Cranbrook Community

It is our last full day of our Mission. We arrived and were like branches on a tree joined by the Mission but mostly separate and now we have been blown together
and intertwined not only with each other but with the branches of our Haitian tree and partners.

Our day started with Blair and Frank seeing our follow up clients.

The dressing changes were done.

Jody and our star dressing change patient

Our postpartum lady came back with her baby; we would not have recognized her she looked so well, but the baby was very ill. She was dehydrated with a sunken fontanel eyes wide open and too weak even to cry. Her breathing was such a struggle for her as if she could barely have the strength to take air in. Angela was able to get 60 mls of formula in to babe but it was so hard to understand how this could have happened. A thriving babe last Friday and now so ill. Mum left with babe to go to a midwife who she said would remove a blood vessel from under her heart which was causing the problem. We only can pray for this little one and keep her and her mum in our hearts. There were tears shed over this babe and shock at how changed the situation was.

Packing went extremely well, it showed how well our team was functioning and Maggie and I had our system tested in the storage room with Blair and Frank asking for materials and generally we were able to findwhat was needed in a short time.

There were some sad goodbyes with our Haitian team that we would not be seeing again. What an incredible group they were and how blessed we were to be working with them. They will remain forever in my thoughts and prayers.

The morning sky had been brilliant sun and our reward for our efficient work was a walk to the beach. It started raining just as we arrived but we still had our last dip as a black cloud and thunder and lightening rushed our last time at the beach. We were the only ones on the beach and in the water and somehow the weather reflected my spirit and the changes that were coming in the next day. We walked back in pouring rain and arrived looking like drenched ducklings but not quite as muddy as on Sunday.

Three little ducklings home from the beach

We are now sitting after supper doing our evaluations and soon this incredible experience will end. I have been so privileged to be with people who live their faith and as much as Pastor Mark said that we had come to do some good work
I am leaving a much richer person by sharing my life for the last 2 weeks with an incredible group and I am so grateful for the spiritual strength that I have gained.

Barbra

Alright so, its my (Amy)turn to write the blog…before i start to tell the stories of the day. I just want to say what an amazing time I’m having; it also does help that this is an amazing team. Some really great people, and everyone is going to have many “inside jokes” together., such as the fist pump I’m pretty sure that almost everyone on our team has that disease!

Amy and Annika and a small selection of their tooth brushing pupils

This morning Anika and I did a presentation on good oral hygene. What an amazing experience! Yhat was a lot of fun. I was really surprised to hear that many of the children already have toothbrushes, but I was really happy to hear that too. We used an aligator to demonstrate brushing teeth properly but someone had already brushed it..with strawberry jam! Not a very good example.

The new musical group of Amy, Annika and Kelly

Kelly( my dads translator) wrote us a song. the kids are still singing it! Yhat was definitly my highlight of the day, seeing the smiles and laughing of the kids singing was great. I really loved that. It was really to bad that we only got a quarter the amount of kids that we expected because of a rain day! WOAH. In Canada we rarely get snow days and in Haiti they get a lot of rain days.

I only get to hear the medical stories after it happens so I can’t say what happened. But I can say it is really depressing how many really sick people there are here. It really hit me when the girl that was 14 had a life threatening disease, I’m almost her age, I can’t ever imagine being in her shoes.  Amy
They let me back on despite my last gory medical stories.  It was a big day in the clinic with over 120 patients.  I was worried some of the people we had requested to follow up would not come but today they all showed.

Who can resist a face like that? Brand new one month old.

The good news, 1 yo girl seen last week with 1 week history of fever, diarrhea, decreased oral intake, she was sick with increased heart rate and a sunken fontanelle, difficult to wake and today she was perfect.We had started treatment for typhoid and given oral rehydration salts and wow what an improvement. 

The 30 yo male with swollen lymph nodes all over his body turned out to have an immunodeficent disease, which was very difficult to break to the patient. When the news was broken to his wife, the impact became very real to the patient and the team.   

The gentleman with a huge hydrocele (rated XXX photo therefore Jackie pulled the photo) we tried to incise and place a drain but with poor results, this poor man walks with such pain and discomfort we all winced as he walked away. 

I met the famous Woosevelt today, a 14 yo with mitral stenoses and regurgitation, he was looking quite frail, with a resting heart rate of 120, diffuse crackles throughout his lungs, awaiting valvular surgery – the sooner the better. 

Great news about the 16 yo girl with a patent ductus arteriosus – I met the 1 thoracic surgeon in all of Haiti who can repair it and he has agreed to do the repair, the cost of $4-6000 USD all negotiable Haitian style.  He laughed “where else in the world would you see a person with a patent ductus this old?”.  He was nervous about the girl’s perioperative care and that made me immediately comfortable with him.  The plan is within weeks it will be repaired.  We all went to lunch after the specialist’s appointment and you should have seen the excitement on the girls face when she started eating – we all stared and laughed because she was shovelling the rice/beans into her mouth so fast it was falling out and making a mess, its the only time I saw her truly happy. 

Message from pastor Marc to Bob “I feel sorry for you Bob”, with reference to the number of times Bob has blogged! Bob, I think he really means that he misses you…
Blair

Today was our second rest day before we begin the final stretch of clinic days. Our day began with church where every person has come to the understanding that church equals sweating.

Brittany snuggling with a dude in a tux

Imagine about 400 people, crammed into pews and we get the benefit of being snuggled by children. Jackie ended up cuddling a sleeping child, while Brittany had the opportunity to hold the cutiest baby who was dressed in his Sunday best.

Jackie and her adorable furnace

Many of the translators attend the HaitiArise Church and we have had the opportunity to meet their families and see their beautiful children. After church our team had a relaxing afternoon with everyone doing their own thing. The girls had a afternoon siesta or tried to.

The neighbours on the other side of the fence decided to have a dance party (we assumed) cause the music never stopped.

Amy had a gang of kids working on pictures and notes for their moms as today is Haitian Mother’s Day.

Mother's day card making...aka sparkle party

After trying to sleep, the girls decided to spend time on our deck and just relax, but relaxing on the plastic chairs just isn’t the same as sitting on a couch. So we decided to become inventive and create our own couch. We figured we have been inventing or being creative with what we have all week, such as areochambers out of pop bottles, chest angiocatheters out of iv tubing, guaze, tape and an empty pill container so we figured we could tackle a couch. With two empty mattress and some blankets, the girls created a very comfortable couch, where we spent most of day relaxing and talking.

Makeshift big comfy couch

Some our team decided to venture to the beach and got caught in a torrential down pour. Here in Haiti, when it rains everything turns to mud that sticks to your shoes and ends up making you inches taller. When the group finally made it back, they commented that this was the first time since arriving in Haiti that they had felt cold.

I had the opportunity to visit my sponsor kids at the Heart to Heart orphange. The orphanage is run by Marc’s (the founder of HaitiArise) brother, Luc. Currently the orphanage houses about 85 children. The orphange sustained alot of damage in the earthquake but are in the process of rebuilding and making due with what they have. With limited space after the earthquake, the staff had to get creative. There dinning hall collapsed and with no place to make food the staff decided to move the kitchen into the old barn and chicken coop. Thankfully, the guest house where the children sleep was only slight damaged and the kids were able to cram into the rooms and still have a roof over there heads. Besides working on the dinning room, they have also rebuilt the guest house and the children now have more room and new bathrooms.

Jody and her boys

The sponsorship program gives the children an opportunity to go to school, church and get fed 3 meals a day. The two little boys that I sponsor are 9 nine year old twins. They lost there family in the earthquake in ended up at heart to heart where the children and staff have become there new family. When I was here in November, I had the opportunity to visit them for the first time. Going back and having the boys recognized me, wave and then hug me was a true blessing. They have grown so much since November. These two little boys have a special place in my heart and I have grown to love them. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to meet them and see the place they now call home.

Tomorrow begins the last stretch of clinic days. The team is feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the next two days may bring. Every clinic day brings new opportunities to learn about different medical conditions and new challenges to be conquered.

Blessings, Jody

Hello from Haiti (properly pronounced “hi-eighty”)!!,

I know most of you are anxiously sitting in front of your computer screens waiting for the next installment of our blog, but due to technical difficulties (a common occurence in Haiti), yesterday’s blog is a day late.
As the days fly by, we are realizing that our trip is coming to an end soon. We are trying to pack in as much as possible in the days that we have left.

As far as medical updates goes, we do have some more good news. We have been able to use our HIV screening tests, and have been thankful for this as it has been very useful. Our lady that we had here with eclampsia is still in the hospital in Petit Goave. She is doing well and we anticipate her discharge within the next few days. Her newborn is being taken care of by a friend. The young lady (aka starfish) with the PDA was brought into Port-Au-Prince yesterday accommpanied by Blair, our translator extraordinaire Marc-Eddy, and the driver Evon (wanna-be Formula 1 driver). They met the cardiac surgeon, who was very polite, and though seemed a little suspect of the diagnosis and the ECHO report, quickly made phone-calls to review the ECHO report with the cardiologist, and make further arrangements for her care. This is all great news, and we hope that she can have her surgery here soon.

Blair most rewarding moment that day was to see this young lady eat lunch with them. Just picture a 16 y.o. girl, with a BMI of 19 at best, deaf and mute, eating a massive plate of rice and beans so quickly that it is falling out of her mouth as she is shovelling it in. This in turn makes everyone laugh including the girl, with even more food spilling out of her mouth. Needless to say, she took everyones leftovers home for later. Another reminder of what we take for granted, is a huge stress for them daily!

Earthquake damage to a girl's dormitory at the orphanage Blair visited

Blair went on after that appointment to visit an orphanage that he has been sponsoring on the other side of Port-Au-Prince. A heart-wrenching experience for him, as their living conditions were infinitely inferior to what we are living in here at Haiti Arise. Crammed quarters, dirt floors, and limited food supplies. No mosquito netting to be seen. In fact a week ago, “Haiti Health” came to this orphanage and treated everyone for malaria.

Inside a boy's dormitory...adjoining rooms are just filled with even more bedsFor the rest of the team it was a day off for us. We spent the morning going to the local market. This was another T.I.H. (this is Haiti) experience. It was like a North American flea market, with three times as many merchants/square footage and twice as many people. The quest begins in the Grand Goave market

Thrown in there are the donkeys tied up on the outskirts of the market (they are used to carry in the goods), mopeds zipping through the middle of the market (and they do have the right-of-way), live chickens escaping their captivity, and a humidex of >40 degrees celsius. Lots of noises and smells. Some not as attractive as others.

Donkey parking only

While we are on the topic of traffic, I just wanted people to know how it works here. The bigger the vehicle, the more “right-of-way” they get. Thus trucks > cars > mopeds. Pedestrians have the lowest priority. The polar opposite to what we are used to.

Locals bartering for the night's meat

To make the market experience even more interesting, we divided into 3 groups (each with one of our Haitian translators) and set off on a scavenger hunt. Jackie was fist-pumping her team’s victory all day long. As soon as our quest was completed We rushed back to the compound, with the anticipation of all having cold showers before heading to the beach.

Need we say more?

Another relaxing, wonderful time at the beach, snorkelling, cooling off in the waves and eating more Lambe. After supper, Amy and Annika had a mudfest playing soccer in the rain (in the dark) with a group a Haitian boys.

Heading home after an exhausting day in the ocean, boohoo poor us

Yet another experience with a Tarantula before going to bed kept everyones anxiety elevated!   
Thank you to everyone for their prayers of support, and the comments on the blog. We appreciate them greatly, and miss you lots.
Frank and Annika

   Today is our the last day in a stretch of 4 very busy clinic days.  Unlike the consultation rooms, our little pharmacy does not have air conditioning and we can only turn up the fan so much before the prescriptions start blowing away.  I have had some awesome help with some nurses that have had some pharmacy experience and our Haitian translator, Rose Myrta.  She is a brilliant high school student whose translation specialty is pharmacy.  She quickly caught on to some of the drug interactions and finer points of counselling that were new to her. 

Rose Myrtha hands out a hot pack

We are shut away from some of the excitement on the other side of the clinic with hardly a lull to pull away from the constant dispensing.  I have had some of my own challenges, coming up with suitable replacements when the docs want to start a pharmaceutical regimen we do not have.  One of my first problems was how to get a chlorquine malarial treatment into some 4kg twin babies when we had no pediatric formulation (or compounding equipment).  Infantol vitamin syrup became the suspending vehicle for that and all the other compounded syrups made. 

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...

So many wee ones needed inhalers.  We started out using some toilet paper tubes as an aerochamber but then with the help of Dr Frank, drilling some holes into the bottom of pop bottles and a candle, we made some aerochambers “with or without masks”.  

Creation of a Hatian aerochamber

     One surprise for me was that Haiti Arise had been a recipient of a container full of product from the Shoppers Mart warehouse in Calgary.  It felt like home handing out Life brand canes, wrist braces,cough strips and pill boxes.  Everywhere in the compound you can see bits and pieces of LB.  Soaps, juice, cookies, diapers, shopping bags and even the weighing scales.  Some of the product was sold to women in the community for a very small amount so that they could start a small business selling.  Some product was given to local orphanages and schools.  The sad part is that Haiti Arise had to pay about $6000 to receive the container.  There was a delay in the proper paper work and on top of customs fees there was storage fees as well.  But the HAM leaders still feel it was worth paying the money to get the container.  We were a little leery about handing out the hot packs in such a hot country but they have been well received by the locals with sore lower backs.

Life Brand canes make their way to Grand Goave

     The last half hour of today was most challenging when the power went out.  No lights, no windows and NO FAN! and we had prescriptions to fill for a family of seven.  So with a head lamp and perspiration pouring into my eyes we reconstituted suspensions, calculated doses and managed to keep tempers cool. 

Always full of ideas, Carol creates an antibiotic concoction

     After dinner Mark shared his story with us.  At age 5, his family gave him away to be a child slave (in creole, a resavec).  He worked for a family, in gardens and in the home and slept under a table, on the floor.  At age 12, a sibling visited him and when he saw how he was treated, took him away and made arrangements for Mark to live in a children’s home.  He was sponsored by a Canadian woman, who paid for him to go to school and after graduation, bible college in Jamaica, where he met Lisa.  They kept in touch and eventually married.  One statistic he shared with us is, before the earthquake, 1 in 10 Haitian children were child slaves and after the number has grown higher.  Their vision is build a children’s village to take care of rescued resavec.

     Our evening ended with the viewing of a humongous (5″) tarantuala on the compound wall.      Carol

The familiar sounds, smells and laughter that I fondly remember came back to me when we arrived at Haiti Arise. T.I.H – THIS IS HAITI! I am so happy to be back in Haiti. The past week has been an amazing learning experience for all of us.

Not only have we learned from each other but most of all from the Haitian people. They are the most loving, caring and resilient people have I have ever come in contact with. The materialistic way of our lives doesn’t seem as important or even reasonable when there are much more important things to focus on.

I have been blessed to work on a team full of health care professionals with varied exptertise and a wide range of experiences. As a student nurse this a dream to learn from the best. The opportunity to be a floater and be stationed throughout the entire clinic allowing me to expand my knowledge and skills.

I first returned to the familiarity of the pharmacy where I enjoyed the constant pace of pill counting, label making and dispensing instructions. Then I was off to the blood pressure and worm pill station where I has the opportunity to interact with each patient that came through the clinic. The next few days I was able to relax in the sun at the registration table with the superstar Gerard sorting through files and registring the patient. Gerard de-escalated many stressful situations where people are yelling and arguing about tickets or comparing what they recieved at the pharmacy.

As a nursing student, I have become very anxious and eager to learn new skills. The team has been great calling me in to observe all the interesting cases that come through. Maggie our very own cardiology nurse has taught and explained the many sounds and physiology aspects of the different cardiac patients that have come through. I heard a heart murmor, patent ductus arteriosis and a grade 6 out of 6 thrill where you can feel the heart murmor just by placing your hand on her chest. Before this trip I have had my practicum with seniors, so babys are some what foreign to me. With the help from Angela, our wonderful maternity nurse I got to do my first well baby check up….without the baby crying the whole time so they aren’t as scary now.

One of our translter Olrich burned his foot on his bike so my next new skill was a dressing change. With the help from our surgical nurse Jody, I wraped up his foot. I’m glad it was one of our tanslaters so I didn’t feel rushed and my anxiety quickly dissapeared. Although his whole foot was covered and he can no longer wear his sandal in the clinic, he seems to be enjoying all the sympathy we give him as he hobbles around the clinic. Unfortunatly for him we get to change his dressing a few more times this clinic. More practice for me though!

My injection skills have expanded and will be ery rememerable for me. The first few days I was able to practice tetanus injections into the arm, where Iwas previously warned that Haitian skin is thicker so I need to dart harder. As a result of this great advice when I gave my first injection into the buttocks I darted as hard as I could. When the man hobbled out of the clinic I realized that this muslce tissue is much softer and didn’t need the force that i used to inject.

I honestly could not have asked for a better team to be in Haiti with. I have learned more in the past few days than I have in the past year of school. On a side note, we have great news for our blog followers. Our starfish has a appointment tomorrow in Port-au-Prince with a surgeon and our post partum patient is reportedly doing well. Hope all is well at home. I miss everyone but not enough to want to come home yet Cheers! Brittany

So, now it is my turn to continue the dramatic story of our very ill post partum patient from yesterday (truly it has taken me the 24hours to process the experience). Where do I begin?

The “ambulance” ride itself was an adventure. Airway in hand, and bag valve mask in tow, we zig and zagged through the mountainous jungle appearing on hills of Haiti for 30 minutes during the ultimate heat of the day. For those of you who may not know, a woman with this severe a case of pregnancy induced hypertension with seizures (eclampsia) requires a very quiet, non stimulating, dark, calm environment. needless to say, this was not the case. Women like this also require intensive monitoring on a frequent basis – so my only method of monitoring was checking her carotid pulse throughout the journey while she draped her aching head on my legs, and writhed in pain.

We arrive to an extremely crowded hospital in Petit Goave with multitudes of on lookers. thankfully Jackie had phoned ahead to speak with a doctor, so they were aware of our arrival. Sadly, this did not soften their reception of us and our patient. Much to our dismay, they were less than interested in our assessment and initial stabilization of this dear lady.

Clinically, they were able to quickly initiate an IV (not quite the way I am used to!)  taped securely and flowing fast. They also loaded her with the MGSO4 as required for this condition and were going to start her on the maintenance dose. We struggled to work along side of them as they were upset with me as a Canadian that I did not speak French and our male translator was not permitted in the Maternity area.

I was quickly overwhelmed by the heat, the stench and the distress in the room as I watched the patient begin to have a second and third seizure. At one point she was left unattended on a small exam table just prior to the second seizure and I had to leap over a bedside table to catch her from falling (taking a stirrup bar into my leg).

Once she regained consciousness, the patient was aggitated and restless, fighting her care all the way. She handled quite roughly but eventually moved to a proper bed and sedated by the nurse in charge. At this point, I felt completely helpless and realized they were planning on doing things and were not including us in her plan of care. We were forced to make a decision to leave her there under their care and that of a doctor we never met or spoke with. I believe her condition is very grave and am truly unsure of the outcome as she appeared septic and ashen looking as I left the room. At some point we hope to receive word of her condition.

After processing this experience, I felt for a moment that I was living in an episode of “Off the Map” and waited for the TV crew to show up, however, when I realized this was reality I was struck at the inequity of this world in regards to health care. I was also intensely reminded and encouraged to passionately advocate for tenderhearted, non judgemental care for all patients that we are priviledged to care for!

No matter where we are in the world, a kind hug, sensitive touch and soft spoken word can mean all the difference, regardless of the condition. Overall this experience has been incredible despite the rough stuff.

While I am not bouncing around in the back of a truck, I have been working side by side with a new friend Dr. Frank (aka the Francois and Angelica team). I have learned an incredible amount this past week, seen some things I never imagined seeing, been stretched beyond my imagination and have also grown to love some new ER type humour thanks to my bud Frank!

Angelica

PS Ju

  Yesterday was my (Blair’s) day for a road trip.  At 6 am I was downstairs waiting to go to Port au Prince, the 16 yo deaf mute female patient and her father were prompt at the gates on time we got sorted with a driver by 715 and we set off.  The driving here is crazy, and the closer you get to the city the wilder it gets, after several near collisions we arrived safely at the cardiologists clinic, on the second floor (ugh!  Think heat and humidity – no air con) and we join the people in the waiting room. 

The girl we took to Port au Prince for heart diagnostics

Long adventure short – 1.5 hr later the specialist arrives, Marc Eddy sweet-talks our way to second place in the line, 30 people are in the waiting room, I am the only caucasian present. Sweating profusely, we get shown into the Doctor’s refrigerated office. 

Half price offered to us and MSF patients ($75) for a consult and ECHO of her heart,
our guess was wrong which is good news, she has a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA – it normally closes at birth), left ventricular hypertrophy, minimal aortic and mitral regurgitation, good ejection fraction of 59%, normal pulmonary arterial pressures.  There is a specialist here in Haiti who can close this PDA without requiring open heart surgery, we are not sure how this works but we have his name and will be working on the next step – Great news!!     -Blair

   Onto today! Well there is never a dull moment here in Haiti. We started our day with the usual breakfast, beautiful song and prayer then headed off to our stations. The morning started off positive with the little boy who came in with his swollen arm coming back for a follow up and his arm looked great!!! The swelling had come down, he could move his fingers and overall he just looked better! Woohoo. The day then got a bit more interesting to say the least!

Maggie and the cutie 12 day old baby...she may have extra luggage Matt...

I was stationed at the registration table and got to see all the people come through. I noticed one woman coming in with two women on each side of her as if they were trying to hold her up, they were followed by another lady carrying a very small baby. I first noticed the woman had very swollen feet and that she appeared to be in a tremendous amount of pain. They came and sat down at the bench and she was almost passing out. The lady holding the baby was crying and appeared very stressed. She said the lady was post partum and has been in pain for for a days. We got her in to see Blair right away as we knew it was an emergency. In the clinic room Blair and Jody found out that she was post partum day 12 (the baby was a beautiful healthy girl!). She had been pre eclampsic and had her baby in hospital. After the delivery she and her baby were living on the street without shelter when the woman who came with her to the clinic found her on the side of the road and brought her home to take care of her. Blair got a BP of 170/100 as she was crying in pain. I came back in to see if they needed any help and that’s when she started to seize. She had a full blown tonic clonic grand mal seizure. Once she was post ichtial Jody and I held
her while Blair grabbed Jackie to see if we could get her off to the hospital. The woman was still very limp and could hardly understand, even with translation
what we were trying to do for her. 

Ambulance getting loaded up...you can see part of the stretcher and the saw that created it.

 Of course, as most of you know, there are no ambulances in Haiti, so we had to make one of our own. Our Canadian/Haitian team got together and grabbed the
pick up truck, the men sawed off a piece of wood into a board and grabbed a bunch of blankets and there was our ambulance! Six of grabbed each limb, head and bottom of the lady and carried her out to our “ambulance”. Our amazing maternity nurse Angela, Myrtho, Marc Eddy, and the lady with the baby all drove off to the hospital to save our lady……   

Hard at work consulting the multitudes

-Maggie

We got up this morning to a blazing sun and a delicous breakfast of pancakes made by the ladies in the kitchen, S. Lucianna, M. Lucianna, M. Luc and M. Josue. After breakfast, Lisa and Rebecca gave us a wonderful tour of the rest of the Haiti Arise property and the surrounding houses/ buildings. We walked down small pathways under the boiling sun to M. Luciannas’s new home. Her house fell down in the earthquake and Haiti Arise built her a new one. It is one of their ongoing projects and M. Lucianna’s house was the first one to be built! It is constructed out of strong cement and is very sturdy. There were a series of 5 homes built, all with the help of all of the prospective owners. As we continued down the path, we encountered goats, cows and lots of people. We also passed by the property where Haiti Arise plans to build a Children’s Village, a church and a permanent school that goes all the way up to grade 12!

This woman was left for dead when her house collapsed on her; she credits her faith in God for her life today

While passing by one house we met an old woman who told us her sad story. In the 2010 earthquake, her house fell down on top of her, crushing her legs. She was proclaimed dead and left there in the rain. She woke up and started calling for help. Luckily, she was found in time to be saved! She says that if it weren’t for the Lord, she would not be here to tell this tale! God helped her persevere through all the pain and saved her life.

New found friends

How many people can your teeter-totter hold?

After our walk, we decided to visit the elementary school children who were playing outside on their playground. They were all adorable and did you know that a teeter-toter can hold up to 19 kids and 2 adults! Believe me, we tried! Then we sat down to a yummy lunch of bulgar wheat and cherry smoothies.

There are no words to describe this kind of cuteness

Then we all pulled our bathing suits on and headed out to the beach! After a 25 minute walk, we arrived at a gorgeous beach that was totally deserted! We all jumped in the water, which was as warm as a shower!, and splashed around. Some of us went snorkelling and to our great delight, saw tons of fabulous fish and coral!

Angela, Andre and our giant dinner

Just down the beach, there were some Haitians with live lobster and we decided to buy some. It was delicous and smothered in lime juice and butter. With it we had fried Lambi, which are the creatures that live inside conch shells and they are also very good. They taste like something between a squid and an escargot. We splashed

Mmmmm, dinner

around some more while drinking 7up, Coke and some other Haitian pops. Then we hitched a ride back to the compound in the back of one of the compound’s vehicles (Haitan style with 12 people – 4 in the seats and 8 sitting in the back). We had rice, chicken and salad for dinner.

Afterwards, we sat outside watching the lightening flash and listening to the thunder boom. We saw another spider, which by my standards was HUGE, and it almost got in to one of the bedrooms but lost it’s life to a sandal!

God bless you all! Annika

A well deserved and much appreciated rest in preparation for a long week of clinic

Hey everyone,

Just letting you know that due to technical difficulties, there won’t be an official post from the team today. But stayed tuned, because details of their great day will be coming as soon as possible!

HFL Office