Our second day in Haiti started early but we were all ready to go after a good night’s sleep. We began our day at Mother Teresa’s Hospital for Sick Children. We helped feed the babies and then held and played with them. There are so many babies, and they seem to really enjoy being held. We were not allowed to take photos, so I cannot show this to you….but it was a special experience for all of us. After about an hour, we split up into three groups.
Heather, Iyan, Sonia, Jamie and decided that they weren’t ready to put down “their” baby and stayed on for some extra time together. It is never easy to put one of those babies back in the crib!
Nancy, Olivia, Jean, Jocelyn, Alison and Rachael helped out the school age children by teaching them about brushing their teeth, washing their hands and good nutrition. With the help of our fantastic translators (four of whom are SUNY Broome graduates…how amazing is that?!!), they were able to provide education to over 350 school children. Each child received toothpaste and a toothbrush after the lesson. They did an awesome job and it was so much fun to see the reaction of the kids,
The rest of the students decided to join our friend Dr. Ken Taylor at his clinic which is located down the road from Mother Teresa’s. Sierra, Kayla, Emily E., Emily C. and Mackenzie assisted Dr. Ken as he saw patients and even performed a minor surgery.
Those of us who had stayed behind with the babies and children finished up and walked to Ken and Andrea’s clinic together. Dr. Ken and his wife Andrea see hundreds of patients at their clinic and also often take the clinic on the road to see patients in need in different areas of Haiti. Dr. Ken took some time out to speak to the group about the work that he and Andrea do. He thanked us for being there and told the students that as missionaries, they see volunteers like us as their hands and feet.
After our time at the clinic we returned to the Guesthouse to finish unpacking and sorting our supplies. Tom, Jodi, Gay and Dan went on a shopping expedition to find the final items we need to set up the water treatment system. We rested a bit and then most of us headed back to Mother Teresa’s to spend more time with those sweet babies.
We had another delicious dinner and then we had a class meeting to talk about our day today and make plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow we are headed for Cite Soleil where we will do a food distribution for 500 widows. We will also visit a sewing school that Gina has started, and then finish our day with a lecture from Jodi and Dr. Gay. Jodi will tell us about water filtration and how the system we are installing in Grande Saline will work. Dr. Gay will teach us about solar power and prepare us for that installation work
We were so incredibly proud of the students today. They all did a fantastic job. It will be an early day for us tomorrow, TeeJo will be here at 7:45 am. So….it is time to say bon nwit from Ayiti!
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 