Today we went up to a place called Souffrier to do a mobile clinic. Tim (lab professor) got sick this morning, and there was another extra spot on the truck, so Carly and Emily, two of the girls on Tim's medical team, came instead. Our team consisted of Gavin (doctor for N. Ireland), Amy (nurse from Canada), Julie (physio from N. Ireland), Evan (doctor from N. Ireland), Mary (lab technician from the US), Ms. Prudence and Ketsey (Haitian nurses), Joel (Haitian evangelist), Carly and Emily (girls on Tim's team from the US), and me.
On the way there we stopped by an ice factory to fill up our icebox. I had seen so many people selling ice on the street, so it was cool to see where they were getting the ice from. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the foot of the mountain, then another hour and 45 minutes to hike over the mountain. There were many volunteers from the village we were going to, and they carried our boxes and bags for us. The guys who carried our boxes on their heads, most of them barefoot, took a shorter but steeper path, while our team took the longer and easier way. We walked along a stream, which we had to cross several times. Near the end we had to cross a river on foot, so we took off our shoes and socks. The girls made fun of us guys because the Haitian guide "helped" us cross the river by holing our hands, which we totally didn't need at all. In fact it would have been easier to cross if they just let us on our own. Anyhow, it was a fun hike.
Our hosts had prepared brunch for us when we arrived. It was about 9:30AM. We were told that we won't eat until we finish the clinic, so I ate a lot, but then we ended up eating lunch at 1:00PM. They had slaughtered a goat for us so we had it for lunch and dinner. It'll probably be our breakfast tomorrow as well. Usually when people slaughter a goat, they use every part of it. They make soup out of the gut and bones, which we had for dinner, and they even eat the head, which fortunately wasn't served to us.
We were able to set up the clinic surprisingly fast. We used the church building for the waiting room and consultation rooms, and the storage for the pharmacy. The lab was setup outside next to an amazing view. Gavin and Ms. Prudence consulted on their own while Evan and Amy worked together (they either say Amy was translating for Evan, or Evan was helping Amy confirm her thoughts). Julie, Carly, and Ketsey worked in the pharmacy. Mary, Emily and I worked in the lab. Joel walked around talking to people about Christ.
I greeted the patients that came to the lab, checked what tests needed to be done, and drew blood if needed. There were a few patients, especially kids, whose veins were so small that I couldn't draw blood from them. b helped me out by using the syringe technique. In all, I drew blood from about 20 patients and did finger sticks on a few. Emily did the screening tests. We had a lot of patients with H. pylori, a few with malaria, and a few others with Hep B. Mary did everything involving the microscope and all the rest. Since Tim wasn't there, she was quite busy.Joel, our Haitian evangelist, did an amazing job, and lead 25 people to Christ today. That's 10% of all the patients we saw. Praise God!
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