Wow, this was a busy week...

 Lots to talk about today!  Happy Halloween to everyone.  You'll see towards the end of this that Haiti does celebrate Halloween.

This is Darline P.  She is working with Rick, one of the rehab techs, on leg strengthening exercises.  She broke her femur in a motorcycle accident.  They call them "motos" here.  She is not an earthquake victim, however, the earthquake, the very poor infrastructure and poor roadways, add to the risk of using a motorbike here.  The drivers are weaving through considerable traffic and often driving very fast. Darline has made wonderful progress in the month I have been working with her.  She is ready to start running and skipping, however, at this treatment, she did not have any shoes.  I have since found some tennis shoes for her in a shoe donation and hope to give them to her this week.

 I hope to spend some more time in each of my posts sharing some of the stories of the patients here.  The gentleman in the middle is Corlion.  He is a thoracic spinal cord injury.  We tease him that he is the godfather of the group.  To his left, "gouch" in Creole, is Remy. He is 17 years old. He has avascular necrosis in his left hip and is waiting for transportation to a hospital for potential surgery.  Surgery  is difficult to access here for many of the patients.  The organization I work for here actually has funds to help the patients pay for surgeries that they otherwise couldn't get.  The gentleman on the right ("dwot") is Artiste.  He is waiting for wounds on his residual limb to heal so he can use his prosthesis and return to his home.  We traveled to his home last week and found an area of land without any structure on it, tent or house, so he will need assistance from friends and family to try to build a home once he leaves. He's very strong and can do more on one leg than I can do with two!

This adorable guy is Beny.  Beny is a T-10 complete spinal cord injury from a car accident.  He is here for therapy for transfers, strength and balance activities and also needs considerable wound care.  He came to us with 2 large grade 4 gluteal wounds on his butt and hips.  That means that all the skin is gone and you can see the muscles and bones.  They are very clean and the nurses here are learning difficult wound care from the ex-patriot volunteer nurses, but he really needs a plastic surgeon to correct his situation.  He's very sweet, loves to smile and sing.

This is the team assembling oral rehydration packets to give to patients that are coming into the medical clinic with diarrhea symptoms.  We haven't confirmed any cholera cases here but they have been confirmed just north of here and seem to getting closer to Crois des Bouquet and Port-au-Prince.  We spent much of the week assisting the nurses and physicians with crowd control to help decrease the contact of any potenial cholera patients from the rest of the crowd.  I was the gate guard one morning and the people just stormed the place, nearly running over each other to get in.  Many of them try to use the sink that is for the toilet area of the separated potential cholera patients to wash their hair or clothes and, one time even, their dishes.

Game day again in the afternoon.  Outpatient therapy was put on hold last week but should resume this week with proper control for entrance and cleaning 
of equipment.






November 2 and 3 are actually a national holiday here so the medical clinic is closed Monday and Tuesday.  Plus, the OT, Erica who has been here for 3 months, left for Chicago today, so we took a quick trip to Jacmel, on the the southern coast of Haiti.  We traveled about 6 hours to get there Thursday and left to return on Saturday.  I work Monday and Tuesday to do the therapy sessions with the inpatients in the rehab hospital. (just like home, we still gotta work on the holiday). It was amazing to see some of the rural country though.  The mountains are breath-taking, as well as the narrow, curvy road that the driver is racing down.  It was like a 3 hour roller coaster ride.

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 The trip took us through Port-au-Prince and we were able to see some of the devastation from the earthquake.  It's actually difficult to take pictures because the people get very insulted when the white people are taking photos of their suffering. 

 This was a fishing boat at the beach.  I just loved the saying: "Man proposes, God decides"

 Sugar cane fields.  There are beautiful plantation building right next to these that are destroyed and crumbled then a tent city right next to that for the sugar cane workers.  It an amazing mix of growth, destruction, garbage, lots of people and beauty.  It's hard to even put into words.

 See...We went to a party for Halloween, however, the only costumes you find in a seminary are sheets!!
The following photos are some art, party pictures from the roof of the Chilean doctors house and the beautiful flowers here. just wanted to share these with you :)