News from Second Team in Haiti

Hi Everyone,

Below is the latest news from Janean Clark and Ky Zeiger who are the second team at the new Global Therapy Group (GTG) clinic. I awoke this morning in a panic. The enormity of what I have taken on hit me and I dissolved into tears thinking, "My volunteers run out in 6 weeks, I have payroll to meet weekly now and I have to return in 2 weeks and don't even have funds for a plane ticket yet!" As has been the pattern since this adventure began, I asked and what I needed was dropped in my lap multiplied by 100. Three hours after my mini-breakdown I received a call from Eric Neufeld a prosthetist who is a friend of a friend in Chicago and runs a foundation setting up prosthetic clinics in South America. He said he had a proposition for me. Extreme Makeover Home Edition wanted to take some prostheses from a young woman here in the states who wanted to donate them to be re-fitted to a child in Haiti . The show was having difficulty finding a place to plug in down there and needed to film this Saturday. He asked if we could make that happen at our new clinic. I made some calls and sent e-mails this afternoon and by dinner we had children identified, the Rainmaker Fund-raising group of guys who were to leave tomorrow changed their tickets to Sunday, they are ordering a big Grand Opening! sign for our clinic, will send it down with Eric and our clinic will be the site of their TV special. I have requested they allow us to put out a request for PT's and OT's nationwide to volunteer to staff our clinic for the next 1-2 years. Isn't God amazing?

Well, we had an absolutely amazing day! I don't think much can top this, as far as our experience goes. First, Judeline is doing well; she transferred with min assist today, bed to w/c. We put an AFO on her with an ortho shoe and she was able to use her left leg to pull herself down the hall and she is getting to therapy much quicker. She walked about 12 feet this morning and about 18 feet this afternoon WITH MINIMAL ASSIST! Anise's c-section was put off until tomorrow, but she did take a long walk today. Darlene, who is in the same room as Judeline was discharged today after Ky took her for a long walk and up and down stairs successfully. She told the translators that she had a gift for us and so we went to her room. She told us that she had no gift to give us but a song that she wrote in our honor. So, she had us sit on the bed, and she sang a song to us, with Gibson translating. Basically, she said how much she appreciated our loving care, and that we showed God's grace in the way we worked with people. She thanked us for coming to Haiti and praised God for His people everwhere. We just sat there with tears running down our cheeks, deeply touched. All we could say was "merci, merci" and hugged her. Sadly, we were so moved, we forgot to take a picture.

Then, I went to the meeting at 2pm with Josiann and Edith, and Barry W Borror, director of Star of Hope. Here is the synopsis of the meeting:

Barry states that Star of Hope's primary donor countries are Sweden , Finland , and the US , with the US being the smallest donor. They work in 18 countries, and were established in 1979. Josian's brother is on the board, and her sister is also on the board, representing legal issues. They have been in Haiti for 24 years. Currently, they have 13 projects in 10 communities in Haiti . First, he offered to build two new operating rooms, at European standards. This includes training staff in the utilization and organization of resources and equipment/supplies. Secondly they offered to bring Cyrec in as a partner to build a prosthetic clinic. They have partnered with them before on several clinics. Cyrec is out of Bogota , Columbia and is the leading prosthetists in all of South America , seeing 3,000 patients per month. They use computer aided technology to make the prosthetics. They are also heavily invested in teaching locals to eventually run the clinic themselves. I told them that our translators would be very interested in training for the clinic. They also provide skills training (computer, office, etc) for the amputees, support for the families in training how to help the amputee patient, and community outreach/accessibility/education. Edith asked if they could send a team down quickly because she knew of three children who needed prosthetics right away. He said that he could, but they were most interested in building a clinic for the long term, not just a short term fix. We would still run the physical therapy for inpatients and outpatients, but they would handle the amputees only. Josian and Edith were going to take it to the hospital board and then, assuming they said yes, they would have the team from Cyrec come in immediately for a meeting to make definite plans. With Josiann's siblings on the Board, I think it is a done deal.

So, we walk out of that meeting and we are met with Larry, who tells us the whole "Extreme Makeover" deal, and they need three kids under the age of 12 for the taping. How cool is that? Edith and Josiann immediately got on their phones and starting calling; the kids will be here Friday to meet with Eric and the film crew. Brad designed a logo for Global Therapy Group and ordered a huge sign that reads "Grand Opening" with the logos of CTG, HCH, and Rainmakers on it. HOW COOL IS THAT? He will send it with Eric. Plus, the extra coverage that the hospital and GTG will get may help you recruit more therapists! We were totally blown away by God's provision yet again. All the translators said "nothing is impossible with God" and they were high fiving us all over the place!

Amazing! To God be the Glory!

Janean