The view flying over the Mountains, the airstrip at Jacmel, Outside Isaiah House and the beauty of Bassin Bleu

CCH Haiti

Our work begins!

     Come Monday morning our adventure with helping the people of Haiti began. Having experience in recovery my role the first three days was to recover patients post surgery. Having read up before our trip and having life experience there are many things in Haiti I expected; the heat, the poverty and the limited access to health care. What I wasn't neccessarily expecting was the overwhelming gratitude and appreciation of those it was my pleasure to serve in response to our help. The Haitian people I cared for and their families were so gracious and expressive of their appreciation it was warming to the heart. What I recieved from them was way more than what I gave; a sense of purpose, an appreciation for our health care system and gratitude for the abundance of blessings I have in my life. I also noted how important the family is in Haiti, their dependence upon one another and their willingness to care for each other. I am lucky to have strong family support, but I am witness too often in this country that many in this country do not share that blessing, it was a pleasure to witness the dedication and care they afforded to their loved ones. Life seems simpler, the concerns are more centered in making sure you have food and clean water, no taking up time with TV and video games. I appreciate the simplicity but understand that there are struggles there also.

      Our adventure to Haiti began in June, it was then we signed up and waited with anticipation for the plans  to unfold and our adventure to begin. Through several meetings we caught just a small glimpse of what was to come. We left on Friday October 24th from BWI and flew into Ft Lauderdale for a brief, and yes I mean very brief overnight stay to head out at 310 am on October 25th to catch our shuttle and arrive at the airport to ensure we caught our flight to Port au Prince. We traveled by shuttle from Port au prince to a smaller airstrip for our flight via prop plane to the airport in Jacmel. The 12 minute flight was in lieu of a 3-4 hour busride through the mountains. We had to weigh in our luggage and ourselves as to not excede the weight limit on our plane. The view from the plane was nothing short of magnificent with us arrriving at the single runway airport in the city of Jacmel. After arrival we then were transported via truck to Isaiah 61 House. There are no traffic rules as far as I can tell, and there is only one traffic light in the city of Jacmel. The primary mode of trasportation appears to be via motorcycle or moped, I am amazed to pass a family of 4 on one motor bike. Isaih house is a mission house run by the Community Coalition for Haiti and will become our home for the next week. It is here at Isaiah house that we are introduced to the rest of the group that we will be working with for the next week. We then go to the clinic in which we will working a significant amount of our time in the following week. We spent some time observing and participating when able while the doctors saw patients they would be operating on during our week in Haiti. After clinic we return to Isaiah House for dinner, my first experience with eating goat that I know of, and I liked it! I retired early after a cold but pleasant shower. I woke at 230 am refreshed and happy to see I could go back to bed for another 4 hours.
     Sunday am we woke up early to ready for church, I attended a baptist service, and during the service we were welcomed in English for our presence there. The service was lively and well attended. After church it was back to Isaiah house for breakfast and then a drive into the hills above Jacmel to Bassin Bleu. We hiked to the water which made the swim delightfully refreshing as we were not accustomed to the heat while standing still, yet alone hiking. Our guides accompanied us along the way guiding us so as not to slip while traversing the rocks and water and then took our picture with our phones and cameras. I think I have a hundred pictures thanks to my guide Junior and I think he may have been the conservative one in the crowd. The Water was crystal clear with a waterfall, many climbed rocks to jump into the water. After the cooldown we hiked back to the truck for the ride down the hill, passing life around the river and back in the town to return to Isaiah house and lunch. After lunch we went to tour Saint-Michel Hospital. We were met by Dr. Antoine when we arrived and given a background of the devastation that occured in 2010, he would act as our guide while at Saint-Michel. Dr Antoine is engaging and makes us feel at home, he gives us background on Larry Walker and their initial encounter after the earthquake. The earthquake of 2010 half-collapsed the hospital, including the maternity ward. What stuck out to me on our tour besides the more than humble circumstance and conditions in which medicine is practiced was the complete prescence of family support. At Saint-Michel the family is responsible for tasks such as bathing and bringing meals to their family member, the hospital does not provide these services. The patient's are in open wards in close proximity, privacy is not to be had. The experience enforces a fact that I am already aware of, we are lucky and priviledged in this country for our access to quality health care, it is a blessing I hope I will not take for granted. After our tour of Saint-Michel we then get an opputunity to go to the waterfront and see the beach, we encounter several men selling local art and wares. I use my bartering skills and acquire 2 my first two pieces of Haitian art. After the beach we return to Isaiah house to shower to go to Hotel-Restaurant Cyvadier Plage for an oppurtunity to purchase some more art and souveniers if desired and then drinks and dinner. Dinner is buffet style and delicious, my favorite is the conch which is cooked in a sauce which I ate over rice. After dinner we once again return to Issaih house, I feel like I have experienced so much and yet the workweek has not even begun.

WATER

While in Haiti I'm surrounded by beautiful Caribbean water. We traveled, hiked the hillside, and swam at the Bassin Bleu lagoon. Haiti's drinking water causes cholera, infectious diseases, and even death. During our community mission here with my classmates we have visited the public hospital, CCH clinic, I became a scrub nurse in the operating room and today travel 55 minutes in a tap-tap up a bumpy  hilltop to do a pediatric neurology clinic. I've made the connection between how beautiful Haiti is with all the surrounding water but limited when it comes to drinking.

Water is limited and only cold. We can only drink water from the hotel or clinic because it is unsafe. Haitian's bathe their bodies and clean their vehicles together in the dirty river basin.

Aroma in the air such as smoke, food cooking, dirt, diesel fumes, animal poo, trash and a brief smell of flowers.

Trash is thrown in the streets. There are no recycle bins or trash cans. Large trash disposal is thrown in the river bank. Temperature is hot and humid. There are no air conditioners, only fans blowing hot air.

Emotional feelings up and down. Excitement in helping the Haitians, sadness observing the poor, malnourished and very tiny infants. Flies lying on the ill patients' skin -- and this is normal for them.

Recovery to Haiti is very slow. You don't see contractors rebuilding the demolished buildings. Recovery here is much needed. Missionary work is gratefully received and the only ones I saw helping rebuild Haiti.

Lisa Harker

RN-BSN program

Excited and nervous!

I cannot believe Friday is almost here. I am nervous to leave my children who are 4, 8, & 13 years old, but they are in good hands with my husband. I already miss them just thinking about it!

I am in the RN to BSN program at ND & graduate in December. Experiencing Haiti will be an exciting end to this journey :-)  While working on my AA degree, I was lucky enough to experience southern England with a group of students for my Nursing Practicum. Now I get to experience Community Health Nursing in Haiti!  I am very blessed.

Since 1992, I have been an RN & have worked the past 18+ years at Johns Hopkins Bayview Med. Ctr. I worked in Neuro ICU until one year ago when I moved to ambulatory surgery. I was emotionally drained suffering from burnout syndrome. I almost left the nursing field altogether, but held strong to “try” a different unit. I miss neuro, but have no regrets & wished I would have listened to my heart sooner. 

I have always envied those who have done missionary work & finally doing it too, thanks to Notre Dame SON & CCH!  Since reading Tracy Kidder's book about Dr. Paul Farmer, I am in awe of everything he has accomplished in Haiti and all over the world.  The work he has done with tuberculosis is amazing. By “simply” giving the patients a $5.00 monthly stipend for food has significantly increased the cure rate of TB. It reinforced to me the need for good nutrition to aid in the healing process.

Looking forward to future blogging ... :-)

Welcome to our journey....

Dear friends,

It is with a mixture of excitement and anticipation (mixed with a portion of fear and unknown) that I welcome you to this blog and our journey to Haiti. I am a faculty member from the School of Nursing at Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU), and I am thrilled to co-lead an upcoming trip to Jacmel, Haiti with my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Mary Packard. Along with 10 nursing students, we will be joining with the Community Coalition for Haiti (CCH) to offer live-giving medical care to persons living in the southern region of the country. We look forward to working with Dr. Wayne Reichman (Medical Director, CCH) and other medical professionals at the Jim Wilmot Surgical Center, Pazapa Center for Children with Special Needs, Angel Wings Orphanage, and the L'Universite Notre Dame d'Haiti nursing school.

We have been preparing for this trip for many months. In upcoming posts, the students with unfold their unique journeys leading them to go to Haiti, share experiences, interactions, and photos while we are in Jacmel, and offer continued reflections after our return . We welcome your thoughts and prayers as we begin our travels this Friday, October 24th and plan to return on Saturday, November 1st.

If you would like to join us, we welcome you to join us for a brief Commissioning Ceremony with the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the Marikle Chapel at NDMU this Friday at 1:30pm before we leave for the airport.

Thank you for your prayers and support,
Bethany Correlli