I have been asked frequently how my trip to the DR and Haiti was since I have returned home. Heaven on earth and hell on earth is the best way I can describe it. The Dominican side of the island is the most beautiful, most peaceful place I have ever been to while the Haiti side of the island has to be hell on earth right now. Total chaos,total destruction,overwhelming loss and the blank faces of the people-that is what is etched into my mind about Haiti. Our trip began after a long day of flying from Atlanta to Miami to Santo Domingo Dominican Repulblic. 7 strong women-no men. All of us saw a a calling so overwhelming we had to go. We all had skills that we felt God was wanting us to use even though at the time we didn't know exactly how. We were greeted at the airport by pastor Pedro and travel what should have been a 4hr trip into Baharona but at night on winding moutain roads took about 6hrs. We finally arrived at the mission house exhausted but very happy to see all my sister's Dominican family. Not friends now-they are family. I was greeted by hugs of these people very grateful to see their "sister." Sister in Christ. The following day began with the group dividing into 2 smaller groups. Me,Vanessa a RN from Douglas and my sister Gale headed to a local small hospital that housed Haitian refugees. We didn't know what we would encounter. When we arrived there we were asked to care for these refugees by attending to their wounds. Many had amputaions that hadn't had any care since the initial surgery with sutures still embedded so tightly that they could barely be removed while others had their fractures addressed surgically but had not had any wound care since. These people were extremely happy to have their wounds addressed. We spent most of the day there then traveled into the countryside to one of the small villages in the middle of a sugar cane field. This place was called batey 7. I have never in my life seen a group of people have so little but be so happy. These people lived in small makeship homes but all the children had the biggest smiles on their faces. Many didn't even have clothing but even that didn't make any differnece to them. They loved having their photos taken as most of them had never seen photos of themselves. That night was spent back at the mission house sorting all the supplies we had brought in. Thanks to many people but mostly Vanessa and Roni Jo and the people of Douglas Georgia and University Hospital in Augusta, we had almost every wound care supply known to mankind and approx 25,000 doses of oral antibiotics. Our next day began around 4am while getting ready to travel into Haiti. It was about a 4hrs ride across the border. We were stopped numerous times by military roadblocks. I held my breath as we crossed to border hoping that we would make it and not get told to turn around and go back but we were told to go through. We finally arrived to a church compound outside of Port au Prince. The church had collapsed partially but a small room in the back is where we set up our clinic. We treated patients as the crowd gathered and the children played outside. The number of patients wasn't large but suddenly a young woman appeared walking with a stick and limping. We were told by the translator that her foot had been crushed in the earthquake and she had not had any medical care since it happened. Looking at the wound I was praying to mysellf that we would be able to do something for her. Vanessa worked feverishly cleaning this infected,foul smelling nasty wound while all the time knowing what she was working on was very serious. Once the wound was cleaned it was obvious that she had a very serious crush injury to her foot that was massively infected and the bones were broken and protruding through the skin. How on this earth she had been able to withstand this pain not to mention the pain of having the area cleaned is beyond me. I expressed my concerns to Pastor Pedro that this wound was very serious and she would most likely need to have her foot amputated and needed to be taken to a hospital. The team agreed to pack everything up and try to take this lady to a hospital. She had a 5 month old baby which she was breast feeding and 2 other small children she had to leave behind. Thank goodness we had baby formula with us so we were able to leave this with the father. We found a rural hospital. I finally got to talk to a Dr. that was an American Dr. who was overseeing this hospital and he made sure she was admitted. It was amazing that he was an American doctor but his father was also a retired doctor who at one time was the head of the radiology department at The Medical College of Georgia where I attended school. You can't tell me that God puts you where you are needed if only you will put your faith in him. When we left the hospital, we still had supplied that we wanted to leave in Haiti so our translator told us he knew where to take them. He took us into the heart of Port au Prince to the large hospital there. Riding through these streets was overwhelming. Seeing the massive amount of people in the streets among all the rubble was heartbreaking. We arrived at the hospital and met an International medical group and then were introduced to the Clinton foundation group who very gratefully accepted our supplies. We then headed back to the Domincan. The following day we returned back to the hospital to continue care for the Haitian refugees. The next day we began our long day of return travel home. I finally got home around 2am friday morning. I was physically and mentally exhausted but comletely fullfilled knowing that even though we were a team of just 7 strong women, we made a difference. If only a small difference, it was still a difference. We may have touched these peoples lives but they have touched ours more that they could ever imagine. If God is willing, I am hoping to return to the Dominican in June and continue working with these people in the Bateys. I am forever changed.
