Goodbye Haiti :(

Goodbye Haiti, I will miss you!

What I have learned:

1. ALWAYS study the language. Learn “it won't hurt” “sit here” at the very least.

2. You never have enough clean clothes

3. You always have more electronics then you need

Things I will look forward to at home:
1. Secularity

2. A REAL shower

3. Flat surfaces

Things I will miss:

Everything.

Another satisfied customer

This is my last blog entry from Haiti, but there is still so much to say. We had the last day of clinic, and we mostly had schoolchildren and older people. Mary Kay, when signing the contract for the iStat, agreed that all 300 cartriges needed to be used to show that the machine was really needed in Haiti. The problem was that we had to struggle to get that number, especially since the tests would take about three minutes to read. Since we had about 75 tests still to run today, I was really running with those stupid tests.

So to run a test, I had to pierce the patient's skin with a lancet and squeeze the hand to get the blood. I needed a ton of blood as the cartridges needed quite a lot. As a result, I had to squeeze the hell out of those Haitian hands (many of which were badly callused, and my hand is very achy from 5 days of squeezing, or as I liked to put it: “My hand is as sore as a NYC hooker!” (Take a sec, you'll get it.)

Andrew, Amanda, Mary Kay, Kristen, Judi, Norma, Glenn, Chelsea
Maia, Kimberly, Naomi, Linda, Lynn, Margie, Kelly, me, Suzette, Julia, Julie, Sherry

I think that another thing that this trip has done is really recharge my desire to get out and join a medical team. I am going to really work harder towards this goal.  I loved the people that I worked with, they were such a great mixture of people with varing talents and humor.  As well as Haiti, I will miss them terribly.  I hope that we are able to keep in touch, perhaps even have a party later.

I have learned so much from the people of Haiti and my teammates, and I hope to come back soon.  I hope that I have helped to make Haiti a better place in even a small way, helped to make someone's life a little brighter, and helped give Haiti a butterfly's breeze push to a better future.

Thank you Haiti, I will miss you.