 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Our March 2007 mission trip took place from March 7th through March 21st, 2007. This group of 11 was made up of team members from Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Virginia and they arrived and departed at different times, but they were still able to accomplish much. The photo below was taken on the one day during our visit when everyone was together at the same time!
middle (left to right) Laura Corbett, Jamie Charles, Tammy Poulin, Kirstin Wardrick front (left to right) Kathy Farmer, Deb Eklund, Elisabeth "Izzy" Hollinger  (left) The four "newbies" who flew into Haiti with the first group on Missionary Flights International  (right) Laura was the only "newbie" who flew into Haiti with the second group on Lynx Air As usual, our primary purpose on this trip was to add new children and to update many of the children in the Sponsorship Program. We also added children from two new schools again - this time the schools were in Juchereau and Roche Platte. We were able to interview, measure and photograph 471 children on this trip.  (left) Joe helps measure one of the cuties in the Center of Protection in Terrier Rouge  (right) Laura measuring one of the little boys in the primary school in Terrier Rouge  (left) Carlyn measuring a secondary student in Terrier Rouge  (right) Jamie and Laura working on interviews with Pastor Kenth in Roche Platte Several of our team members are medical professionals - Laura is a Physician's Assistant, Izzy is a Medical Assistant and Matt and Carlyn are Physical Therapists - and their medical training was put to good use on this trip.  On our visit to Danda, Laura and Izzy were put to work helping the medical staff of their clinic. They saw several patients, which was quite a help as the clinic was short-staffed that day.    (right) Izzy and Laura and the inevitable paperwork!  Shortly before our arrival in Haiti, Pastor Josue of L'eglise Baptiste in Paulette suffered a stroke. It was a blessing for this team to have so many medical personnel who were able to work together to supplement the care Pastor Josue was receiving from his Haitian doctors and help him with his recovery. Pictured at left is Lesley West, a friend of ours from Maine, who was visiting in Terrier Rouge while we were there. Lesley is a cardiologist!  Once Pastor's blood pressure began to improve, Matt and Carlyn were able to get to work to help him improve his physical abilities. In the photo at right, we see Carlyn teaching an exercise which will strengthen Pastor's right arm - his wife is assiting him.  Matt and Carlyn also helped him to improve his walking ability as his right leg was also adversly effected by his stroke.  Carlyn also had an opportunity to help a couple of other girls in town who have problems with their mobility. Here we see Joe helping Carlyn work with a young girl who has a great deal of difficulty walking.  During our time in Haiti we became aware that one of the girls in the Sponsorship Program, whose name is Cherfritz-mene (right), was having some serious health issues. Laura, Izzy and the team were able to make "house calls" each day to try to help her with these issues. As always, one of our favorite activities on any trip is introducing first-time travelers to their sponsored children as well as watching those who have met their sponsored children on previous trips continue to build their relationships. (left) Alex meets his family's sponsored child, Anne Chana, for the first time  (right) Carlyn with her sponsored child, Jiska, who she met for the first time on this trip  (left) Another first meeting - Deb and one of her sponsored children, Mackson  (right) Izzy with two of her sponsored children, Kerby and Youseline, along with their older brother. This was Izzy's second trip to Haiti so it was an opportunity for them to continue build their relationship.  (left) Kirstin with her sponsored child, Chama, who she has known since 2004 and with whom she has a very strong bond, and Chama's little sister, Christine, who is named after Kirstin Not only does the team spend time with their sponsored children, but they enjoy spending time with all the children who come to visit them when they are in Terrier Rouge.   Matt and Kathy with some new friends   Alex and Joe with some new friends  (left)Tammy with two of her sponsored children, Roseguerline and Merlange  (right) Jamie and her friend, "Fifi" and Fifi's daughter, Christine, who is Jamie's goddaughter (and is the child who is named after Kirstin, who is Jamie's daughter)  (right) And speaking of daughters, Kirstin announced on this trip that she is expecting her first child! Here we see some of her young friends learning the news for the first time - note where their fingers are pointing!  (right) And here's Joe helping his new friends fill the water tank by hauling up buckets of water by hand!  (left) The kids just love to look at photos on Alex's digital camera!  (right) The kids also love to flock around the team members - Tammy is especially popular!  (left) Whenever we went for a walk, there was always at least one child tagging along......  (right) ....or a couple of children.....  (left) ....or a handful (or armful!) of children.....  (right) ....or a half-dozen.....  (left) ....or a hundred! This is one of our favorite parts of any day - just walking with the children!  (right} Another one of our favorite things to do is just spending time bonding as a team.  (left) We had team members who had never met before, like Deb and Tammy.  (right) And there were team members who had shared a previous trip, like Izzy and Kathy.  (left) And then there were veteran team members, "old" friends, and fellow His Hands board members, like Jamie and Kathy. Everyone joined together and worked as one body to come alongside and assist our Haitian brothers and sisters in the work they are doing in Haiti. All in all, it was another wonderful trip. We'll leave you here with some of our favorite photos from this trip, taken by various team members. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.        
|
|
