Clinic Day in Djegue

We had a clinic day today in a place called Djegue, an area on the out skirts of Port Au Prince.  The orginal plan had been for us to visit a Tent City today but as often happens in the developing world...things change!  So we went to an existing clinic and saw about 70+ people today.  It was a good day and came together remarkably well with the help of many local people.  It felt good to feel more productive today, as some of our time at Hopital Espoir has felt a bit "useless" to us at times, quite frankly.  They are a well staffed hospital and we possibly could support them more, but language is often such a huge hurdle...I so wish I could just speak them all!!!  So, it felt good to get out amongst some people today and work hard.

It has been much warmer over the last few days...we are sweaty pretty much all the time!  Gotta love that!

Tomorrow afternoon we are heading north in Haiti to Des Armes to learn more about MCC's work up there in reforestation and development.  I'm looking forward to that, in terms of learning even more about long term sustainability for the country of Haiti.  No email access in Des Armes though, so I'll try and blog when we return sometime on Sunday.

I have to tell you of a young boy today...maybe 11 or 12 years old.  He came to the Pharmacy part of our clinic today to get his medication and I looked down and saw his shoes.  He has on these little plastic girls shoes with a little bow on each one.  I couldn't help but think about the boys that age I know at home...you would NEVER see them in girls' shoes.  For this boy though...he had shoes and that was what counted.  I don't know whether it would bother him or not but I hope it doesn't.  Does he get teased?  I hope not.  This is another world from our world and his shoes give the evidence to that.

Below are a number of photos from today's clinic, taken by Ben Depp, one of the MCC workers in Haiti.  He is a wonderful photographer!  Ben and his wife, Alexis, are in the midst of a 3 year term in Haiti.  Alexis works with the MCC Advocacy team in Haiti and she was an invaluable source of information for us, in terms of the country, the issues both past and present, and the responsibility we have to advocate for Haiti...in our homes, in our communities and among our Governmental leaders.

The photos below also give me a chance to introduce you to our team!  The clinic in Djegue was set up in that people lined up and were registered outside the building and then they came into the front room for triage, as well as, the Pharmacy.  In the second room (previous to visiting Pharmacy), they met with a Doctor for consult.

 Nurse Becky, from British Columbia!

Dr. Dolores, from Saskatchewan! (love these little kids!...if only every kid was so happy to have a stethoscope on him!)

EMT Paul - Paramedic from Alberta!

Nurse Janine (in orange), who runs a tight Pharmacy, from Ontario (Janine and I were on the team in Tanzania together as well).  Also pictured, on the left is Erin, who is a Nurse from San Fransico that we "adopted" while at Hopital Espoir.  She was a great help and fit into our little team like she was made for it!  We were happy to have her on board this day.

 Nurse Julie (Me!) and on the left, Edwin, MCC Alumni who was back to help out the MCC Haiti team.  Edwin was a blast and came along with us to translate.

On the left (in green) is Rand, another MCC Alumni, who was in Haiti during our first 5 days.  Again, Rand was there to help translate for us.  It was he and Karen who met us at the airport.  We were sad to see Rand go, but pretty sure his family was happy to see him again (:

Pancha, who is originally from Columbia.  Pancha is the Connecting Peoples Coordinator in Haiti and was the person who essentially watched over us and coordinated our debriefing times. She was great fun! and it was fantastic to have her translating for us whenever she could...just to have her with us was great.

Eugene (in the middle in red) was a local Haitian who came along to translate for us.  Eugene's Aunt was injured in the earthquake and is being cared for by Humedica, at Hopital Espoir...that's where we met Eugene!

Something I learned from the Nurses in Peru...a water bottle as an Pediatric aero chamber for inhalers.  It's come in handy a few times!

 

 And finally, a non-Ben photo (which will be obvious when you see it!).....

 Nurse Karen!! our fearless leader.  Karen was another MCC Alumni who was with us the entire time in Haiti.  Karen is a Nurse from Georgia, who led our team with such grace and confidence.  She was truly, truly amazing.  Her driving was phenomenal and her leadership effective and genuine.  Her translation was dependable and thorough and I never felt unsafe when Karen was around.  I rarely felt unsafe at any time! but there was always a great assurance when Karen was with us.  I am convinced that she worked harder than all of us put together.  I can not begin to describe the admiration I have for her.