Haiti April 2010

After the earthquake in Haiti on January 12^th, one of my emails read – "a true test of faith – why Haiti?" Having been on 9 mission trips to Haiti in the last 7 years, the choice for me was not whether to go, but for how long.

On April 11^th I traveled to Haiti for 2 weeks on a medical mission with the Friends of Haiti. It was our largest group yet, 75 people from 7 different states, working together to serve and maintain a friendship with the people living in the plains and mountain areas of Thomazeau. We held clinics in 7 different villages, and were able to care for over 6000 people.

It takes months of hard work and many hands to get our groups ready with all the necessary medications and supplies for each trip. We were blessed with extra donations after the earthquake and were able to take more medications than we normally do.

Some highlights from the trip: Seeing so many tent cities throughout Port Au Prince as we flew in. The opportunity to visit 2 orphanages that were both dozens of children over capacity – "since the earthquake, there are so many families who lost one or both parents, and we just can't turn them away". The children all looked healthy, happy and well cared for despite the crowded conditions. A home visit to an elderly woman who had fallen during the earthquake, and hasn't been able to walk since. She had fractured her hip. We talked 2 of her neighbors into carrying her to the clinic to see the doctors, for the small cost of a pair of sunglasses for each of them. A steep, tense ride up a rocky mountain road to one village, then an even steeper 5 ½ hour hike to the top of another mountain a few days later. Meeting new interpreters who had never been outside Port Au Prince, and had no idea their fellow Haitians lived in such poor, rough conditions. Working with 10 wonderful nurses from HANA (Haitian American Nurses Association). Singing and dancing in the evenings with the children from the village, and teaching them the Hokey Pokey. Gas shortages and gas lines that delayed travel in the country for some of us as much as a day. Rain falling so hard on the church tin roof you had to shout to be heard, and had us scrambling to find a dry area to sleep. Making new friends and renewing old friendships, working with an amazing group of people from all walks of life. The feeling toward the end that we can never see all the patients waiting. The most memorable part for me was taking a very sick baby down the mountain to the hospital in Port Au Prince. We brought baby Jose to Medi-Share, a MASH type tent hospital set up behind the airport by the University of Miami. The place was truly amazing, so many sick people in tents, lying on cots, generator wires everywhere. But it was the doctors and nurses volunteering there that made such an impression, so busy, but so caring. They took charge of Jose with such compassion, giving him his best chance at life. We will never know if he lived or died, we only know that we left him in very capable hands.

There was not much visible structural damage in the mountain areas we traveled, but every Haitian was affected by the earthquake in some way. They lost family and loved ones, homes, jobs; it felt like a different place to me. We did have an opportunity to see some of the badly hit parts of Port Au Prince after we dropped Jose off at Medi-Share. We were grateful it was dark and we couldn't see more. It was heartbreaking to see so many tent cities, so many buildings crumbled with all the rubble still there and no signs of rebuilding.