Haiti Day Seven

I decided to shower last night rather than post. Sorry. I'm only showering every three days so it’s a big deal.

Right now I'm sitting in a typical Haitian blokis (traffic jam) that won't go away anytime soon because this 4 lane two way main boulevard has just turned into a 4 lane one way nightmare. The best part is that we're right across from the main outdoor market and all the foods mixed with burning garbage combine for quite the sensory overload.

Yesterday I assisted Dr. Matt Huish for the second day at Miami's field hospital and we continued our rehab therapy with our same group of 25 patients. 7 of them have lost a limb, one is a 60 year old with two broken legs, one is a complete headache but we help her still because we love her, several have multiple fractures, and one guy is so weak that when we helped him walk with his crutches for about 20 yards he told me he was getting light headed and then proceeded to faint on me. Dr. Huish said it was a good thing he has someone to speak the language or he never would have known that was coming.
A quarter of the patients live outside of the actual hospital building in tents, two patients to a tent, and have to do their rehab in the burning sun. I spent the entire day encouraging some, aggressively convincing some of the stubborn ones, and telling all of them to not lose hope. The best part of the long day was towards the end when I'd been joking around with a group of the patients and an older gentleman came over and said thank you for the joking around because it lifts everyone's morale. That's all I needed to keep me going the rest of the day.

When we first arrived at the Univ. of Miami's hospital in the morning I spoke with a security guard from Delmas. He was a good looking intelligent kid who was about 21 years old and his name is Stanley. Stanley was only 1 year away from graduating with an education in statistics and was going to work for the government and be able to do some good. He is strong but humble. He has excellent ideas for changing the country and moving it forward. Unfortunately, now he won't be able to complete his studies because like so many other schools his was damaged and completely destroyed. The saddest part though was that he lost his best friend of 15 years in the earthquake. They were out in the street together and a wall fell on his friend and killed him instantly. He said what made it worse was that he couldn't bury him properly. Because of the magnitude of the devastation he was forced to bury his friend right there rather than having someone else come by and burn his body along with the hundreds of others. To see the sadness in his eyes as recounted the experience to me broke my heart. I asked him how hard it’s been without him and he told me that he can't ever be alone because he'll start to remember him. He thinks if him every day and every night. The loss here is unimaginable. I told a mother the other day that I don't know what I would do if I lost one of my boys. Thank goodness for the gospel.

Today was much if the same with a twist. About 20 of our team members came down with some heavy sicknesses. By the end of the day one person was flown to Miami, 12 were on IVs and the rest of us are praying that we don't get hit with it. I'm praying that I remain healthy. Thank you for your prayers. I was at General Hospital translating for an Army Lieutenant and a Doctors without borders doctor. Tomorrow I head to a new hospital downtown!
Love from Haiti.