Update on "Peanut" and Moto taxi ride

I wanted to update you on "Peanut" as I've been calling her (the preemie).  She has a name now!  Her name is Immanuella...isn't that beautiful!!?!?!  I think so!  Her mother has been able to pump some breast milk and so today I worked with one of the Nurses, doing some teaching about putting down the nasogastric tube and beginning to feed the baby...things to watch for that would be a concern with preemies.  It was wonderful, as I had a translator with me today so I could do more teaching with the Nurse and also with Mama.  Immanuela looks pretty good still...her breathing is stable, although we put her feeding tube in orally because the Nurses had mentioned that when they put a tube in yesterday she started to have some problems with her breathing.  Basically, the tube was obstructing her nare and so she needs both wide open!  She is a bit jaundiced looking but they have no bili lights so I'm hoping as she increases with her feeds she'll start just pooping out that bilirubin!

Pancha and I visited with two families, living in the tents outside the hospital and being cared for by the Humedica team from Germany.  Inside the tent were two Mothers and their collection of children.  The two boys (one from each family) were wounded in the earthquake and have since been operated on, each having an external fixator on their right femur.  We heard the stories of these women...one was home with her children when the quake hit.  The other Mother was in downtown PAP, selling in the market.  When the quake hit, her immediate thought was of her children and it took her over 4 hours to manage to get home and find them.  Speaking to the delay in treatment for some patients, due to the chaos of the disaster and the lack of specialists available...both Mothers told us how their boys came to Hopital Espoir on January 26th, which is 14 days AFTER the earthquake.  That means both of these young boys were dealing with a fractured femur and the pain that comes along with that for 14 days before finding treatment.

There were two people from "Clowns Without Borders" at Hopital Espoir today.  The people LOVED it!  It was so great to see people laughing...the heaviness of life being forgotten for a least a short period of time.  The highlight for me was watching the two Mothers that we had visited with before laugh and laugh and laugh some more!  It almost seemed as though this show was received more by the adults than the children!

Yesterday we went to a church close by.  It was a mixture of Haitians and Caucasians...english service though. We wanted to go to a Creole speaking service but weren't able to get there.  I went with Karen in the afternoon to pick up another guest for the guesthouse....yet another former MCC'er that used to live an work in Haiti.  It has been really neat to see so many "alumni", as they call themselves, returning to help out and allowing the local MCC staff to have a break.

In the evening, some of the group took a ride up to a look out point.  I stayed behind with Pancha, one of the MCC workers here.  We needed to get up to Petionville to meet them for dinner and so we took a moto taxi.  Oh, Daddy! I'm glad you couldn't see me!!!  Let's just say that those years of growing up on the back of the motorcycle came in handy.  But no helmet!! Yikes!  A moto taxi on the pot-hole filled roads of Haiti with no lanes marked is quite an adventure! (and at high speed of course too). The bikes just weave between traffic and we came close enough to another vehicle that I felt it knock my bag which was on my left hip.  Anyhow...quite the way to travel.  We arrived safely and that's what counts!

Pancha leaning over my pizza and banana split!...worth the fear of death on the Moto taxi!! (:

Tomorrow we are off to do another clinic....we'll be happy to keep busy again.

Other shots from today...

Erin and Janine working on organizing donated medications in the hospital warehouse.

Paul and Ernst.  Ernst was the person in charge of the warehouse.  Paul and Janine worked really closely with Ernst and it was amazing to see how much he smiled when they were there!  He would often tell them, on the days we were away at clinic, how much he missed having them around.

The Humedia team at work.  Manuela and Ben are the two Humedica volunteers here.  It was truly a deep privilege to meet them and come to know them all a bit.  The work they are doing in Haiti is phenomenal.  There are so, so many fractures and so many people that will need rehabilitation.  Humedica is committed to being in Haiti for as long as it takes.

Hopefully this won't turn your stomach too much!  This is a close up of an external fixator on a left femur.  The alignment of the bone is achieved through manipulation of the ball and socket joints on the outside of the metal frame.  Inside each drilled hole is a special bolt or wire.  It's quite something!