Without Borders.

And so another journey comes to an end. I was ready to be home in my own bed with my friends and family but it's hard to leave. I love the kids there. I love holding and hugging them. I love reading to them and singing with them, and I love teaching them. I love serving the people of Haiti. I didn't want to say bye to Pastor Vincent's kids or the kids at Mother Teresa's children's hospital. I miss the beaches and palm trees and I miss the city and the crazy driving. We left Haiti around 9am yesterday Wednesday July 8th. Our first stop was in Fort Lauderdale where we had to go through immigration with our bags and then get them rechecked and back through security. When we got to our gate we had about 3 minutes before it was time to board. Then we were off to Charlotte. There we had enough time to eat and I finally got my bacon cheeseburger. I was ready for that. Then we were supposed to leave there by 4:30 pm. I fell asleep on the plane and when u woke up we were st...

Today was my last full day in Haiti and it was Jen's first full day to go around Port Au Prince so we had to fit in a lot. We started our day at Mother Teresa's children's hospital. That was my third time there in these 10 days. Some of the other visitors were confused why I was there and none of my other group was. I got to spend some more time with the lovely little guys I had gotten to know and I also had some play time with another little boy. He was the cutest thing. But I could tell he didn't feel good and it kind of hit him in waves. One second he would smile and laugh for me and the next he was just uncomfortable. But he was good. And he had my heart. Leaving today was sad but I know they are in a good place, somewhere they are cared for and fed and will get some lovin. Next we went to visit Ken and Andrea at their new clinic/ community center. I fell in love. They have many more rooms. They have space for a couple doctor benches and dentist chairs, they have h...

Sorry the post is late but I needed a breather and some sleep last night so this post is actually about yesterday. We left Saint Marc around 8:30am to go back to Grande Saline. The trip was much shorter from there, about an hour and thirty minutes. We took the guys right to the water filtration system so they could start working as early as possible. Again there was a lot to work on but they fixed a few programing issues and got it all cleaned out by the end of the day. The four of us ladies walked down to the school to work on more computer lessons and art projects. We cleared out the school to set up. That was step one of the plan that went really well. Step two was to let 20 kids in. Five for each station to work with each of us. Jen was working on using USB'S and saving and opening files. Marcia was using the Paint program on a few of the computers with the students. Jean was making little cutouts for fans/puppets. And I was on finger prints with ink on a big paper and then d...

When I was with the other group some of them were jealous that I was going to stay longer but when it came to going to Grande Saline they were happy to let me go. It has been a long day. We left the guesthouse this morning at 8am. We arrived in Grande Saline around 12:30pm. On the way there we stopped at our hotel in Saint Marc to check-in. The hotel is about 2 hours away from Grande Saline. But the worst part of the trip is the 10 miles of road we have to go down that is full of holes, ditches, and rocks that takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to drive down. But we made it. And it was an awesome day. We started by unloading the suitcases that had equipment and supplies in them for the water filtration system. Then we went back to the school/church building to unload computers, clothing, and art supplies. Today with the kids Jen worked on teaching PowerPoint and having the kids open up files from a flash drive. A group of students in NY made PowerPoints that were translated into Kr...

Well this is going to be an early post. Who would have ever thought I would have a second alone in Haiti? Well at this very moment I am sitting on the roof at the guest house soaking up some sun and feeling the breeze all by myself. I have no idea where the closest American is and no I'm not scared. And don't freak out. I was supposed to be left behind. My second round of Americans will be here in about 2 hours. This morning we spent some more time at Mother Teresa's children's hospital and then everyone packed up. We just all said our goodbyes and gave hugs. I gave exactly 9 hugs. There were 10 of us together. I'm happy that I get to stay longer and work with Jen. I know I am going to love every minute of it. But I also want to travel home with my girls and my family. And I want to go to Chili's with them at the airport in Florida. And I want pasta. So it was sad to see them leave but it was also a great feeling to be privileged and honored to get to stay behi...

Today was really the last day for everyone on the trip. Tomorrow the first one leaves around 10am. Then the group gets on a plane at 5pm. But I am so blessed because get to stay behind with Jen Musa who arrives at 4:30pm tomorrow. Her and our small group will be doing an art project with the kids in Grande Saline, working with the computers, checking on the water filtration system, visiting pastor Vincent's kids, going to Mother Teresa's children's hospital, and visiting Dr. Ken at his new clinic. The first part of the trip was geared towards medical missions. And this part will be more of the hands on working with the kids and teaching. This is more of what I did on our last trip. I am not very involved in anything in the medical field so a lot of that part of the work was new to me. I am really going to miss everyone I was with for the first six days. I would say I love them all. I learned from them as I worked with them. We had fun and we laughed a lot. And we really di...

Everyday is exhausting for all of us. We do a lot in a day. Today we saw around 150 patients at the clinic. We got to hold some babies, play some soccer, and treat a lot of people for arthritis, anemia, malaria, infections, worms, heartburn, and more. We had one man that was a celebrity. Everyone wanted a picture with him because he was 102 years old still walking on his own and relatively healthy. A real accomplishment in Haiti. So our patients age ranged from a few months to 102 years old. We also gave out toys and soccer balls to the kids. We gave an elderly man one of our suitcases to use as a dresser. We sent one man to hospital for emergency care because his breathing was so bad. After the clinic we went back to the guesthouse to clean up and grab some money for souvenir shopping. We went to the place we visited before in January where there are a bunch of vendors along the road. We have to be careful and mindful of the traffic but our translators do a great job of keeping us s...

So I just typed the beginning of this and then it got deleted and I don't feel like trying to remember everything it said. So here is the short of it: we woke up, ate breakfast, got ready, and headed to Cité Soleil for a clinic. Cité Soleil is the largest slum in the western hemisphere. The people living there are living in extreme poverty. The city is very dirty, the people do not have access to clean water, and overall the living conditions are awful. We worked again today with Dr.Robinson at a school in Cité Soleil that we have worked in before. We use the classrooms for triage, pharmacy, and the Dr's office. I worked in pharmacy aging today. And today it was nicely organized but somehow all the pills that were to have been packed to bring with us were not. For example we had no ibeprofen. Which made it kind of difficult to be a pharmacist. But we gave put many vitamins intending to improve their overall health. We saw some babies, some elderly, and really people of...