Day 3 - Sick kids and oozing wounds :)

Hello from Haiti,

I think this is a conspiracy, my team voted to have me be the team blogger...say what??  I would like all of my family and friends to know how today was along with all of my teams family and friends and all of you HH Alum...Ke Bondye Beni'ou!!

Today was a very interesting day, we went to General Hospital in Port au Prince and visited with some very sick kids in their pediatric unit.  We stopped on our way to grab some water pouches and some snacks at the store.  We divided up the snacks in the top top which was kind of funny bouncing down the unpaved rock filled roads dodging other cars and trucks and people...you know all of you back in the states want some of that!!

Once we got to General Hospital we handed out our treats to the parents of these very sick little babies and then our team went into nurturing mode, one baby after another baby got picked up, held gently, rocked back and forth...and then there was me: My first baby I picked up screamed and screamed and so I put her down pretty quick and decided it was best to admire them from a distance and I actually really liked seeing all of my teammates interact with the kids and I was in awe at how those kids liked them and not me...I mean really? My peeps were so good with them though!! Jeff and Emmanuel hit up the guitar and began to sing and it wasn't long before they had the parents joining in which was awesome too...I also tried to sing and no babies cried during this for any of you who might think differently :)

After our time at the Hospital, we headed back to base camp (our guest house) and regrouped and had a layover before heading out to our next activities.  Our team split up and 3 of us went to Gertrudes Orphanage and the other 3 went to the home for sick children.  We (this is for Renee) (Colleen, Kathy and myself) were supposed to all help out at the wound clinic but the staff said that they only had room for 2 of us to go.  We rock paper scissored over it and Kathy lost, just kidding she didn't loose, she volunteered to stay behind and help out with the sick babies.  Colleen and I went to the wound clinic and we had no clue what to expect.  We were handed supplies and told to go to work.  There was over 30 people with injuries that needed attention waiting for us to start.  Every wound we seen was in pretty bad shape, some were full of gangrene, others full of infection and all of them were large and very painful looking.  What we didn't hear was any complaining about how much we hurt them.  They were all very thankful and pleasant but wow what an ordeal.  It was set up like a MASH station.  Very primitive ways in which to care for these wounds with basic first aid.  All of the pt's could use much more intensive treatments but none are available for many of them which is pretty sad.

We got brought back to the home for sick kids and found Kathy, she said she held many kids, fed many of them, helped change diapers and assisted the staff with other needs, she really enjoyed her time there too!! We had no ride come for us and a staff member got worried and had a gentleman walk us home...it was a great walk through the back channels of the neighborhood but it was a long walk the way they took.  Finally we got reunited and heard the other 3 had a blast singing and playing with the special needs kids at Gertrudes!! Jeff is finally feeling 100% and had a lot of fun singing everywhere we went and we enjoyed hearing him.  He is a very talented musician and he is a great leader for us!!

Have a good night all,

Matt Johnson