Mission Trip Report - February 17-25, 2011
Mission Focus Area #2 – Health Care for our Sister Parish
• Medical clinic/pharmacy
Clinic Results/Numbers - Totals estimated at about 1,000 Patients including school kids. Patient flow was steady with no issues finding
patients. We used lights most every night some to finish. Last day we stopped creating new dossiers at noon and it worked out prefect.
• Dental clinic/cleanings/restoration, and extractions.
Dental Results/Numbers - Estimated at about 600 extractions and 150 repairs. Cleansing unknown. Dental chairs are needed. Need to
let Father know what we want and he can try to have them made. Hired extra translator to help in dental. Used Dr. Lintz as more of a
dentist and less of a translator. First day (Saturday) setup in the school tents. The problem was the ground was not flat in this
location. Very strong team that worked very hard.
• Home health care visits/gather community information/train people on handwashing, build tippy taps, toothbrushing in school, and use of provided fluoride.
First day of clinic was so crazy did not get Sandy out to do this. Sandy went out late the second day with sister Fran, one of the health
workers, and one of the translators. Found it very diffuclt to communicate to the people. People struggled to answer even what seemed
like the most straight forward questions…for example how many people live in this house – likely because the number constantly
changes. Found the translator makes a big difference on how much data you gather. Found people just don’t each much meat. Found
most of the people use bleach in their water. Third day of clinic Sandy went out with Father Nexcene and Father Pascal to a chapel.
Chapel experience was great…could really understand much more about the difficulty of life in such an isolated environment. Very
physically challenging. Fourth day did the tippy taps with the teachers in the school. This was a great exercise. Everyone seemed to
enjoy the exercise. Passed out soap and hand washing instructions to people in the clinic. With the help of doctor Lentz did the tooth
brush training at the school. Father organized the whole school to listen to the training all at one time. This was the best training
session we have ever had for the school.
• Eye training to healthworkers.
Sister Fran continued her training on the eye course. Trained for two half days. Sister was very happy with the ability of the health
workers to pick up the subject. Overall very happy with the way training went.
• ID Cards
Once we got the system figured out again the process worked very well. Need to figure out what to do when there are 30 people sitting
in front of you. Stephanie did great with this difficult job.
• Provide Surgeries and Learn the Surgery Process in Haiti.
15 days was not enough time for the health workers to organize patients. What can we do in the future to get a little back from the
people. For example can they clean the Church or something to show that we don’t just give away everything….take some ownership in
it. On the first day of clinic in Gandou found two emergency cases. One was an appendix that was about to rupture. The second was
thought to be Osteomyelitis or severe Sickle cell. Sent both patients down to Jacmel team even though they were not expecting patients
until the next day. Surgery team performed an emergency surgery on the little box with the bad appendix. They very likely saved his
life. Performed 15 surgeries. Learned the process and a huge amount about Jacmel. Patients stayed in Jacmel overnight at a $10 per
night Archdiocese guest house. This is real potential place for us to stay in the future. It is a nice place. Great experience and well
worth the effort. Bonnie Krecker did a great job leading the team and may provide a more detailed report.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish.
• Travel to Gandou
• We taken many actions to ensure we had rental trucks ready for us at the air port and they were good enough to make it up the
mountain.
• Trucks were there but still had to work out payments etc and it took a while.
• Everyone got up early to leave Port-au-Prince in the morning.
• Father Nexcene showed up late to pick up the team….did not have a place to keep his truck the night before in Port-au-Prince spent the
night at another parish for a meeting/celebration and got stuck in traffic on the way down.
• Typical Haiti travel with many stops. Translator wanted to make sure the surgery team had a place to stay so we had to take extra time to
go to Jacmel. While there we looked at the surgery clinic.
• Travel from Gandou
• Had to leave very early because we had to take a 1hr detour.
• Had to take patients from Gandou to Port-au-Prince
• Had to stop in Jacmel to pick up patients to go to Port-au-Prince
• Very long day.
• Exposure to Haiti
• Sunday activities
• Market
• Walk to Spring
• Other
• Other
• General Haiti Earthquake Situation
• Very little progress in Port-au-Prince.
• Fields of tents and makeshift homes.
• Some people have setup their home in the median between the streets
• Unclear how this is going to work when it is raining.
• Unclear where these people are going to the bathroom.
• Unclear how they are cooking.
• Tents are all very close together.
• Some homes going up along the road to Jacmel.
• Matthew 25 Earthquake Situation - 500 people still in soccer field.
• Day by Day Events Summary:
• Wednesday February 16 – Surgery team travels from Cincinnati to Miami Florida and spends the night there.
• Thursday February17 – Remainder of Indiana Team travels very early in morning from Cincinnati to Miami Florida, then to Port-au-
Prince Haiti. Spend night at Matthew 25 Guest house in Port-au-Prince.
• Friday February 18 – Gandou team travels from Port-au-Prince to sister parish in Gandou. Surgery team spends morning at
Missionaries of Charity Orphanage in Port-au-Prince then travels to Jacmel.
• Saturday February 19 – Gandou team setup and run clinic and sends first patients down to Jacmel for unplanned surgery. Surgery team
performs emergency surgery.
• Sunday February 20 – Gandou team goes to Mass and tries to find more patients for surgery team. Surgery team checks on patient from
previous night and travels to Gandou to take patients down to Jacmel..
• Monday February 21 – Clinic/Surgeries
• Tuesday February 22 – Clinic/Surgeries
• Wednesday February 23- Clinic/Sugeries
• Thursday February 24 – Gandou team very early travel from Gandou to Jacmel to Port-au-Prince. Travel from Port-au-Prince to Miami
Florida and finally to Cincinnati. Surgery team takes final patients back to Gandou.
• Friday February 25 – Gandou team arrives home very early in the morning. Surgery team travels back to Port-au-Prince and spends the
night there.
• Saturday February 26 – Surgery team travels from Port-au-Prince to Miami.
• Sunday February 27 – Surgery team attends mass in Miami.
• Monday February 28 – Surgery team travels from Miami to Cincinnati and finally to home.
• Medical clinic/pharmacy
Clinic Results/Numbers - Totals estimated at about 1,000 Patients including school kids. Patient flow was steady with no issues finding
patients. We used lights most every night some to finish. Last day we stopped creating new dossiers at noon and it worked out prefect.
• Dental clinic/cleanings/restoration, and extractions.
Dental Results/Numbers - Estimated at about 600 extractions and 150 repairs. Cleansing unknown. Dental chairs are needed. Need to
let Father know what we want and he can try to have them made. Hired extra translator to help in dental. Used Dr. Lintz as more of a
dentist and less of a translator. First day (Saturday) setup in the school tents. The problem was the ground was not flat in this
location. Very strong team that worked very hard.
• Home health care visits/gather community information/train people on handwashing, build tippy taps, toothbrushing in school, and use of provided fluoride.
First day of clinic was so crazy did not get Sandy out to do this. Sandy went out late the second day with sister Fran, one of the health
workers, and one of the translators. Found it very diffuclt to communicate to the people. People struggled to answer even what seemed
like the most straight forward questions…for example how many people live in this house – likely because the number constantly
changes. Found the translator makes a big difference on how much data you gather. Found people just don’t each much meat. Found
most of the people use bleach in their water. Third day of clinic Sandy went out with Father Nexcene and Father Pascal to a chapel.
Chapel experience was great…could really understand much more about the difficulty of life in such an isolated environment. Very
physically challenging. Fourth day did the tippy taps with the teachers in the school. This was a great exercise. Everyone seemed to
enjoy the exercise. Passed out soap and hand washing instructions to people in the clinic. With the help of doctor Lentz did the tooth
brush training at the school. Father organized the whole school to listen to the training all at one time. This was the best training
session we have ever had for the school.
• Eye training to healthworkers.
Sister Fran continued her training on the eye course. Trained for two half days. Sister was very happy with the ability of the health
workers to pick up the subject. Overall very happy with the way training went.
• ID Cards
Once we got the system figured out again the process worked very well. Need to figure out what to do when there are 30 people sitting
in front of you. Stephanie did great with this difficult job.
• Provide Surgeries and Learn the Surgery Process in Haiti.
15 days was not enough time for the health workers to organize patients. What can we do in the future to get a little back from the
people. For example can they clean the Church or something to show that we don’t just give away everything….take some ownership in
it. On the first day of clinic in Gandou found two emergency cases. One was an appendix that was about to rupture. The second was
thought to be Osteomyelitis or severe Sickle cell. Sent both patients down to Jacmel team even though they were not expecting patients
until the next day. Surgery team performed an emergency surgery on the little box with the bad appendix. They very likely saved his
life. Performed 15 surgeries. Learned the process and a huge amount about Jacmel. Patients stayed in Jacmel overnight at a $10 per
night Archdiocese guest house. This is real potential place for us to stay in the future. It is a nice place. Great experience and well
worth the effort. Bonnie Krecker did a great job leading the team and may provide a more detailed report.
Mission Focus Area #3 – Team Members Experience Haiti and Especially Our Sister Parish.
• Travel to Gandou
• We taken many actions to ensure we had rental trucks ready for us at the air port and they were good enough to make it up the
mountain.
• Trucks were there but still had to work out payments etc and it took a while.
• Everyone got up early to leave Port-au-Prince in the morning.
• Father Nexcene showed up late to pick up the team….did not have a place to keep his truck the night before in Port-au-Prince spent the
night at another parish for a meeting/celebration and got stuck in traffic on the way down.
• Typical Haiti travel with many stops. Translator wanted to make sure the surgery team had a place to stay so we had to take extra time to
go to Jacmel. While there we looked at the surgery clinic.
• Travel from Gandou
• Had to leave very early because we had to take a 1hr detour.
• Had to take patients from Gandou to Port-au-Prince
• Had to stop in Jacmel to pick up patients to go to Port-au-Prince
• Very long day.
• Exposure to Haiti
• Sunday activities
• Market
• Walk to Spring
• Other
• Other
• General Haiti Earthquake Situation
• Very little progress in Port-au-Prince.
• Fields of tents and makeshift homes.
• Some people have setup their home in the median between the streets
• Unclear how this is going to work when it is raining.
• Unclear where these people are going to the bathroom.
• Unclear how they are cooking.
• Tents are all very close together.
• Some homes going up along the road to Jacmel.
• Matthew 25 Earthquake Situation - 500 people still in soccer field.
• Day by Day Events Summary:
• Wednesday February 16 – Surgery team travels from Cincinnati to Miami Florida and spends the night there.
• Thursday February17 – Remainder of Indiana Team travels very early in morning from Cincinnati to Miami Florida, then to Port-au-
Prince Haiti. Spend night at Matthew 25 Guest house in Port-au-Prince.
• Friday February 18 – Gandou team travels from Port-au-Prince to sister parish in Gandou. Surgery team spends morning at
Missionaries of Charity Orphanage in Port-au-Prince then travels to Jacmel.
• Saturday February 19 – Gandou team setup and run clinic and sends first patients down to Jacmel for unplanned surgery. Surgery team
performs emergency surgery.
• Sunday February 20 – Gandou team goes to Mass and tries to find more patients for surgery team. Surgery team checks on patient from
previous night and travels to Gandou to take patients down to Jacmel..
• Monday February 21 – Clinic/Surgeries
• Tuesday February 22 – Clinic/Surgeries
• Wednesday February 23- Clinic/Sugeries
• Thursday February 24 – Gandou team very early travel from Gandou to Jacmel to Port-au-Prince. Travel from Port-au-Prince to Miami
Florida and finally to Cincinnati. Surgery team takes final patients back to Gandou.
• Friday February 25 – Gandou team arrives home very early in the morning. Surgery team travels back to Port-au-Prince and spends the
night there.
• Saturday February 26 – Surgery team travels from Port-au-Prince to Miami.
• Sunday February 27 – Surgery team attends mass in Miami.
• Monday February 28 – Surgery team travels from Miami to Cincinnati and finally to home.
