Next mission trip in November-team is ready

After a flurry of emails and phone calls between Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, CUBA and Memphis, we have our team of 15 ready to go to St Vincent's in November.  One of our team members, Jill Bullard,  is an episcopal deacon in North Carolina, who is currently spending some time in Cuba.  Last minute calls to the travel agent required at least one email exchange with her.  You know that anxiety of booking flights, spelling your name "exactly as it appears on your passport" so you wont get any hassles going through security, making sure all your connections are good, "Oops, wait, I forgot to add travel insurance",  etc?  Multiply that by 15 and imagine my email inbox and cell phone voice mail the afternoon of this Friday last.  SHEESH!

Here is our valiant team going to St Vincent's in November (November 28-Dec4)
FROM MEMPHIS:
Drew Woodruff, deacon at St Mary's Cathedral
Susan Nelson, MD, St Mary's
Adam and Stephen Nelson, my sons (Stephen is at St John's)
Dr. Bheki Khumalo, podiatrist, Grace St Luke's
Sherye Fairbanks, deaf interpreter, Holy Communion
John Mutin, paramedic, Holy Communion
Dr. Jennifer Holbourne, physical therapist
Dr. Keisha Land, pharmacist
Brandy Britton, nurse (our newest recruit!)

FROM NORTH CAROLINA
Jackie Harris, MD
Jill Bullard, deacon

FROM OHIO
Sonya Yencer, Red Thread Promise (organization that supports St Vincent's School and other children's charities, check out their blog at www.redthreadpromise.org
Hana Yencer, her daughter

FROM TEXAS
Angelene Price, Sherye's niece

Please add these folks to your prayer list, that God will prepare their hearts for the work they will do in Haiti

Each team member is responsible for their own airfare and lodging.  The plane tickets cost $750, and lodging is $330 for 6 days in Haiti at the guest house. If you would like to support the travel costs of this coming trip, your donation would be greatly appreciated by team members who have to raise their own funds!  You can mail your donation to The West Tennessee Haiti Partnership, c/o Denny Calloway, Diocese of West Tennessee, 692 Poplar, Memphis TN 38105.  Please mark your donation "for travel costs, Nov 2012"

God continues to send us amazing folks to join our teams. 12 members of this team have been to Haiti before, and are ready and willing to spend their own money and time to go again.  That tells you the power of the experience we have working with the children at St Vincent's.
Watch this blog over the next few months for updates about the rebuilding of the school and other news about St Vincent's School

Susan Nelson

Shoes for our kids

Last November, our team took several suitcases worth of crocs (shoes) for the kids at St Vincents. Unfortunately, because the crocs were collected at St Marys school, which is a GIRLS school, the shoes were all small sizes, none big enough for many of our teenage boys!  Ramelle, one of our nurses, says she will never forget the look of disappointment on Ricardo's face.  She vowed not to return to Haiti without a pair of shoes for him and the other teenage boys at the school. 

Now we have a very generous donation from a company called Chung Shi, who makes shoes called Dux. They are similar to crocs, and of good quality.  They have donated 150 pairs of shoes for us to take to St Vincents.  Cathie Pruitt, a parishioner at St Marys Cathedral, has worked with Drew Woodruff to make this possible.

This Saturday, June 9, at 10 AM, we will have a formal "presentation" of the shoes to Drew Woodruff at St Marys Cathedral. Many thanks to all who made this possible and for your prayers which continue to make amazing things possible for our kids at St Vincents.

Susan Nelson

Holy God We Praise Thy Name

I remember this hymn from my childhood in the Catholic church, and even Episcopalians sing it occasionally. To hear it sung in French, at Holy Trinity Cathedral, was a moving experience for all of us on our last Sunday in Haiti. The members of Holy Trinity watched their beloved and magnificent cathedral turn to piles of rubble and dust along with much of the rest of Port au Prince, in the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Today I was back in my own beloved cathedral of St Mary's, in Memphis, for Palm Sunday. I have often wondered how I would feel if St Marys were reduced to a pile of stones, the windows destroyed like the beautiful painted murals that once decorated the walls of Holy Trinity Cathedral. The people of Holy Trinity worship now in an open air pavilion, next door to their ruined cathedral. Their acolytes carry lighted torches and incense, and their priests consecrate the bread and wine the same as ever. The choir sings with joy on their faces and fills the open space with a wonderful sound. The Sunday we were there, they sang several familiar hymns, including Blessed Assurance (in French of course). The Blessed Assurance of God's faithfulness, even when what you see around you is destruction. I realized that even though the entire service was in another language, I was worshipping without words. Today, at St Marys, as we ended the dramatic Palm Sunday service, we sang "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom". I wept as I sang, thinking of all the children at St Vincents and the people of Haiti whom I have come to know over the last 4 years. Jesus will surely remember them and lead them, singing, into His Kingdom.

Susan Nelson

Pills R Us

One sees many things on the streets of Port au Prince, a crazy jumble of humanity and all manner of items for sale. One of our favorites is the man carrying a huge bucket, with an inverted cone of medications. The pills are packaged in blister packs, so the vendor has sheets and sheets of plastic blister packs in yellow, pink, blue, green, and white, even brown, displayed as a 4 foot tall cone shaped bulletin board, if you will. We never got close enough to read the names of the medications, but I imagine you can buy antibiotics, blood pressure medicine, cough and cold remedies, and probably things you never thought of. Also spotted on the streets for sale were stereo equipment, DVDs, handsome wooden furniture, plastic bins/buckets, mattresses, sugar cane (this comes in huge 4 foot lengths), fruit(melons of all kinds), bedframes, books, shoes, clothing including mens' suits, baby strollers. Its like Wal-Mart, but streetside. We spotted a baby stroller that we thought about buying, because we needed to make a seat for Margaret Vincent. Margaret is hydrocephalic, about 2 years old, and was left at St Vincents during one of our previous trips in 2009. See earlier posts about her story. She is one of the many handicapped orphans brought to the school by their parents. When I brought Dr Jeanne Jemison, a developmental pediatrician, to Haiti with me, my hope was that she would help me work with several particular students, and Margaret Vincent was one of them. Dr Jeanne examined Margaret, who spends her days in a crib upstairs at the school. She is well cared for, but severely handicapped so that she cannot sit up by herself, or even hold up her oversized head which looks too big for her small body. The matrons who care for her try to prop her up in a wheelchair, but she basically lays across the seat with her head hanging off one arm of the wheelchair, and her legs across the other arm of the chair. She holds her arms bent tightly at the elbows, but with stretching one can straightem her arms almost completely. She responds with a smile when you talk to her or stroke her face. Over the course of the week, Dr Jeanne, Clark (one of the CBU nurses) and I were scouting for adaptive materials to help this little girl. Dr Jeanne wanted to make some splints to help her hold her arms out straight, to keep them from becoming permanently contracted. In conversation with the school's orthopedic doctor, we found some plastic splint material we could use. How to form it so it would fit her arm, and not cut into her skin? Should we cover it with gauze, or leave it as is? We consulted an occupational therapist who happened to be staying at the same guest house. She recommended we leave the plastic uncovered, since it is manufactured with small holes in it, to allow the skin to breathe. We visited the school's brace shop, and spoke with the workers there who make braces and prosthetic appliances for the students, with simple tools and what looks like 1950s machinery. Dr Jeanne said the place reminded her of Campbell Clinic in the 1950s, where her father, an orthopedic surgeon, worked at one time. We had measured Margaret's arms and needed a splint 6 inches by 2 and 1/2 inches, for each arm. They cut the material for us. We worried about the sharp plastic corners. No problem, they said, and promptly rounded the corners with a lathe. So obvious! Our next treasure to find was an old car seat, actually gathering dust in a shed behind the guest house. The guest house is owned and operated by Healing Hands for Haiti, an organization which works on rehabilitating injured and disabled people! So they have lots of adaptive equipment, walkers, canes, etc, just lying around. Dr Jeanne spotted a car seat, the kind for an older child, with straps to hold Margaret sitting upright, and a back tall enough to support her entire trunk, much better than the wheelchair. Gail Buck, the proprietor of the guest house, kindly let me have the car seat for Margaret. All that remained was something to support her neck. Jeanne said what we needed was one of those airplane neck pillows that people travel with. Kristen graciously donated her pillow to the cause. The final result was magnificent. Margaret can now sit up in her car seat, strapped in so she does not fall out, with a pillow to support her head. She can see better and interact with the other children much better. She will be at less risk for skin pressure sores since she isnt lying in the crib all day. Dr Jeanne instructed the matrons carefully, through an interpreter, how to apply the splint with an Ace wrap, and to leave them on only at night. As Clark was working with Dr Jeanne to put all this together for Margaret, he made a comment (reported to me later) which will stay with me for a long time. He said that he thought that the reason he was put on this earth, was to care for children like Margaret.

"What Ladder"

Speaking of 12 women in one room, (see earlier post), a few of us had the pleasure of sleeping on the top bunk. The first few nights we were divided between two rooms, and the "older women" (that would be me, Amy, Sue, Karen and Jeanne) had our own room, lower bunks thank you. That is until Jeanne moved in the middle of the night one night, attempting to get away from the snoring. (names kept confidential to protect the innocent). She caused a brief upset by climbing onto the top bunk above Sue,who naturally was not expecting someone to climb into the bed above her in the middle of the night. At any rate, the weekend brought another group from Boston to the guest house, so all the Tennessee folks had to pile into one room, which meant some had to take top bunks. Sue, being the fearless leader from CBU, volunteered. Of course she didnt think about being one of the SHORTEST women, which made climbing onto the top bunk particularly challenging. One night I had already climbed into bed, settled in under the mosquito net, and was about passed out when I heard several loud "ooomphs" from just above me. This was the end of the week, as I said, so ordinary things take on a humorous note due to fatigue and mental exhaustion. I started giggling and couldnt stop. Then someone said to Sue, "You know there's a ladder!". This was our last night in the room and Sue had been struggling into that top bunk for 3 nights. Tee Hee

An Unlimited Supply of...

AKA Things We Will No Longer Take for Granted I polled our team members at the end of our week in Haiti, asking what they thought they would never again take for granted when they returned to their lives in the US. Here is the list: Soap in the Bathroom Clean water out of the tap, for brushing teeth ( as opposed to walking down the hall to the purified water cooler, usually done AFTER you are standing at the sink, with a full mouth of toothpaste, then realize you dont have any water to rinse your mouth with) Flushing toilets (Siennas personal favorite) Toilet paper in the bathroom Paper to dry your hands on. (common bathroom themes apparent) Hot showers Cold Diet Coke LUNCH! ( this vote from Brianna. Lunch each day was whatever we brought to the school in backpacks, usually bags of peanuts and granola bars. By Friday the pickings were pretty slim) Reliable electricity Clean streets A dresser to put your clothes in ( with 12 women in one room at the guest house, it felt like summer camp) The children at St Vincents have all their clothes in suitcases. The only personal space they have is their bunk bed. The ability to hear, and to see, and to walk normally. To communicate with the people around you. To connect easily with friends and family by cell phone. Texting has become second nature for many of us. The phone at the guest house could be used to call the States, but only the speaker phone worked. So calls home were not exactly private! "Hey ?Baby! I love you" followed by embarrassed grins from the team member in Haiti, knowing he was in a room full of 6-10 other people, all listening. Lastly, all the married folk agreed that the love of a supportive spouse gave them the energy and support needed to make this trip, to face the uncertainties of traveling in Haiti and the tragedies abundant all around us Thank you to all those who made it possible for us to be in Haiti. We appreciate you now more than ever.

Amazing grace

Amazing, Amazing

This is the word Dr. Susan Nelson used to describe St. Vincent’s School and Orphanage and the children in Haiti. A facility she has been serving since 2008 through the West Tennessee Haiti Partnership.

True – the school is amazing, given the lack of resources available to them. True - the children are amazing given their unique situations.

From the onset, the first ten minutes at the school I would have described the environment, children and staff as not Amazing but Amazing Grace.

The blind, deaf, mentally and physically impaired children are the epitome of amazing grace. The blind children lock arms and walk throughout the small compound, keeping one another safe. They smile, laugh, play and sing or play the violin without the aide of their eyes. The deaf children guide the blind, push those confined to wheelchairs to class or the clinic, and express the desires of a child via sign language and smiles. The smiles – the dance of joy when a 5 year old deaf child tries on the pink crocs and dances!! The smiles as the children color, paint, make jewelry, or play ball with others. The little boy that was a resident of St. Vincent’s that had shoes but wanted shoes for his two friends, day students at St. Vincent’s that did not have shoes. These two boys, his friends, lived with their families – he did not have a traditional family but rather the family at St. Vincent’s. An orphan concerned for his shoeless friends- Amazing Grace.

Marie Carmel, the 46 year-old wheelchair bound cook, unofficial matriarch, and life-time resident of St. Vincent’s. Marie was dropped off at St. Vincent’s when she was a baby, almost 47 years ago: her birthday is April 26^th. She has no knowledge of her family, yet she smiles and enjoys the children and her place of honor at St. Vincent’s. Each day she sits in the breezy place, in her wheelchair watching the children – overseeing the activities of the children, the courtyard and orphanage - Amazing Grace.

There is Jo Jo, the artist in residence. John Joseph, the rock star – he is limbless yet creates masterpieces with the use of an bandage to his right “nub” or his mouth. He signs with his nubs, eyebrows, lips, and face…he communicates with the deaf children, he translates English to Creole or Creole to English. He is the unofficial patriarch of St. Vincent’s, a 50 year resident. He does not know his birth family – yet he knows the story of each child at St. Vincent’s. He smiles, laughs, jokes and makes light of his lack of extremities. He never complains – Amazing Grace.

There is Margaret. The hydrocephalic toddler abandoned in November of 2010. She is fed, always dressed appropriately with even a ribbon occasionally in her hair. She does not speak. She does not walk and yet she responds to the touch of her caregivers. She responds to the physical therapy provided to prevent her arms and legs from contracting. This innocent, helpless child is loved by her caregivers: given to St. Vincent’s by a caring family member, who could not provide for her-Amazing Grace.

There is Pere (Father) Sadoni, the Priest and administrator of St. Vincent’s. A quiet young man in his early 30’s. He manages not only the orphanage and school but a church. He is guarded almost shy but so tender when you see him touch a child. He is devoted to the children, both residences and day-students. He uses the resources made available to make a difference in the lives of all the children. He allows a teenage boy to stay at St. Vincent’s and attend high school because he has no where to go. This boy lost his mother, the cook, and his younger brother in the earthquake. He could see them, he could hear them, he could give them water and food for three days but could not get them out of the rubble and they died. He plays his guitar and sings. He is not bitter or angry or troubled at the world but has moved forward. He provides comfort to the blind and deaf children and adults at the orphanage. He assures Father Sadoni he will work hard to be a good student – Amazing Grace.

Seven nurses enrolled at Christian Brothers University in the RN to BSN program and myself, their teacher were witnesses to the Amazing Grace of St. Vincent’s School and Orphanage in Port au’ Prince, Haiti. For five, short incredible days, we left our comfortable homes and families to travel to St. Vincent’s. The students assessed and documented the height, weight, arm circumference, and heart and lung sounds of 208 children in four – six hour days. They played with these children. They colored with the blind and deaf. They painted the nails, combed the hair and made beaded necklaces. They held them. They cradled them in their arms and loved them. These seven nurses immersed themselves with the children and staff of St. Vincent’s – Amazing Grace.

This was designed as a student clinical experience, a “mission trip” to provide health care to Haiti. However it reality, it was a human experience where the children and adults of St. Vincent gave far more to us, the CBU community then we did to them through their Amazing Grace.

Sue Trzynka, Ph.D., RN

A few pictures