CHANGING LIVES AND MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Dave Wooster and Board of Directors list objectives for June trip
Changing lives and making a difference takes detailed planning, coordination and hard work. Earlier this year, 23 volunteers on the June mission trip accepted the challenge and are now focused on achieving six objectives below:
- Spend time with orphaned children and shower them with love and attention.
- Install new septic system necessary for better sanitation.
- Install additional solar panels to provide more electricity to the staff and children.
- Provide Vacation Bible School program to nourish the spiritual life of school children.
- Extend medical care to Montrouis community through our medical outreach.
- Rennovate and expand the kitchen to improve food preparation and safety, and ability to feed more children.
Actions and Results for Wednesday, June 20: Posted by Caryn Wooster
The medical team set up clinic at the Eden Garden Orphanage and saw about 110 patients for the day. We treated many sick children. A little girl with typhoid and severe dehydration stayed most of the day so her body could accept the I.V. fluids needed. Her condition improved and her mother will bring her by again tomorrow for us to check her out. We saw several other children with high heart rates that indicated they were severely dehydrated. A lot of rashes, malaria and wounds were also seen.
The construction team knocked down a concrete wall behind the kitchen to make room for the new drains which they installed to accommodate the new kitchen sinks.
The septic team made the preparations to install a 1500 gallon septic tank. The electric wiring for the kitchen was also started. As usual, we encountered many problems along the way, so progress was slow, but this is normal for Haiti.
The Vacation Bible School team treated 150 students of Eden Garden Academy on the orphanage campus to a program of crafts, stories and games today. They made their own name plates and put their handprints on tee shirts. They played soccer and had LANCE cracker snacks which were donated by friends of (trip member) Stacey Torrens from Tampa, Florida.
When we were all done with our various tasks, we spent time hanging out with our Eden Garden family of 37 kids. They jumped rope, played games and just enjoyed the love and attention we gave them. Back at the hotel, we had dinner and then shared our experiences from our first day.
Actions and Results for Thursday, June 21: Posted by Caryn Wooster
The medical team saw 236 patients in the village of Fond Paul including a two year old girl, who presented with a fever of 106.6. She was lethargic and unresponsive, not even flinching when I.V. fluids were administered to her. She had tuberculosis, pneumonia and possibly malaria as well. She received fluids for most of the day, improving little by little as her fever went down, and she finally sat up, ate some Cheetos and drank some Gatorade and felt much better.
We also saw a baby who sat on a pot of boiling water and had horrible burns on his bottom area – the poor little guy just wailed as the dead skin was removed and the healing Silvadene cream was applied to his burns. He will be seen by our nurse at the Eden Garden clinic for follow up care to be sure his burns healed properly. After finishing up with Vacation Bible School at the school, the team joined the medical team in nearby Fond Paul to lend a hand in the medical clinic.
Kurt Kesselman and Chris Cromwell placed the sinks and new kitchen cabinets which had been built back home in Maryland by Kurt, Scott Kramer, Dave Wooster & Charles LeMorzellec then shipped over on the sea container we sent over this spring.
The roof got poured today so 9 additional solar panels will be installed tomorrow, giving the orphanage another 2500 watts of power. They also plan to get the electrical line installed which would bring power to the clinic. Larry and Dave Wooster, Ron Chapman and Scott Kramer got the plumbing rough-ins done and worked on the septic system. As they dug in the ground, they uncovered mysteries that presented some problems and made for a !?@# (bleep) day…let’s just say the septic one-liners were “free flowing!”
The school students had another great day of Vacation Bible School led by Season Townsend, Stacey Torrens, Vanessa Bevington, Emily Barnett, Ranee Selufsky, Jonathan Ordway, and my daughter, Sabrina Wooster.
The kids finished their tee shirts with their handprints and the school principal (Christian Toussaint) declared that Fridays will now be “tee shirt day” where the kids get a break from wearing their usual school uniform for one day. They played soccer, jump rope, basketball, beach balls and a parachute and enjoyed “Cliff Bar” snacks donated by the running store in Tampa. Christian also told Dave that this program was absolutely the highlight of the children’s entire school year!
After dinner, we discussed our various experiences from the day. Each team reported on their particular project so that everyone could have an insight of progress in different areas. We all agreed that the septic team had the worst gig of all!
Actions and Results for Friday, June 22: Posted by Caryn Wooster
The medical team drove out to the fishing village of Ravine Seche (“Village 87”) and set up the clinic in a small community center. 226 people stood for hours in the hot, Haiti sun waiting to be seen. Since the cost of a visit to the doctor is almost equal to the yearly wage for an average person in Haiti, people waited patiently for free medical care. We saw people with a lot of high blood pressure and some pneumonia along with the usual parasites, malaria, dehydration, malnutrition.
Our most memorable patient was a 106 year old woman who was waving her hands in praise to her God for blessing her with such a long life.
Kitchen renovation team members, Kurt & Chris, placed the cabinets with the donated granite on top, and set the sinks in place.
The septic system team had to take a trip to Port-Au-Prince for supplies, which took all day. All new 9 solar panels were placed and are now working. The guys also continued work on the electrical wiring which will bring power to our medical clinic on the orphanage campus.
The Vacation Bible School team joined the medical team on Friday and will hold their final program on Sunday. Friday night, we enjoyed sitting with the kids reading and singing for their family worship.
When we got back to the hotel that evening, we learned that a 6 year old girl had drowned in the pool. She was unresponsive to CPR for 5 minutes then started responding and was rushed to the hospital in Port-Au-Prince. Team members, Stacey Torrens (R.N.) and Vanessa Belington, both from Florida, were there on the scene and accompanied the caregivers of the little girl (Belinda) to the hospital. When they left the hospital, she was stable and they undergoing some tests to see if there was any long-term damage done. We hope to hear an update today on how she’s doing.
Stay tuned--Caryn Wooster