Day 4: Food for the Poor and Hope for Life Children's Home

Hello everyone! Today was a great day again for everyone with a lot of amazing experiences. I was actually able to stay at the Guest House today, where we are staying, and helped hang pictures, signs, and hooks for the bathrooms. I even blew up a pool on the roof for the team to relax in tomorrow (the water is very slow here). It was nice to be able to help out the caregiver of the guest house, where they are so nice to us here! Because I was here at the guest house all day, I am unable to report on either trips the team experienced today, so I have asked Kristi and Amy to graciously write about their experiences today. 

    This is a picture of some maks I hung on the wall today!

Food for the Poor:

The second day of caregivers school at Food for the Poor was a huge success. We walked around and visited with the kids for a while then were treated to food and juice before starting class. Hailey taught Activities of Day Living, then Aislinn taught Fractures and Splinting. We were also able to bring along two HHH volunteers with us, Sasha from Belgium who read a story to help teach the kids about hand washing, and Bettina from Denmark who spoke briefly about occupational therapy and then worked with some of the workers with the children. After that, it was time for Carnaval!!

The kids donned donated costumes and the workers painted many of their faces while music played and everyone danced. We passed out masks donated by teammates and took lots of photos with the kids. Then we had a parade. They had decorated carts and a couple of children sat on each cart with a basket of candy or crackers or other little trinkets. As music played, we pushed the carts around the courtyard and up to the area where there were many children who have limited or no mobility. There the children on the carts tossed out their trinkets and we got a lot of big smiles as we danced through.

Before we left, we were fed again a wonderful meal and soda while music played in the background. The administrator and a couple of other workers eloquently and enthusiastically thanked us for coming and said they look forward to a full day of teaching tomorrow. Upon being thanked by us, Edouard, who seems to be the Carnaval ringleader, said that today was nothing and the best is yet to come. We can't wait to see what they have in store for us tomorrow, though Amy (the CGS director) is quite nervous they will trump our graduation ceremony for them.

This link is a video of their Carnival celebration they had for the kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LA_qZB4li4&feature=youtu.be

Hope for the Life Childerens Home:

Today we held the outreach clinic out in Leogane.  It turned out so well!  We were at the Hope for Life Children's Home but they had also invited the community to participate.  Hope for Life takes care of about 24 children.  Only a couple are true orphans and the rest come from families that can't take care of them.  Many have too many children to feed.  The Pastor does a good job of taking care of these children and helping teach them good values. I think what was so great about today's clinic was that the pastor had told everyone they would have to pay 5 gourdes (1 dollar=40 gourdes) to be seen. This added value and sacrifice to their experience and also weeded out the people that weren't actually sick. In the end they used the 5 gourdes to buy little bags of water to give to the patients to drink. The Pastor and Hannah, a missionary from Tennessee who spends all her free time at Hope for Life, had everything organized so well. The flow went smoothly and quickly and the people were so calm and orderly.  We treated 140 patients!!! I spent the day in registration taking names, vitals, and finding out chief complaints. From what I could tell, the nurses, practitioners, and pharmacists also had a smooth experience.  When the clinic was over, we spent some time playing with the kids and admiring/buying earrings they had made to raise money. Very successful day!!

Amy and Kristi had great experiences and the rest of the team did too! In our team meeting we talked about Meritocracy. Meritocracy is a term used to mean a society where people are rewarded on their merit, rather than the wealth or opportunities of the family they were born into. We met with a partner and talked about our circumstances growing up and to see if we came up short or beat the odds. It was an interesting conversation to see each side, and her people experiences growing up and where they are now. Thank you everyone for your support!

Words of the Day:

Hailey-Amanda

Tristyn- Vaginal Infection

Kirsti- Eye Kaka

Katie- Interior Design

Kathleen- Flow

Jeff- John Kerry

Amy- Parade

Brandon- Cement

Aislinn- Posé

Allison-Thermometer 

Jared- Amoxicillin

Jay- Lumbago

Jinil- Mistress  

Julie- Flies

Emily- Orleich

Sandy- Cooperation 

Joyce- Blood Pressure