Friday for the team in Haiti

Another productive day for the team in Haiti.  The construction crew finished digging the trench for the foundation of the house being built in Blanchard.  The men were impressed with the ability of the women (Ann, Judy & Amanda) to go shovel to shovel with them. The only thing that beat them, and the ax they just purchased, was the huge stump needing to be removed!  The materials to build the last of the bunkbeds in the bunkhouse were purchased today as well.  We have some talented carpenters on this trip who will start working on the bunks tomorrow. Bob, the RN had another busy day in the clinic and Jess helped in Triage for the full day. As alwyas, MaryAnn is back at home in the Pharmacy.

All the preparations for the Sponsored Children's Christmas party were finished today.  Barbara, Peg, Martha and Natalie spent the day in the kitchen making popcorn the old fashion way on the stove top and baking brownies. They filled 400 sandwich bags with popcorn and made 22 trays of brownies for the children who will start arriving at 8am Saturday morning. This will be such an exciting day for the sponsored kids. They will have their picture taken for the Christmas card they decorate for their sponsor in addition to playing games, having lunch and receiving gifts and a goodie bag.

Team's first day of work in Haiti

Today was a great first day for the team. They started their day with a clinic tour, where all of the staff introduced themselves and their work.  Those who've been here before were very glad to reunite with old friends, while the people who are here for their first time were able to meet everyone.
Everyone worked hard and was very productive. The team unloaded all the suitcases they brought, inventoried the medical supplies and medicine and put everything away. The team members working on preparations for the Christmas party sorted all the clothes, toys, and shoes by age and gender and put together gift bags for every child in the program. Every child will also recieve a barbie and a soccer ball, so the team blew up hundreds of soccer balls after making all the gift bags. The team members doing construction did lots of digging, as they are starting the foundation of the next house in Blanchard. The nurse and nurse's aid worked hard in the clinic today, helping out in the triage, emergency room, wound care, and seeing patients.

Team arrives in Haiti

This evening the team arrived safely in Haiti, along with over 50 suitcases of children's gifts, food, and supplies for the sponsorship Christmas Party, medicine, and medical supplies. This team will be doing various construction projects, working in the clinic, and holding our annual sponsorship Christmas parties on Saturday and Sunday. The team had dinner, an introduction meeting, and went to bed early after a long day's travel so they can be ready for a busy week.

Graduations

Yesterday two of our English students graduated from a one-year nursing program here in San Antonio. They are both continuing their education through our new Higher Education Sponsorship Program. Santos will be studying education and Leybi will continue with her nursing degree. We are very proud of both of them. 

Leybi

Santos

 

Happy Thanksgiving

All of us at Partners in Development
are thankful for all of our donors, volunteers, interns and staff ( here and abroad) that work so hard to change the lives of the poorest of the poor.

Going home

The last few hours in Haiti are always sad, happy, hectic and we laugh a lot.

Sad because it is good bye to the team you just worked with and good bye to the Haitian staff who are like family. Sad because we couldn't solve all the problems.

Happy because we know we have made new friends. Happy because
We know we will see each other again.
Happy because we have helped many sick patients and very malnourished kids. Happy that we will soon have no mosquitoes and will have hot showers.

Hectic because everyone waits until the very last two hours to meet with me to ask for loans, houses, scholarships, kids to get in to the program, and anyone else who happens to think of something.

We laugh at what we have accomplished and what we haven't.
At how much time we spent at the bank getting a new account. We laugh
As we plan the work for the next team and how the Americans can do wood
But only the Haitians can do tin.

Another good week in Haiti. It will be nice to be home for Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for.

Now THAT'S a bird!

Doing some Thanksgiving preparations! All of the PID Guatemala staff will be coming together on Thursday for a Día de Acción de Gracias celebration. Can't wait! Last week we made all of the Christmas cards that will be sent out to sponsors. They are beautiful! We are also in search of a Santa suit for the Christmas party... Sergio?

-Shelby

Our day off in Haiti

Today some of the group attended church , while others inventoried and clean the pharmacy.

We went out for lunch, which was a welcome change from the peanut butter and jelly standard PID lunch.

We had planned a trip to the National
Museum but changed the planned because of student protests close to the museum. Instead we shopped
for new plates, cups, silverware and containers . The taptap we were on had starter problems so three times we had to push it to jump start it. Can't wait til we have our bus back.

On return we finished inventorying the pharmacy and medical supplies. I made vegetarian chili and fruit salad.
After dinner everyone finished their jobs and went to bed to get rested for there last day at the clinic. I have some paperwork to do and then I am off to sleep . Tomorrow we are expecting a family of 8 with fevers first thing in the morning.

The Deaf Camp

Today we went to the deaf camp.
Melissa, Ken and Julie taught 10 of the people how to use a first aid kit and how to take care of different kinds of emergencies. We had a great time.

We will return again early next year
to do a midwife training . They are so excited. We then went to the beach for some rest. It is 7:47 and everyone
Wants sleep. It is going to be an early night.

A very hard day at the clinic

More and more children are coming into the clinic severely malnourished. Today Kelly almost cried as the tiny 14 month old, who weighs 11 pounds can back weighing less than yesterday. Se worked on her all day to try to get milk in her and at the end of it all the baby threw it up. At that point it was decided to send her to a hospital , but of course there was no room. Medishared said they were over there limit but Pouchon said that once they saw this little girl they said they would make room.

In the same room a little baby girl lay there with an IV in her arm , also classified as severely  malnourished. I left the room only to enter the social service room where Lizzy was splitting up cans of formula so we could send each of the new emergency kids home with three days of formula. It was really overwhelming. Outside our 45 lb, 15 year old was in the feeding program with the rest of the kids. The kids looked thin but next to her they no longer looked thin.

The one thing that made me smile on this very hard day was when I looked out the window and saw Samuel 1, with one of the tiny girls in the feeding program . He is a big man and in his arms he held a little girl and he was carefully feeding her the peanut butter mix, with a big smile on this face. Later he came into the office holding another of his other peanut butter program girls and said, "Look at her , isn't she beautiful, she is going to make it. "

It is hard for me to explain to others what a joy it is to see a child who will die , make it because of all the hard work of PID. But the smile on Samuel's face as he held this little girl expressed it better than I could ever say it.

Malnourished Child in Haiti Receiving Milk

A nice day for a visit

Today , some old friends of PID , came to visit . They last time they were here was two and three years ago. They were surprised at how much we had grown and how the clinic had grown.
We had a wonderful lunch together
And said good- bye. The clinic group
Saw sick people, prenatal people and still more hungry kids. It is clearly a trend , as we put more and more kids
Into the feeding program. Jn Ones had small business classes. We had a dept head meeting. We looked at a new tool for giving vaccinations without a needle. We decided what improvements we had to make for the
MSPP. Tonight Pouchon bought a new stove as the old one was getting bad and the next team needs to make brownies for 400 kids. Popcorn too!

First day of work

Today we saw a hundred plus people at the clinic. It was a sad day for me as we saw a severely malnourished , young girl. There were a lot of hungry kids today, and many people trying to get in the program. Seems like while some things are getting better- the price food is rising and there are fewer jobs. It reminded me once more why PID works so hard to help.

Team arrives safely

The team all arrived on time . We had
Our first medical orientation meeting using our new guidelines and it went well. Tomorrow the team will begin in the clinic. It is raining tonight, but the weather is beautiful.

Off to Haiti

I am off to the airport in 5 hours. It will be to
Haiti. We have so much work to do as we get ready for our new initiative
At Canaan in Haiti. We hope by Jan to have all new housing built on the mountain.

The start of another week

Here we are in Guatemala starting another week. Since last Wednesday's earthquake there have been some other small tremors. The most recent was last night around midnight. But thankfully no big damage has been done in our area of Guatemala.

Last week we distributed the monthly food for the children in our child sponsorship program. Each child also tried on a pair of shoes that we will be buying them for Christmas. It was a little bit crazy but Shelby had the help of Brenda, Estefany and Sofia (three of the leaders) to assist in the shoe-sizing process.

We scheduled our Christmas party for the children on December 7th. So now Shelby and I are busy putting together all the details.

Here are all the leaders that worked at the November VBS in Desierto

The results of the Fundraiser

This year we tried a new format for Annual Fundraiser. Instead of dinner- it was appetizers and small plates. There was still plenty to eat. The hard part was that we removed a lot of the tables and seating so people could mingle More, which they did. But during the speeches it was rough. While we are still waiting for a few more checks to come it , it appears that we will raise Between 40-44,000 after expenses.
We were excited to raise this much.
This is about one fifth of what we need to fund the clinic in Haiti. It was a great effort
By all of those who planned and work Sat night. Next year will bring some
New changes and hopefully more seats. Thank you to everyone for their generosity .

Annual Fundraiser Tonight

If you haven't bought your tickets you can still come . It is 6-10 tonight at Nichelson Hall in Newburyport.

End to a great week

Today was the team's last day of work. Dr.Tamara held another class for a second group of sickle cell patients. There were 11 attendees today. Everyone who hadn't yet officially entered into our new sickle cell program received red cards and appointments to return in a month to be seen by Dr. Sem. Nurse GeJuan continued to work hard in the emergency room. Yesterday she made an emergency trip with Pouchon with a 3-day old baby with a high fever to Medishare. Jimmy has been helping out by doing some data entry for us here at the clinic.
Mr. Genois came by this evening to thank the small group for their huge help. He thanked them for their love that they show towards the Haitian people when they give up their time to come here and work so hard. He reminded them how important health is and how valuable the work is that they are doing.

Dr. Tamara and nurse GeJuan have been working very hard in the clinic this week. They saw 80 patients their first day and 60 their second. Today, in addition to seeing patients, Tamara held a class for her patients with sickle cell. She had about 15 attendees. She i now gearing up for pregnancy day tomorrow.

Jimmy has been continuing some of his lessons with some of the kids he was working with while he was interning here over the summer. He has also been helping out with a few other tasks around PID.

Yesterday, we picked up the little girl who had the surgery from the hospital. Everything went smoothly, and she was smiling. We dropped her off with her family back to the tent camp in Damien where she lives to recover.

On Monday and Tuesday the sponsorship kids and parents came to pick up their money for the month. Mr. Genois and Isabelle are passing the message out to all the kids in the program about the big PID sponsorship Chrismas party which will happen next month.

Earthquake Wednesday

Yes, there was indeed a 7.5M earthquake that shook Guatemala earlier today. We did feel it here in the clinic, but no damage was done. It was the biggest one that I have ever felt while down here and it lasted a long time. Once the ground stopped shaking we went back into the clinic and proceeded to continue on with our day.

In other news tomorrow is Child Sponsorship distribution day. The kids will also be trying on shoes that we will then be buying them for Christmas. We have samples of each size so that we can be sure that we are buying the correct size.

Last night I uploaded some pictures from last week's team to PID's Facebook page:
November 2012 Team in Guatemala

Back to the Norm

VBS in Desierto was a success! We finished off the week with a fiesta for all the kids and their parents. With 2 clowns, some face-paint, a couple hundred hotdogs, and lots of smiles, the week came to an end. Many parents expressed how grateful they were for the program and the kids were full of hugs to give.

On Saturday we took the team to Antigua for a little bit of shopping and a lot of eating. Afterwards we brought them to a hotel near the airport and said our final goodbyes. They were a great group to work with. Thank you team!! 

Back to work for us! I am continuing my battle with the PPI and we are getting ready for our monthly child sponsorship distribution day. 

Here's a photo I took from a viewing spot above Antigua. 

-Shelby

Sunday at the warehouse

I ( Gale) arrived home at 2 in the morning. Thankfully there were no delays and all went smoothly.

Last night members from my Church
Came to work at the warehouse.
We got so much done. From sorting
And bagging clothes and shoes, to inventorying and shelving meds, packing meds supplies for me to take to a Maine medical recycling place, sorting soap and hauling away the recycled material and trash, the group worked non stop. Some promised to come back to pack. It was fun. Let us know if you would like to volunteer at the warehouse.

Team arrives in Haiti

Yesterday,  Dr.Tamara, nurse GeJuan, and Jimmy arrived safely here in Haiti. They brought lots of donations of medical supplies and we spent a good portion of yesterday sorting, counting, and getting inventory. Today the team went to the beach to get some relaxation and some sun in before a busy week of work starting tomorrow.
Today I brought the little girl from the tent camp in Damien to the hospital where she will be having surgery for a hernia. She is scheduled to operate tomorrow.

Lion Puppets and Safe Birthing Kits

Yesterday at VBS went smoother than the first day! The leaders are doing a great job setting an example and helping the kids from Desierto. The craft for the day was lion puppets and the kids had a blast!

The clinic staff was treated to lunch Dr. Sonia (who came down in June) and afterwards we discussed the prenatal program with our Guatemalan doctor Angélica. Then Susan and Michele taught us how to use the safe birthing kits so that we can then teach the women who need to use them. We are really hoping to save a lot of lives with these simple kits.

The whole team went out for dinner last night and some of us did a little dancing. It was a fun night.