Donna

Two days of amazing meetings! JoAnn and I went to the Haitian government Injury and Rehab group meeting yesterday and talked with colleagues I had met 3 weeks ago, as well as meeting several new and exciting people. After I spoke about our clinic, one of the participants introduced herself as a representative of the US aid program who was in Haiti for 2 weeks on a fact finding mission. She was looking for places where congressional money could be spent to further rehab services in Haiti now. She looked at me and mouthed, “We need to talk!” We met after the official meeting, told her our story, and she has agreed to come tour our clinic! Access to some congressional funds would be awesome. We also met with a PT who runs a program at Albert Schweitzer Hospital who had much advice on starting a Rehab Tech school to begin to train local Haitians to take over the clinic eventually. Lastly, the wife of one of the heads of Healing Hands for Haiti was there and said she was in the country to be with her husband and did not feel very useful as her specialty was business not medicine. We told her we would love to have her advice as we know nothing about business, but appear to have started one! She may be able to come to the guest house to meet with us this weekend. So many wonderful contacts and offers of help.
Today I found a volunteer to drive me to the Petionville Club where Sean Penn’s group is serving the now 50,000 living in a tent city there. I met with the medical director and chief ortho doctor and Sean himself came to sit next to me to listen in on the conversation and my description of our new clinic and services we can provide. (He has a great smile!) Another of my, “How did I get here?” moments in Haiti.

Anise and Isaac are both doing very well and Isaac is growing stronger each day. I found a donated portable baby crib and stroller in the back of the storage area at the hospital and we presented them to her yesterday as gifts. They are planning to leave soon. I would like to write they are going home, but unfortunately they have no home to return to. She is still unsure where they will live once she is discharged, but at least little Isaac will have a bed to sleep in.
Joslyn, who had a severe stroke passed away this morning. It was a blessing as her body had been failing over the past 2 weeks and her bedsores multiplying. It is an interesting ritual here when a patient dies. All the family gathers outside and they accompany the men with a stretcher who go in to pick up the body. They parade out wailing and crying and talking to the deceased about how much they will miss her and how sad they are. We have watched this several times and the intensity of it is always interesting to me. Funerals and death in the US are such quiet affairs. Here their grief is cried out loudly. Something about that seems healthier for the grieving process.
JoAnn presented a great inservice to the nursing staff today on body mechanics and the prevention of bedsores. The nurses here have been very wary of us since day one, but today went a long way toward breaking down that barrier and moving toward working as a team. They seemed genuinely interested in learning how to prevent back injuries for themselves and how to move patients more easily. Once JoAnn got them all involved in practicing on each other, there was much laughter and some real teaching going on. We told them we were here to help them however we can and I am hoping they will now feel comfortable enough to ask.
So many wonderful things going on that it is almost possible to forget how unbearably hot it is. Tomorrow is to be 101 with a heat index of 114. With no AC or even fans to move the hot air, it is tough. JoAnn and I have taken to walking past the ER and ICU as often as possible as there is AC in those rooms and some of it slips under the closed doors and out the side edges. We often find we need to consult on a patient as we are passing by and must stand there a few minutes to talk!
I am encouraged this can all come together and believe we can truly create a sustainable clinic here in Petionville. Things continue to appear in front of us just as we need them, so I know God is still busy. I am trying to keep up and not melt in the process!