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

You mean there is no 7 Eleven

As Jonathan pointed out in his blog post, a large part of the day was spent at the Concorde Baptist Church and then a wonderful lunch at the Pastor's house. I am not sure what spices and cooking methods are used in Haitian rice and beans, but it quite good. I think the meat we had along with the rice and beans was goat, which was also very tasty.



I was able to touch base with Youri who we met last year and hand over to him the Bibles we brought. Youri helps run the Easy English Club which teaches English to many young adults from the church and surrounding area. They had asked if we could get them some English Bibles and while we tried over the past year and failed, it was good to finally be able to hand some Bibles over to them.

We were also able to see the state of the construction project we started last year. There are now about 4 permanent class rooms that are in use.

After lunch and rest, some of us set off to find lunch supplies for the week, or at least tomorrow, as well as retrieve two bags from the airport, which for some reason did not make our original flight.

As it turns out, most the grocery stores close early on Sunday and we were really out of luck. We did find a boulangerie and picked up some empanadas and bread, but it really wasn't what we needed for the week. As we were running out of time we had to head for the airport to pick up the bags.



S has been working the phones and the web for a day or so attempting to get the two missing bags, which had many of the medications needed for the medical clinics and so her name was on the paperwork. When we arrived at the airport a guard (here after know as the MWTG - the man with the gun) would not let us pass to where we needed to be to get the bags. MWTG instead insisted, in Creole, that only S could go. We tried to explain that (a) S didn't speak Creole, (b) that the bags S were getting we're heavy and large, and (c) the bags contained medicines for the orphanage. MWTG would have none of it, he really was not very helpful. He wouldn't even let us send a translator with S.

Undeterred, S took off with a language cart while the rest of us were shown out in not a particularly nice way, but I suspect it could have been worse as MWTG had FWG (friends with guns).

We waited and waited and S's husband was able to reach S by phone to make sure she was well and find out the flight was late. So we waited some more and eventually S came out with two bags to a round of cheers, which must have hit the rest of the people waiting as a bit odd, but that is how life is in Haiti.

In desperation for jelly to go with the peanut butter we had back at the dorm, we stopped at a gas station. We did not find jelly, but did find Pringles, so all was not lost.

So now we have bread, peanut butter, honey, and Pringles for lunches tomorrow and that actually sounds pretty good, not as good as rice and beans, but better than a lot of people in Haiti or the world will eat tomorrow.
Planned for tomorrow is a visit to an orphanage. It will be our first attempt to make kites with kids and I hope all goes well.

The power is out now, which is a sign that all dogs in the city should start barking uncontrollably. So I am off to bed, the lights don't work, but the Internet connection is still working, so I guess the priorities are about right.

Location:Rue Roucourt,Carrefour,Haiti

Sunday impressions

By Jonathan Wright-Gray

Worship at Concorde Baptist Church this morning was amazing--a  typical Haitian service.  Incredible singing that becomes almost chant-like at times as it merges into prayer.  Sometimes everyone prays aloud at once--almost feels like you're present at Pentecost!
Our group sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth", which I led and introduced with comments about the need for God's peace on all levels, including the need to pray for peace among Haiti's political leaders.   Last week Haiti's Prime Minister resigned after just a few months in office due to political wrangling--so now there is no effective government again, which puts a drag on important development efforts here. Later, Pastor Ronel echoed these sentiments as he asked everyone to pray for the government of Haiti. We actually made a pretty decent choir! 

The sermon (not given by the pastor) was pretty hard core evangelical (I got snatches from a young translator sitting beside me)--very energetic, bordering on angry at times, with a lot about turning your life around from sin, the sinfulness even of some church people, and turning to Jesus in repentance.

The young preacher’s tone was quite different from the demeanor of most of the people here, who are wonderfully warm, but often rather shy  and reserved.

Our group of nine were one of three guests in church:  also a Southern Baptist group of five from Richmond, VA, who had spent the previous week doing construction on the church’s orphanage, and a Korean pastor and his wife.  She sang beautifully, not sure where they were from.
Pastor Ronel had the two groups to his small home for a delicious dinner of rice and beans, stewed meat in a rich gravy, pasta, tomatoes and broccoli.

Most of the group spent the afternoon shopping at the market for lunch supplies for the week, and returning to the airport to retrieve two bags full of critical medicines that did not arrive with us on Saturday.  Tonight we will get organized for Monday, when we head out to do our first medical clinic.

Please pray for one of our group, Sue Moore, who is sick, coping with dehydration and a possible respiratory infection.

Impressions

It is 8pm in Port-au-Prince and the day is drawing to an end. We have arrived at the site we will be calling home, as you can see from the picture. The trip down to Haiti has been long and tiring, but as always, worth it.

I have to admit when I saw all the mission groups boarding in Miami I was a little disheartened. It was somewhat depressing to see so many groups and their associated money flow into Haiti and yet still there is so much that needs to be done. There are many reasons for this and it helps to understand the history of Haiti as part of the context, but even with a little knowledge in this area it can be disheartening.

The airport in PaP is pretty much as I remember it from last year, it really hasn't changed. The baggage carriers are still attempting to get every dollar from you they can. "Hey, I touched that bag, you owe me a tip", is kind of the mentality. It was a bit frustrating that the guy that Pastor R sent down to help us kept asking for more and more money, now he didn't get it, but he kept asking. I know people are hurting here, but ...

The ride from the airport was interesting as we seemed to avoid the main road and we were not sure why. Some parts of the city seemed a little better, some parts seemed worse. In particular it seemed that there were many more tents surrounding the presidential palace than last year. When we finally did hit the main road it was evident why we were attempting to avoid it as it was going under major reconstruction. Gone is the makeshift center divider made from jersey barriers and they seem to be building a real median.

Seeing that there was progress on the road was promising. Don't get me wrong there is still piles of trash burning everywhere and evidence of the earthquake 2 years ago can still be seen, but progress is being made; ever so slowly.

I find myself looking forward to church tomorrow in hopes that I will be able to see the translators that we worked with last year and give them the Bibles they have been waiting for to help them teach English in their Easy English Club. We sent them Bibles shortly after last year's trip, but they did not make it to their intended target and I am not sure what happened. But this year we brought them down personally, so we know they will get them.

PaP still smells of diesel fuel and charcoal, but it is a smell I associate with Haiti and it brings back the memories of the past two trips: having to close the medical clinics even when there were more patients waiting, the family who lost their wife / mother in the earthquake with the 12 year old daughter heading the family because the father was essentially a ghost of a man, the children that couldn't be helped, the orphans living in a condemned building with some that had to be put on the street every night because the government would shut down the orphanage if they kept more than 60 at night, not being able to feed the orphans every day ... the smiles on the children's faces as they received stickers, playing frisbee with the kids while they waited for exams, making bracelets with the orphans, playing duck, duck, goose, the people that were treated and saved ...

Haiti is a quandary for me. It holds both incredibly difficult memories and feelings that can literal sneak up on me and break my heart, but it holds some of the most meaningful things I have done in this life. It has a pull, that won't let go and that I long to share.

Well, the lizard on the wall has chirped 6, which in lizard speak means that is time for bed ... I wonder what tomorrow will hold ...

Location:Rue Roucourt,Carrefour,Haiti

But Will They Fly

After an overnight flight from San Francisco, I find myself sitting in Miami International Airport at a rather early hour. There look to be 3 flights to Haiti this morning from Miami, so I suspect there will be lots of people going to Haiti to help. I have seen one team already. I assume they are a team as they have matching t-shirts.

Several things rapidly crossing my mind this morning: I am thinking of my family and hope they will be ok while I am away, I am thinking of the mission team and hope that we actually meet up in PaP as planned and all goes well, and funny enough I keep hoping the kites we are planning to build will actually fly.

The kites we have planned are those built from 3 chop sticks, some string, some plastic (for the skin), and a bit of tape / glue. They are modeled after Haitian kites and the design, in theory, seems sound enough, but I never really have done a complete practical tests. This makes me a bit nervous. I suspect we are going to have to leverage some local knowledge from the translators and perhaps even the kids to get things tuned just right, but I find my biggest fear right now is that they won't get off the ground.

So besides your prayers for safety, caring, and compassion, please pray for the kites to fly and the children to enjoy the simply pleasure of a kite.

Location:Miami International Airport, Gate D25

Bad news, good news

It has been interesting as I have been preparing for the trip to Haiti. I haven't had the same time to really think and plan as I have had in the past. And with being in the middle of a move from MA to CA, as well as some extended business travel to China it has been a strange time.

The bad news really came in two forms, both financial. First, I made a bit of a mistake when I booked my ticket and got the wrong month. Try as I might I could not get the airline to waive the change fee. Wasn't happy about this as I found the mistake within days of the error and almost a month before the trip.
The second was about the malaria meds. My new physician and his office staff were very helpful, my insurance company less so. As part of my move to CA I changed companies and therefore insurance companies as well. Where my old company covered my malaria meds the new one didn't. They would be happy to cover them if I caught malaria, but not if I wanted to prevent it. So I had to fork over another $140 for that.

The good news is that despite troubles, it is clear that I am truly blessed. Once again I am overwhelmed with the support I have received from friends and family. I truly thank you all for helping make this trip possible.

And a special thank you to B. As you may know the plan is to make kites with the kids this year in Haiti. I have come up with a design that is base on chopsticks. I was collecting chop sticks from my place of work (I work for a China based company now) but collection was going slower than expected. B suggested to just go to Ranch 99 and for $6 I had all the chop sticks I needed. B then helped me process the chop sticks, which included trimming out a section in the middle, drilling some holes, and etching a notch in the ends. Thanks to him the work went quickly and there is now enough chop sticks to make over 100 kites. Thanks again to B.

It is amazing how God works and how through him things can come together even as they seem to be about to fall apart.
The trip is less than a week away. I have about 7000 miles to fly before I get to Haiti (as I cross the US for the move and then to Haiti and then 7 days after Haiti I am off to China) and there still seems like there is so much more to do to prepare. It will be good to get back to the island and catch up with the guys we met last year. It is always somehow refreshing to spend time in Haiti.

Location:Tuttle Dr,Acton,United States