Update from Sheryl Lucier, PA, from MOH:
Good evening from Team 9 MOH Haiti. We arrived late today, after getting in to San Juan at 3am!! But we were so glad to be at the mission. Lindsey gave us the tour of the compound at 3pm, so we are hoping for a good night sleep so we are ready for a busy clinic tomorrow. There seem to be an abundance of supplies….but a lot of organizing, inventorying needs to be done. There is no formulary, so we will just have to ask tomorrow to see what is available. There is a very small group here this week compared to past weeks…but more will arrive during the week.

The city of POP is much less congested as compared to before the earthquake, due to so many deaths, and people leaving the city to live in tents because they lost their homes or they are afraid to be inside them, or because that is where the food comes.

On Sunday afternoon the children from Hope House come to the guest compound to play ….so there are many children around tonight.

It is very hot and humid ….especially after leaving it snowing in Dallas after a 7 hour delay…first due to mechanical problems….then waiting in line for de-icing!!!!

Good night from MOH Team 9.

Dear Friends and Family,

I have safely returned from Haiti, and am so happy to see my family again. I have been spending the last couple of days with them.
The situation in Haiti remains dismal. The damage throughout the main city of Port au Prince is enormous. Current estimates are 230,000 dead, 300,000+ injured, and over a million are homeless and living in makeshift “tents”.
It is currently 2 1/2 months post quake. While the medical caseload is decreasing in acuity and severity, there is still lots of medical care needed. The 2 hospitals in Port au Prince were destroyed in the quake, so currently most of the medical care for the people of Haiti is provided by the tent and make-shift hospitals that have been established.

The destruction of the city is made worse by the lack of resources and infrastructure in Haiti. I could see no efforts at recovery while I was there. People were just living among the destruction. Kids were playing, and people bathing in rivers piled high with garbage and disease. As many of you know, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. On average, a Haitian must live on less than $2 per day.
Medically, only about half of Haitian children are vaccinated, and only 40% of Haitians have access to medical care. HIV infection is present in 5% of the population. 90% of children suffer from waterborne diseases or intestinal parasites.
Needless to say, there is still much, much to be done in Haiti.
The Texas Orthopedics/Hill Country Bible Church mission to Haiti is based at the Mission of Hope Haiti. (http://www.mohhaiti.org/) This is an incredible organization which seeks to give Hope to Haiti by educating the children, feeding the people and raising orphans to be future leaders in Haiti. Check out their website for complete info. It is amazing what this group is able to do normally in Haiti, not to mention what they have done since the Quake. They have different opportunities to donate to them if you so feel inclined, such as sponsoring a child’s education, or a general donation to fund their feeding of the people, or funding the medical clinic.
My life and perception of what is of value has been changed through my experiences in Haiti. The Haitians have nothing, no home, no money, and no foreseeable improvement in that situation, yet, they are happy, joyful people. The ladies sing hymns every morning while waiting in line to be seen in the clinic. They may wait hours to be seen, and are pleasant and happy to be seen, even after sitting with a toddler in the heat all day. Their faces may be tired and expressionless, but all it takes is a smile and a greeting of Bon Jou, and their faces light up, they smile and respond in kind.
Many have lost everything they have. Many young teens and kids are the only survivors of their families. Others, parents, have lost all of their children and spouses. There are hundreds of stories of these people, all of which will make you feel deep sorrow for them, and make you realize just how great we have it here.

Here is a link to some photos from Haiti. http://gallery.me.com/mattamyroberts#100303

I thank you to those who donated to my trip, and encourage you to help with this tragedy. I hope to return in the future to serve these people again.

Thanks,

Matt

Doesn’t it seem strange to burn fossil fuels to generate steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity and then send it via cables and transformers over large distances to eventually get to our homes when the sun is shining outside our door?

Of course it’s not very easy to generate electricity cheaply from solar power since solar cells are expensive because they are made from big silicon wafers. However, what is easy to do is to harness the energy from the suns rays. This makes more sense than using electricity that we get from solar power to produce heat.

To get the heat, we need a solar collector of some kind . This could be a panel, a double-glazed window, a vacuum tube or a mirror assembly.

The window is an easy option where a South-facing room gathers heat from the sun to warm that part of the house. The double-glazing provides little resistance to the incoming light but creates an insulating layer of air to retain the heat inside the room.

Solar water heaters often use panels for warming water. They are relatively straightforward to build and are uncomplicated in terms of technology. Basically, a pump circulates water that flows over the surface of the panel through a pipe that travels through a lagged water tank that contains the warm water for use by the family members .

More advanced systems use vacuum tubes that absorb solar energy and conduct this as heat to water which is circulated in the same way as per solar panels. The vacuum prevents loss of the collected heat via convection, making these systems more efficient and smaller than the equivalent flat panel.

Finally, a curved mirror may be used to reflect the solar energy over a large area onto a smaller surface such as a water pipe. But this requires tracking of the sun as the earth spins to keep the light focussed .

But to make best use of solar energy, the design of the house really needs to lend itself to efficient temperature management . This involves careful placement of windows and walls , planning of the living spaces and climate control systems.

You can read more about solar energy and alternative energy at SolarWindBuilder.com

A hundred yards up the hill from the ward is the Clinic, and as the doctors and the day shift nurses walk down for rounds and change of shift in the morning, the gates open and several hundred people of all ages, a few at a time, wind their way up the hill. It is a sight to behold, a quarter mile line of people, hurrying as best they can the first in line.

The Operating Room team heads directly to the clinic, and finishes their last minute preparations. As the patients gather outside the clinic one of nurses greets those assembled and matter of factly leads them in song. This morning’s hymn was a beautiful Creole version of “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”. The conviction the Haitians expressed as they embraced the message in those words left me shaky. Following the hymn was a prayer. The rhythm seemed vaguely familiar as the phrases, some long, others shorter, rolled into the clinic from the waiting area, but its Creole words were lost on my untrained ear. The nurse told me later it was the 23rd Psalm, about walking through the valley of death.

We have no time to dwell on those moments as the pace of the day’s work overtakes us. Each person has a story to tell, or a hundred stories, and we each gather bits and pieces as we do our respective work. The team comes together a little more smoothly each day. The medics transport patients up from the ward to Pre-Op, then triage the masses. The ER fills and treatments begin on the sickest of the group. The exam rooms fill and we move as many as we can as fast as we can, trying not miss those who are truly acutely sick, and not simply exhausted, hungry, burdened by parasites or lingering grief. Then, as before, almost suddenly, they are gone except for the late OR cases, and those awakening from surgery. In some ways, we all struggle to regain our bearings.

So, at the end of the day, to share food and stories and music, brings peace and closure and allows us to drift off without worry.

Goodnight to all back home.
J

Good evening from the Mission of Hope. The crickets are chirping the team to sleep in their respective bunks and tents, as things wind down on Tuesday evening. The evening after dinner brought lots of pleasant conversation and excitement about the work done today and the challenges facing us tomorrow. One of the highlights today was the work of the orthopedists. The team did a very difficult repair of an unstable fracture of the tibial plateau – the broad top of the shin bone. The fracture had been set at the time of the earthquake but was still unstable even though some bone repair had started. They were able to put the fragments back in good position, using a plate and screws to stabilize everything. The patient has an excellent chance of regaining full use of his leg.

Each morning, there is along line winding its way up the hill to the clinic. By the time the gates open, many have already been in the queue for several hours. Our Paramedics triage the sickest to go to our small 3-bed Emergency Room for giving IV fluids, and monitoring. Three other doctors and their translators work steadily to see the many others Meanwhile, our Physical Therapist stays very busy, between therapy sessions with the orthopedic patients on the hospital ward, and wound care in the clinic. One of the interesting cultural aspects we have noticed is that when a Haitian undergoes surgery or a serious injury, it is common for them to stay in bed, waiting to get well. It requires significant education and encouragement to convince them of the benefit of early and sustained mobilization following surgery. Even in the few days on site, we are seeing them make gains from those efforts.

Today’s musical moments we’re varied and mostly spontaneous. Anyone, anywhere is liable to break into song, and although the words are in Creole, the hopefulness conveys in a universal language. And when one starts, others join in. The Haitians seem to express themselves in song as easily as in conversation. The singing starts early in the morning, on rounds in the wards and in the waiting area outside the clinic, and goes well into the evening.

Around sundown today, the large open-walled church was full of worshipers, singing full force, sending echoes several hundred yards up the hill to the hospital wards. There, patients and their families, who stay with those hospitalized to feed and help care for them, heard the singing. Within a few notes of hearing each new song, they have joined the chorus. And it feels like real healing is taking place.

Goodnight, J

Thanks to all!

Here is a nice video in the meantime:

From this point on, it is not up to me.