Trip Conclusion

Treating an earthquake victim.

The wooden collar keeps the goats out of the houses.

A classroom chalkboard in the school in Paul. The date reads January 13, 2010, the date of the earthquake. The children have yet to return to school.

Kids in the Village of Hope

Cleaning a wound

The week I spent in Haiti was beyond amazing. The Haitian people taught me so much about myself and our world in general. In five days we treated around 2,000 people, pulled 250 teeth, fed 800 people and provided three patients with money and a ride to the hospital in Saint Marc where they will be cared for by an American medical team. We also worshiped on Sunday, built nine new rabbit cages (the rabbits are for protein), and attended a Haitian wedding. Although I would have much rather stayed in La Croix on Friday and done more work, the trip across the country to the Dominican Republic was also unforgettable. We did a lot for the Haitian people but they did even more for me. They taught me what is really important. It is not how nice your clothes are, or how big your house is, what phone you have, or how much money you make; it is truly that you have a love for life and for the Lord, not worldly things. Despite how little these people have and how bleak there future is, they are the most genuinely happy people I have ever been around. This is a trip that I will never forget. I love the country and the people of Haiti and I cannot wait to go back. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and Pastor Pierre.

Click here to see a few more pictures.

Ian and team ...

...are home! Thanks for your prayer support.

The journey back to Pittsburgh....

So when you have the 4th largest winter storm in recorded history in Pittsburgh....

...the team that was debriefed for departure last Sautrday (in below photo) will have to wait to return. The flight home scheduled for today has been delayed until Sunday evening.

We spoke briefly with Ian this a.m. He's ready to be home. Praying for his patience.

Thursday and Friday

No emails from Ian in the last 24 hrs. but I (his mom) can share a little of what he's told us over the phone...Thursday was a very busy, productive day. The team went to Paul again where they treated almost 280 people. It was another day filled with emotional highs and lows.

Setting and casting a four year old's ankle

The wedding Ian referred to in his last message was "really cool". Ian said the vows were especially touching and they were also unique because the bride and groom were kneeling while exchanging them. A celebration was held in the church office after the ceremony. The room became stifling hot so Ian said he left but all of a sudden he could hear the celebrants joyous singing from the distance. He said this was very poignant.

An animal "friend" was found in the kitchen yesterday

Today (Friday) the team left LaCroix at 5:00 a.m. They made it to the Haiti/Dominican Republic border after a seven hour journey. The crossing was thankfully uneventful.

The entrance into the Dominican Republic

After 13 hrs. of travel the team has arrived at their over night destination in the Dominican Republic. Many people helped with the logistics of today's unusal route (unusual because of the earthquake) out of LaCroix. We are thankful for all the roles these people played and that even though the day was long it went smoothly. The team is scheduled to arrive back in Pittsburgh late tomorrow night.

Wednesday

This was another exciting and productive day that began @ 6 am. Our first team of 2 docs, 2 nurses, 3 assistants (I was one) and a dentist went to the village of La Coupe. This is a village very high in the mountains. The villagers were incredibly patient. The team saw 300-400 patients. As always there are children who make you laugh and smile and those that break your heart. There was one hypertonic two year old girl that was particularly sad. She only weighed ten pounds, in the U.S. her situation would have been fixed immediately but here, at this late stage, there is nothing we could do. She will probably pass by the end of the month. This made everyone cry while at La Coupe. Good news is that with the antibiotics and other wonderful medications given to us by the group that flew us down, many people were able to rest easier.

Walking through the mountains

Our second team of four went to Perisse. They saw patients in the church and were quite surprised at the number of sick children they saw with pneumonia and other serious illnesses. Over 200 sick kids were treated. This team got the opportunity to go to the hospital in St. Marc to deliver meds and other supplies. There were some amazing volunteers there from the Canada and the U.S. We made plans tonight to take three very critical patients from the villages to this hospital. These patients both have serious infections in the face and neck.

Recording weight and height measurements.

As mission work is sustained over time these are important statistics that track the results of improved nutrition.

An arm successfully splinted after it was injured in the earthquake

We are so thankful for the travel mercies granted us today as our team moved in opposite directions, saving lives, one at a time.

Tomorrow we are going to a Haitian wedding!

*the post was written by Andrea, a nurse on the mission team

Tuesday

Ian called home Tuesday morning. I don't always think technology is a blessing but I must admit it was wonderful to be able to hear the fervor in his voice instead of just reading an email from him. A few tidbits I learned during our brief chat while he was walking to the clinic:

• the team is all working well together and everyone is healthy (this mama was worried about traveler's revenge!) While we talked I could hear people chatting and chuckling in the background...and Ian affirms that spirits have remained high for the mission on hand.
• there is no need to set an alarm to rise and shine when the roosters wake you instead.
• it had rained overnight so it was very humid and the temps were to break 100 degrees.
• Ian had eaten the best banana EVER for breakfast!...do you think they taste differently picked right from the tree than they do from our grocery stores?
• and he's so glad for this experience as he realizes there is subsequently much work to be done.

Please pray for the group today as they have traveled to a clinic in LaCoupe.

Ian helping to set and cast an arm.

**This post respectfully submitted by Ian's Mom.

Monday

Today was once again incredibly successful and heart breaking. We drove to the mountain village of Paul, it is only 20 miles away but took us 2 hours to get there. We went there to set up a medical clinic. The area, which has 40,000 people in and around it, has not seen a dentist in two years. A dental chair, our group from Pittsburgh, three translators and Pastor Pierre traveled by truck. Driving up to Paul was once again very emotional. We stopped in a small village before Paul to check on the progress of a well and these people had not had water for two days. They were digging in a spring while the pigs and horses were defecating in the same area; it is no wonder disease is so rampant. The well digging process was remarkable. There was a single man with a pick ax at the bottom of a 35 foot deep hole, he would fill a bucket with dirt and the men on top would pull it up by rope.

The well

The rest of the trip to Paul was out of this world. The children have nothing; no clothes and very little food. When we got to Paul there were already upwards of a hundred people waiting for us. We set up in the school house, and started seeing people.

Dr. Six taught me how to use a doppler to hear a baby's heart tone!

We saw some very encouraging things and some very disheartening things. We saw several people whose family had died in Port au Prince and had come to live with relatives in Paul. One of these was a four year old boy who had had sutures put in his hand after the quake, the skin had grown over them and they were very difficult to remove. This was excruciatingly hard to watch. We saw several people that needed more help than we could give. We are attempting to arrange, through Pittsburgh doctor, Dan Latanzi (who was here last week), for these people to be taken to the U.S.N.S. Comfort. These include a patient with testicular cancer, one with a brain tumor and a child who had a seizure.

A busy clinic

On a positive note, Dr. Bob Evans, DMD pulled more than forty teeth (which is a very good thing).

Pulling teeth

Other good news--at lunch we fed more than 300 people. This was spectacular. The hardest part of the day was trying to help a 13 year old girl in the final stages of hiv/aids. She was 5'6" and 82 lbs. She would not eat. She will probably pass by Thursday. There is nothing we could do.I am weeping as I write this. We have all cried today. In more cases than not these people can do nothing to prevent what is physically wrong with them. Despite the great sadness the day was very successful, we saw more than 350 people!

Making MRE's (meal-ready-to eat) for lunch

I could go on about the condition of Haiti, but I need to leave you with this; in this country that I have come to love, there is pure happiness. The people, despite having nothing, are for the most part happy. This is not like America. It might be cliche, but you truly cannot buy happiness. I say that only because I now realize that I see it everyday in Pittsburgh. There is no happiness in things. There is only true happiness in the Lord.

Please pray for the people.

The "Bird Cage"

An option for transportation in LaCroix!

A glimpse at our Sunday

The maternity clinic

Today (Sunday) has been incredibly hard and joyful, I believe I can say this for all of us. Worship was amazing. Although I did not understand a word, I truly trust that today I experienced love and music having no language barrier. Just picture a worship service with island funk music infused with two trumpets, a saxophone and a trombone. The amount of passion that these people put into worship is like nothing I have ever seen before. They truly depend on God for all of their needs. We then had a brief lunch that included my first taste of a freshly cracked coconut and toured the compound where the clinic is.

Next task was to load this dentist chair into the "bird cage" (see above) in preparation for the first of a two day trip to the village of Paul. Monday we will be going to Paul to set up both a general health and a dental clinic. This is very exciting! Below you can see our prep of the meds for the clinic.

Later in the day we went to the "Village of Hope". Although this is one of the nicer villages outside of the mission, it is so primitive, so inhumane, and so very undesirable. The dirt is like nothing I've ever seen before. Everything is dirty, especially the people, houses and rooms. I am grateful on a whole new level for what my life is like back home. The kids will come up and ask you for candy or your shoes or hat. There is nothing you can do. My heart is broken. This is truly a nation in turmoil. I have seen animals that live better than these people do. I know God has a plan for these people and this country. My prayers are that the earthquake will draw the rest of the world into this cause and that we can truly help to change this country through The New Testament Mission in LaCroix.

Blessed Travel

The expedient travel arrangements that Ian refers to came to be because of a group that had chartered a plane for medical supply relief. In addition to the medical supplies the travelers included several people that were headed to an orphanage to bring back children that were already in the adoption process. While we were waiting for the plane to depart some extra supplies for the orphanage were delivered to the airport and everyone jumped in to help pack them for the plane. Ian and Gary happened to get caught in the action and you can see the televised news report here. When you open the link you may have to search for the Haiti report on the right. It was an awesome feeling to know that there are people in Pittsburgh that were able to donate their financial resources for the medical supplies and for the plane, and that the organizers were gracious to allow the plane's extra seats for the group traveling to LaCroix to use.

*Photo note-Upon landing Ian was immediately struck by the international presence at the airport...like this plane with assistance from Brazil that they docked next to.

Sunday , 8:00 a.m.

Ian called home to report that the team had reached LaCroix at 11:00 last night and were greeted with a spaghetti dinner graciously prepared by Pastor Pierre's wife. We were chatting while Ian was sitting on a roof top (reportedly a popular place to watch the sun rise and set) that overlooks a banana crop. He was thankful to have arrived last night so the team could go worship this morning. They will then open a medical clinic for the remainder of the day. Ian excitedly reports that Pastor Pierre has the week well planned out and he's looking forward to visits to two other villages where their extra hands will be put to use.

*Photo note-proof that Ian's in LaCroix...this is the sign in front of the school.

A Message Sent with Love and Grief

It is Saturday, 8:30 p.m. and we are riding in the back of a delivery truck with Pastor Pierre and about 1,000 lbs of medical supplies. We are driving up highway one to LaCroix. At the airport we unloaded 30,000 pounds of supplies in a hour. We drove through not even the hardest hit part of Port-au-Prince and it was worse than I could have ever imagined. There is no such thing as a house here. I am writing with an incredibly heavy heart. We stopped at the orphanage (see explanation below) to drop off supplies. We will get to La Croix at midnight. It is unbelievable to see the poverty gaps we've passed. For example, we saw a store that had the Duke basketball game on and two blocks later there was a tent city of over 1,000. We were blessed to have the chartered flight because we gained a day for the clinic work. We are going to open it first thing tomorrrow. Please do not only pray for us but the people of Haiti, they need it more than we do.

How Did Ian Get to Haiti?

After the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, this mission team that already had a trip to LaCroix planned made many changes in their itinerary so they could best support the current needs of the Haitians. Due to restrictions at the Port-au-Prince airport they changed plans to travel into the Dominican Republic. They were thankful to have this option although were sad that it would mean an extra day's travel that would cut into their work time. Yesterday the group received word that several donors had come together to charter a plane to Port-au-Prince on a medical supply mission and there was room for 14 extra passangers AND the team that Ian is serving with was invited to use the seats. Ian and the mission team were ecstatic to join the crew, a few other travels that are working with a Haitian orphanage and 30,000 lbs of supplies headed to Haiti because they will be able to start their work in LaCroix a day earlier than planned. This is a blessing.

Saturday, January 30th, 5:25 p.m.

Ian just called to say they've landed and he couldn't talk because they only have two hours to unload the plane. Praise the Lord!

And He's Off!

Ian headed to Haiti today full of anticipation for the work the mission team he is traveling with will be able to do. The group is composed of 3 doctors, 3 nurses, 1 dentist and 7 medical assitants. We got quite a chuckle out of the fact that Ian has now added the title "medical assistant" to his resume! He asked us to share the scripture to the left with you as this is what he is leaning on as he departs.

We look forward to sharing updates of his work with you via email throughout the next week. Thank you for your support!