Photos of Haiti

Photo 1: The vet trainees with their certificates at the end of the training on Friday.

Photo 2, 3, 4: Earthquake damage. Vertical cracks are least concerning. Horizontal cracks are bad & “X” cracks are the worst. Several houses had missing walls or leaned, others slid off their foundations and others were reduced to rubble. Many walls fell also. Leaving houses vulnerable to thieves.

Photo 5: Earthquake cleanup. A lot is done with sledge hammers and buckets. Ree Bar is salvaged and can be resold.

Photo 6: CVM helped to distribute tarps to provide temporary houses for people. Other groups gave out tents. Many parks and empty spaces are now full of these tent cities.

Kelly’s friends, “family” & workers:

Photo 7: Judeline, Poppy & Mackenlove

Photo 8: Kelly & Ronald

Photo 9: Workers and “family” at the vet training center

 

Haiti visit post training

Yesterday Kelly gave Crystal and I a tour of downtown Port-au-Prince. It was neat to see. Amazing to see collapsed houses sometimes just next door to a standing one. Others were leaning and yet others had large cracks. She showed us that the houses are being inspected. If they have a green mark then they are good and stable, yellow means that they need some repairs to be stable and red means that the house is condemned and not liveable. She told us lots of stories of people lost, trapped or dying. Somehow everything revolves around the earthquake, and some buildings look war-torn from the earthquake. Many parks and even the palace have been overtaken by tent cities. Amazing.

 

At noon, Crystal went to the airport and Kelly and I had lunch at a cool bakery/café. We had an amazing steak sandwich and fries. Yumm. Then I moved over to Kelly’s house for the remainder of my time. In her house she has a teenage girl, Judeline living with her, a gal with a baby and a caretaker of the baby. It is a relatively organized circus here.

 

Kelly’s next short-termer, a vet student from Wisconsin arrived today. Tomorrow he & I will be going out with Keith Flanagan to deliver some supplies out to the valley—the cholera affected area. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the Haitian countryside.

 

Hurricane Tomas is coming towards Haiti area. I fly out on Tuesday noon…a little before the hurricane is forecast to be sweeping past. Pray for me that it won’t affect my flight. Pray for Haiti. Lots of people are living in tents. Can’t imagine that tents and hurricanes mix well. The latest forecast shows that it may hit Haiti harder than previously expected.

 

I’ll try to post some photos later.

 

 

Haiti vet training day 5

Photo 1: Yesterday’s 1^st surgery pup and I.

Photo 2: Lenor and Michelete doing surgery. Garmy doing anesthesia. My surgery trainees. (Who knew coaching surgery could be so tiring!)

Photo 3: Surgery pup 1 in the left front. Surgery pup 2 on the leash with my guys and our translator, Nathan.

Photo 4: Examining today’s sick pup.

Photo 5: Giving fluids to the pup.

 

Today was the last day of the training. It went different than  planned, but went well. There were 3 dogs slated for surgery, but it ended up that 2 out of 3 were too sick to do surgery on. So instead of surgical cases they became medical cases. The trainees still gave the exams, fluids, and medicines and got to learn that sometimes animals aren’t good candidates for surgery. We finished early and gave out the certificates. Everyone seemed quite happy with what they had learned. They certainly grew in their skills. It was neat to see that happen before my eyes.

 

Tonight I am staying at Keith and Jan’s house. I have a beautiful bedroom with a balcony and a “princess” bed (mosquito net covered bed.) It has been a tiring week, but well worth my time here. I am looking forward to spending the next few days with Kelly & Keith & Jan and seeing more of their lives here. Crystal will leave tomorrow, and the CVM team here gets another short-termer, Pat on Saturday. I look forward to meeting him after helping get him set to come from the office.

 

Pray for those Crystal as she travels home tomorrow and for me as I try to help out and encourage here.

Haiti Training Day 4

Today was exhausting, but good. Today I got to watch and coach while the Haitian trainees did surgery. The first surgeon, Lenor did surgery with about as much precision and delicacy as cow surgery—this led to some troubles, but also some teaching opportunities. The second surgeon, Michelet did good and was much more gentle. He was nervous but did great and I didn’t even have to jump in to help them. It is amazing to see the amount of skill that they have gained in just 24 hours. Tomorrow is the last practice day for them, and I think that Germy will do a great job.

 

I’ve also enjoyed getting to know the other trainers. It is neat to see how they were brought here to this place for us to all work together. It’s also been a treat to have devotions together with Kelly and Crystal each night…learning from the Word, hearing what God is doing in each of their lives.

 

Pray that our last day of training goes well!

RE: Haiti Vet Training Day 3

Photo 1: Today was surgery day. It started out by picking up 7 dogs (3 female & 4 male) from the village that Kelly works in. (The fellow pictured helped us collect the dogs and is the director of the new school that Kelly will be working with for her “Give a Kid to a Kid program”.

 

Photo 2: Here’s my favorite pup that we picked up. She was so sweet! (Can I keep her mom?!?) Crystal did her spay surgery today with her 4 trainees.

 

Photo 3: This is my surgery dog, that we nicknamed “Whitey” or “Blan” (White in Creole).

 

Photo 4: Here is my surgery team waiting for Blan to go to sleep. My trainees were Rodney (my assistant surgeon), Lenor (anesthetist), Michelet (monitor) and Garmy (recorder).

 

Photo 5: Putting in an iv cather with one of the HSI vet techs. Lenor put the catheter in on the first try—Way to go!

 

Photo 6: Blan drowsy after surgery. There are no surgery pictures because my hands were preoccupied. She was in heat and so the surgery was tougher than normal. But we got through it well!

 

Photo 7: Kelly resting with one of her post op patients. We were all tired after a good, successful day of training!

 

Haiti Vet Training Day 3

Today was surgery day. It started out by picking up 7 dogs (3 female & 4 male) from the village that Kelly works in. (The fellow pictured helped us collect the dogs and is the director of the new school that Kelly will be working with for her “Give a Kid to a Kid program”.

 

Here’s my favorite pup that we picked up. She was so sweet! (Can I keep her mom?!?) Crystal did her spay surgery today with her 4 trainees.

This is my surgery dog, that we nicknamed “Whitey” or “Blan” (White in Creole).

Here is my surgery team waiting for Blan to go to sleep. My trainees were Rodney (my assistant surgeon), Lenor (anesthetist), Michelet (monitor) and Garmy (recorder).

Putting in an iv cather with one of the HSI vet techs. Lenor put the catheter in on the first try—Way to go!

 

Blan drowsy after surgery. There are no surgery pictures because my hands were preoccupied. She was in heat and so the surgery was tougher than normal. But we got through it well!

Kelly resting with one of her post op patients. We were all tired after a good, successful day of training!

Day 2 Haiti training

Photo 1: Dr. Barry demonstrates a surgical ligature on Dr. Kelly.

Photo 2: One of the vet trainees practices suturing.

Photo 3: Vet trainees listen to a lecture on placing a catheter. Later they practiced with fake dog legs made of pvc pipe, iv line (as a vein) and fuzzy material. We hold the training in the breezeway instead of a meeting room because there is a wonderful, comfortable breeze. It is definitely warm here!

We have had 2 days of lecture and practicals to prepare for surgery. Tomorrow will be the first day that we do some dog spays. Pray that it goes well. We have 4 vets and we will have 3 or 4 surgeries going at once and 2 translators. It very well could be a 3 ring circus! Pray also that Kelly’s contacts come through for providing dogs for the surgeries. We have to go pick them up in the morning. I’m hoping that we won’t have any dog rodeos just to catch them!

I’ve also gotten to learn more about the big picture for our trainings. The veterinary infrastructure is lacking here, and there is a need for skilled & equipped veterinarians. CVM (Kelly Crowdis & Keith Flanagan) has had a series of training for this group of veterinarians to equip them in veterinary skills. (They are from different surrounding areas.) These trainings help them to be more effective vets in order to serve the communities better.

 

 

Day 1 of Haiti Vet Training

Today was the first day of the Haiti training. It went well. Here are some photos.

1.       Dr. Kelly, Me & Dr. Crystal

2.       HSI (Humane Soc Intl) teachers Kelly (vet tech) & Dr. Barry demonstrating dog restraint with little Poppy.

3.       Haitian trainees practicing surgical gloving (the trainees are Haitian vets who were trained in Haiti).

The Haitians are eager to learn and I am enjoying learning a few words of Creole.

 

It is hot here, and I miss the Ethiopian coolness! It reminds me a lot of Ethiopia! The big exception is that Haiti is still recovering from the January earthquake. After our surgery training finished today. Kelly took us out to a tent camp. There are large settlements of people living in tents spaced from 0-3 feet apart. These people were all displaced as a result of the earthquake. (Many people’s homes are destroyed, and even some still standing are not very stable.)

 

 

Haiti bound

I have my plane ticket! And I am in the midst of packing. I will leave tonight (Saturday) at 10:30 PM, sleep on the plane, get up in Miami and then fly into Port au Prince at 10:50 AM Sunday morning. It is quite unbelievable to me that you can get to a third world country overnight! Another vet, Crystal (a September new graduate from Ross Univ.) will be the second vet that I will meet up with. Crystal has been on a couple of CVM trips before. Once we arrive, Kelly Crowdis will be picking us up and getting us settled.

On Monday the surgery training with the Humane Society International will begin (in Port au Prince). We will be teaching 15 Haitian vets. An HSI tech and vet will also be there. During the training Crystal & I will be staying at the training center so that we can connect better with the trainees. Crystal and I will be helping to demonstrate and show the surgeries and we will each have a translator. Crystal will be returning on Saturday and I'll get to stay until Tuesday (Nov 2) to stay with Kelly and see more of her life and hopefully be an encouragement to her. 

Pray for Crystal and I that we have safe travel. Neither of us are quite sure what to expect once we get there. I have heard that the impact of the January earthquake is still very evident in Port au Prince.  Pray that we would be effective in our teaching and have good relations with the other trainers and with the trainees, and that we would be a good witness to them through our actions and words. Lastly pray that we would be an encouragement to Kelly. Also lift up the cholera epidemic that is hitting part of Haiti. It is not in the area where I will visit, but I am hoping that it won't spread to the capital city.  

I should be able to have some internet access, so I hope to be able to post to my blog while I am there.

Have Passport will Travel (to Haiti)



I'm going to Haiti! I should go next Sunday and be there for 1-1.5 weeks.



Can I come too? I can help!



On Thursday my friend Kelly, who works with CVM in Haiti, requested a vet to come to help with a surgical training. A group of Haitian veterinarians will be trained in spay and neuter surgeries. It is a training put on by a partner organization, and the vet scheduled to come fell through. Kelly requested one or two vets to come and help with the training. After praying about it and getting a go-ahead from my office I offered to go. I'm excited! Kelly came and visited me in Ethiopia for 6 weeks in 2009 and so now I am thrilled to get to go and visit her home. And an extra bonus is that my expenses are paid for this trip by the partner organization.



Kelly & I in Ethiopia last year





I and another girl will be going together to help with the training. Pray as I pack and prepare this week. More details to come later.



You can see Kelly's blog at http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/