Last Day in Haiti



On Monday Pat & I rode with Keith as he went to visit people in the valley in the area of the cholera outbreak. Here Keith is giving chlorine for water treatment to one of the health agents in the area. One grain would treat 1 gallon of water.

 

The Artibonite River was the contaminated one bringing the cholera infection to the people. It is the largest river in Haiti.

While there we visited lots of people Keith had connections with. He treated any sick animals present. Here a little boy is bringing his goat for treatment.



Pat & Keith treating a goat.



I just couldn't leave a pig out of my trip blog from Haiti. Pigs are not kept for food in Ethiopia and so seeing pigs tied up and raised in Haiti was a treat for this Iowa farm girl! A lot of Keith's work has been spent on eradicating foreign swine diseases from Haiti.

On Tuesday morning Kelly brought me to the ocean so that I could put my feet in before leaving Haiti. The water was clear and beautiful.

A little girl at the ocean fishing. She caught a little fish just as we got there.

Pray for Haiti. Hundreds of tent cities exist that popped up after the earthquake. Pray that the Lord would calm the storm Tomas that is heading towards the southern peninsula. The missionaries have strong houses and are not in danger, but these tent-dwellers are super vulnerable.

Quote from Kelly's blog on Monday: "Please pray for Haiti as we face Tomas. The reports are better this morning as Tomas has weakened to a tropical storm. The discussion on the National Hurricane website say it will weaken for another 48 hours and then strengthen into a hurricane again and turn and come across the Southern part of Haiti. We REALLY don't need a hurricane. We had a freak windstorm a few weeks ago and it killed several in tents, a hurricane or even a tropical storm will really be bad. Please pray that Tomas will stay away. Not to worry though if it does come we will be safe. Our houses are strong and we have supplies on hand. It's the hundreds of thousands in tents that will not be ok."
Kelly's blog site:  http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/

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!