Haiti Day I

Haiti First day in country.

We arrived relatively uneventfully after leaving Ft. Lauderdale. We loitered at the Cap Haitien Airport for a little over an hour because all of our luggae had to be put on another flight or we would have had to land for fuel, As it’s a two hour flight, I am lead to wonder how big the fuel tank is.

The luggage arrived without incident and we were off to Living Hope Mission. The crowd was a bit more aggressive outside the airport than I remembered in past years, but nothing overly concerning.

We had hoped to see some of Pastor Julio’s refugees, but will have to wait for now. In the mean time, we took a ride/tour into Cap Haitien to see how things were and they we as awful as I recalled. Yet people seemed to be going about their lives. Meg tells us that despite the ready smile, the people are so very stressed. Not sure what’s going to happen next, unsure of their children’s futures, unsure about where the next meal even is going to come from.

The new team members are floored and I find myself more focused on their reactions, making sure everyone is processing things OK, They certainly seem to be. The team is a mixture of newcomers and vets and have blended pretty quickly. Maybe six hours in the country and they cut through the pharmacy phase(Selecting equipment and distributing meds for each of the sites.) with ease. Rob Coker divvied up antibiotics like a ginsu master, Rob Jones had his wound care materials set just as fast and the nursing team Carol, Loretta and xxxxx got everything else sectioned up before I could tell what the heck they were doing.

I think I most delighted however at how well my nephew is doing. He’s a complete stranger to medicine, but jumped at the opportunity to come and he’s showing a real affinity for digging in and helping where ever he can. He save the day once already with already dandy roll of duct tape earning himself a “McGuyver” props from the team.

It’s 9 minutes before we lose power for the night and though the night is mild in Haitan terms, It will still probably be hard to sleep tonight.