Hi folks: I am sure everyone is anxious about the situation in Haiti as news of the Cholera outbreak spreads. Of course it is of great concern for all of us, and we are all praying that the major thrust of it can be contained in the Artibonite. I read on one of the sites today that there are two suspected cases in Croix des Bouquets that are being investigated. We are taking precautions as necessary and I have given some health lessons to the staff as well as a some chlorox for them to have at home and I also told them how to make the homemade oral rehydrations salts.

Wilner has been a very busy fellow as Hopital Albert Schweitzer is right in the middle of the Valley and it as well as all of the other hospitals in the area have been inundated with patients arriving for care. Wilner has been out and about in the small communities delivering health messages and treatment care etc. He and his colleague were even on the local radio station to help spread the word. I just got off the phone with him and he says although folks are still coming to the hospital the numbers of folks coming seems to be declining somewhat.

The Health Dept in our area is having an information and planning meeting on Monday. I will be othewise occupied but I am sending someone to represent me at the meeting and to take notes.

So please keep your prayers coming Haiti's way......oh so many are saying "what next can happen"?!

Today I saw the "Slick" team off (Dr Randy's medical team from Statesboro Georgia and Hamilton, Ontario). They were so named for the well oiled fashion in which they conducted the medical clinis. We did three days at the School for students and community members and then we worked in one of the smaller tent site areas. The last day we saw staff at Little Children of Jesus and several of the girls at Marie's. ...all added up we saw about 675 people. Several of the highlights were seeing the overnight improvement of a little girl who came in with a fever of 104+. She was given a shot of antibiotics and then other treatment to take at home. The next day she returned for follow up and to Maria's delight, she was a different little girl. Dr Randy saw a young student from the school who has yet to return to school due to a huge abscess he had under his jaw. After a 24 hour period of antibiotic treatment with little change, Dr Randy, ended up draining the abscess and he went home with a variety of medications. I will be seeing him on Tuesday to see how he is coming along.

We were fortunate to have great Haitian staff working with us to help the clinics go so well. They included a health agent, interpretors and 2 different Haitian physicians. The community at the camp site had a health committee and they did a great job of keeping the folks in order and they waited very patiently to be seen.

One day coming home we had quite the experience as we were traveling through Croix des Bouquets just as the political rally for the inauguration of Jude Celestin's campaign for president was coming to an end. The traffic was HORRENDOUS. It was so bad that many folks gave up on the tap taps and just started walking to their destination. Odney and I had the pleasure of going through it twice as the bus carrying half the team broke down and after dropping the one set of folks off at Hope House we turned right around to go and get the others who were still at the Metal workers area. By time we got there a young very talented kid had the vehicle fixed and then we headed back together. If anything the traffic had gotten worse, so we ended up taking a very convoluted route throught the back streets of CdB to get ahead of the traffic. One of the fellows from the metal workers neighbourhood acted as our guide. It was a bumpy road but it was much better than sitting in the traffic for over an hour.

I will continue this story at another time..it is time to go and get dinner together for the team that arrived this afternoon....yes the beds hardly got cooled down before they were being filled up again. I am pretty proud of this team as they are all from my hometown of Hamilton...the first full team of Canadians to be at Village of Hope.

Have a good evening and I'll be back in the not too distant future.

Debbie