Random additions...

So there are a few more somewhat random things I thought I'd write tonight since I have time...

First of all, I got a report on Sara’s (the rehab doctor) wheelchair teaching session and it went very well! The students were extremely receptive and eager to learn. They did not want her to stop teaching at the end of the day. Education is a big part of what Healing Hands for Haiti does here, and this is a perfect example of how we try to enable the Haitian people through providing them with the knowledge to be more independent.

Secondly, I thought I'd let you know that we will be taking some of the wheelchairs to Mercy and Sharing orphanage as well as Food for the Poor orphanage tomorrow. We have identified some kids that will be perfect for them, which is very exciting. I am thrilled to be able to give them proper seating to make them even just a little bit more comfortable from day to day.

I am sitting outside right now listening to the sounds of Haiti. There is music (people singing) coming from the other side of the wall that surrounds the Healing Hands grounds. It is such a cool sound. It might be a voodoo ceremony or just entertainment on a Thursday night… I’m not sure. There is percussion too. I will definitely miss the noises here when I leave. They are so different from those at home.

So there’s this great spicy peanut butter here in Haiti. It’s really tasty and a bunch of us want to take some home with us when we leave. A couple of the prosthetists/orthotists spent the day at a local hospital and promised the rest of us that they would get the driver to stop to purchase some spicy peanut butter for everyone who wanted some. We all joked before they left that they wouldn’t have as many jars in stock as we wanted (which is what happened with the Prestige beer earlier in the trip – we tried to buy some and we were told that there is no Prestige in the whole country right now because there’s a carnival going on in Jacmel). Anyway, they were able to get 7 jars. So tomorrow night we plan on having a silent spicy peanut butter auction.

We are going to RAM tonight, a Haitian rock band. They play live every Thursday night here in Port-au-Prince and I was fortunate enough to see them last time I was here. It was great fun. It’s not rock music like American rock music… it’s cool Carribean type stuff that is really fun to listen to. It’s the lighter side of Haiti which is always good to see a little of along with the tougher stuff.

I heard a really great story of a patient that came into the clinic today. She was having severe back pain to the point that she could not lay down and cried every time she was touched. One of our physical therapists was able to deep massage the area that was the source of her pain and she walked out of the clinic feeling a ton better. It was a pretty good story.

When we focus on individual accomplishments (like the little Down’s Syndrome boy that got the wheelchair… or the lady whose pain was relieved immensely by the massage she got at the clinic… or the child who got to sit outside for part of the day because we insisted he could do it… or the little boy whose hands and body was tied to the chair and got to be free of his restraints for a couple hours while we were with him… or the patient that got the two prosthetic legs after having them severed in a traumatic accident with a car… or the three children who are being evaluated for hip surgery to help, etc.) I know we really have made a difference here in Haiti. This is why so many of us keep coming back here – we think of the individuals that would otherwise go unhelped. That’s enough to get me to continue getting up each day I am here and enough to inspire me to do more in the future. It’s like the starfish story… one of my all-time favorites.

Have a great night.

Erin (-: