This is just after I arrived at Port-au-Prince.
The plane I took from Miami to P-au-P.
Julie and Amy. Julie is a physio therapist from Northern Ireland, and Amy is an RN from Canada. They both work at Bethesda Medical Center. I met them at the domestic flight terminal, and ended up on the same flight to Cap-Haitien.
Arrival at Cap-Haitien.
This is how small the plane was.
Julie's (RN, former missionary) team plus Jen and me. From left to righ, back to front: me, Jacob, Tyler, Matt, Mark, Ali, Julie, Cindy, Heather, and Jen. We went on a tour of the OMS mission compounds.
Gavin giving a tour of the clinic.
People listening to Gavin.
The front of BMC.
Gavin, a doctor from Northern Ireland. He has been here for almost 3 years.
Radio 4VEH station. VEH stands for Voix Evangélique d'Haiti, and 4V is radio station code for Haiti.
One of the small recording studios.
The new OMS seminary coumpound
Julie's team getting ready to work for the day.
Emily and the gecko.
Emily and the gecko, part 2.
Laura, Jen, Carly, and Emily. Laura is a medical student from Northern Ireland, Jen and Carly are premeds in college, and Emily just graduated from college and is a pre-physician's assistant.
Prudence and Julie. Prudence is a Hatian nurse that consults patients (basically a NP). They are teaching the patients some exercises they can do when they have leg pain.
Prudence and Julie.
Jen and Emily on our way to Labadee. We stood on the back of a truck.
Laura on the way to Labadee.
Most pictures of me will look something like this.
Beth on the way to Labadee. Beth went to Danda with Mary for most of the week, and they had just come back the day before.
Monument of the Battle of Vertière is on the way to Cap-Haitien from Vaudreuil.
There are many houses on hills like these in Haiti.
A local market place in Cap-Haitien.
Rod (Rodney, Jr.). He is Dr. Rodney's son. Dr. Roney is a Haitian doctor who studied medicine in Dominican Republic.
Map of Labadee.
Jen, Laura, and Emily relaxing at the beach.
Me at the beach.
Gavin, Laura, and Evan. Evan is a doctor from Northern Ireland. He had just arrived a few minutes ago.
Jen, Beth, Emily, and Laura.
Relaxing at the beach.
This is Wadner. He teaches Creole to the missionaries. I'll be learning some from him as well.
Rod. Often in Creole, R sound like W, so his name sounds like Wod.
Evan, Laura, Amy, and Julie hiding behind Laura. Amy is carrying Dr. Rodney's second son, Oli. We were on our way to the Dragon Breath.
Julie and Evan on our way to the Dragon Breath.
Dragon's Rock. This is where the Dragon Breath is.
Laura and Jen at the Dragon Breath.
Amy, Julie, Evan, and some guys we met. The guy in the middle is from Brazil.
A view from the Dragon's Rock.
Another view from the Dragon's Rock.
At the edge of the Dragon's Rock.
Me at Drgaon's Rock.
Jen at Dragon's Rock.
More views from the Dragon's Rock.
Jen, Laura, Julie, Evan, and Amy at the Dragon's Rock.
Cell tower disguised as a palm tree... Some people weren't sure which one it was, but thanks to the zoom on my camera you can see the antennas hiding among the palm leaves.
This is where the Dragon's Breath comes from.
A close uf of Dragon's Breath. You can see the ripples in the water when the dragon breaths out.
The famous zipline. It's only open to tourists that come off cruise ships.
Dragon's Rock.
Laura carrying Oli.
Ali and Christina talking to random Haitian boys. The boys were English students, so they wanted to practice speaking English.
Oli and Vedam, Dr. Roney's wife.
Rod.
Gavin swam all the way out to I-don't-know-what-it's-called.
One of the beaches in Labadee at which we spent most of our time.
Ali and me.
Christina, Emily, Oli, Laura, Amy, Beth, Jen, and Ali.
Emily and her baby... jk. Dr. Roney's Baby Oli.
Matt and his smirk.
Emily on our way back from Labadee.
On our way back from Labadee.
A street in Cap-Haitien.
A street market in Cap-Haitien.
On our way to Pastor Daniel's church.
Pastor Daniel's church.
Currently they meet at a preschool.
Outside the church. Just behind the people is where they are building their church. What you see is the enrance.
Amy taking picture of Julie and some kids at church.
Amy and Julie with some kids at church.
Julie hiding behind two girls. The one on the right looks sleepy...
Hostellerie du Roi Christophe. This is where we had lunch and hung out at the pool.
People at the pool.
Anna, Jen, and Mary.
L to R: Laura, Emily, Carly, Beth, and Tyler.
Reimer's family. They were missionaries, and were able to leave Haiti the next day.
Back of Carly's head (I think) and Beth.
Laura and Emily.
Mary. She is lab technician who has been working with Tim in Haiti for several years.
Alison (Ali) Phillips. She's going to be a freshman vocal performance major at Hofstra University, NY.
Some people attempting hand stands in the pool.
More hand stands.
Heather and Mike, a couple from Alabama. They are part of Julie's (RN, former missionary) team and have been working at the construction site.
Emily and Beth. Some how people get their names mixed up sometimes.
Two Irish girls, Julie and Laura. Julie is a physio therapist, and Laura is a 2nd year med student, both from Northern Ireland.
Laura and Matt throwing Carly in the air.
Laura and Matt about to throw Amy in the air.
Amy in the air.
I don't know what's going on.
Ali and Matt. Their t-shirt says "Haiti '08 Blue Church," which is the name of their church.
We were taking a walk around the compound, and found this goat on the wrong side of the face, so Emily dragged him over and gave it to someone to throw it over the fence.
Goat being thrown over the fence.
Jen and me with headbands. Jen has many hairbands and she always wears one.
Julie giving a talk about Cerebral Palsy to our medical staff. Rodney (Haitian doctor) interpretted to Creole.
Christina pretending to work in the lab.
Patients sit on the green chair to get their blood drawn. This day I got to draw from about 10 to 15 patients including a little girl who was crying like... a little girl.
On the right is a spectrometer that we use for sickle cell test. Microscopes are use for... well, microbes.
Beth, me, Vicki, a neighbor, Nadine, and Anna. Gavin took us on a walk outside the compound. We don't get to go out much, so it was refreshing.
Many people get water from pumps like this. Most people don't have running water in their homes.
Nadine and Vicki walking with some neighborhood kids. Nadine and Vicki are a RN and nursing student, respectively. They are from Canada, arrived just a day before, and are childhood best friends.
Beth, Gavin, and Anna facing a hill. We climbed up this hill where we could see the entire compound and the surrounding area.
A view from the top. Our compound is somewhere among the trees on the left side.
Me at the top of the hill.
Nadine with her camera. She likes to take pictures, especially artsy ones.
Going down hill.
Still going down hill. The small rocks made it hard to climb down the hill. The neighborhood kids flollwed us all the way up.
Laura and Amy with some neighborhood kids.
Anna and kids. It was getting dark very fast, and it started to rain right after this.
Emily with Beth's glasses. Tim's team brought a bunch of materials to make glasses, and they made a pair for Beth as a practice. All of them look just like this one.
A cool bug that we saw. It looks like a grasshopper, but its wings look like a leaf!
Nadine touched it, but it didn't move much.
After I tried to pick it up, it flew, freaked Laura out, and landed on the ground.
Another view of the bug. Isn't it so cool?
Anna working at the lab. She is a pre-PA.
Christine working at the lab. She's a lab technician.
Chickens in clinic.
Evan and Gavin with ultrasound machine. We had a patient who had a very big stomach, so we checked to see if she had twins. We think there's only one. While the doctors were out, I got to play with it a little, but I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. I think I found a hand and a head once.
Julie getting her hair braided. She's covering her face because she's embarrassed.
Bundy the cat killed a gecko.
Tim's team. Left to right: Jen, Tim, Anna, Emily, Christine, Beth, Carly, Mary, and Christina. Christine was leaving this day.
Tim's team doing silly poses.
The girls and me. Clockwise: Emily, Beth, Anna, Laura, Jen, Christina, me, and Carly. They say I'm like their big brother. So I said, "Big brother like the government?"
The family from Indiana, Kelsey, Alyssa, Doan, and Chuck. They are here to work on the new seminary construction for a week.
Tim and Jen going to Limbe.
On our way to the prayer tree. We're walking along the compound wall.
On our way to the prayer tree.
The prayer tree. Every Thursday people gather here to sing, pray, and share the Word of God.
People singing at the prayer tree. It's a big mango tree.
Reading Bible at the prayer tree.
On the way back from the prayer tree.
Carly and Emily admiring the baby... and weighing it.
Carly taking the baby's temperature, and Emily still admiring the baby.
Vicki raking at the clinic. We spent an afternoon cleaning up the outside of our clinic
Nadine with her shovel.
Evan, Laura, and Carly trying to pick up a log. They had to cut down a big tree to make way the new clinic building, so there were several logs lying around the clinic.
Playing "hot mango."
Hot mango, like hot potato. The more we drop it, the softer it gets, and it eventually explodes, hopefully not in our hands.
Anna trying to dodge the mango.
The cleanup team. Evan, Carly, Laura, Beth, Emily, Nadine, me, and Vicki in the front.
A tree fell on one of the electric wires, so Amy and Julie's house lost power for a while.
I'm learning how to French braid.
Laura, Beth, Vicki, Emily, and Evan's arm. We played Uno a lot.
Hilari-picto-pass, another game we played alot. It was especially fun this time because we had 10 people.
Emily presenting her paper. She's asking Evan, "How did you go from frogs going 'ribbit, ribbit' to queen bee talking nonse?"
TB graduation. Patients who completes 8 months of treatment and whose sputum test comes out negative gets a diploma.
Patients who completed the TB treatment shares about how the medicine helped them and encourages other patients to comply with the treatment plan.
The clinc depot with food from the World Food Program. Vicki is excited because the beans are from Canada, and so is she.
Beans from Canada. One way we distribute this is as an incentive for the TB patients to come every month for treatment.
An old seminary building, which is in the same compound as the clinic. The new seminary site is 10 minutes down the road.
Playing football.
Team Mango: me, Emily, Vicki, and Wilfried.
We bought a block of ice at the ice factory on our way to the mobile clinic. People buy ice by big blocks like these and sell them on the streets.
On our way to the mobile clinic. We rode the truck for about 1.5 hrs before we climbed over a mountain.
On our way to Souffrier. We had to climb over some mountains and ford some streams for almost 2 hours to get there.
A view on our way to Souffrier
Another view on the way to Souffier
Locals carried our boxes and bags for us.
Emily and Carly. They weren't planning on going to mobile clinic this time, but Tim got sick, and there were two extra spots, so they came last minute. Emily was trying to dodge the camera, so she's blurry.
Amy, Julie, and Evan crossing a stream. After climbing over a mountain, we walked along a stream, which we had to cross several times.
Crossing a river.
Gavin, Gregory (guide), and Ketsey (Haitian nurse) crossing the river.
The river we crossed just before arriving at Souffrier
This was our lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. Fortuntately our hosts kept the head for themselves. It's a goat if you couldn't tell.
Our hosts served us brunch when we got there.
Julie, Ketsey, and Carly worked at the pharmacy.
People were already wating in the church when we got there.
Mary setting up the lab. We had a great view and breeze.
Emily, Mary, and I worked at the lab. I drew blood and brought patients back after we had lab results.
Our hosts cooking us lunch.
It got pretty chaotic a the church (serving as a waiting room and consultation room)
We had goat for lunch.
A view from our lab.
Emily doing her tests. She did the mass screenings for Hep B and H. pylori among other things.
She was difficult to stick, so I'm trying to feel for her veins.
I'm in! Unfortunately I missed the vein this time. I eventually got it though.
Some of the kids that were hanging around the lab.
Gavin giving out extra tickets for consultation. We saw 250 patients total this day.
Emily and her coconut. They gave us some coconuts to drink.
Julie working at the pharmacy.
Amy and Evan consulted together. Amy translated for Evan, and Evan just confirmed what Amy was thinking... jk, Evan. Evan used his expertise as a doctor.
Gavin consulting a patient.
Ms. Prudence, our head nurse, consulted on her own.
Our team and a few extra people.
Gavin introducing the team during the Sunday morning service. We all said something briefly.
Right after the service there was a crowed gathered around something... see next photo.
It was a little girl on a stretcher. She had a big laceration on her leg.
The girl being carried into a room.
The 5-day old wound. Some old man hit her with a machete.
Evan and Gavin giving the girl some pain killer.
We cleaned up the wound and bandaged it. She'll have to be treated from the inside (medication) before we can stitch her wound, so we brought her down to Cap-Haitien.
Volunteers from the church carried our boxes and bags for us. Most of them carried heavy boxes on top of their head barefoot up and down a mountain... I don't know how they do it.
Julie crossing the river on the way back from mobile clinic. Nice facial expression, Julie.
Gavin crossing the river, this time without being helped.
The hike back took us about 1.5 hours.
The family from Indiana, Kelsey, Chuck, Alyssa, and Doan. They helped out with the seminary construction for one week. Alyssa is sharing her thoughts about her time in Haiti. We held a pineapple as we shared.
Anna and Jen. These two, Carly, and I worked at the seminary construction site for a day instead of working at the clinic. We transported buckets of paint, roofing materials, tiles, etc to the construction site from our compound.
Ms. Kettley is one of the Haitian nurses that consults patients at the clinic. She's very friendly and likes to joke around (in a good way, and not with patients, of course). Photography Courtesy of Nadine Ross.
Anna, Carly, and Neal. Neil is a construction consultant from Washinton DC. He had just arrived this day and will be working with Gordon for 2 months at the seminary.
The new seminary site. Just up ahead is where some of the missionaries live, and the campus is to the right.
We ran around Laura's bed and posed as the camera took multiple photos in a row. We eventually broke her bed. Photography courtesy of Jen Bunder.
Jullie and Dr. Rodney. Dr. Rodney made a certificate for Julie as a goodbye present.
After the morning devotion at the clinic we had cake as a farewell party for Julie.
Anna, Emily, Beth, and Carly. This is just before they left Haiti. It was so sad to see them leave.
Restocking our depot with food from the World Food Program. We use this food for undernourished patients, especially babies, and as an incentive for TB patients to come every month for treatment.
Prenatal clinic. Standing at the right is Ms. Kettley who is giving an educational talk about pregnancy.
Nadine taking blood pressure of pregnant woman. She seems to be enjoying her work.
Vicki weighing a pregnant woman. She seems to enjoy her work as well.
Gavin suturing a hand. There was a car accident, and a 75-year old man got the skin on his hand torn.
Augusma, the same patient who injured his hand. We went to an X-ray clinic and found out that he fractured the neck of the radius and the olecranon (tip of elbow). We put a big cast on his arm. He was so thankful that he survived the accident and for all the healthcare that he started singing praises to God, "I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus for all that he does for me," in Creole of course.
After we put a cast on Augusma, he gave thanks to God and sang a song.
Vicki and Nadine admiring a baby.
Amy explaning how to use the circumcision apparatus. We were converting the operation room into an emergency room and came accross this device.
Vicki and I were trying to organize the storage room next to the operation room. We look confused because we were.
Wadner's family. His mother, niece, Wadner, two of his three sisters, and two cousins. Behind him is his house which is under construction. Wadner is the sole breadwinner in his household. I'm getting Creole lessons from him twice a week.
Wadner built his own workout machine in his uncles's house, who went to US and never came back.
A view of our neighborhood. This is a hill behind our compound.
A few of us that are left at Bethesda, Nadine, me, Friznel's mother, Amy, Vicki, Laura, and Evan.
A little "gift" for Vicki's birthday... I stuffed a box with Vicki's own clothes, almost all of them. Photography courtesy of Nadine Ross.
The dessert tonight happened to be jello, so we put candles in it and sang happy birthday to her. It was a surprise, of course. Photography courtesy of Nadine Ross.
Vicki's mystery birthday present. She looks so excited. Oh, just wait and see... Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
"Oh, my skirt!" said Vicki as she opened the box. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Vicki got a pedicure for her birthday.
Redressing the girl that we brought down from the mobile clinic five days ago. The wound was healing surprisingly fast.
Laura, Evan, me, and Vicki getting ready to watch 3:10 to Yuma. Photography courtesy of Nadine Ross.
Chuck Norris lives on the way to Labadee
This time in Labadee, we were at Comlumbus beach, which is more secluded from the rest of the beaches, so it felt like a private beach just for us.
Neil and I went kayaking, and I took a dip in the deep water for the first time ever. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Relaxing by the beach in Labadee. That's Neil, Evan, Vicki, and me.
My feet in Labadee.
We found a big starfish.
Neil, Nadine, and I went snorkelling together. It was my first time ever.
I played with the starfish for a while. I watched it flip it self over, and it was amazing.
Evan, Nadine and me Kayaking. I got off the kayak far off the shore. I had never swam in such deep water before.
King of the Caribbean. There was a chair floating in the sea, so we kayaked there just so I can sit on it.
Nadine, me, Vicki, Laura, and Evan at Labadee.
Sunday morning service at the church right next to the clinic.
Laura, Nadine, and Vicki diving into the pool. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Me falling into the pool. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Gaving doing the back flip. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Vicki, Gavin, Nadine, me, and Laura jumping into the pool. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Laura and me throwing Nadine in the pool. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
English Bible Fellowship takes place every Sunday afternoon at the Radio 4VEH station. Missionaries and mission teams all around Cap-Haitien gather here every week.
We're on our own for dinners on Sundays. This day we had pasta salad, hard-boiled eggs, and carrots. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm holding an egg with two yolks, which looked like perfectly shaped butt cheeks. Photography courtesy of Vicki Seutter.
Me, Vicki, Laura, Nadine, and Evan. This was just before Vicki and Nadine went back to Canada. It was sad to see them go.
Laura getting a diphtheria/tetanus booster.
Amy getting a diphtheria/tetanus booster.
Evan getting a diphtheria/tetanus booster.
Gavin getting ready to get a diphtheria/tetanus booster.
Gavin getting a diphtheria/tetanus booster.
Changing Madelene's dressing. It's been almost 2 weeks since we started treating her, and her wound has been healing surprisingly fast and well.
Gavin taking out Augusma's sutures. This was 9 days since we started treating him, which was just after the accident. We have a half cast on his arm because the neck of his radius and the olecranon are fractured.
Lunch at La Kay. This was a farewell for Scott, John, and Dorothy. Many of us had cheeseburgers, which we don't eat very often.
This is the city square of Cap-Haitien. Shown here are Notre Dame Cathedral and a statue of Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
The inside of Notre Dame Cathedral. I think they were having a mass.
We visited Justinian Hospital on our tour of Cap-Haitien.
A panoramic view of Cap-Haitien. The big building with a dome on the right is Notre Dame Cathedral.
Enoch, Amy, me, Evan, and Laura. Enoch is an agronomist who works with an organization called Hope Seed. He plays piano at the English Bible Fellowship. He was our tour guid for the day.
A small part of the market in Cap-Haitien. Just to the right of this is a huge market place called Iron Market.
This is the boat market where I bought a few paintings. Bargaining takes a lot of energy out of you. Photography courtesy of Evan Sharkey.
Laura, Enoch, Wadner, Amy, and Evan at La Kay Restaurant. This is where we had lunch on the tour of Cap-Haitien.
Enoch's house. He lives here by himself. It's a pretty neat setup.
Just a random panoramic photo of some trees in our compound.
A coconut tree hovering over one of the biggest trees in the compound. I was experimenting with vertical panoramic shots.
Evan, Laura, and Gavin playing rugby. We visited Gavin's house to celebrate the 12th of July (aka. Orangemen's Day)
Gavin cooking. Photography courtesy of Evan Sharkey.
Gavin, Laura, Amy, and Evan hanging out at Gavin's after dinner. We all survived Gavin's cooking... jk. It was great. We were all stuffed.
Evan, Amy, Laura, Colleen, and Yussi going to Maranatha Church. This is the church Scott went to, and it was his last Sunday here before he went back to the States.
One of the turtles at Christoph Hotel
Laura's birthday. We had an upsid-down pineapple cake.
Amy and I trying to relight the candles as we sang happy birthday. The fans were too strong. Photography courtesy of Evan Sharkey.
We sent Laura on a treasre hunt to find her
We made a certificate of honor and merit, something pretty popular here in Haiti.
Laura riding a motorcycle for the very first time. Gavin gave a lesson for her birthday.
Me ring a motorcycle for the very first time. Photography courtesy of Evan Sharkey.
The waiting line at Nutrition Day. People lined up to get food for the feeding program. I guarded the line for half of the day.
A girl holding her baby sister while waiting for their mother to get food.
This girl in pink came running at me with the biggest smile as if she knew me.
Laura and Amy adopted some Haitian babies... jk. They were holding them while their mothers got food from the program.
How many doctors and nurses does it take to add some antibiotic to an IV bag? Apparently one of each.
Bundy the cat watches Grey's Anatomy while Amy and Laura fall asleep.
Evan, me, Laura, and Amy, just before Evan Laura left fr N. Ireland
The Citadel. For the fifth weekend in Haiti, Neil and I went to see the Citadel.
Me and the Citadel.
A view from the path to the Citadel.
Another view on the way to the Citadel.
This tip of the Citadel is supposed to look like the head of a ship.
Neil on the edge.
Cannons in the Citadel.
The entrance to the Citadel.
Me at the top of the Citadel.
The ruins at the top of the hill on the left were barracks. Connons were pointed at the barracks to protect it from enemy attacks.
The inside of the Citadel is a lot more complicated than it looks on the outside.
This is a guinea fowl I saw on the OMS compound. They are basically wild chicken. I ate one in Kenya two years ago, and it was the toughest meat I ever had.
One of the paintings I bought at the boat market.
Two of the paintings I bought at the boat market.
Dr. Rodney speaks at the funeral of his mother-in-law, Mme. Samuel.
Amy and Rodney Jr.
The funeral procession
This is where Mme. Samuel was burried. Actually they don't burry the dead, bur rather put them in little houses like these.
My shower. The roaches were having a little party at the moment. I've lost count how many roaches I've killed in this bathroom.
