My First week in Haiti

October 17th 2016
First visit to Second Harvest
I flew into Haiti on the 9th of October. In seventeen years of traveling to Haiti, this was my first solo flight. I wanted to have little more time with our daughter and her first baby. Bob left on the first so he could head up a agricultural workshop with Bill from long island and Bob from Kentucky. Hurricane Matthew interfered with all of our plans. The workshop was postponed until this week and my flight was delayed by a couple of days.
Our dear friend Jeanie from the Carmelite center had given me an angel pin to keep me safe on my journey. Not only did it keep me safe but provided me smooth sailing. The American Airlines agent who checked me in couldnt have been nicer or more helpful. I got a pre check pass so security was a breeze. Everything was on time and I arrived in Haiti with no problems what so ever.
Bob came to meet me and our good friend Lamont. I was very happy to see all our friends at Mathew 25 where we spent the night. Bob had gotten a flat tire the day before and we woke the next morning to another flat tire and it was a different tire completely. We discussed it and decided we just need to buy new tires; So Lamont took Bob to a tire store and the quickly put the tires on. This is rare in Haiti.
We drove home after that and had a uneventful trip. I was so tired for the first couple of days. Our young friend Kenleys father died a few days before I arrived. I had every intention of attending the funeral the next day. Bob and I went to town to take care of some business, and we returned an hour before the funeral was to start. I thought I would lie down for just a minute, the next thing I knew two hours had passed and I missed the funeral. I felt terrible but couldnt turn back time. Bob had tried to wake me but I was to sound asleep to wake up.
That evening we received a call from our friends Elwood and Anita. Elwood was leaving the next day to go to the South of Haiti that was hit by the Hurricane, to deliver much needed supplies of tarps, blankets and food. He ask Bob to join him on the trip, Thursday Anita and I were taking patients to Port Au Prince where a medical team from Miami was coming to do surgeries. There were two men from our area that had been waiting a long time for surgeries. Anita also had a few people who needed surgeries. It was decided the men would take our truck and the women would use their vehicle. So the men left Wednesday with a full load, and Anita and her friend Barbra came to pick me and my two patients up at 5 Thursday morning. We went to her house to get her patients but had to wait for them. We made a couple of stops and arrived at Second harvest an agricultural project that also has a very nice clinic. The medical team was suppose to arrive at 4:00 but got stuck in traffic for over five hours. They did triage several patients that night, but it was too late to start surgeries. We left for the guest house we were staying at arriving there after 11:00.
We returned to the clinic at 7:00 the next morning. Our patients got labs done and were cleared for surgery. At about noon the surgeon came out and explained due to getting a late start and the volume of patients only one of our people would get surgery. So we gave the other three people money to eat. While waiting for our guy to get surgery we helped with a child that was too sick to get her surgery.
The team was very generous and invited us up to nice lounge kitchen area, inviting us to eat with them. At about 4: 00 that afternoon the surgeon who was to operate on our patient came into the lounge to take a break and get a snack. We started talking and I explained our situation. Bob and Elwood were returning in the morning from the South of Haiti. Anita would go south with Elwood and Bob and I would return North with the patients. Unless our guy could get surgery that night or first thing in the morning our trip was for nothing. This wonderful man went down and moved our man to the front of the line. He was in surgery within an half an hour. Mean while Anita got a phone call that another patient of hers was called to Port au Prince to see a doctor. She and her husband had seen the doctor but now needed a ride. So Anita left to help them. When the man we brought for surgery woke up he was very disorientated, he was afraid of the blood pressure cuff, and was trying to get out of the bed. The nurses came to get me and I went to the recovery room with them. I was able to get him to calm down and allow the blood pressure cuff. I fed him a cup of soup and a glass of iced tea. We took him into the bathroom to pee, but had no success. I thought he was telling me the bathroom was to clean. His feet really smelled bad and the kind nurses washed his feet, sox and shoes. They found him another pair of soxs. I asked if I could help him get dressed but they wanted to have him pee first. It occurred to me he may have never used a bathroom (many Haitians have not) and may be if we took him outside he could. There happened to be a door at the end of his bed so with help we took him outside and sure enough it worked. He was good to go.
Barbra and I rounded up all the people we came with and shortly after Anita returned. We all loaded up and went to the guest house. After a good nights sleep we had breakfast and Lamont came to pick me and the Haitians we brought up. Anita and Barbra had already left to meet their ride south. Lamont took us to Mathew 25 were we met Bob and headed North and home. Im hoping to find another team coming in so the other three can get their surgeries, Lamont knows of a team coming in the beginning of November so that is a possibility. The compassion of the team from Miami was very humbling. The reality of the people we work with never ceases to amaze me. Three of the four people we took have never been to Port Au Prince and did not know how to use a bathroom,. The man who had surgery did not know how to direct us to his house (he was elderly). This trip was like being a super room mother, but all the people were adults.
God Bless you for your interest and thank you for your prayers, Denise