Beth Bard, Amy Beer, Tom Slater, and I are here at Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti. It's the third trip for Beth, the second for Amy, and the fourth for Tom and I (in 14 months). We're down here for a 2-week stint to do orthopaedic surgery for indigent patients in Haiti. We feel excited to be back among old friends -Haitian and American - fortunate to have the opportunity to do what we love, tired after getting up this morning at 3am, and of course, despite the banter and lightheartedness, aware of why we're here, and how badly people down here really need a helping hand. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid and countless man- and woman-hours of human work, all it takes is a look around us in Port-au-Prince to realize that there's still a lot of rubble, a lot of people still living in tent cities, and a traffic system and infrastructure that still encourages a lot of road traffic accidents. We're here to work, to fix broken bones, to help some people out.
Our preparations for this trip began, as usual, with several months of collecting supplies. Tom's new job as Tissue Recovery Coordinator (TRC) at LifeSource has proved very helpful, as evidenced by the volume of spare/excess gowns, gloves, sterile OR packs, and prep kids, as well as by the low back pain we've all developed today schlepping this stuff around. We've also got to put in a great word for everyone back home at HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center) who pitched into donate extra items from the OR. Speaking of Hennepin, this might be a good time to say that despite being "Hennepin to Haiti," until Paige and Chris join us next week, right now I'm the only one left from HCMC in the current group, although it remains the common factor among all 4 of us. Tom used to be surgical tech extraordinaire there until lured away by the promise of being a surgeon to the deceased (and a hope for the living); Amy rotated through here for a stint back when she was in anesthesia school but now works at Methodist; and Beth is a medical student at the University of Minnesota, and about to embark on a year studying and practicing medicine abroad! Haiti is simply her first step in a journey that will include Sweden, India, and Uganda. The next step was, as usual, a fundraiser. Previous themes were Help us Help you Help Us Help Haiti, Halloween for Haiti, 80's for Haiti, and for this trip, Haiti-Five-O. Most of you reading this were probably there and we do want to thank you for your moral support in showing up and having fun - yeah, I know it was hard - as well as your financial support, whether it be the loose change between your car seats as you frantically looked for something to donate, or whether it be the many generous large checks. (p.s. you can now write checks to Project Ortho and we're currently applying for 501c3 status.)
I almost didn't make it down here today. The ticketing agent at MSP apparently took issue with the "water damage" on my passport as evidenced by small blue dots, and instructed me to go to the local passport office tomorrow, get a new one, and get back on the first flight out on Tuesday (the day after tomorrow). Fortunately we run into a group of eight volunteers from Children's Surgery International, and a friend of mine, Peter Melchert, pep talks us into going back and at least getting down to Miami and if they won't accept my passport to get checked in there, well then deal with that then. Fortunately it all worked out! Turns out the "water damage" wasn't really that big of a deal, at least by the customs officials here ... though it apparently wouldn't hold water (hahaha) in Costa Rica or Bolivia.
As soon as we hit the ground in Port-au-Prince and step out of the arrival terminal to board the bus to the customs building (looks like a huge Costco warehouse btw), Tom and Beth immediately start engaging in an inadvertent Sweat-Off. The battle is still raging on but I've got $10 on Tom to out-sweat Beth by the end of round One. Luckily Tom's brought along 12 bandanas to stave off sweat, bugs, and spittle from excited co-workers.
One interesting change I've noticed this time is ... now hold onto your seats ... Tom's brought down absolutely NO beef jerky! Tom says it's in an effort to prevent the cankles we all got the last two trips by decreasing salt intake. I think that makes just perfect sense, so we'll see how that works ... though of course it doesn't explain him devouring - no, the word is punishing - a large serving of Chef-Boy-ar-dee Beef Ravioli. Just in case he goes thru Jack's Link withdrawls, I did bring him an emergency supply of two bags (see photo and the look of sheer pleasure on Tom's face).
At any rate, as we were talking about before, we all feel like we're kind of returning home here. Besides our fearless leaders Nathan and Amy, who are a couple from Loma Linda who've dedicated two years of their lives to running this place, we'refortunate to have many good friends here, both American and Haitian. We meet our luggage handler, Robert, at the airport, and are picked up by Richard, who's the driver for the hospital and welcomes us each with a warm (albeit sweaty, but no more so than we) embrace. After driving a half hour west to Carrefour, dodging potholes, stray dogs, and intrepid pedestrians scurrying away always just in the nick of time, we arrive at Adventiste. As we unload, bring our bags up to the converted patient ward where we sleep communally on army cots, amd unpack, we run the gauntlet of the long-term American volunteers, Haitian security personnel, and OR instrument room people downstairs. We finally plop down to rapidly stuff our faces with peanut butter sandwiches, instant ramen, mac 'n cheese, and of course Tom's ravioli, and unwind and talk about the day and prepare for hitting the ground running tomorrow. It's good to be back!
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