My final post...

On my last day in Haiti, I donated my net book computer to the rehab department so they could stay in touch with me and other therapists.  They were possibly going to be without PT/OT help until January.  I set up a new email and with google translate, they can write me in Creole if needed.  They were very excited!!

This is the rehab team including the 3 techs, Jean Claude, Miss Ketly, Rick, Paul, the archivist and our nurse manager, Miss Josie.

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That Friday, the techs came back to work and brought me a beautiful gift.  They are such an amazing, special group of people and I miss them very much! 

On Friday, we didn't work due to the elections on Sunday.  So we planned a Thanksgiving dinner for all the patients, staff and family.  We had to find live turkeys and butcher them that morning.

These two great ladies are the chefs of the compound and graciously, though anxiously, allowed us to use the kitchen that day.  But they kept a close eye on us so we didn't hurt ourselves, ruin the food or burn the place down :)

It's the green bean casserole!!

The patients all helped with the food prep.  Peeling potatoes and cutting and chopping.  The culture doesn't really stress safe food preparation techniques but with the presence of cholera, we spent a lot of time teaching the patients about safe food handling.

All the volunteers helped with preparation in the kitchen.  At one point, we were all dancing and singing to the recent "We are the World" that was created for Haiti after the earthquake.  I know...Cheesy!  But we really were from around the world.  India, Phillipines, Canada, America, Britain and Chile.  It was so fun to meet people from so many different places with such a variety of experiences.  It really made me realize how very homogenous Minnesota is!

2 small turkeys fed around 40 people!!

Mashing the potatoes!! Yes, they had lumps, just like back at home :)

This is Artiste on the Left, an amputee from the earthquake, who just receieved his new leg!  And Dowson, a 13 year old boy who broke his leg and was casted for 3 months.  

Me and my girls,  my new sisters that I love and miss very much.
Right to Left: Rachel, RN,Lyndsay, OT, me, Brooke, MD, Suzanne, RN. 

Coralione, Sonel, me, Nixon, and Beny.  

Beautiful Wideline and I.  After the photos, we had a dance party with drums and traditional Haitian music. Wideline sang me a beautiful song about Haiti.



This is YouYoute, whom you've met before and her two children.  Simeel and Nixon live with a friend in Croix des Bouquet so they can go to school.  YouYoute should hopefully be moving back with her family soon!

Here is the table set up for the night.  I think we planned for 36 people but we fed more.  Once everybody had gotten through the line, I requested that we all stand up and participate in my family's Thanksgiving tradition.  We all held hands and Sister Gloria said a Thanksgiving prayer.  Yes, I was crying!!

Saturday morning I left for America, with amazing memories, new friends and an overall feeling of accomplishment just in the sense that I knew I taught them some important therapy tools and was able to touch many lives.  Though I do believe they touched my heart more than any of them realized.  Once I got to Maimi,  the first thing I did was get a table at a Mexican restaurant and have NACHOS!! I so desperately missed chips and salsa :)

My husband met me at the airport in Minneapolis with a wool coat, hat and mittens.  I went from 86 degrees to 10 degrees in 12 hours.  He reserved a hotel that allowed dogs and brought our golden retriever, Remmy, with to welcome me home!! It was wonderful!  I was happy to be home.  Then....drum roll....I got to take a HOT SHOWER!!!

 I am sorry this post took so long, I think maybe I just didn't want this experience to feel so final.  I am forever changed by the people in Haiti.  I also seemed to get right back into normal life and sometimes my trip to Haiti feels like a really vivid dream. I know, no excuses, just was really slow with writing this one.  Anyways...This is the last blog.  I will be doing some slide shows and presentations in my home area, at Galeon, Church, and other places so you may get to see more photos yet that what the blog showed.  So, I guess....
                                                                                                                     THE END :(

Home evaluations in Haiti...

 This blog is for my OT/PT friends and co-workers...

Welcome to YouYoute's tent.  She had a tent located on land that the owner was donating for a short time after the earthquake.  She was in our rehab center at the time of the notification for removal of all the tents from the land.  She couldn't move her tent so the land owner burned it down.

On the home eval form:  Entrance: none

 Thankfully, just 15 miles down the rocky, pitted road into the country-side, we found the home of her family!  They were very welcoming and we found out she has a 4 year old son, Elisinor.  YouYoute is the lady in the yellow and pink in the middle.  The little boy wouldn't let go of her pink skirt the whole time we were there.  They were very excited to see YouYoute and want her to live with them.

 However, on the home eval form:  independent with transfers in/out of bed?  No, she doesn't have a bed and they have 16 people living between three houses.  This photo shows two homes.  So, she needs a tent or a temporary shelter and is on the list for shelters being donated by organizations here. 

 Home eval: Can patient access laundry facilities?  Yes, as long as she can sit on the ground.  Which she can, even though she has significant injury to her leg that prevents her from bending it.  Gotta wonder what my knee replacements will say when I ask them to get up and down off the floor with less than 90 degrees of knee flexion? Many of the people here are very resilient and determined.

 This is Elfine's new home.  She lost her leg in the earthquake and received her amputation and aftercare at Camp Hope.  She lived in a tent and was one of the first people to be able to move into these cute little houses the organization is building for the people that have received care from them and now live in the tent city located on the same property.

Elfine is 6 months pregnant and expecting a little girl sometime in February.   She does have a prosthetic for her above-the-knee amputation, but it doesn't fit right now due to her pregnancy.

 This gray bed is Efine's, which she will share with her 3 year son and soon, her new baby girl.  The other bed is for her mother.  There are two other beds in her house for her sister-in-law and her two school age children.  This makes me so thankful for my home in Alexandria.  It will feel like a mansion when I get back home :)

 Home eval:  Can the patient access the toilet?  Yes, she walks on one leg with crutches to the outhouse - The orange building in the middle.  The place is very clean and they have toilets versus a hole in the ground. 

 Home Eval:  Can the patient shower independently?  Yes, once she brings the bucket from this spout to her home for a "bucket shower".  The water is clean and safe...and cold.

 This middle pink house is Elfine's.  In Haiti, these  houses are top-of-the-line.  I think they are just adorable.  We all know how much I like cute, cozy, little houses!!

 While here, Elfine became very close with another female patient, Wideline.  She has a spinal cord injury from an infection.  It was a difficult outing for Wideline.  She has been in some sort of hospital setting for a long time.  We practiced car transfers and wheelchair mobility, including a 4 inch step.  She did well, but on the way home, I could she see was overwhelmed by our excursion and very sad about saying goodbye.  So was I!  We all cried and the two guys with us just made fun of us.  Typical men :)  Some things are the same in all countries!

This is the school built right on site for all the children at Camp Hope and Love-A-Child orphanage.  The Haitians are very dedicated to educating their children.


Say a prayer tonight thanking God for all the wonderful things you have: toilets, showers, hot water, electricity, safe roofs over your heads, good roads, clean water.  All the things we take for granted every day. 

A roller coaster Saturday!

On Saturday we went to New Life Orphanage to visit the disabled children there.  The orphanage does a great job of caring for them in a difficult situation.  We brought toys and held and played with them for the morning.  They were very sweet and so happy to see us and get some new toys. 

This little cutie is what they call an "earthquake baby".  He was born 2 weeks before the earthquake and his parents died in the earthquake, he was found by aid workers in the rubble.  Thank God the Haitian mama's wrap their babies in lots of blankets in the winter time!

They had beautful gardens there that are tended by the able-bodied children that live there.  The boys have their garden...




And the girls have their own!  The two people that run the orphanage encourage the girls to learn different trades and to not believe they are only meant to clean house, cook and take care of children.  Very progressive!!

That afternoon, we had our first cholera case arrive at the clinic.  The young boy was carried by his mother but had already passed away by the time she arrived.  We spent the rest of the day maintaining a campfire to boil water so we could boil all the families clothes, then bleach rinse them.  It was bitter sweet morning that become a sad, difficult day.  

after the hurricane...

 Bon jou tout moun!!  That means Good Day Everyone :)

Last week was a short week. Monday and Tuesday were the Haitian Holidays of All Saints Day and All Soul's Day.  After Lyndsay and I saw the inpatients we did get to spend some time on the beach.  Swimming in the ocean is wonderful, even though the occasional Styrofoam container or plate floats by!

Hurricane Tomas hit us on Friday, though we personally experienced very little effects here.  We believe maybe Padre Joseph, the many seminarians and the nuns here have something to do with a little bubble that protects St  Charles Seminary.  South of us was damaged badly by flooding and a few places on the coast experience terrible winds.  I guess our beautiful vacation spot near Baharona, Dominican Republic was damaged. We saw the inpatients in the morning and then had some fun in the afternoon.  I taught 2 of them how to put together puzzles.  The Haitian children here don't play with puzzles so none of them even knew what a puzzle was.  In the beginning, I asked what the Creole word for puzzle was and I received some very confused looks.  So now...the Creole word for puzzle is "puzl" :)



After puzzle making, we started on hair braiding.  My hair is very difficult to braid because of the layers so it took several hands to perform the task and we only had enough really, really small rubber bands to do a portion.  The woman on the far left is Elfine.  She is a patient here with an above the knee amputation.  She is currently 6 months pregnant.  We received some great news last week that she will be allowed to move into a home through Love-A-Child organization.  We will help her move into her new house with her mother and 3 year old son next Wednesday.  The other two young ladies are here to assist two of the patients who live here. 

Saturday Lyndsay and I went to Catholic Mass.  It amazed me that I was able to pick out a few words and just with the music and Father Joe's dramatic delivery of a message, I was so moved and didn't really have any idea what was being said!  I guess worship "feels" the same in all languages!

Sunday, we walked the streets around the compound and even tried to get a deal on purchasing some bicycles for the medical and rehab staff at the clinic, but $90 was too much to pay for a mountain bike with flat tires and an unknown braking system!


Today was a very challenging day.  We went to pick up a woman that arrived here last week unable to walk and when we found her in her house, actually on a urine-soaked mattress in the area in front of a partially crumbled home, she was unresponsive.  I did assess her to be breathing but initially was very afraid she would be dead.  We were able to transport her back to our medical compound, give her an IV of fluid and then transport her to a hospital for medical care.  She was in diabetic shock.  Hopefully, she will respond and she can return here for rehabilitation and even return home. 

We have many patients planning for discharge back to their homes this week and a list of many to see as outpatients so tomorrow will be a busy day.  We are also hoping to start a stroke class this week that I am going to set up following the activities that we use in the Neurofit class that I used to help out with in Alexandria.

That's the update for now.  I know these seem to be getting further apart but I will try to be better this week and get more pictures of the patients and share their stories. "Pase bon hwit" 

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 :)