Callebasse

(Note: All of the entries made this week are from my Blackberry mobile phone. Please excuse typoes, mis-spellings and inarticulate recollections and descriptions. I am writing this like I journal, just thoughts and short bursts of memory regurgitated without serious contemplation or consideration for syntax and form.)

After snagging some of the world's most delicious grape fruits ever with a net I made from a broom, a hanger, a pillow case and some duct tape.

Darla, the NP from New Brunswick was very grateful for the fresh fruit for breakfast and the vitamin C gave my immune system some confidence to address the health crises of rural Haiti.

We were a little late getting off the mission campus and on the road in our two Honda ATV's. With a driver, front seat passenger and three holding on in the bed of the ATV (pictures of the ATV's, nicknamed Big Red 1 and Big Red 2, can be found on my facebook page in the album titled "Haiti Medical Mission 2010).

We squeezed the equipment, meds, medical missionaries and translators in as tightly as we could pack them. I really missed this part of the trip, yes, the driving, because even when you're on the road in Haiti, you're still off road.

Dr. Sorg wanted his ATV in front because its equipped with a horn which aids in navigating the blind corners on the narrow cliff lined roads. Two little beeps let's anyone on the other side know that you are about to collide with them. This has proved valuable as we encounter a near miss every 2 or 3 minutes on the roads. I know that that sounds bad, but we're rarely travelling more than 15 to 20 mph by my estimation, although, they don't have speedometers so I don't really know.

By the time we reached the church in Callebasse, all of our faces were thoroughly, caked in dust and we smelled like exhaust fumes. Abby road in the back with my pal and translator Fedner along with Benjamin, a translator I'd never met before (none of which stopped smiling at any point over the course of the day). Tee, my plucky retired nurse friend from Maryland, sat up in the passenger seat with me.

Dr. Sorg was driving the lead Big Red for a bit until he realised he had left his driver's license at the mission and had Johnny drive the remainder of the trip. Johnny drives just as slow as Dr. Sorg, as Tee pointed out to me while we grudgingly ate their dust on our way up the mountain.

This was a clinic I've worked at before in an old church. It was already full of people when we arrived. The translators adeptly sent the would-be patients outside so the we could set up. The church's pastor, a gracious and kind faced Haitian man, laid down the law at one point (I don't really know what he told them) and we had silence and order after a tense 15 minutes of chaos.

With all the experience on the team (including many of our veteran translators) the mobile clinic and pharmacy were assembled in a matter of about 5 minutes and we immediately set to work with Abby taking vitals, me assessing and gathering histories and Dr. Sorg and Darla (my new favourite NP) wrote up scrips. The whole thing was so fluid and well-executed with us in these roles that we had seen 100 patients before 2 pm.

The patients were mostly church goers from the local Baptist church, with more paediatric patients than I have seen in one of these clinics. For the first time we are starting to see patients with chronic health complaints that can be traced back to the earthquake last year. Some of the kids has some nasty infections and cellulitis and predictable intestinal-worm type complaints.

Johnny and I met one young lady who was not a Christian and very receptive to the Gospel which we (I say we, but mean Johnny) shared with her. Please pray for Mme. Noel.

There were 2 others that did not claim to be Christians, one was not receptive and the other seemed mildly interested. Tomorrow, now that word is out beyond the local church congregation, is expected to be much busier with more non-churchgoers than Christians.

After wrapping up, and the hot/humid/dusty/smelly drive back to the mission, we re-stocked our medication supplies, debriefed, discussed diagnoses and trends we were seeing then went down to the medical supply store room to check on the progress of our once oppressively over-stuffed, garbage-ridden donation room. It didn't even look like the same place we worked those long evenings re-organizing a year ago when we should have been sleeping. Kudos to the teams that attacked and conquered that storeroom since!

The night was finished off with some laughs and story telling with the full-time BHM staff, an excellent dinner (as usual) and a short group Bible devotion and prayer. Abby Darla and I sat down after dinner and did some record keeping and diagnosis tracking then watched part of a movie (Amazing Grace) on Dr. Sorg's lap top.

I really wasn't in the mood to tap out this long blog because every cell in my body is telling me to sleep, but, I know from experience, if I don't write it out, I'll forget it.

And I would be remiss if I didn't tale the opportunity to thank my dear wife, Elizabeth, for making it possible for her husband to fly way over to Haiti to help some sick people neither of us know. You're the best babe! I love you!
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