Tonight it poured. These are the nights I think of those sleeping all over Haiti in tents. I was talking to one of the translators today, and he asked if we felt okay sleeping outside. I said yes, because we feel very safe. He said he thought about all the people on the teams coming to help, leaving their families, then sleeping in the rain. He thought it was an amazing that so many have come and worked. I think it is a amazing too!! The teams are full of amazing people. I consider myself fortunate to have traveled with all of them. The latest count seen by our PID clinics: 12400

Guatemalan Team Update

Night meetings are great, the team is full of questions. They have worked so hard painting one house, finishing walls on another house, and they will pour a floor tomorrow. This afternoon they went to the hot springs for rest and relaxation.

All is well with the Guatemala team. We apologize if you have been checking on the website and haven’t seen the update. It was the first time the Guatemalan field director had to use it but could’t figure out how to use it.

Today we opened a new mobile clinic in a place that takes kids out of Cite Soliel and feeds and plays with them. We gave vaccinations to them and they
Asked us to help with medical care. We saw about 350 people today in the clinics. Medicine is our biggest challenge as we see more and more infections requiring antibiotics.

I met with the Department of Public Health of Haiti today. I will find out if it was a good idea or bad idea in about a week. Need to go to sleep now… falling asleep at the keyboard!

Took the team to a small country church and then the beach today. It was a nice, relaxing day. Tomorrow, we work in four places.

Last night my tent ended up full of mosquitoes, and my air mattress didn’t have the needed batteries so I didn’t sleep much. Tonight is more promising. The air mattress is full and the mosquitoes are gone. One more great team has arrived as well.

The team is all here and snug in their tents. It rained for a few minutes so there are no chickens or dogs barking, just the generator humming in
the background.

Tomorrow I going back to Haiti . I have been loving my bed and having ice coffee. I have a new tent, mat and a little table so I am hoping that it will be a little easier to work when I return.

In the airport sitting on my suitcase. Happy to have airconditioning and to be on my way home. Sad because behind I am leaving a tiny team to vaccinate 7000 people and deal with the many emergencies that are beginning to define our medical program. The word has gone out that our care and medicine is good thanks to the many excellent team members that have come and gone.

Glad to be going home to get my head cleared. It is so exhausting here I need a break. Tonight someone treated us to dinner at a restaurant on the 7th floor. I was hesitant to go, but went anyway. We finished dinner and were getting ready to leave when we felt a slight aftershock. Needless to say, we left quickly. It only lasted about 1/10 of a second.

Most of the team will leave tomorrow. There will be four team members left here to work in the clinic. I will go home for 5 days. It will be nice to sleep in a bed again.

Today was an excellent day. Our clinic has turned into an emergency room of sorts in the last week and one half. Doing stitches, taking care of stroke patients, doing village medicine and working with the Haitian government to do vaccinations. In two days we have given over 1800. We have now seen over
10000 patients since we landed. We recieved 5000 bottles of pedialyte today along with many meds we needed . It was Christmas.

Today was a great day . Vaccination day started choatic and them turned into a well oiled machine. I was able to get three of our emergency patients hospitalized (not an easy task). We got a generous donation of 5000 bottles of pedialyte and other meds we needed from a facility in Haiti. The accountant on the trip is doing a great , while training Our book keeper.

Today the new team started working. Both clinics were full. A baby hardly breathing was brought in and a girl who had been miss diagnosed. She was in her early 20s and was almost blind, had been tested for many things except for diabetes, had a blood sugar so high it registered HI, over 450. She will be taken to an area hospital in the AM for further testing. Pray that it is not to late for this beautiful young woman. Many other changing cases today. Haiti public health came today and was impressed with the clinic and the work we are doing. I was really excited to have them affirm what we are doing in their country.

Today we saw many very sick people. When we arrived we had a baby with pneumonia who stayed most of the day. The vaccination team went to classes Today and vaccinations will start on weds in the damiya area. We had a new Haitian doctor start working with us.

Days start early here. They actually start before the previous day ends. Last night, after an overly event filled day at the clinic, I decided to try to get to sleep before 12. I was awakened by a text telling the flight of the next team was canceled. My whole schedule moved to plan #2. By morning we were up to plan #7. In Haiti, 10 might be the number of plans needed to complete a task.

You know you are tired when you send your message before it is finished… So to backtrack, yesterday the team went into one of the villages we work with to examine a couple of people who couldn’t come to the clinic because they were hurt. They both were okay but afraid.

Today, three more tent cities asked us to help them. I was so shocked when I went to see them. One was the poorest tent city I have seen to date. The tents were made of palms and cardboard.

Tent city I went to see today.

Wonderful day ! Went to the village to see a couple of people.

            Come put your hands together for Haiti on April 3rd!!!

             Tell your friends - re-blog/tweet this poster!

Time to go to sleep. Didn’t sleep much last night .

hannah-pid:

Support PID’s programs in Haiti and Guatemala by purchasing one of our beautiful dolls. The dolls are handcrafted in either Haiti or Guatemala, and each one is unique!

Click here to order your doll through our website.

Support PID’s programs in Haiti and Guatemala by purchasing one of our beautiful dolls. The dolls are handcrafted in either Haiti or Guatemala, and each one is unique!

Click here to order your doll through our website.

It’s 12:30am.

Do you know where your rooster is?

Ours is alive and well, crowing right next to our tents.

I was so excited to see the new clinic sign… until I read it and realized it said “Paptneps In Development.” It will be fixed tomorrow!

News from PID’s home office: check out these donations for Haiti relief! Kudos to the MANY people who have donated supplies & storage facilities, and to those who have sorted, packed, labeled, and toted boxes. We are so grateful!!

Bottled water for Haiti

15 pallets donated by NATIVE WATERS, LLC of Falls River, MA

The new team has arrived safely.

Today marked a new beginning at the clinic. All of the translators, triage, and even gate-keepers had medical training, learning new terms and how to take blood pressures, pulse, and temps. Next class on Saturday, after the clinic. Everyone loved it.

New PID Staff Blogs

After the wonderful response we’ve received from this blog, a few more of the PID staff have now started up blogs as well. Check them out in addition to this one to easily stay informed about all the aspects of PID. Our Director of Program Development, Lisa Lassey is now blogging at: http://lisa.pidonline.org and our Child Sponsorship Liaison & Administrative Assistant, Hannah Powlison Belković is at: http://hannah.pidonline.org.

Enjoy!

New relief trip dates for medical professionals - March 19-26th

New relief trip dates for medical professionals - March 19-26th

PID's 20th Anniversary Celebration

PID's 20th Anniversary Celebration

2010 marks Partners In Development’s 20th anniversary! For two decades, PID has dedicated itself to serving the extreme poor, helping to transform communities, and break the cycle of poverty!
Since…

Today we went to see Leogane and Jacmel. The epicenter of the earthquake was between the two cities. The road between the two places had a lot of damage. When we arrived in Jacmel, although there was much damage, it didn’t come close to what we had heard. We went to a beautiful beach and visited an agricultural place. We had a nice day off, enjoying some quiet time with no smoke or trash.

It is so quiet tonight. Most of the team left today. There are 6 of us left and everyone went to bed early. There is a noisy tree frog or some new sound someplace near my tent. Tomorrow we will travel to Leogane and Jacmel, the epicenter of the quake.

We are finally finding more places to refer our patients that need higher level care. Today I brought one of our patients to Medishare for surgery, only to end up transporting two of their patients to Doctors Without Borders. All ended up with good surgical placements. Tomorrow we will take 7 or 8 orthopedic referrals for consultations and scheduling of surgery.

Message Left By: Gus

God Bless ya’ll

It is raining tonight and I am in my tent. I am thinking about the story Tali relayed to us about what it was like to sleep in the street at her in laws. The road has to be blocked off. No one can go to sleep because they have to wait for traffic to be finished. Then it rained so they stood under tarp for two hours waiting for the rain to stop. They swept the street as dry as they could, put down rugs or whatever they had. The whole street was covered with people side by side and head to toe. Once they laid down, Tali realized that next to their head was the that sewer that ran in the open, full of trash and fecal matter. Most people, including many underage children, drink alcohol to fall asleep. But once you finally fall asleep, you only have a few hours until you need to get up because the traffic starts.

One of our relief workers, Steve, feeding a 3 month old baby with an eyedropper at the clinic.

Today the number of complicated cases continued to rise. We were able to refer 6 of them out, which was a great success. Our new prenatal room is a hit and everyday there is a stream of pregnant women, as well as new mothers and babies. The teams have all been so amazing. As we enter our 5th week of having relief teams in Haiti, we have serviced over 5000 patients. We added an infirmary with a bed yesterday and that now seems to be the favorite room. People come in with a fever, lay down on the bed, and fall asleep. Then they leave smiling, since sleep is one thing that no one is comfortable doing. In our attempt to have our normal programs up and running, yesterday the children in the program came for sponsorship. Some of the small business people also met yesterday, and we issued renewal loans for many people — all who were paid in full, in spite of the earthquake. Although, we still do have along way to go on updating loans. And the last of the news: our first new house is now under construction!

Today turned out to be the most intense medical day we have had since our first clinic day. A patient that we referred out yesterday died today. A 16 year old who was in trouble with her parents for being pregnant ended having large mass instead. (Waiting for final result tomorrow.) Also, many babies are showing up with no living relatives, high fevers and many other problems related to living in tents. Staff broke down many tomes today. Julie lead a meeting to help us process.

Today we saw so many people with complicated medical problems. Some of it made the new team members cry. It is nice to have two Haitian American team members. Tomorrow Dr. Rick leaves after one month and Tali goes back to Guatemala. Dr Kwan left yesterday. It has been a hard two days for me.

Tomorrow, an update about what it is like to sleep in the streets.