Well its been a couple of weeks since my early departure to get home and get treatment for a persistent sickness, and glad to say it has been successfull as in especially the past several days I'm feeling fully recovered and have been without symptoms for the past week, with the exception of altered eyesight and that is slowly returning to normal too. Thankfully, a combination of full and complete diagnosis, testing, proper treatment and consistent medical care has proven successful and I'm thankful to the Lord for guiding me home at the time He did.
Unfortunately, back in Haiti the sickness continues, with Cathy pretty much knocked out of action all week with the same nausea, fever, exhaustion, headaches, chills and rashes plaguing her and several others there for many weeks. Thankfully the Lord has allowed her moments of strength with short periods of feeling better before falling ill again and into bed. Although she is determined to gut out her complete stay, she's in her final week there and starting to look forward to her return home. The sickness is a bit of a mystery, as the whole of the Sask Medical team also got sick with similar symptoms, some before departure, others on return home, and thoughts of Dengue Fever or another, unnamed illness are circulating, and stricter care with hand-washing and mosquito bite prevention the mandate for the day as new teams arrived Saturday to start their stint in Grand Goave.
On the construction front, news has been limited, but it seems concrete has been poured at the Technical School and Children's Village meaning second-floor slab and ground floor slab, respectively may now be complete and work proceeding from there. Hopefully Cathy will be able to get out and get a fuller report of the latest activity and the current buzz of activity from the new teams as they seek to fulfill their goals for their short time there...
Monday, March 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Calm after the Storm
The day before a team leaves it is usually busy in the morning so the afternoon can be at the beach, however, that was not the case yesterday as the Saskatchewan Medical team saw call back patients as well as some new ones at the clinic. They must have seen around 650 patients in the 6 1/2 days the clinic ran. The afternoon was spent closing the clinic down. All items in the pharmacy were counted, inventoried and packed away in containers until locking cupboards are installed. All the examination rooms and consulting rooms were packed up, patient records were organized in Rubbermaid bins, and everything was swept and washed. What a beehive of activity. Everyone worked right up until supper and then the personal packing and room cleaning began.
Cindy Knelson, Mignon and Antoinette LeRoux cleaning and organizing...supervised by Ronald?
The Moose Jaw team finished up at the Children's Village (I'm sorry, but I never made it over there to get photos). I know they worked hard, because they came back sweaty and dirty. Dave and Mike were putting finishing touches on the fence around the clinic and the railing on the stairs at the street entrance with their Haitian partners. It's amazing what these two teams accomplished in ten days....very long days. Thank you for everything you did!!
David Schock and Jean Philippe at work under the mango tree
Mike Forge finishing up a section on the fence around the clinic
Mike and his partner admiring their railing on the steps at the clinic entrance on the street
The finished railing waiting for completion of the painting.
It was a late night, with Steve Harrison hanging out with his Haitian buddies outside, the medical group having a final lengthy debrief on the roof, and the rest of the rest of the Moose Jaw team playing their final round of Up and Down the River with Roy.
Morning came very early as showers began at 4:00 am and baggage loading began before 5:00 am. Both Chris and Gordon Stock were still under the weather. Chris was running only a low fever and felt a little better than yesterday. We prayed for the ones departing and saw them off. By 5:30 am all was quiet and Roy, Olive, Wayne and I headed back to bed for another hour or so of sleep.
Roy prays for the departing group.
Chris all ready to board and begin his journey home
Marc, Lisa and Jasmine headed back to Calgary with the departing teams so Jasmine can get some medical attention. They'll return on Mar. 24. Roy and Olive are looking after Asher, Meisha and Aryana here at the guest house. After the kids got off to school, Olive, who is still feeling low in energy found a sunny spot under a mango tree in the yard for a relaxing breakfast.
I caught up on some emails, and got called out in the afternoon to take photos of two ladies each receiving a goat. They have to agree to give away the first offspring of their goats to someone else in need and then they can keep all the rest for themselves.
We were supposed to have our Creole lesson at 5:00 pm, but our instructor was sick, so I'll have to do some work on it myself. I still get frustrated because I don't have a large enough vocabulary to communicate as effectively as I'd like, and if I don't use certain words regularly I forget them. The staff is good about helping me fill in the blanks (-: Then we all have a good laugh.
Scurrying around organizing, packing and cleaning at the clinic
Cindy Knelson, Mignon and Antoinette LeRoux cleaning and organizing...supervised by Ronald?
The Moose Jaw team finished up at the Children's Village (I'm sorry, but I never made it over there to get photos). I know they worked hard, because they came back sweaty and dirty. Dave and Mike were putting finishing touches on the fence around the clinic and the railing on the stairs at the street entrance with their Haitian partners. It's amazing what these two teams accomplished in ten days....very long days. Thank you for everything you did!!
David Schock and Jean Philippe at work under the mango tree
Mike Forge finishing up a section on the fence around the clinic
Mike and his partner admiring their railing on the steps at the clinic entrance on the street
It was a late night, with Steve Harrison hanging out with his Haitian buddies outside, the medical group having a final lengthy debrief on the roof, and the rest of the rest of the Moose Jaw team playing their final round of Up and Down the River with Roy.
Morning came very early as showers began at 4:00 am and baggage loading began before 5:00 am. Both Chris and Gordon Stock were still under the weather. Chris was running only a low fever and felt a little better than yesterday. We prayed for the ones departing and saw them off. By 5:30 am all was quiet and Roy, Olive, Wayne and I headed back to bed for another hour or so of sleep.
Marc, Lisa and Jasmine headed back to Calgary with the departing teams so Jasmine can get some medical attention. They'll return on Mar. 24. Roy and Olive are looking after Asher, Meisha and Aryana here at the guest house. After the kids got off to school, Olive, who is still feeling low in energy found a sunny spot under a mango tree in the yard for a relaxing breakfast.
I caught up on some emails, and got called out in the afternoon to take photos of two ladies each receiving a goat. They have to agree to give away the first offspring of their goats to someone else in need and then they can keep all the rest for themselves.
We were supposed to have our Creole lesson at 5:00 pm, but our instructor was sick, so I'll have to do some work on it myself. I still get frustrated because I don't have a large enough vocabulary to communicate as effectively as I'd like, and if I don't use certain words regularly I forget them. The staff is good about helping me fill in the blanks (-: Then we all have a good laugh.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Chris Heads Home
For the past several weeks Chris has been suffering with a cold that has settled in his chest and left him dragging around. He took an antibiotic for a week, stopping last Friday, and on Saturday developed a high fever, which is still plaguing him. The doctor of the medical team saw him a few days ago and put him on another antibiotic to treat what she suspects is pneumonia. Chris decided yesterday to go home with the teams that are departing tomorrow. He's only just over two weeks away from finishing up here and felt that with the way he's feeling he's not able to contribute much and would be better off getting home and seeing the doctor there to get whatever tests are needed to get to the bottom of this.
He walked me through the process of doing the blog this morning so this is my practise run. Chris has done such an outstanding job recording and communicating our wonderful adventure here in Haiti that I want to continue to do the blog. Even though we will now be separated until April 3, the work that God has begun in us continues, and there is yet work to complete here in the time I have left. We have felt so lifted up by the prayers of friends and family and are so grateful for your support.
Now back to work.....lots yet to do before Chris leaves.
He walked me through the process of doing the blog this morning so this is my practise run. Chris has done such an outstanding job recording and communicating our wonderful adventure here in Haiti that I want to continue to do the blog. Even though we will now be separated until April 3, the work that God has begun in us continues, and there is yet work to complete here in the time I have left. We have felt so lifted up by the prayers of friends and family and are so grateful for your support.
Now back to work.....lots yet to do before Chris leaves.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Though sick, none tarry
Over the past many weeks sickness has rotated through the staff here and yesterday Cathy was hit full-force. A massive, splitting headache (worse than she ever had), fever, chills and nausea had the doctor thinking malaria so after a day of bed rest I trundled her down to the local hospital for some blood work, which proved negative for malaria so its being treated as a viral infection. A good thing in the process though is we discovered we weren't taking full dosages of our anti-malarial which will start immediately and we'll keep an eye on Cathy who's feeling a bit better today, she's not out of the woods yet.
The trip to the hospital was an experience, not totally different than a small hospital back home, minus the long lines, foreign language and concerns about germs... not that we don't have them in Canada. We managed to get our lab request shoved in to the attending staffer, and after a half hour or so she got in for the test. I took an interpreter back for the results, but by that time the hospital was closed to new patients so the crowds had gone.
Aside from attending to Cathy and concern over her health, work here is proceeding rapidly on many fronts, especially at the clinic and the Children's Village. The clinic is fairly humming along, the team having worked out many kinks and work-arounds where necessary and complaining this morning they didn't have enough patients! That wasn't the problem, the Haitians propensity for being late for everything (except flights and appointments to the US Ambassador) was so they eventually came. The initial influx on the first day included many not too sick coming looking for handouts, like the popular sunglasses and toothbrushes, whereas now the truly sick are making it in. The staff are working well and seem to really be enjoying the new clinic, like the consultation room under the banana trees, though tweaks are in order and will be addressed after departure.
We're still finishing odd items, like fence sections, the inverter battery back-up system and signs and that will continue too into next week and perhaps beyond.
At the Children's Village, great progress is happening as crews of block-layers, cement mixers, haulers and others are together building the foundation walls and starting the significant back-filling now underway. Calculations are for between 150-250 yds of material needed (a lot) so Marc has located a gravel-filled stream-bed nearby partially owned by church members and is digging it up and moving it into place. Since the rivers belong "to the people" (government) he's getting a great deal too. The Moose Jaw team has joined right in and is working well with the Haitians, learning new skills, like brick-laying, as well as learning mechanization is a great thing! They hope to have it completely back-filled before departure, a major task, that only 2 days ago seemed impossible but now may be within reach.
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| awaiting clinic entry and blood sampling, semi-orderly |
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| blood analyses |
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| Grand Goave IKEA, Wayne making new stools, and taking orders for more |
The trip to the hospital was an experience, not totally different than a small hospital back home, minus the long lines, foreign language and concerns about germs... not that we don't have them in Canada. We managed to get our lab request shoved in to the attending staffer, and after a half hour or so she got in for the test. I took an interpreter back for the results, but by that time the hospital was closed to new patients so the crowds had gone.
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| multiple waiting areas, and more shade needed, a future tweak... |
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| I think there's furniture in that container... |
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| At the entry gate, initial registrations |
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| professional consultation with team leader, keeping it working... |
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| Now who wouldn't want an office like this? |
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| inverter and battery back-up power system |
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| "Friends helping friends health centre" now open to the public |
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| fence sections getting prepared for final placement |
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| welding shop under the mango tree... |
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| prepping for planting |
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| multi-use land |
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| approaching the South Property from the north |
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| the only shade in sight, welcome relief from the scorching heat |
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| block-making factory |
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| crew excavating a river channel, no environmental permits here |
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| no photo unless working, great attitude! |
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| 2 yards at a time, all by hand... PS: the bobcat is broken, the wheels are in the container |
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| 6" blocks ready for the walls |
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| foundation walls nearly complete |
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| we got this part to full height, about 1/20th of the whole, but its coming |
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| final levelling corrections, too rushed earlier leads to more work later |
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| block-layer boss stringing up centre wall |
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| compactor finally working, missing spring stuck to a shirt... |
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| concrete mixing station |
Scenes from the City
One of the things you learn living here, is its different in many ways from home. I've discussed some of these differences while sharing about mangos versus apples, and warm versus cold cultures. I've found, living here, in a "warm" culture, the norm is to be warm, and perhaps the unstated belief is that warm is somehow better, but really, in some things warm alone just doesn't cut it.
After our regular Haitian driver made a trip to PAP on Monday but failed to return with both pieces of lost luggage, a second trip was essential, the following day to get the still-missing piece. Now I can't say that the attempt wasn't made previously, nor that the explanation that "we're trying" wasn't said with a smile and sincerity, but when you're missing your luggage, as when you're missing lots of things, trying is nice but getting results is what really counts. In this case a mixture of airlines, gangway checking and incomplete documents and a multitude of (wrong) numbers made it difficult, but with a little persistence and Skyping back to American Airlines in the middle of the night the pertinent details were finally discovered and the next day the bag was retrieved relatively easily from where it had been sitting for four days waiting to be claimed. And hey, I even had a smile when I rolled it out the back room to freedom!
In addition to the luggage we did some shopping for essential items only available in PAP so I had the opportunity to snap a few pics of street scenes and general life in Haiti, which I'm including without much discussion. Perhaps it'll give you a flavour of things here and a better appreciation for beautiful Haiti.
After our regular Haitian driver made a trip to PAP on Monday but failed to return with both pieces of lost luggage, a second trip was essential, the following day to get the still-missing piece. Now I can't say that the attempt wasn't made previously, nor that the explanation that "we're trying" wasn't said with a smile and sincerity, but when you're missing your luggage, as when you're missing lots of things, trying is nice but getting results is what really counts. In this case a mixture of airlines, gangway checking and incomplete documents and a multitude of (wrong) numbers made it difficult, but with a little persistence and Skyping back to American Airlines in the middle of the night the pertinent details were finally discovered and the next day the bag was retrieved relatively easily from where it had been sitting for four days waiting to be claimed. And hey, I even had a smile when I rolled it out the back room to freedom!
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| jockeying for position as the road narrowed or avoiding holes |
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| a long dusty day in the sun... |
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| still signs of abandoned structures collapsed from the earthquake |
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| essential building materials, rebar & rouble' (rubble) |
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| taxi stop at ever-present lotto houses |
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| hillside towers bring cells to life |
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| across-road rivers and puddles at important exchange west of PAP |
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| cavalcade of parked buses, recycled to Haiti after a lifetime in Canada & the US |
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| road repair crew tearing up old concrete |
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| roadside mechanic shops everywhere, "what do you need done?" |
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| corner food stall, but watch out for that hole! |
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| everything to market, even a wheelbarrow to cart it away... |
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| cleaning the gutters, ugly now but essential, it's getting done! |
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| local Sleep Country bed sales, mattresses not included |
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| everything by hand, its the Haitian way |
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| fruits and eggs, Thanks to God |
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| mattresses over here! |
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| 1.0 manpower pull cart |
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| beautiful buses |
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| the destroyed Palace is slowly coming down |
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| Centennial (?) Plaza monument |
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| a few gems still standing |
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| women carrying water |
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| garbage collection day, a positive sign |
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| brassieres outside the bars |
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| typical roadside markets, atypical bikes |
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| store-side alleyway |
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| garbage-cluttered major channelized drainage ditches |
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| keeping a cool head while selling water by the bag, next to the bakery |
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