February 5th, 2010: Morning Mountain Assessment Trip

Here I am on an early morning drive through the mountains above Port O' Prince. We are checking out the rurals areas where a lot of aid agencies have not been concentrating on.

The Haitians walk over 12 miles through the mountains top bring their goods to market. This trip is both up and down mountains regardless of whether you are going or coming to market. We saw many childeren being used to help haul goods. We were not sure if this was normal or the families were taking advantage of all national schools being closed for 3 months.

At first they were just dots on the mountains.

Then as you got close you could see how hard these people were working to get their goods to market. They do this 3 times a week.

Even the donkeys looked tired. At least the morning was cool, I can't immagine the heat on their return trip.

Be greatful as you get in your car today whether its a beater or an expensive vehicle. God has blessed you with something that these people can not even dream of in their lifetime. The rich people are the ones with the donkeys or horses.

This little boy had his head peirced by rebar when the cieling collapsed on him. He had not had a tetnus shot at this point.

We then went down to hospitals to check on the back log of amputations at the remaining hospitals and to see if we could find any possible free post-op bed space. This critical shortage is impacting the number of surgeries the surviving hospitals and the naval hospital ships can do.

a large number of the surgeries were externally fixated fractures that are vary vulnerable to infection in these dirty environments.

Most post-op patients are outside under tarps.

This is a Mercy Ship alumni working for the German medical NGO, Humedica. She is an anesthesiologist, which is the most critical medical skill right now, people like her are needed throught the country.

We are leaving in 2 days, I am torn. I want to go back to my girls, but the need here is so great!

Mark -Out