Hard at work in Haiti

Arrived in Haiti on Saturday morning... as usual, travelling to Haiti is never without some adventures... Michele got re-routed from LAX to JFK before arriving into Haiti later than expected because of the events which took place at LAX on Friday. When Nam, Adrian and I arrived at FLL airport to come to Haiti, it had been evacuated!!! After an hour, we were allowed back in and the people at American Airlines were super efficient and got us in the air with only a 20 minute delay! We enjoyed a day of R&R at Club Indigo where we met some UN workers from Canada, Brazil and Argentina. We left bright and early on Monday morning for HUM in Mirebalais. Lovely new facility with lovely people! We offered workshops on all things stroke - including communication, dysphagia and positionning/transfers. There were over 30 pariticipants including MDs, RNs and therapists. We drove back down the mountain and back to Port-au-Prince and after we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours to move 6kms... we managed to go to Montana for a lovely dinner. We were up and at 'em bright and early on Tuesday morning and took a small 5 passenger airplane over the mountains to Les Cayes... of course - nothing is easy for us, so we were way over weight and had to frantically move things around in our bags and ended up having to leave 2 bags behind! On Tuesday and Wednesday, we taught at MTI in Les Cayes. Once again - all things stroke including pathophysiology, communication, dysphagia and positionning/transfer/posture. Participapnts here included MDs, RNs and therapists. The group was very engaged and participated very well througout. We were also able to assess and provide therapy/techniques for 3 stroke patients, and our P&O tech provided some training and education to their P&O tech. Wednesday afternoon saw us hop on a little motor boat where we outran a storm the whole way over... again - because travelling is always an adventure for us, we took on some passengers from another boat that was way to full... always scary to see scared Haitians jumping from one boat to another! But all were safe! We arrived at Ile-a-Vache where we were greeted by Damien from Ireland. We made our first stop at Ile-a-Vache's own Irish Pub (really this is a little square, with a tin roof and caution tape as walls - but they have cold beer. We hiked up the hill to Damien's house and watched movies under the stars with the local kids and adults! This was the first time any of us have stayed at Damien's... he has a breathtaking view... but... very warm under the bug nets... even enjoyed the cold shower in the morning!!! We are at the orphanage right now, Michele, Nam and Adrian are working with the therapists, and I'm sitting in on the classroom for 9 kids...I'm so very impressed with the teacher and the kids!!! They were all happy to see me - which is always a nice feeling! We'll be here for the next day and a half - then we take a boat back to the mainland, and then hopper over the mountains to Jacmel. Happy to be here!!!