Greetings from Haiti! Well. it is hard to believe but today was our last “working” day in Haiti. We spent the day at Damabiah orphanage and school. There are 65 children who live there and about 150 who attend the school. There is a sign there that says “House of Smiles”, and that was certainly true today! The medical team, led by Dr. Jhonny, saw 87 patients mostly children, and dispensed several prescription medications. The dental team saw 47 children and adults, sealed 331 teeth, and placed silver diamine fluoride on 27 teeth to stop the progression of decay. The education team provided lessons on nutrition and malnutrition, and science, scientific observation, and microscopy, to over 60 children. We also taught them to make boxes out of paper. The entire Health for Haiti team provided a nutritious lunch for over 100 children and had a wonderful time playing and interacting with the kids. As always, our hard-working and wonderful translators made it possible for us to communicate with our friends in Haiti. After we returned to Jude’s and had dinner, the students made sandwiches (hotdog, ketchup and mayo) for the children that we will treat to a fun day at the beach tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be picking up children from two different orphanages and we plan to relax and enjoy the beach together. it should be a great end to an amazing trip.
I wish I could find the words to express how incredible these students are and how much fun we are having together. Every single one of them works tirelessly and shows so much love and care to the Haitian people and to each other. They have worked so hard day after day and no one has complained or failed to pitch in when help was needed. For example, after a long and very busy day today, several students helped to reorganize, consolidate, and repack the suitcases so we could all relax tonight. Not only was it helpful, it was so much fun. It seems like every time Professor Hankin and I start to work on something, there is a group of students there asking how they can help. We have become such a family, it is going to be really hard to go our separate ways at the end of the week. I think we will all enjoy every minute of our last full day together in beautiful Haiti.
Below you can see some pictures from today. Bon nwit from Haiti!
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 