La Romana Medical

Received from Elaine on March 9, 2012:

Amour, Paix, Patience, Sagesse, Unity, Union, Voluntare, Fraternite

On the walls of Inglese Bacara where we attended church Sunday these fruits of the spirit were written and inspiration for our week to come. Thirty five missionaries came together to do the work of God. There were reunions and new friends made, spirits remain high and hopeful.

More urban illness has crept into the Batey. A Coke truck impeded our entrance one morning.

Over six hundred received healthcare, children got hugs, and did crafts at bible school. Few injuries occured, all remained healthy. We had the privilege of porcelain every day.

So with love, peace, patience, wisdom, the spirit of fraternity, unity we accomplished our mission.

Dios es bueno

...E

La Romana Construction

Received from Tom Kohls on March 9, 2012:

A report from the construction team at La Romana

Fellow ACC members and friends,

The Good Samaritan hospital is the primary focus of the mission’s construction efforts. The hospital was founded to serve the medical needs of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. It now serves all residents of La Romana and the Dominican Republic, regardless of race, creed, or national origin. Construction started in 1985.

Our construction teams are tasked with working on projects to maintain the finished parts of the hospital and to help with new construction. We receive our assignments through local translators. We frequently work with local laborers.

The work, so far, has been quite straightforward. Some crews have spent a lot of time moving sand, concrete blocks, and bags of cement for the ongoing construction of the upper floors. My crews have been painting on the second floor of the hospital while hospital business continues around us. Small crews made up of more skilled members has been doing electrical work and masonry work in the new construction areas.

We have had the usual challenges while working on construction projects. There’s always a shortage of basic tools and supplies. It can be hard to find a wheel barrow, step ladder, drop cloth, or any number of other tools. We all borrow and improvise and wait our turns. The last could days have presented a different challenge to crews working in open air environments. We’ve had wind gusts up to 40 MPH. It all goes with the territory.

Through all this, we’ve been able to see progress. There are rooms where concrete blocks were piled a year ago. And more importantly, we continue to receive the gratitude of the staff of the hospital and those able to use its services.

Please keep us in your thoughts as we return from our mission. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Faithfully submitted,

Tom Kohls

Monday, March 5  Reflections & Ruminations

I realize that this year I was very focused on the potentials of this mission partnership.
They seem to be prolific.  Pastor Ronel and the people who work with him seem to have great ideas about education for employment and a wonderful ability to follow through....

I think over the next couple of weeks I'd like to consider some aspects of the trip and ruminate for a few paragraphs on the possibilities.
I'd love interfacing with others from the trip as well as from you who are simply following our pilgrimage. 
I think there is a call to do several trips during the year with somewhat different foci. And I'd like to find the right folks to travel and the right folks to support the work...

So perhaps this small network will help to develop a larger network for the ways we can work together.

Possibilities include - the new nursing school with space and instructors awaiting resources
                              - the establishment of a chicken farm in Caveau
                              - visiting pediatric therapists to help in the 2 centers for handicapped children
                              - more attention to food production and opportunities at the orphanage in Llavoix.
                              - a small community orphanage at Rocher D'Horeb where Pastor Gratis inspires
                                 hope
                              - an expanded med team in the spring including med students and other
                                 medically related students
                              - a system for healthcare follow up facilitated by Dr. Betina: involving
                                 establishing  Health Promoters in each of the 28 Haitian Baptist Convention
                                 Churches in Port au Prince (sort of a "Parish Nurse" model)
                              - the sewing classes, computer classes already happening at the Delmas 19
                                   school
I hope the list will grow as we share the dreams....

With immense gratitude to every single member of our team and 
blessings to all, shantia

Last Full Day

On Friday we visited the same orphanage that we visited last year. Last year the children were living in a condemned building on plywood beds. This year their housing situation is about 1000% better, but the food situation still requires much improvement.

The children are now living in a new building with a cafeteria, bathrooms, showers, and real bunk beds. They have a much better water supply. Chickens are also kept at the orphanage and the eggs are used and sold. The orphanage is joined with a school and it looks like the orphans are attending classes.

As I said, food is still an issue. It is unclear if the children get food every day and while we were there they had a mean of rice with very little beans. The doctors did note that they need more protein in their diet.




This was also the last day of the kite project. I had pre-made several kites and had partially finished many more. I spent the day out doors on the ground building kites and handing them out. In the morning I met Evans. He took right to the kites and not only showed me the Haitian way to string the kites but effectively helped me run the kite workshop. It would have been great to have my son W there to help as well as I think he would have had a great time.

Before we left for the day I made sure I gave Evan enough supplies to continue building kites after we left and asked him to make sure he takes care of the kids younger than he. As we were leaving he came over and gave me a hug and said, through a translator, that he would take care of the younger kids. Haiti needs more people like Evan.

Update from Shantia

By Shantia Wright-Gray

Tuesday was an amazing day in Salem Baptist Church - a little church with an amazing woman pastor, school principal and single mom of 4. (Her husband – the founding pastor – both of her parents and some of her siblings were killed in the earthquake.)

We saw 124 patients from the school and the church and gave out parasite prevention to many more. For many our clinics are their only opportunity to see a doctor. The crowd of people was all there when we arrived and the church folks and our student/translators did absolutely wonderful crowd control and direction for almost 200 people.

High blood pressure, wounds, skin diseases, rape – and lot’s of colds and flu…

At the end of the day the intake folks (where I was) finished long before the providers and the pharmacy staff… We who were waiting sat with Pastor Claudette, heard her story , sang How Great Thou Art simultaneously in Creole, Spanish and English – bringing tears to all eyes and prayed (Haitian style – everyone at once) for Claudette, her family, her church and her country…. It was moving, uplifting, incredible….

Wednesday our clinic was at Concorde Baptist Church (our partner church) and although it was supposed to be a short day so we could go up to see Petionville, we stayed on to see almost 200 patients and substituted a short tour of the Historic Oloffson Hotel.

Our wonderful nurse provider, Sophia, was more and more convinced of the pressing need for sex education and made sure all her youthful patients were informed and led a class for youth – with many moms and dads during our lunch break. It is unbelievable how many people who ARE moms and dads have no idea how babies are made! In a Roman Catholic Country, with very little education and very early pregnancies no one is noticing… Sophia and Sue and our (former teacher) translator, John they were thorough and complete (including condoms on big syringes and graphic demonstrations of women’s condoms). What an added gift to our church based clinics!

DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE:

Over the days I have had several conversations with Pastor Ronel (of the Concorde Baptist Church in Martissant), with the American Baptist Missionary Deliris who is using her ancient Occupational Therapy training to open a clinic for physically handicapped children, and with our beautiful, gentle, skilled Doctor Betina. Priorities that surface are – a health promoter in the churches we visit to follow up on care for a few of the patients we see (Pastor Ronel and our Doctor are very interested in helping to shape this dream) – a nursing school (there are 7 instructors and classroom space waiting for the materials needed to start the program), additional materials and therapists to help train the folks working in the center for handicapped children (Pediatric OTs, PTs, Child Life Specialists…), and the creation of a chicken farm to raise a little money and help feed lot’s of children!

We learned tonight (Wed.) that there are only 3 centers for handicapped children in the whole country! One is a government center and 2 are sponsored by Haitian Baptist Convention Churches…

So education for employment tops the list with our partners here and food and healing are close behind…

Can you help? Will you teach some skilled techniques to the sewing, computer or tile setting classes? Will you help to train the workers for the centers for handicapped children? Can you offer a short nursing course? Will you build chicken coops or train folks in environmentally sound farming techniques? Build on our newly conceived sex education course? Assist in a medical clinic? Lend a hand in construction? Bring snugly blankets and hug the beautiful children in the orphanage? There is truly a place for everyone!

Location:Rue Roucourt,Carrefour,Haiti

Three Days and Two Nights

It is hard to believe it is already Wednesday. We have been busy since Sunday. On Monday we visited a very impressive school and orphanage. This location also houses a therapy clinic for children with disabilities run by D, a Baptist missionary. Currently, the orphanage houses 27 children, but has the capacity for about 50. Additionally, this same site provides occupational training to the older orphans as well as young adults in the area. Right now they offer sewing and tile installation, but are looking to start nursing classes in the next month or so. This site is to be a template that can be replicated in other part of Port-au-Prince.


It was at this site on Monday where we held our first medical clinic. This was also to be the first trial of the Haitian kite project that was started. So while the doctors and nurses whee doing their doctor and nurse things I set out with to Haitian helpers to work on kites and entertain kids as they waited to see the doctors.

Luckily the young Haitians with which I was working knew how to string the kites, so it was decided that while I entertain the small children they would start a kite production line and when they were finished we would start handing out the kites. This made since as for the most part the children with which we were working were very young.

Every now and again I would steal a kite from the production line and give it to a kids. And while I can't say if the kite flew or if it went up simply because the child held a string an ran, I will take any success I can get.


We have been having some issues with our transportation this week, in particular one van, but really a couple of different vehicles. The van has some transmission issues, alignment issues, perhaps a bent axle, and some breaking problems; but other than that it is fine. So it was decided that the van would get some repair work during the clinic. In Haiti this means that a bunch of guys would tear apart the van, fix what they could, and put it back together at the clinic site. We were hoping that would be back together again by the end of the clinic and it was. It was really kind of amazing given the tools and environment.




The next day, Tuesday, we were providing a medical clinic in another part of the city. We did not make kites for this clinic as there was no open ground to use the kites. After the clinic was set up an functional, M and I, went back to the site of the first clinic to do some painting at the orphanage. To be honest, I am not sure the site was ready to be painted, but I respect that the Pastor was attempting to accommodate some non-medical work. So after a brief painting session M and I spent some more time with the children. We also may or may not have took a walk around the block unaccompanied, where we may or may not have meet some very nice people who simply want to chat, meet some new people and practice their English. But again, that is only in theory what we might have done.

Today as the medical clinic was setting up, M, J, and I headed back to the first site to paint again, this time with a much more detailed plan by D to paint the rooms in which she provides therapy for handicap children. The idea being to brighten up the space and make it more child friendly. This took most the day, but I have to admit the rooms looked much more welcoming when the job was done; even if we had to put a 3rd coat on one wall and paint the top of another wall that no one was ever going to see.

It has been a busy couple of days and I am quite tired. Tomorrow we are going to an orphanage that we first visited last year to perform a clinic. My goal is to build a bunch of kites tonight to have them ready. I think it will work out better to have some pre-made and then also make some with the kids.

Location:Rue Roucourt,Carrefour,Haiti

Thoughts From Shantia

By Shantia Wright-Gray



Today was our first clinic day... all 9 of us were there - John and Sophia and a lovely Haitian Doctor seeing patients, Jenn and Phyllis in the pharmacy, Sue and Mark and Jonathan swapping off with blood pressure and temperatures, and David spending extraordinary time with the children of the school and the orphanage....

There were amazing moments - 6 children giving me thank-you kisses at once for the lovely fleece blankets... one scarred young girl rescued from the street who sat in my lap and squeezed my arms tighter and tighter around her.... We were healing each other just a little bit...

People incredibly grateful for vitamins, pain medications, antacids...
Teaching a little massage to the trainees learning to work as OT aids for the center for handicapped children.

Praying for and with the people touching my day...

Filling with gratitude for each person on this team and the very special gifts they bring...

God is good...

Location:Rue Roucourt,Carrefour,Haiti