The PA Team

     A mission team from central Pennsylvania left this morning. They arrived in Christianville last Saturday. They were a terrific group of people: seven women (four nurses) and two men (pastors). The people in the mission teams are volunteers. They take off from work (or school), they pay their own way to Haiti, and they pay for their meals, lodging and transportation while at Christianville. Don’t let the term “mission” mislead you. These folks are not here to preach or convert. They come here to help Haitians.

     Sunday, the day after their arrival, we all got on the C’ville school bus and drove to Grand Goâve for an afternoon at the beach. It was a beautiful day: hot sun, warm, calm sea, and a cold Prestige. One of the PA team waded out into the water to bring us our beers (I knew then that this was a great team). So I had a Prestige while relaxing in the water at the beach. I think somebody took a picture but I did not have my smartphone with me to get one myself. This was the beach where I ate the lambi that did me in for three days (see 11-11-13 post).

     The PA team started work at the clinic on Monday. That evening the nurses told us that a patient died at the clinic that afternoon. The patient had an abscess and went into cardiac arrest at the clinic. So what do you do when a patient “codes”? You are a well-trained nurse who instantly swings into action to stabilize the patient until the code team with the “crash cart” arrives. But you are in a clinic in Haiti. You are the code team. The crash cart at the clinic was ill equipped. The ambu bag, the self-reinflating bag used during resuscitation, was dirty and moldy. And the patient was also HIV positive. Despite their best efforts, the patient could not be revived. The death was particularly hard on one of the younger nurses. She was upset that the kinds of things she would instinctively have done to try and save this patient she could not do, some of the material was just not available. It’s only their first day at the clinic and the PA team was getting their first personal experience with the frustrations of working in Haiti.

     The PA team was a really fun group. They were friendly and joked and laughed (loudly) all the time. So they pulled together, supported each other and went back to work the next morning with energy and joy. All week long they worked at the clinic, played with the children at the orphanage, tutored children, and distributed rice and other items that they bought. At meals we talked about what we did during the day, and shared stories about family, Philly, and PA. It was a pleasure talking with them. We were becoming family. The ladies made chicken salad one day for lunch and shared it with us. Teams sometimes bring in “goodies” that they share with the C’ville folks. So one afternoon I had some pretzel sticks dipped in Trader Joes chocolate. In Haiti! They also brought in several boxes of Pringles (Meer’s favorite), a box of Cheerios (Raymond’s favorite), and boxes of cake mix. It’s funny how you forget about these everyday food items when you are down here and so they become special treats. Thursday night, we all got back on the C‘ville school bus and drove to the Ocean Grille for dinner. My appetite was back so I enjoyed the meal. Almost everyone, including myself, ordered the charcoal grilled red snapper (but Georgie ordered lambi; he just can’t get enough). It was a fun night out and a welcome break from the dining hall menu.

     So this morning at breakfast, I found the PA team in the dining hall with all their bags packed and ready to leave. Some of the orphanage kids came to say goodbye. Pictures were taken, email addresses were exchanged, and there were hugs all around. The PA team boarded the C’ville school bus and headed into PAP for their flight back to the U.S. All was quiet at C'ville this afternoon.

     Another mission team came in this evening.