Surprises In Haiti

Hello from Haiti! It was my day to write the blog today for the Rayjon blog so I just copied and pasted.
Woke up with an early start today to explore, what we were told by the Haitians as the 8th wonder of the world, the Citadel in Cap Haitian. We were so surprised on our way when we were driving on paved roads with stop signs, speed bumps, crosswalks, and passing lanes! You don't see that often in Haiti. On our way we picked up our tour guide for the day and continued to the palace. Our tour guide was amazing at teaching us the history behind both the palace that was destroyed by an earthquake 200 years ago and the Citadel. We were able to do a little bit of bartering with the local people for bracelets which was an awesome learning experience for us all! We were bombarded when we got to the entrance to the pathway of the Citadel by locals that were trying to sell us souvenirs and wanted us to ride their horses up the pathway. We learned that the Citadel was built in 1806 by Roi Christophe who hired over 200,00 people to help build it and over 20,000 died. It was built to protect the Haitians from an invasion by the French. On our walk which was completely uphill we were accompanied by many locals who were able to teach us some Creole! It was a great experience to be able to communicate and bond with the local people.

We were also able to visit a hospital in Milo and we were toured by a Haitian nurse and our driver/interpreter Eddie Josef. It was so nice to hear that the cholera tent that the hospital has had no more than 2 patients when we visited today! The Haitians have done an amazing job at teaching the people the importance on washing their hands properly, treating the water, cleaning tips etc. This hospital also flew in a lot of earthquake victims for prosthetic limbs. We met a doctor from the United States, who was a surgeon down for the week performing surgeries at this hospital. I have been very surprised at the Haitian healthcare system. So far what I have seen it is much better than I expected it to be! The hospitals that we have seen are well organized and well run by the Haitian people with support from organizations around the world. As a nursing student it was so neat to be able to compare and contrast the differences and similarities in the health care systems. Today when we walked into the pre-op area of the surgical area, I was surprised to see vital sign monitoring machines that were exactly the same as the ones we have in Canada. We have witnessed the Haitians making changes to the health care system to better it so that they are able to recognize diseases in the earlier stages before it becomes terminal. I am looking forward to returning to work as a nurse in Haiti one day and witness the growth and development of the health care system.

One year later and I am back to Haiti!

In 3 days I will be on my way back to Haiti to a place called Cap-Haitian, it's in the northern part of Haiti. This time I will be going with a group called Rayjon from Sarnia on a leadership trip so that one day I can lead trips through Rayjon to the Dominican Republic and Haiti!! I will be joined by 3 other youth members and a professor from Toronto and our trip leader Bob! We will be meeting 3 other Rayjon members down in Haiti. We fly to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and we will be staying overnight in the airport and then head to Port au Prince at 7:30 am Sunday morning. When we arrive in Port au Prince we will take a flight to Cap Haitian which takes about an hour. I am so excited to be able to be going back one year later to a place that a has a huge chunk of my heart! I'm excited to be able to interact with the Haitian people, eat some Haitian food and see the beautiful sights! I am not sure of our exact agenda just yet but do know we will spending a lot of time at the Sacred Heart centre that Rayjon supports and helping out with the daycare that is run their in the morning. I am also able to bring a guitar along with me this trip and am learning a couple french songs to be able to sing with the children:) Please keep our group in your thoughts and prayers!! I hope to update once from Haiti!