Friday, August 31, 2012

The final saga of a long long trip home

Today I was happy to arrive at the airport in Haiti to go home. It has been almost
4 weeks since I left for Guatemala expecting to return from Haiti on August 26. While I was gone my mother broke her arm, my special day with my granddaughter had to be cancelled, my daughters birthday passed and still I was in Haiti. Many appointments had to be rescheduled .
So today was the day!

Upon arriving at the airport, my first surprise was that I was flying into Ft lauderdale and flying out of Miami .
Martha and Michele tried to fix it but I would have to stay
Two nights In ft Lauderdale , if i wanted to fly out of Ft Lauderdale. Of course I had booked a hotel in Miami.

I would have to take a shuttle between airports. First, the plane was delayed because we had an extra person. The extra person was removed, but then someone appeared to be ill. So we were delayed while they removed the sick person. We were 40 minutes late taking off. When we landed we were informed that we had to stay seated as they proceeded to arrest someone on the plane.
We finally got off the plane to find a two hour wait at immigration, by the time we got to the huge customs line I had a new group of friends from the immigration line, and we stood and laughed until we cried, because it was so unbelievable at this point.
I took a van from ft Lauderdale
that was arranged for me by the woman who sat next to me on the plane. Thanks Abby! Although as much as she was convinced he knew his way around Miami, we were lost for 20 minutes trying to find the hotel.
I have 5 hours to sleep before I start a new travel day, which I am hoping will be uneventful and on time.

Hurricane Relief

Thank you to those donors who are helping with hurricane relief! Gale will be back in the U.S. office next week and we will hear her report as to what else is needed.

~Michele

It's a girl

The clinic is packed today but at 10 this morning Dr Sem delivered a baby girl. All is well with baby and mom.
The mom walked in at 9:30 AM.
It was too late to go
Anywhere. I hope we don't start another trend of delivering babies here.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Kids program

Shorty did a kids yoga program today. In addition to the yoga, the kids did crafts and had stories and had spaghetti and hot dogs for lunch. The kids had a lot of fun and Shorty seemed to command the attention of the group.

Alone in the bunkhouse

The team has all left. Some have arrived home, some are in the DR waiting for their planes to fly out tomorrow. I am in the bunkhouse alone
Until Friday. Today we go back to Canaan to start the plan.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Rest of the team leaves Haiti

It has been an emotional week for everyone. Experiencing the reality of Haiti and not being able to leave gave the team an idea of what is like for so
Many Haitians. Trapped in poverty with no way out is the reality for poor of this country. Today as they got ready for the bus trip to the DR, Margaret, a nurse from Texas, summed up how everyone was feeling, " We can leave this place but this is their reality , they can not leave ." Safe travels to a wonderful team.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

This morning half of the team left on a bus for the Dominican Republic so they can leave tomorrow. We just heard from them and they have arrived safely. The rest of the team will be leaving tomorrow morning for the Dominican.
The team continues to work today, the the remaining medical volunteers seeing patients and the one construction volunteer working on building shelves in the depot for medicine. This evening Mr. Genois came to speak to the group and thank them for their hard work.

Child in Need of Emergency Sponsorship

Please help if you can. He is very malnourished.


Monday, August 27, 2012

First team members leave Haiti in the morning

We all hoped that there would be a plane added or some easy way to
Get home, but that was not to be.
We will be taking buses to the DR to fly home from there. So we worked today , while figuring bus and airline schedules.

Yesterday we traveled to Canaan to see who's tents we needed to replace.
Some where completely flattened , while others just lost the roof. We will begin repairs this week.

Tonight we will get ready for 1/2 of the team to leave us via bus for the DR tomorrow.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Haiti Flights

No one is able to fly out today as scheduled. Martha and I are working hard to reschedule and get people home as soon as possible. Everyone is safe, the airports are just busy with all of the flight delays due to Isaac.

- Michele

Saturday, August 25, 2012

We are all safe here at PID in Haiti despite the hurricane last night. Flights are cancelled, but the team is hanging in there as we are working on rescheduling.
Our trip to the beach was cancelled, as you can imagine. The construction guys worked on putting the tarp roof back up on our education tent, and the medical team worked cleaning the pharmacy, wound care room, and meds depot, as well as caring for Guetchine's mom.

Flights in Haiti Being Rescheduled

Flights in Haiti have been cancelled, but we are working to reschedule them all. Will keep you posted.

- Michele

Help Needed in the tent city of Canaan

Half of the tents in Canaan have been lost due to the tropical storm. These are relocated people from the earthquake who are waiting to have house built for them.

If anyone would like to donate to an emergency fund for new, temporary tarp houses, it is $100/house. We cannot yet cross the river ourselves to get there. More details to come as they're available.

From Haiti

Rain continues. The river is rising and Duvivier has light flooding. We are wet but not flooded. A few patients showed up for follow-up. Guetchine's mom will stay tonight with some of her family in case it floods in their area.

- Gale

Haiti Update from Gale: Team is Safe

I just got back from checking the solar panels. They are fine. I was worried about punctures but they are okay. The worst of the wind is over, but it is still raining.

Guetchine's mom showed up for treatment. The team has been doing house calls. The roof of our diabetic teaching and training room is ruined. Tree branches are down, but nothing else broken. Damien flooded (one of the tent cities we work in), we will check on them later. The river is rising but so far all of Blanchard (where PID is) is okay. Will update again later.

- Gale

Update from Haiti

Good morning all. The team is safe and the worst of the storm seems to have passed last night.  I received another update from Gale this morning:


"It is 3 in the morning and we are at the height of the storm. While we remain safe and dry, I can't sleep thinking what it must be like for all of those who are still in tarp tents in Canaan and Damien and other areas. I pray our families will not lose their houses again."

Friday, August 24, 2012

Safe In Haiti

I just received this message from Gale:

"We are safe in PAP. So far no rain, a very slight wind and a few clouds. It is a nice change from the oppressive heat."

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Both construction and medical teams continue to work hard today in Haiti. After clinic, Dr. Andy did an education for PID staff about HIV and AIDS. The education was very informative, and the staff was very curious and learned a lot, with a lively discussion and question-answer session.
After, Chris and Henry officially presented the solar power system to PID staff who recieved them with lots of applause and thank-yous. Mr. Genois reminded them that the money we will be able to save on generator gas and repairs will be able to go towards PID's programs that help so many people.
This evening, Madame Pavelus came to the team meeting to share her version of Haiti's history. The team was very interested in her perspective and posed lots of questions. She shared the difference that PID has made in her life, and told them what an honor it is to her to be a part of the PID family, and thanked all of the team for giving their time and service to help PID.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

From Haiti

Gale finally arrived after being overnight in Miami. It was great to see the team hard at work sifting sand and working in the clinic.

Today the directors and department heads learned more about solar power and how it works.

The medical team visited Guetchine's mom who is very ill.

We had a great meeting tonight. One of the team members was one of the
Guatemalan UN troops who was stationed in Haiti in 2006. We listened
With interest to the military's side of peace keeping. He feels Haiti has come a long way since 2006 and it is definitely different coming as a civilian.

We look forward to learning more about solar in the morning.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Team's first day

This morning Dr. Andy and the rest of his team arrived and got to work right away. They saw over 80 patients today! The construction team members worked on various projects, including helping the solar guys, sifting, and mixing medika mamba. It was a great first day and we look forward to a great week with the team.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

First day on Solar Power!

Today we are happy to announce that the PID compound in Haiti is now running off solar power! Chris and Henry finished work installing the batteries and they charged today from the solar panels in the sun. We are so excited for an end to our electricity problems! This evening we are enjoying great power, while Chris and Henry are shutting off lights and fans behind us, reminding us to conserve power.
This evening 4 team members arrived. Tomorrow they will be working in the clinic. We welcome them and look forward to a great week with them!

Final day in Guatemala

Today the team leaves for home and I(Gale) leave for Haiti.
Here is the final review:
About 700 patients seen at the clinic,
38 water filters installed with 27 fully installed and working, 11 waiting for sand,
9 new kids sponsored,
Over 900 well child check ups finished ,with parasite meds and vitamin program started ,
Public health teaching and solar
Cooking demonstration.
Finally Karen stays to finish inputting
Info into the new database .
A great two weeks of accomplishment.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Today Chris and Henry from the solar power team arrived. They came to install the batteries for the final step in the process of putting PID's clinic in Haiti on solar power. From the moment they arrived, they started working immediately, and only stopped when it got dark. Jack came by for the weekend too, and is helping the guys while learning about how the system works. We are all looking forward to solar power for our clinic very soon!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Another day of Solar Cooking

Yesterday Epi, Gale and Hillary went to the market in downtown San Antonio to buy vegetables to make soup in the solar cooker. They did a lot of chopping and the soup turned out pretty yummy!




We have about 10 filters made and ready to go, but we are currently waiting on white pool sand. The delivery was delayed due to a holiday in Guatemala City. The team along with village kids are sifting and washing sand so that we will have enough to finish the filters. Hopefully the sand will come tomorrow and we will be doing some serious installation!

Gale is working with Dr. Rick and Dr. Kate on re-organizing our diabetic program. This will hopefully allow us to take more patients into the program.

This team has sponsored 5 children so far!! I love it when that happens. =)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Last day for the team

Today was the team's last day of work. They are very sad to be leaving after such a great week. At tonight's meeting, Genois and Guetchine came and made a very moving speech to the group, thanking them for all their hard work, and explaining to them the kind of work PID does in Haiti. God will bless them for the work they are doing, Genois told them. A piece of them will always stay in Haiti because they gave their sweat to work hard, and the work they did will stay. Each of them will leave Haiti with a piece of Haiti in their hearts. Genois gave each person a job for when they go home: to spread the word to their families and friends about the big work that PID is doing in Haiti.

Solar Cooking in Ixtacapa


Epi and some of the kids are doing an experiment with the solar cooker. I think they are making eggs!

lots of things going on at once: solar cooker, water filters and the clinic






Monday, August 13, 2012


Today the team continues work. The construction team is now working on filling in the floor of the Blanchard house. The nurse continues to help out in the triage in the clinic. Children from Cite Soleil were bussed in today for the kid's program. Before going home, each child recieved a couple bars of soap and clothing items. The kids were so happy.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Team Sunday in Guatemala

I ( Gale) apologize for pictures. Not only is my Spanish bad but I never take pictures:(

Today some of the team
Went to Church and then we took a trip through the fruit section of the mayan market. We picked up the rest of the team, who slept late and traveled to tikalik abaj.

This is a transitional
Mayan ruin that is continually being excavated with new pieces being added. It also has Olmec pieces from before the Mayan period existed. The plants are extremely beautiful. It is a very peaceful place.

Seven of our team members left but four new ones joined us this afternoon.
Tonight the team received their jobs
For tomorrow . We will work on water filters with a goal of 14 small, 2 large.
Installed! This will be headed up by Chandler.
Dr. Rick will head up the school teams
So Rachael can stay in the lab to finish up her last week.
Bonnie and Karen will begin our
New interview for clients tomorrow
( more about this later).
Dr. Kate will be at the clinic with the pre med students and Jess one of the new Nurse that arrived.
Epi will begin trekking to all the filter peoples houses to do a follow up visit
To make sure they
Understand all.
Everyone is off to bed early because they have a lot of work ahead of them this week.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the past few days here in Guatemala:

Erin with her newly sponsored girl Jenny
kids from the village performing traditional mayan dances

more dances

another dance.


Gale and I with our three awesome interns: Karen, Julie and Rachael =)
the team checking out a swinging bridge on the way to the lake

Yesterday the team went for a walk around the neighborhood to see the PID houses in the area before starting their half day of work. The construction team continued work both at PID and the house in Blanchard. The 3 ladies went to a local orphanage to do the kids program. The nurse cleaned and organized the wound care room.
In the afternoon, the team went out with Marceline for a tour of Port-au-Prince. They stopped by the palace, went to the museum, and ate dinner at Epidor.
Today the team went to church, then headed out for a day at the beach.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Trip to Santiago

After a very tough work week, the team traveled to Santiago and then took a boat across to Panachel. Some people went horseback riding, others including Dr. Kate, went kayaking while others shopped. It was a good day of rest. Seven people from the team will leave at 2:30 AM to
Return home and 4 more new people will join the remaining team tomorrow.

Gale attended a meeting at the village school with Maria Jose and Alahandra.
We were asked to do a presentation
On PID once we arrived. Because of the rain the meeting was delayed for an hour and finally moved inside of a dark classroom , as the electricity
Went out during the storm. It was an interesting look into the politics of Guatemala villages and how they function.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Twenty filters in 5 days

Today the water filter team installed 6 filters in order to reach their goal of 20 in five days . They installed the last two in the pouring rain. Sergio reached his goal of finishing 14 more to be installed for next week.
The public health team finished all the well child visits scheduled at the school in Desierto. While the clinic continued to see patients even after the rains came.
Today Julie left, everyone was so sad:(

At night, we had yet another birthday - this time it was Wade's birthday .
Twenty six kids from the village came to the party. Some of them came as dancers to do the original Mayan dances, others came as friends of Hillary and Wade. It was great fun. Abby the field director, joined the kids
wearing Mayan dress. She had been practicing all week. Way to go Abby!

We were happy to have two new kids sponsored by Medical practice and by Erin, another member of the team.
Today was the team's second day of work. The construction team continues work both on the PID grounds and out at the site in Blanchard. They made a total of 97 blocks. The ladies running the children's program had another successful day here at PID with the Blanchard kids. They did stretching, excersizes, arts and crafts, and enjoyed a hot meal. The nurse continued work in the triage, and also had the opportunity to perform an ultrasound for a pregnant woman today.

For tonight's team meeting Madame Pavelus came and gave her version of Haiti's history as she knows it. She also shared a personal testimony of her experience in the earthquake and what PID has done for her. She named the names of individual team members that worked on her house as well as the nurse who helped her daughter when she was sick. It reminds us of what an impact each person really does have on the lives of the people they help at PID.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Nearing the end of Julie 's internship

Tomorrow will be the last day of work for Julie. All summer Julie and Rachael worked with our local staff to do parasite testing for 5 area schools. They have taught hygiene and sanitation techniques to the directors, teachers, students and the parents in preparation for these first two weeks in August of the public health initiative. Julie has done a wonderful job Testing,
Organizing information, scheduling well child check ups and doing follow up.
Because of the prep work that she and Rachael have done more than 1200 children
Will have well child check up, received
Hygiene classes, medical treatment for parasites and other communicable
Diseases, received hygiene kits and will now receive vitamins monthly.
Great job Julie! Guatemala will miss you.
Today was the team's first day of work. After breakfast, the team got a tour of the clinic this morning and got to meet PID's staff. The construction team worked at PID sifting and making blocks. Mr. Phele remarked that this team is really good at block-making and learned the difficult task quickly. In the afternoon, some of the team went out to the site in Blanchard where we are putting up blocks for a house. There was lots of the passing of blocks and buckets of cement in a line.
The 3 ladies running the children's program worked with 20 kids from Blanchard in the morning, and 20 more in the afternoon. The kids all recieved a hot meal and had lots of fun. The ladies were impressed by the level of focus and attention span the kids have.
The nurse worked with Marceline in triage today. She took vital signs for the pregnant women coming in for prenatal day. She also was able to observe 4 pregnant women get ultrasounds done. She also weighed baby Wislain, the 9-month-old malnourished baby who has been coming in daily for milk and medika mamba. He now weighs in at 9 pounds!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Searching for Raymunda Gonzalez

The water filter installation team had a bit of an adventure today. Gale found some kids to lead them to Raymunda Gonzalez's house to install a filter. Unfortunately these kids didn't actually know which Raymunda Gonzalez we were looking for. So they were lead to three different houses and then finally ended up at the right house, but the woman already had a filter that we had installed two days ago! Whoops!

The clinic was a busy place today with over 100 patients coming through and training classes for water filters.

We also celebrated Steve and Chandler's birthdays with a vegan chocolate cake made with Guatemalan chocolate. Gale, Julie and I experimented with making the cake and it came out pretty tasty!

***Update from Haiti***
Lizzy contacted us and said that there is no internet, but she wanted to let everyone know that the team arrived safely and are looking forward to a great day tomorrow doing construction and children's programs.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Second Day

Second day here in Guatemala went just as smoothly as the first. The clinic saw around 80 patients today. Those working at the school in Ixtacapa finished seeing the rest of the students - around 180!

The water-filter group installed four filters and built and prepared about 8 more. They also were sifting sand and washing sand. We hired some village kids to help speed up the process.

Here are some pictures of water filter installation:

walking through the village with all the necessary materials to install a filter

following a little boy to his house

erin and chandler adding the first of two different kinds of sand that go into the filter

Monday, August 6, 2012

Water filters, patients and crocheted skirts

Today was a great first day! Often the first day is a little chaotic and crazy, but things went surprisingly smoothly. The doctors who went to the school did well-child checkup for 120 students in two hours. At the clinic we saw around 55 patients.

The water filter team installed four filters today and started sifting and washing sand to use in the filters tomorrow.

Gale started teaching some of the girls how to crochet skirts.

So all in all a very productive day.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

First night in Guatemala

The team all arrived safely as well as Karen our newest intern. Of course, we lost power early , so no electricity. Will blog more in the AM.

Team Arrival

The team arrived safely in Guatemala. They seem excited and enthusiastic to start working tomorrow. The clinic team will be split between seeing patients at the PID clinic and working in the field at schools doing well-child checkups for around 1000 students. The other team members will be working on making and installing water filters - we hope to install thirty over the next two weeks! So we will all be very busy.

A new intern named Karen arrived today as well. She will be working with our social worker Alejandra on socio-economic studies for families involved in our programs.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Last Night For The Emory Church Team

The construction team had a long day of work day. The home they have been working on for the last week is rapidly nearing completion, which was very exciting for many of the team members. Some were fortunate enough to share a visit with their sponsor children, while others packaged vitamins and made Medika Mamba. There was also English tutoring later in the day. Being the last day for the Emory Church Team, memories and thoughts were exchanged about the weeks work. All were thankful for a successful week of VBS, and the energetic children that made it so enjoyable.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Last day of VBS

Today was the last day of VBS for the Blanchard and Cite Soleil kids here in Haiti. As part of the program, each kid had their feet washed. They learned of Jesus's love for them. The volunteers told the kids "Jezi renmen ou" (Jesus loves you), and the kids responded "Jezi renmen ou tou" (Jesus loves you too). Everyone involved was touched by the experience. All the kids that participated went home with a backpack filled with school supplies and a handmade dress and they were very grateful.

The doctor and nurse continue to see patients in the clinic. Today, on pregnancy day, one patient complained of an "abdominal mass" and refused to believe that she was pregnant, even after viewing her child's heart beating in the ultrasound.

The sponsorship room was busy today. Several volunteers had the opportunity to meet their sponsored children. Wislain, the malnourished little baby continues to come in every day and is gaining weight. We have another emergency child who came in as well, a very sick little malnourished baby with an insatiable appetite and distended stomach. He has been added to our medika mamba program and needs a sponsor!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Today was day three of VBS. It continued with the regular schedule of singing, English classes, and a hot meal. There were also some crafts and dancing. The construction team was at the local PID neighborhood building and sifting. The walls of the house are coming up and it is very exciting to watch. Back at PID, the two docors kept on wiith a busy schedule. Between the kids running around the compound and patients inside the clinic, PID was in full swing today. Madam Pavilus came tonight to share a peoples history of Haiti. It was enlightening for many of the team members and offered some insight to the cultural perspective of Haiti's government. Once again most everyone is exhausted from such a packed day of VBS and clinic work, but tomorrow promises to be just as exciting.