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.