Day 4

I met with the director last night at 11:00 to discuss the day and talk with her about the the teams role for tommorow. I informed her that we led a group with seven children today using a translator with a mental health background. She was interested in the outcomes of the groups and beginning to feel more comfortable with the team being here. During our conversation, we started talking about post traumatic stress and how the earthquake affected her staff when it happened. I asked to go to the orphanage to see the sleeping arrangements and although it rained pretty heavy this afternoon the children and mon tons were all sleeping on the porch because of continued fear. As we were walking to the sleeping quarters, I overheard a wheezing noise from a distance and we eventually found an infant who i soon found out was 2 having a difficult time breathing. The director is a nurse and she felt that she immediately needed to see a doctor and we went to his room to ask for assistance. He instructed us to take her to the on site hospital and wait for him to arrive. The doctor arrived and after evaluation determined that she needed to start antibiotics immediately. I had the opportunity to hold Mari and give her comfort while the doctor and nurse mixed her medication. After Mari was stable i spoke with the doctor and nurse and found out that she was three years old had cerebral palsy and brain damage. She is at the orphanage because her parents did not make it through the quake and there are no other family members to take care of her. I would ask that everyone pray for Mari and that she can feel the love that God has for her and the orphanage. I am truly blessed to be here and will follow up with Mari in a few hours. It is now 2:00 Haiti time and i am going to bed.

I woke up at 7:30 to cloudy skies with a cool breeze and the smell of burning plastic and trash. There are some sounds of home that give me comfort for instance the roosters crowing all night. After breakfast we had our first meeting with the multidisciplinary team to begin establishing rapport with the doctors, nurses, and support staff. The meeting was successful and Dr. Cassandra a Haitian doctor gave me the names of seven children that may need an evaluation for potential mental illness. Dr. Looby and Dr. Scott took our translator with them to begin talking with a girl who had her leg amputated and did not want to wear that sock that would assist her with getting a new leg. I went with Dr. Doria to the nursing station at the orphanage and began looking through records to assess possible abuse, mental illness, or physical disabilites. The charts were partially written in French and we used an intrepreter to assist with reading. I took notes for each individual child and will begin putting records together with our assessments for the mental health team coming in next week. I spoke with my contact in the states tonight and she will be coming next week to follow up on what we started. It is great to be a part of a program in the inital phases and i look forward to the eventual success of children at the orphanage having access to mental health providers. Lunch is not provided here and we took a break for lunch where i ate an MRE. The afternoon consisted of taking a break from mental health and assisting the orphanage in unloading a truck full of donations from the United States. I have never seen any kids work as hard as these kids today they worked in the back of an 18 wheeler truck for hours unloading 1000s of bottles of water and clothes. During this time i got to hang out with the disabled children of the orphanage and color with chalk and crayons. It was great to see how clothes are handed out when they are donated and again i was almost brought to tears when i saw the children sacrificing their needs to help me find clothes for the babies and the amputees. After dinner we attended praise and worship on site and i had the opportunity to hear a message spoken in English and translated in Haitian. The praise and worship was outstanding and i was humbled by seeing kids with amputations who had just lost their parents raising their hands and praising Jesus. When i see this i wonder what reason do we have to complain about things when we have everything we could ever want. The smell of smoldering garbage fills the air and it is currently pouring down rain and as the country approaches the rainy season this will soon be an every day occurance. I will have the website of the orphange up soon and want to encourage everyone that has not been able assist with earthquake relief to adopt a kid here monthly for 30.00 which will pay for housing, food, water, mon tons (nannies), school which starts next week and medical assistance. One last thing i will be leaving the premises tommorow to tour the devastation first hand in order to attempt to put myself in their shoes and see what they have lived with daily. This will be thereapeutic and humbling for me as well. Thank you to everyone for following and i look forward to seeing you soon as well as sharing many stories about my visit. I miss my family and excited about seeing them as soon as possible. Jeremiah 32:17 (Pictures were used with permission from Childrens Home)

Day 2

I will make attempts to rewrite yesterdays blog. I am not sure what happened and will blame it on the heat and humidity. We landed in Port Au Prince at 9:30 A.M. and took a bus to thed to makeshift terminal/customs. After customs we were escorted to vehicles where we were transported to the Project Medishare tent. As we walked to our tents we were greeted by children asking for money and we were encouraged not to give money because it would only increase the amount of children asking. Instructions included staying in after dark and the dangers associated with leaving the premises. The hospital is treating numerous gunshot wounds daily. We waited 6 hours for transport and during the that time i had an opportunity to tour the sleeping quarters of the volunteers as well as the childrens hospital and adult hospital. Project Medishare created the first neonatal intensive care and pediatric intensive care unit in Haiti. As i set under a makeshift tent attempting to communicate with the kids who are no longer bedridden three men are taking a body to the morgue.



Our transportation arrived and we made it to the orphange 20 minutes later. The driving here is Scottsville Road on Friday afternoon x10 we are lucky we made it without being ran over. The devastation driving in was inexplainable as well as the sights, smells, and sounds. After arriving at the orphanage we were greeted by two armed guards that are on post 24 hours a day obviously for protection. The orphanage is located in Port Au Prince and we had to travel numerous alley's to get to our final destination. I was told on the way in that no one is sleepin in their home yet because of the fears related to the earthquake. The streets and alleys become the Haitians home at night and there is no way to travel if you need to get somewhere. There are a lot of superstitions related to the earthquake specificall at the time the earthquake happend the locals will step outside of whatever building they are in becasue of fear. I posted yesterday about getting to spend the rest of the evening with the kids at the orphanage and becoming a tree for the kids to climb. We did a debriefing to talk about the positive and negatives of the day and attend to pshychological first aid of our team members if needed. We will meet after breakfast in the morning and beging assessing the compound for mental health needs as well as begining to include all staff in morning staffings. Love God Love People

Day 3

Woke up early this morning to the smell of burning trash, got ready and went to breakfast to meet with the team for morning debriefing. The males and females decided to split up today and begin separately addressing individual needs of the children. I spent some time talking to the director last night and she informed me that a majority of the kids who they recieved after the earthquake were trapped for hours and many still recovering physically. There is much work needed here for mental health services and recently learned that Haiti has around 12 psychiatrist nationwide. In a country with millions of people, you can see that mental health services are at the bottom of the list. Currently, there are children at the orphanage that would greatly benefit from seeing a psychiatrist and at this point we do not forsee that happening. I check in daily with our contact in the United States and as a clinical social worker, mental health and psychiatric services are on the top of my needs list. As we continued with our assessment today, we found ourselves sitting in an english as a second language (ESL) class and participating with the children who attended. The team of males talked with Mon Tons (women hired to watch after the kids, similar to nannies) and nurses and the staff doctor at the on site hospital to gain information on the specific physical disabilites the children had and essentially found out nothing. We had lunch on our own and did some group work with seven children that revolved around their thoughts and feelings prior to the earthquake and the aftermath. Thank you Franklin-Simpson Middle School for providing the art for the children today, they were very appreciative and wanted to know if we could do it again tommorow. I am finished with dinner and getting ready to head back over to where the children are staying to play soccer, ultimate frisbee, and basketball. I spent an hour with the director last night and gained some insight on the current government issues as well as the 3-5 year hold on adoptions in Haiti!!!!!!! There are thousands of kids needing good homes and because of bureacracy and red tape the children will have to go another day without a permanent home. I am at this orphanage for a few reasons but the most important is to love on these kids and show them the love of Christ. I have heard praise and worship music all day and will be attending a devotional tommorow evening at 7:00. One last thing our team was asked tonight if we wanted to go to one of the tent cities and and see how the Haitians worship Jesus. She stated that she went two nights ago and there were over 10,000 people there. I have tons of pictures and video and limited to what i post, look forward to sharing them when i return. Thanks again for the positive feedback, prayers and support. Psalm 62:1-2 and may the people of Haiti have a clear focus on Jesus and what he has done for the country.

Day 2 Pictures

Day 1

It is nearing the end of day 1 and i wanted to give everyone an update of how things went. My afternoon flight was delayed almost two hours and i had an opportunity to catch up on crisis intervention,psychological first aid,as well as what to expect in Haiti. I recieved information that i will be staying at the orphanage the entire time and will be provided two meals a day as well as water. I brought 76 pounds in one bag so i should have enough food, coloring books,crayons,frisbes,yo-yos, and soccer balls to last for the week. I met with Dr. Madhosingh and the five other team members tonight and recieved final orders for departure. The orphanage has over 200 children and a small hospital on site. A small majority of the children are bedridden and i will spend time during my "shift" providing support and assessment. the rest of the time will be spent showing the kids the love of Christ. I will meet with the team in the morning at 4:30 Miami time to register with Medishare and fly out at 7:00. I will respond tommorow night hopefully with pictures of the day and more information. Thanks again for your prayers and support. LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE!