Haiti Update #12
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 8:48am
Bonjour!
Excuse Moi! Sorry that I missed sending out the update last week. These last two weeks have been a little crazy as my time in Haiti is wrapping up! And now I have less than two days left!! It's quite strange. On one hand I'm really sad to leave, but on the other hand I am definitely looking forward to seeing everyone. I've missed you guys!!! And, also sleeping in a real bed with my PILLOW!!!!
I've spent the last two weeks continuing to work in Diquini hospital in Carrefour, and there have been lots of changes. One of our big projects for the last two weeks was to help discharge about 40 people from the hospital, many of whom had been living there since the earthquake. After the earthquake they set up tons of huge tents in front of the hospital to help house all of the extra patients, anyone without acute medical needs was moved out there. And then they kind of all just stayed. Our group was the only one who had any records on the people out there, so we were asked to help organize the discharges. Just an example of working here - you kind of have to be a jack of all trades: PT, social worker, discharge planner! Anyway, we were able to work with IOM which is a branch of the UN that helps displaced people and they were able to get most of the patients’ tents and help them return either to their property or to a place nearby with family or friends. It was interesting to see the patients' reactions. One lady was so excited to leave, she was packed up with all of her things, sitting in a chair ready to go the first day, before we had even organized anything. She had just heard that people were leaving and wanted to go home. I think she was a little upset when we told her that she would have to wait a couple of days before it was her turn. The first day they took about 5 people with all their stuff in a mini-bus (a big van) there was one guy who jumped in the van as soon as it pulled up there and just sat in there several hours, happily waiting until everyone else was loaded up! He wanted to make sure he got a spot on the bus!
Haiti Update #11
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 2:50pm
Bonswa tout moun! (Good afternoon everyone)!
I am sitting here, thinking of everyone and enjoying a VERY quiet Sunday afternoon. Almost everyone has gone to the beach today and I am here with just one other housemate. It's strange that the house it so quiet, but it's kind of nice too. I've very much enjoyed living with all of these different people, but I'm starting to realize that I go a little bit nutty without any personal space or quiet time! So this is a nice treat!! They also brought us four more fans this week so now we have one for the downstairs living area and it's actually quite comfortable during the day - amazing what some moving air does!
Haiti Update #9 (lost but now found!)
Jen Watters Mission to Haiti
Tuesday, May 11th, at 8:57pm
So I forgot to post this on the 3rd when I wrote it, then I couldn't find it - turns out I had accidently deleted it and it was hiding in my "trash" folder - oops!! I guess my brain was on vacation too!!
Hello everyone!! Bonswa tout moun!!
I was thinking that I should have sent out my email on Saturday this week, since we had the day off, but the power was not really cooperating. Yesterday was my travel day and now I am on my little vacation in Les Cayes in the South of Haiti. I will tell you a little bit about the past week and then save my vacation stories for next week, but I will tell you it has been wonderful so far!!
Haiti Update #10
Jenifer Watters Mission to Haiti Blog
May 9 at 8:10pm
Wow!! I'm now up to double digits!!!
I hope that this finds everyone well. For some reason I can't find my Haiti update #9 and I don't remember exactly what I wrote, so I apologize if I am redundant. I also just realized I never posted it here either, so when I find it I'll put it up!
I am back in Port-au-Prince now after a wonderful week of vacation! I spent the week at Pwoje Espwa, which is an orphanage just outside of Les Cayes in the south part of Haiti. It was such a great week!! My friend Linda runs the guest house there, so I stayed on the property with them. It was perfect timing as they were in between groups and I was really the only extra person around. I got to sleep in a real bed, with a real pillow and since I was the only person in the room I pointed BOTH fans right at me at night - it was wonderfully ridiculous!
PT Alum featured in People Magazine for work in Haiti
Jennifer Watters, an '06 Belmont DPT alum, was featured in an article in the April 12, 2010 People Magazine. Jennifer is currently volunteering with Handicap-International, US for three months. She began her work in early March.
You can read her journal posts by clicking the ".Jen Watters Haiti Blog" link to the left.
Here's the link for the story from People and the content of that article is below:
MAKING AMPUTEES FEEL WHOLE AGAIN
- JENNIFER WATTERS, 28
Jennifer Watters places a wrap around the stump that had been 21-year-old Lundia Jacques' lower right leg. "Keep it tighter at the bottom," Watters counsels Lundia, whose dreams of becoming a flight attendant were shattered when, while she was ironing, "my house fell on me."
Few images capture a country's agony better than the dozens of men, women and children with missing limbs who line up every day at the makeshift clinic Watters runs for the nonprofit Handicap International. And few people represent the outpouring of kindness that has flowed into Haiti better than Watters, a gregarious volunteer physical therapist who saw images of the quake on the news and thought, "God put this in front of me." Never having been to a disaster zone, she quit her hospital job in Alexandria, Va., and arrived on March 3 in Port-au-Prince for a three-month stint.
These days she rises at 7 a.m., splitting her time between the clinic and tent cities, treating patients and training local staff. Every Sunday she attends mass outside the ruins of a once-glorious cathedral. "I cry a lot there," she says. "That [Haitians] can be surrounded by destruction and yet sing and have a sense of peace. . . . It gets to you."
Haiti Update #8
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, April 25 at 10:04pm
Salut!!
Kiman ou ye? How are you? I hope that this finds everyone well!! I can believe that I am finishing my 8th week in Haiti already!! Two months is along time, and while sometimes it is hard to remember life before Haiti, the time here really does go by quickly as well and this week was no exception!
First of all, thank you so much for all of the Birthday and the get well wishes. After I slept all day on Monday, I really did feel much better. My housemates surprised me Monday night with a cake and small party, and I even managed to eat a piece with no problem - there was no way I was going to miss out on my birthday cake, stomach bug or not!!! It really was a good Birthday!
Haiti Update #7
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 4:40pm
Bon Fete! Bon Anniversarie! Happy Birthday!
First of all, thanks so much to everyone for all of the wonderful Birthday wishes!! It’s been a very interesting birthday and a very interesting week in Haiti. We started the weekend and the Birthday festivities off with a big party at one of the HI houses. There were three other people celebrating birthdays this weekend and one of them leaving this week – so we had quite a celebration! There was lots of food, drinks and DANCING!! It was so much fun!! I think I was in the first group of people to leave, which was at 2 am!! See, I’m not too old to stay out late (occasionally).
Haiti Update #6
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday at 6:37pm
Alo! (Hi!) – I think I might run out of different greetings soon, but I’ll keep trying to give you a variety! =)
It’s strange how time is going so quickly and yet from Sunday to Sunday when I write my updates seems like an eternity. I guess because the weeks are so full it seems like it must have surely been more than a week that’s gone by.
I started off the week by amusing the local staff as I greeted everyone with a “Joyeus Paques” (Happy Easter) on Monday morning. My accent must have been pretty bad – it took five or six tries before most of them figured out what I was saying, but it was worth the effort as I was usually rewarded with a pretty big smile!
Haiti Update #5
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, April 4, 2010 at 7:27pm
Joyeuses Pâques ! Happy Easter !
What a full and blessed week. I don’t think that I will be able to write everything down, but I’m going to try and hopefully it won’t be TOO long! =)
First of all, I want to share with everyone the very good news that my tetraplegic patient was accepted into Miami University’s hospital here in Haiti on Tuesday and we were able to transfer him over there on Thursday with the help of IOM (another NGO that organizes medical transport). It was so amazing, I just called on Tuesday morning and spoke with the coordinator and he said, “Sure, when can you send him over?” I was shocked. And everything came together so smoothly. The administration of the current hospital, the doctors, his family and the transport – it all worked out perfectly. Bon Dieu Bon!! God is so good! So thank you for all your prayers!! I wish that everyone could have seen the smile on his face and on the faces of his wife and daughters, for the first time in a long time they had some hope. I cannot even begin to express how happy it made my heart!!
Haiti Update #4
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 7:20pm
Bonswa!!! (which is Creole, last week I used the French!)
Wow! This week has gone by so fast! And this Wednesday will mark 4 weeks for me here in Haiti! Wow! I am definitely feeling settled in here, which is nice. While I miss home, I am happy to be staying two more months. I’m just starting to get a little bit of the language and I’m really enjoying getting to know our Haitian staff and my patients. I can tell I am starting to be “long term” here though, because my friends are starting to leave. There have already been a couple in the past week, but beginning next week the group that I came with will all start to leave without me – Sad!! Most people are only staying 4-6 weeks, so it is hard to see them come and go. But there is always a new group and everyone is great!