Monday, January 25, 2010

Dan is back

Saturday was another jam-packed day for Dan. He spent the day with a journalist from the Panhandle of Florida, a doctor and a pilot. He took them on a tour of the general hospital, a tent city and the mission hospital. Dan was interviewed on camera by the journalist and was able to share the needs of Haiti.

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Dr. Bill, Medical Director of the mission hospital, and a 15 year old amputee patient.

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Visiting the mission hospital. The patient has one leg in a cast and one that is pinned. The hospital has no orthopedic pins, so the missionary doctor, Dr. Bill, improvised and made what he needed with rebar (construction rebar!).

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A young patient at the mission hospital.

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Visiting the general hospital in Cayes. It is so crowded that they are using a catholic eyes, ears, nose, throat clinic to house additional patients.

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Dan and Dr. Leger (in the red shirt) explaining things to a visiting doctor who is also a pilot and had flown himself in to work for a week.

He was also on the phone a lot! Plans for the team from Southwest Florida didn’t come together as needed for Monday, today, but things are still being worked on for them to get to Cayes soon.

Communications are so difficult in Haiti. Calls were going back and forth here in the US as arrangements were discussed. When Dan or Dr. Bill, were needed, we would contact Amy, Gary or Marilyn by Instant Messenger (they have satellite internet). One of them would then send someone after Dan and/or Dr. Bill who would go to Gary’s house to use their Vonage phone. Sometimes the phone would work, sometimes it wouldn’t. Just communicating with the states can be a full time job!

Sunday Dan flew to Nassau and then on to Ft. Lauderdale. He was, in his words, “one tired puppy”!

Today he met with an international aid organization in Ft. Lauderdale to explore partnering with them.

Then he came home! Wow, what a trip – and there’s so much more to do in Haiti. Keep up those prayers.