Team 6B is home.
Started the day by waking up to a failed generator. “Pancake Steve” flipped breakfast for all. We made rounds with Diane Cable. Had to take Jolanda (AKA) back after her wound opened up, it’s probably colonized (infected). We used our first real VAC. Valeri is still under weather so adminstration canceled the clinic, but not until Dr. Tim evaluated a probable thyroid cancer with airway compromise and mets to the lungs. The team started focusing on palliative care. They crammed all 10 of us and all our bags into a single tap-tap (an over-sized public transportation van) and headed to airport. There was no room for a translator so we didn’t know our driver had dropped us off at wrong entrance. The team ended up hiking with all our bags for about a mile, walking on the side of a busy Haitian street. We boarded uneventfully and flew to Miami where we said goodbye to our team members from North Carolina (Bryan and Tara, both CRNA’s). They were incredibly hard workers and I can’t imagine doing all we did without them. Guessing we did over 60 cases. We will miss them.
There will be no OAM presence at Double Harvest for 10 days, but we hope to get some follow up on our patients, who have become our friends.
Virtually every member of the clinic lost family and friends in the earthquake. But the take-home lesson came from the Haitian pastor at one sunrise service. He held up a 100 dollar Haitian bill and asked who wanted it. Naturally, everyone said “yes.” He crumpled it in is hands and asked the same question. Again, same answer. Finally he threw it in the dirt, stomped on it and asked it again. Again the same response. Everyone wanted the money. It didn’t matter that it was dirty, that it was broken. It still had the same value as when it was new. The same goes for the Haitian people, and all of God’s people. Their value, our value, doesn’t change no matter what has happened to them, or to us. It is a powerful life lesson.
We are all changed, but hopefully in a good way. We are grateful for having been given this opportunity. We are happy to be home but each of us left a part of ourselves in Haiti. Yet we all were given gifts far exceeding what we gave. “Merci beaucoup.”
God Bless,
Tom and Team 6B
