am). We probably visited too long :-(, only got 4 hours of sleep and took off back to the airport.
Saturday was quite the day. First, we were beginning to wonder if we didn't allow enough time for check in because when we arrived the AA agent told us to go back outside and down the sidewalk to another Port-au-Prince special check in counter and that we only had 12 minutes?? Another Haiti bound passenger said it changes every time he goes! I fortunately was able to check my bags all the way through to PAP from Detroit, but none of the other team members were able to?? Then the security line was horrendous and slow with only 2 lines open, but fortunately they opened another check point and we made it through with 45 minutes to spare (relief). It was a very full flight.
When we arrived at PAP I was surprised to be dropped off in a new air conditioned addition to the regular terminal, but that didn't last long as we went down the escalator, back outside and herded onto a packed bus and driven down to the original fan-conditioned customs and baggage claim. We managed to find all of our luggage and we didn't have to open anything! What an experience though getting through the crowd, out of the airport, across the parking lot and onto our bus. This is always the most nerve racking part of the whole trip. Everybody is trying to help you with your luggage. We had a very nice air conditioned bus and they packed all our luggage on a roof rack. We were able to drive past the destroyed presidential palace, cathedral and a few other areas. After we were driving awhile, we heard a thump on the roof and Jeana saw the shadow of someone's legs on top of our bus! We got a little excited and thought our luggage was being stolen, tried to alert our driver (in English) and he just smiled and motioned that it was ok. We finally figured out that he hired someone to ride the entire trip on top to guard our luggage! The team was able to experience the PAP traffic congestion :-0
I noticed the main highway, Rt 2, out of PAP had some earthquake damage also with long rolling cracks and ridges. We made it safely out to Bonne Fin after a few "close calls", we'll leave it at that. Sheila Moser met us along the highway in Cavaillon with the Toyota 4x4 and we transferred everything over, piled on top ourselves and drove the last hour on a gravel mountain road that was fairly maintained (only 1 bridge out).
Once we arrived at the guest house, we unpacked briefly and then enjoyed a fairly standard Haitian meal of white rice, onion meat gravy, fried plantain, chicken, goat, cole slaw, tomatoes, green peppers, some other fried vegetable, fresh coconut cookies... Then we took our medical supplies up to the hospital and the team did rounds, assessing everyone in the hospital (I think) and preparing the lists of priorities for surgery or PT. There was one young girl who was crying while they were trying to redress her broken arm (awaiting surgery), so we went and got a doll for her and another young boy in the same room. Max even got to pull a pin out of someone's leg...his first "surgery"! I asked if they could put it back in so I could pull it out too!! I'm not sure where everyone got their energy from after little to no sleep the night before, but they worked till maybe 11:00 pm. Then we went back and took cold showers. Much colder than I remember.
Saturday was quite the day. First, we were beginning to wonder if we didn't allow enough time for check in because when we arrived the AA agent told us to go back outside and down the sidewalk to another Port-au-Prince special check in counter and that we only had 12 minutes?? Another Haiti bound passenger said it changes every time he goes! I fortunately was able to check my bags all the way through to PAP from Detroit, but none of the other team members were able to?? Then the security line was horrendous and slow with only 2 lines open, but fortunately they opened another check point and we made it through with 45 minutes to spare (relief). It was a very full flight.
When we arrived at PAP I was surprised to be dropped off in a new air conditioned addition to the regular terminal, but that didn't last long as we went down the escalator, back outside and herded onto a packed bus and driven down to the original fan-conditioned customs and baggage claim. We managed to find all of our luggage and we didn't have to open anything! What an experience though getting through the crowd, out of the airport, across the parking lot and onto our bus. This is always the most nerve racking part of the whole trip. Everybody is trying to help you with your luggage. We had a very nice air conditioned bus and they packed all our luggage on a roof rack. We were able to drive past the destroyed presidential palace, cathedral and a few other areas. After we were driving awhile, we heard a thump on the roof and Jeana saw the shadow of someone's legs on top of our bus! We got a little excited and thought our luggage was being stolen, tried to alert our driver (in English) and he just smiled and motioned that it was ok. We finally figured out that he hired someone to ride the entire trip on top to guard our luggage! The team was able to experience the PAP traffic congestion :-0
I noticed the main highway, Rt 2, out of PAP had some earthquake damage also with long rolling cracks and ridges. We made it safely out to Bonne Fin after a few "close calls", we'll leave it at that. Sheila Moser met us along the highway in Cavaillon with the Toyota 4x4 and we transferred everything over, piled on top ourselves and drove the last hour on a gravel mountain road that was fairly maintained (only 1 bridge out).
Once we arrived at the guest house, we unpacked briefly and then enjoyed a fairly standard Haitian meal of white rice, onion meat gravy, fried plantain, chicken, goat, cole slaw, tomatoes, green peppers, some other fried vegetable, fresh coconut cookies... Then we took our medical supplies up to the hospital and the team did rounds, assessing everyone in the hospital (I think) and preparing the lists of priorities for surgery or PT. There was one young girl who was crying while they were trying to redress her broken arm (awaiting surgery), so we went and got a doll for her and another young boy in the same room. Max even got to pull a pin out of someone's leg...his first "surgery"! I asked if they could put it back in so I could pull it out too!! I'm not sure where everyone got their energy from after little to no sleep the night before, but they worked till maybe 11:00 pm. Then we went back and took cold showers. Much colder than I remember.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Made it to Miami!
The group made it to Miami safely. Jennifer's flight was late getting in, but thankfully she arrived safely. As of 7:15 am this morning, they were all back at the airport (after a very short night) and just getting ready to board the flight to Port-au-Prince (PAP).
It should be a very eventful day as they plan to take a bus to Bonne Fin where the hospital is located. This should be about a six hour drive, but we all know how things can go in Haiti. They plan to do a brief tour of the earthquake destruction in PAP on their way out of the city. Hopefully they will be able to post some pictures once they get there.
Please pray that they have a safe flight, can make their connections easily with the right people once they get to PAP, and that they have an uneventful drive to the hospital.
It should be a very eventful day as they plan to take a bus to Bonne Fin where the hospital is located. This should be about a six hour drive, but we all know how things can go in Haiti. They plan to do a brief tour of the earthquake destruction in PAP on their way out of the city. Hopefully they will be able to post some pictures once they get there.
Please pray that they have a safe flight, can make their connections easily with the right people once they get to PAP, and that they have an uneventful drive to the hospital.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A medical team consisting of 10 members plans to arrive in Haiti on Saturday, February 26. This is a temporary blog to keep track of their progress. The team members include:
Heather Funk, Nurse - Morton, IL
Amy Folkerts, COTA - Washington, IL
Bethann Kafer, COTA - Fairbury, IL
Ruben Kalra, Dr/Anesthesiologist - San Francisco, CA
Jennifer Lehr, PT - San Rafael, CA
Jeana Leman, CNA - Forrest, IL
Jill Maibach, PTA - Toledo, OH
Mike Reinhard, nonmedical - Detroit, MI
Max Weiss, student - Sonoma, CA
Noah Weiss, Dr/Ortho - Sonoma, CA
Safe travels everyone!!
Amy Folkerts, COTA - Washington, IL
Bethann Kafer, COTA - Fairbury, IL
Ruben Kalra, Dr/Anesthesiologist - San Francisco, CA
Jennifer Lehr, PT - San Rafael, CA
Jeana Leman, CNA - Forrest, IL
Jill Maibach, PTA - Toledo, OH
Mike Reinhard, nonmedical - Detroit, MI
Max Weiss, student - Sonoma, CA
Noah Weiss, Dr/Ortho - Sonoma, CA
Safe travels everyone!!
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