We're Home !

Well, we left Haiti Arise at 5AM and arrived in Regina at 9PM on Wednesday March 16 so needless to say we were pretty tired today but we are home feeling our mission was so worthwhile as we improved the life of many Haitians. We trust that many of these changes will be longlasting for them. Our trip was certainly life changing for each of us. These last pics give you some idea of the school children on the compound, homemade musical instruments that entertained our men as they worked one day, evening chores for the nurses preparing pharmacy needs for the next day and lastly, our Dr Amelia caring for a sweet baby. Thanks to everyone who remembered us and followed our blog. God bless you! Sharon

Mission Accomplished

It is hard to believe our time here has come to an end! This was not a holiday and I think most of us are coming home fairly exhausted but I am sure that we are all coming home with a sense of accomplishment and a thankful heart. Words cannot express the looks on the peoples faces as we were able to provide them with medicine, toothbrushes and paste, soap and baby clothes…the look in their eyes and the smiles on their faces was so touching. Today, an elderly lady had walked or should I better describe it as a shuffle and a limp, to the clinic. I was able to give her a walker with a seat on it so she could sit to rest along the way. She hugged and kissed me, and repeated “mesa, mesa, mesa” with a tear in her eye! The Haitian people are so grateful for anything that we could do for them. Some cases were more difficult, like the 17 yr old girl who walks with such a limp and has so much pain, only to learn she has a very advanced bone tumour…cases like that broke my heart, but we were able to give her pain medication and we prayed for her to have comfort thru this time. She had come to the clinic alone but lives with her parents. What a shock it would be for her parents to learn of her diagnosis when she got home. Overall, we were able to see 842 patients during our time here and I think every one of them got a bar of soap. Today we saw pts in the morning and then packed our ‘clinic’ back into their Rubbermaid containers to be ready for the next Hungry for Life International team to come in May. What a tedious job to count pill by pill for inventory…unless it was Tylenol and tums…we used them all!We had worked closely with our interpreters all week and they had hard time to say good bye to us tonight. Many asked for a commitment that we would come back soon! I think they have all improved their English during our time here and it has been a good experience. So we are packed up and will be heading to bed soon as we have to leave for the airport at 4:30. I can only imagine a white knuckled ride back to Port au Prince in the dark! I truly hope that there is no one else on the road at that hour! See you all soon and thanks for reading our blogs!
Elva B

Our last working day

Hi everyone - our internet service was down for 24 hours but is up and running. We saw 142 patients yesterday and anticipate 70 this morning prior to an afternoon of packing everything up so it is going to be a busy day. We are all back to health and switching the team around a bit today but we are happy and fulfilled and ready to face our last day - if anyone gets a chance we will do some blogging. Everone wants to let our families know we are missing them.. Hi to my grandbabies... Elliot, Kaitlyn and Mackenzie. Hope you meet us at the airport. Sharon

Day of Rest and Reflection

Today has been a true “Day of Rest” for me. I tried to go to church this morning but that lasted about 5 minutes and I realized I needed to be in my room and very close to the bathroom! This afternoon the rest of the team headed for the beach again and I have had some time to reflect on this entire past week. I have so much to be thankful for and often take for granted. These are just a few things I have thought of.
1)My family.
Many children in Haiti are orphaned or abandoned. We have seen many children brought in by their grandmother. What is even worse is that we learned from Pastor Marc, that many children are given away as slaves as the parents can’t provide for them. These children are not treated well and ‘Haiti Arise’ will be rescuing many of them in the future and putting them in their ‘Children’s Village’. They hope to build many homes on some newly purchased land, then putting these kids in the homes with foster parents who will love them.
2)Health care.
There is a small hospital in town that cannot even come close to providing the amount of care needed. The smallest things like a sterile cord clamp and scissors could prevent many babies born at home from dying of Tetanus. This past week every pregnant woman planning to deliver at home (which is most) was given a package with these essentials and a Tetanus shot.
3)Water, Sewer and Electricity.
Water is hauled from wells scattered here and there. Some homes have power but it is not uncommon to see any kind of wire (even barbed wire) strung like a string of Christmas lights to the main city line in order to tap into its system. Hard to believe but it is true! Many people in our clinic did not know how to use a toilet because they had never seen one before.
I could go on and on. I do not understand why I have these things and they do not but this I do know. Our God is their God and He loves us all. By faith we are to trust in Him. I pray that through the small things we have done and will be doing, some can grasp this and hold on tight! Carlene

Youth on our team

Taylor has been a great asset to our team. She also helped in the school and has made many friends. She will write soon..

Much happens under the mango trees

Greeting again from Ruth Bartlett. Part of our program has included ministry to the inner wounds that are in the hearts of these beautiful Haitian people. I have been so honoured and blessed to counsel and pray with individuals referred to me form the main clinic. My counselling office is a school desk and a couple of chairs under a mango tree. I have lots of stories and I will briefly share one highlight. On Tuesday I counselled a beautiful girl age 14 who was very distraught with the teasing she received from school. Other classmates made fun and laughed at her. I gave her some Creole Bible verses and prayed different girl from the one I first saw on Tuesday. This is only one example of what is happening under the mango tree on the grounds of this mission compound. I appreciate your prayers to help both physical and spiritual needs of these people. Ruth Bartlett

Work and play in Haiti!

Well, what a week! I am energized and humbled, amazed and at peace, overawed and confident more than ever before in the Almighty God we serve. Where to begin?
The clinic was a huge success. We have seen 623 patients so far: the quota we prepared for reached already. Our examining room nurses are unbelievable! (At times I have almost felt a little useless) They are so competent that they are able to see and manage the majority of patients independently. The more tricky ones I help with. I also had to do a few procedures and we had one dehydrated pregnant lady on an intravenous. That’s of course not counting poor Annette who earned herself an intravenous by playing host to some unknown intestinal bugs and getting totally dehydrated! We did not have the meds I would have liked to give her so I finally just said we have to pray again and finally she recovered. Just one more faith-building event. Rita and Lynnise did fantastic replacing her in the clinic. Today Carlene is down with something similar and we are keeping a very close eye on her. Please pray she will recover quickly.
A large portion of my day is spent helping with dispensing medicine in the clinic. We have run out of some supplies and are scraping together whatever we have to make do. We are also out of ointment and medicine containers and are down to using smaller pill bottles and our own pill containers! Every time we put our hand in the bag for a container we pray that there will be one more. We have also been using the same 2 bottles of liquid children’s vitamins for the last day and a half. We have probably poured around 1-2 L of vitamin syrup out of the same two 150ml bottles already. You do the math!
Yesterday we went to “The Mall” Imagine an area maybe the size of a standard outdoor children’s park. Put some haphazard tarps over poles some places. Then plant a few hundred vendors there with little footpaths the width of a wheelbarrow to walk in, scatter some donkeys, goats and chickens around and finally add about a thousand shoppers and you have West Ed Mall, Haiti style. The sights and sounds were overwhelming. We did actually buy some vanilla, spices and hats. We were warned Haitian money is dirty and that was an understatement! One of the Haiti Arise Haitian men acted as purchaser and translator and led the single file row of Canadian women. One of the long term missionary ladies from Canada kept up the rear. They warned us in advance that donkeys and wheelbarrows have right of way. Which Canadian man will take 11 Haitian women shopping, buy their stuff for them, translate when needed and do it all with a smile?!
The afternoon was spent at the beach with beautiful blue-green Caribbean water and lots of sun.
We are so refreshed and ready for the last day and a half. We decided to see all the patients who were booked for Tuesday even though we were not originally planning on seeing patients the last day, leaving time to pack up the clinic. This will mean less sleep and more fatigue, but we are committed to the task God gave us and to finishing well.
To all our families and friends: we love you all and see you very soon. Amelia

One week down ! We happy in Haiti !

Well here it is Sunday morning and it has been such a full week. When we arrived a week ago, I was immediately faced with a number of problems, one being my own health – I developed laryngitis on the plane from Dallas to Miami, then had a migraine for 24 hours, then a cold. I was expecting that 600 tickets would be out for the patients but found out that 760 had been given out. Then the setting up of the clinic and sorting through rubbermaids and then searching for things we knew were here but couldn’t find was a daunting task. Introductions to our team of interpreters and we were off on Monday morning. Dr Amelia has been nothing short of spectacular in supporting and advising the nurses in their new and expanded roles. Once we all felt comfortable in our roles, things ran very smoothly and we exceeded our number of patients that I expected – we still have one and a half days so will be able to see all the patients who have tickets. It is also been great to have our 2 men along – my husband Martin and Al, our electrician. They have been key to helping us fix problems as well as wiring homes in the village and troubleshooting. We had a good meeting with Marc and Lisa on Friday evening and we have appreciated the others who are here at the compound giving leadership with their technical skills. (Architect Kathleen and Engineer Roy). Well I think others are going to blog today, so enough from me. Thanks for all the prayer and support - we couldn’t do this without knowing we have a host of family and friends back in Canada who are standing behind us. This is the first blog I have ever done, so thanks to my daughter Yolanda who set it up and assured me that if I mess up, she’ll fix it! Enjoying the sun! Sharon

What happpens under a mango tree.......

Hi everyone – I know you have been waiting with baited breath for my turn! My highlights have been handing out flip flops… as you would think if you hand one pair out after a foot care treatment then everyone comes and wants the same so needless to say after one day they were all gone! Let me tell you they were all much appreciated. The foot care has not been any less rewarding with the many blessing , hugs , kisses and hand squeezes. It is hard to describe the feelings after completing a person’s feet – who knows how far they may have walked to clinic that day – one story that has come to light – a man started out at 4am from the mountains to arrive at clinic for 10 am. A well deserved treatment is just what the doctor ordered! My office under the mango tree has been the best office I could ever ask for - beautiful weather, a breeze to cool you, never ending action of Haitians working on the medical clinic, technical school and the children playing at the school. Another note when you work under the mango tree, you need to keep looking up - one afternoon a mouse fell out of the tree right beside me – the mouse had his ”bell rung”, the Haitian lady picked up her shoe and flipped the mouse off to the side while I was already running the other way- the ladies killed themselves laughing at me – needless to say I was a little jumpy after that!
As the week rolled on, my nursing services were required in the clinic as 2 nurses needed some extra rest. I spent the morning in the pharmacy – much more appreciation to the many pharmacists following this blog! Then finally a chance in the clinic to see patients – translator Kelly at my side! I am proud to say that my skills were put to use – a malaria case, a 7 day old baby boy delivered at home - sixth child for Mom, upper respiratory infection and an eye injury from tree branches! Primary nursing at its best!
At the beginning of the week, I had spoke to Marc and Lisa regarding purchasing of goats for families. I had enough money for three goats so Marc sent Christoph to the market today to find the finest goats money could buy! At noon he returned to the compound with 3 female goats -2 black and one brown/black. We tied them up to cinder bricks, fed them a handful of mango leaves and watered them before we headed off to the beach for the afternoon. Upon returning from the beach my first recipient was brought to pick up her goat. Even without translation my lady chose the black female goat who was pregnant! With translation I presented her with her gift – the smile on her face will not be forgotten! The fisty goat was a handful for her as she was carrying a nine month old so one of the Haitian boys led the goat home for her – who knows what kind of home this goat was going to. While walking in the town I saw goats eating charcoal – hopefully my goat gets more than that! The other two goats will be kept in the compound for the week until Marc returns to choose the other families who will benefit the most, he promised me pictures with the families!
Friday afternoon was a day that I will not ever forget – first of all it has taken me all week to decide that I would sponsor the little nine month boy that his grandmother was having much difficult taking care of . His name is David and he is very much on the small side. I had asked Marc that if I were to sponsor this baby I would like to be able to hold him and have pictures of him before I left next week – my prayers were answered. Many pictures have been taken, even his feet and hands traced for a keepsake! I know that with my sponsorship, David will have the everyday opportunities of food, clothing and medical attention to take care of his needs. After the little details were taken care with Pastor Marc, I asked to become a Christian and accept the Lord that Friday afternoon under the mango tree…I have the spirit and the life to go forth and the smile on my face has not left……..
To all my family and friends… I will come home but I will be returning!
Lynnise
PS The lady with the first goat is David`s gramma!!

Out of my comfort zone again!

Being back in Haiti again after one year, is all that I expected it to be. I was excited to come back to Haiti Arise. It was nice to see familiar faces and to see that they even recognized me. This time I came with a medical team. My job has been to work in the pharmacy, but today one of our nurses was sick, so I worked in an examining room seeing patients. Every area has been quite busy. In pharmacy we have to do a lot of calculations to figure out doses, so by the end of the day your mind slows down. By today we have seen about 620 patients, and each prescription can have up to 4-5 medications to fill out. So add that up and you can see what we have to do. Our translators are excellent in translating and explaining everything to the patients. Besides medications we also hand out hygiene products, clothes for children, and baby formula. Sunglasses and reading glasses are also handed out. We see a lot of children and often grandmothers are looking after their grandchildren, when they themselves are not healthy. Twins are in abundance here. Yesterday we had one child that kept coming into our pharmacy and didn’t want to leave us. They are not shy. In church they almost look for a white person to sit with and just cuddle up to you. I just wish I could speak their language. I know how to tell them my name and they won’t forget it. We are all tired after a long busy day of sometimes nine hours on our feet. But in the end, it is all worth it when you the see the dilemma and need that these people are in. To be able to serve them in love and in the name of Jesus is a great blessing. They are always so appreciative and thankful for every little thing you do for them.
Loretta, that Roughrider loonie that was imbedded in cement here this week was not mine, but another team members. They always say you can find Roughrider fans all over the world. Now we have something to prove that they are in Haiti too. Rita

Friday, bring me the babas! (gramas)

Well here we are at the end of our first week. Wow what a week it has been! I have been working in one of two clinic rooms. My co nurse is Colleen who loves maternity. Needless to say, this homecare nurse points all the pregnant women to her stretcher. I told Sharon, “Bring me all the old people” and they have truly been a blessing. I am afraid though that many many more should be seen, but because they have to walk a km or more to the clinic, this does not happen. They are so grateful for anything we can give them, whether it be a pair of sunglasses and tears for their irritated eyes, some Tylenol or tums and a hug and prayer goodbye. I have been stretched seeing pediatrics again as I plot growth charts and try to figure out the cause of cough after cough after cough. (Guess what I developed last night?) Oh well, I can always ask to see a doctor as I have one as a bunk buddy. Tomorrow is beach day…Yippie! Rita from work, if you are reading this, I will never complain about a day being too busy at the health unit again! Carlene

Ruth's Ramblings

Hello family and friends
It is hard to believe that a week ago today I left for Edmonton to start this Haiti trip. We have had some many experiences that are new and foreign to us. The temperature was in the 30’s with high humidity today, but I won’t complain even though the sweat was running down my brow and my clothes were sticking to my skin. (I hear it is still cold in RMH)! We saw 147 people in the clinic today and unfortunately we have run out of sun glasses and are getting very short on certain medications. Almost every other person we see has irritated itchy eyes from the smoke from the fires from cooking, dust and the sun. People have been so appreciative of the medical supplies that we have been able to give out because of your generosity in helping us with supplies for this trip. I saw a little boy yesterday who had cut his finger deeply with some sheet metal and had gone to the Hospital for stitches. He received a prescription for antibiotics, but he couldn’t afford to get it filled. The bandage on his finger was dirty and he was reluctant to let me change it because he wanted to make sure I would put another one on. We were able to fill his prescription and after dressing his finger we gave him supplies to change it at home for the next few days. We have awesome young translators who learned their English at school here in Haiti. They are very fluent and we could not have done this work without them. The team have hired them with the money that you have donated as well. It has not been a holiday. We start at 6:30 with devotions and end our clinic around 5:30 – 6:00. Tonight we had a church service until 7:15 pm, then supper! So needless to say our team retires early.Saturday and Sunday afternoon are beach days! We will enjoy the rest and the Caribbean Ocean. Even though the work is hard none of us would trade this experience ! I love and miss you Gord! See you Wednesday night! Ruth Stock

Jeudi and day 4 at the clinic is over

It’s Thursday at Haiti Arise and the day is even hotter – probably pushing 30 today. Saw 147 patients today and nearly completed wiring the Paulin house (the third house constructed by volunteers from Haiti Arise). For a change, the guys get to write the blog and talk about themselves - kinda like the Toby Keith song “I want to talk about me”. The crunch was on for finding containers in which to distribute meds to patients and in that search we ended up cleaning out about a quarter of the storage area.
The last few days we’ve been busy repairing and burying an electrical feed as well as wiring the Paulin house. Interestingly enough, the kilometre walk to the house gives us the opportunity to interact with kids along the shortcut path. As we push our wheelbarrow of tools down the rutted pathway past goats, cows, chickens and donkeys, we get accosted by kids from 2 to 10 who run along with us smiling, touching our skin, holding our hands and trying out their English (usually “you – you” or “give me a ‘dollah’” but smiling up at us when they say it). Those we are working for are very appreciative of our efforts and try their best to speak English (or to politely respond to Al’s pidgin French or Martin’s English). There is just so much to be done and with an improvement in infrastructure we would see an improvement in health as well (for example, Madame Paulin spent all of Wednesday ironing with a charcoal fired iron and she spent the whole day sitting on the floor breathing that smoke while ironing piles of clothing. One of these days we’ll get a decent sleep and not be woken at 0330 by a mooing cow or at 0400 by an insomniac rooster. Al and Martin

Happenings in the Clinic

Another great day Haiti Arise. Started out at with a half day at the clinic which ran so smooth as we are getting more comfortable and confident with much encouragement from Dr. Amelia and Sharon. Today I cared for a small baby who was brought in the clinic by his grandmother
( the baby’s care giver).The grandmother herself presented with her own health issues and admitted she was struggling with being able to provide for the baby ,with lack of food, clothes, etc for her young grandson. The whole team pulled together gathering formula, pablum, clothes and counselling. We prayed with the family which gave both the family and us great comfort. So please remember this family in your prayers tonite. After lunch we had about two hours of free time which was really nice as our schedule has been very full. Later in the after-noon we went around the local village and were able to visit with, pray for and give a few gifts of needed supplies (face clothes, toothbrush, soap ,etc). People living in extreme poverty requesting prayer for safe shelter was very touching. The children are so sweet and very friendly. I must say my time so far in Haiti has been an amazing experience. Just a quick note to my family at home—I love you and am thinking of you just know that we are very well looked after here. xxoo. Colleen

Wow -where to start. It’s been another great day!!

Everyday has been filled with new adventures! Today we only had a half day of clinic and saw 71 patients. Things are running much more like a greased wheel now that we have been at it for a couple days although we are learning quickly to change and adapt it very much part of our day. From where I work in the pharmacy I can look out over the waiting room that is always filled with people waiting ever so patiently for their turn to see the nurse or Dr. This morning again the room was filled when suddenly there was a MASS EXODUS of people running to get out the door. I looked to my Haitian interpreter for some explanation on what the excitement was, only to observe a look of fear and terror on her face as she said the words “earthquake…didn’t you feel it?” I had to admit I didn’t feel a thing although I did hear the loud sound of thunder and she said, “NO that was not thunder that was the sound of the earthquake” and she had felt the ground shake. I realized I had just witnessed some of the fear that is so deep in the lives of the Haitians since that day. Lynnise, who has her office out under the mango tree said she didn’t feel anything but all of a sudden the Haitians came pouring out of the building from everywhere! I think I like the solid ground of the prairies…although I am not missing the snow! Yes, it is hot although at night it cools to a comfortable temperature and we always enjoy our times of debriefing about our day on the roof each night. We have seen a few mosquitoes but they have not been a bother at all. Now the spider on the wall in our room this morning was massive so I guess mosquito nets keep more than the mosquitoes away! This afternoon we went for a tour of the local hospital here. It is Cuban run and the staff don’t speak creole although they wear white uniforms and caps. The hospital was clean but sparse, although I couldn’t help notice the sign hanging in the waiting room. Our signs display ‘no smoking’ but their signs display ‘no guns’! We walked thru the community in small groups and were able to stop to talk thru our interpreters to the locals and gave out some hygiene kits and prayed with many families. That was an eye opening experience as the people were so receptive to have us bless them. It has been an awesome day…from the ‘thunder’ to the cracking of coconuts…this day has been full and I am so thankful for this opportunity to be here! Elva

It’s Wednesday!

Today we have half a clinic day – we are finding that these veteran nurses have a lot more stamina than our translators so we have had some bumps along the way but we are a united team and with some juggling everything is going great today. I am going to let the others blog now. Sharon

Patients, patients and patience!

Here it is Wednesday morning and I’m sure some of you are wondering why we haven’t been blogging more. Well, yesterday we saw 147 patients between our 4 clinical nurses – we were only supposed to see 125 but moms seem to sneak more children in and we are happy to see them. We got a few kinks worked out so things ran much more efficiently. The nurses have a brief prayer with each patient and the appreciation the patients show really blesses them. Our gals in pharmacy had very tired backs and feet but some added stools improved that yesterday. After finishing the clinic around 5 pm we refreshed ourselves and went to the church service that lasted until 7 pm, then we came back and had supper - shortly after that we were all up on the roof including engineer Roy with us who now feels like he “belongs” to us and had a good debriefing meeting. Everyone said something that they appreciated about the person beside them and it was a great time of encouragement and blessing. Well you can believe that when we thought about the blog, most of the team had gone to bed already – so some of us stayed up and tried to get something on. Sharon

Unexpected event!

Greetings from our medical team here in Haiti. We have been very busy seeing people
in the clinic yesterday and today. My assignment has been to do teaching to every group
of people that enter through the gates into the mission compound, and further to do individual
counselling and praying with people who are in need of emotional help.
Today we had an experience in the tabernacle where I was doing teaching. In the process of teaching, one gentleman pointed up to the ceiling above me. Because of sensing that God wants to do a special work here, my mind immediately went to “maybe he is seeing an angel or something else that God is showing him. “ Because of the look on his face, I thought “NO”. I turned my head to see a snake coiled in the rafter over the pulpit about three feet above and behind me! A commotion started and one of the Haitians yelled to the men at the construction site next door. About 10-12 men came to our rescue with shovels and rebar. After almost 10 minutes of trying to dislodge the snake, it dropped to the floor. At this point, with a shovel, it was disposed of over the compound wall. Upon hearing of this experience, Elva’s first question was “Did you get a picture?” Taking a picture was the furthest thing from my mind. Sensing the disappointment of having no picture, I spoke with the men at the construction site who willingly retrieved it with a shovel, then dangled it with a rope so a picture could be taken to prove my story.
Thanks for your continued love and prayers,
Ruth Bartlett

Happy People Today..

So our day went well - Martin and Al were not sipping coke, they were troubleshooting and making sure that things were set up and ready to go - Annette even got a light so she didn't have to work in the dark!
And Lynnise - what can I say? She was swamped and her first patient was none other than the founder of Haiti Arise - MARK! Next - his pastor friends - they were duly impressed. A good start to a long week - thanks to everyone who is praying with us - there are a few speed bumps that we are working through and I especially appreciate the support. Sharon

First Day Over

FIRST DAY OVER

Well we survived our first day of the clinic, although barely! What an over whelming, wonderful, extremely busy, and totally out of our comfort zone experience. Words cannot describe the physical, mental, and emotional challenges we all faced. We saw 137 patients between the four nurses that worked in the clinic today. Colleen, Carlene, Ruth and myself, Annette were the privileged ones. We are blessed to have Dr Amelia who oversees any troubled areas we run into. Sharon also is a wonderful resource person who was around anytime. The other nurses were kept busy as one was doing foot care, another doing counselling and two wonderful nurses were running our pharmacy. What a huge job that is and they are doing great. Taylor is doing a great job at registering the patients and keeping the papers straight. The heat is so intense we all have a glow of sweat and our clothes are sticking tighter than Velcro. The rewarding feeling we all have will hopefully get us through the challenges ahead. As for the men, they may have sat around and drank cold drinks, I doubt it but not sure what they did. Well have a debriefing meeting on the roof, so that is all for today. Hope God will keep us strong and healthy in the days to come. I had no idea how much work I signed up for. Annette

The Clinic is on!

So, this is Sharon, Team Leader and I'm taking a much needed break. Clinic is running smoothly most of the time... Lots of patients and patience. Gotta go - just know many are watching to make sure we would not be holidaying in the Caribbean!

We're here!

We’re here!!
Months of planning, almost 2 days of travel, sudden gate changes, nosy (but ultimately friendly) US custom officials and of course the unforgettable minivan ride from Port-Au-Prince (PAP) to the Haiti Arise compound and we are finally here. Everything went as smoothly as possible, except for having to pay $250 in Miami to get the oxygen concentrator on the plane. The same item got us through PAP though! The customs official opened it looking for medication and was quite unimpressed with our treasure. By then the 3 of us carrying the medication were through already and the lady simply waved Sharon through. Praise God we even found Al’s suitcase (only missing piece of luggage) at the last minute!
Al has been a blast to have on this trip so far. The US customs official asked him what an ambu-bag was (used with a mask to ventilate a patient in CPR) and Al calmly said :”I guess that’s a bag you put someone in to load them on an ambulance”. The custom official was totally satisfied with that answer!!
It is really hot and we are guzzling down gallons of water. Probably around 30 Celsius, but fairly humid. We went to church this morning at the compound. The building is just a roof on wooden pillars, but was packed. We estimate 400 people. These people are obviously devoted to Jesus and their worship was an uplifting experience. Our group picture was taken right after church.
Despite the reports we are seeing lots of evidence of rebuilding of the country although still extreme poverty and most people still living in tents or temporary shelters. Had a tour on foot through the “neighbourhood” after lunch and we have LOTS to be thankful for.
The clinic is just about set up and 8 am tomorrow we get going.
Prayer requests:
1.) Health for all the team members so we can finish the task
2.) The ability to get through all the patients. Although we expected we can manage 600 patients in the time we are here, it seems a lot more tickets were possibly handed out.
3.) Spiritual growth for all the team members as we are all somewhat out of our comfort zones
Love you all! Till next time.
Dr Amelia

Bound For Haiti Arise March 4th

Our 10 Saskatchewan team members will be meeting up with the remaining 3 Albertans on March 4th in Calgary Airport. We will be on route to Grand Goave, Haiti to run a medical clinic at Haiti Arise. Please stay tuned as we will be attempting to update our blog each evening.