Mission to Haiti
from Marie Peters, Robin Cobb & Robin Queen

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

Bonjour!

What a magical end to our Haitian journey….

We began the day with a traditional pumpkin soup, usually reserved for new years day. During slavery, the soup was reserved for wealthy land owners however after the revolution it became a symbol of the Hatian people’s independence. Our final clinic was in Nantiso, just a short ride from our bungalows along a river garden.  After leaving the trucks behind, we carried the clinic equipment by foot along a path through lush banana trees and fields planted with corn and green beans. After setting up shop in a local’s front yard, we began our assessments. After a week in this country, we all are feeling more comfortable with the process including communicating in our broken Creole. Over 60 patients were seen by lunch time including a seizure patient and a young woman with TB suffering from a throat cyst that prevented her from eating. We also saw the usual procession of stunning Hatian children and cherubic infants that steal our hearts on a daily basis.

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Mission to Haiti
from Cory Smeltzer, Rebecca Senn, Jordan Bennett and Sara Demaagd

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

We were once again blessed with a great day! Breakfast this morning consisted of boiled eggs, hotdogs, and our daily delicious cup of Haitian coffee. Then we traveled the familiar route to Siloe to pick up more supplies for today’s clinic.  Half of the group went up the mountain in the back of the truck, driven by our favorite driver, Johnson.  The other half of us stayed back at the pharmacy/school and were able to watch the children begin their school day, opening with the singing of “How Great Thou Art.”  We witnessed the punishment of kneeling on the pavement for the tardy students. Our trusty driver/translator drove the second half of the group back up the mountain without too many additional bumps and bruises.

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Mission to Haiti
from Katelyn Walker, Rebecca Senn and Sarah Demaagd

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

After yesterday, today doesn’t seem as adventurous. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take the truck to their village because Hurricane Sandy washed out the road. The few people (about 20) who did come to our clinic walked over an hour and were very grateful for our care and attention. Again, we saw a variety of ages from children to older adults, and even a pregnant woman.  Afterwards, we walked down the mountain to see a special patient who suffers with heart failure whom Jenny has personally treated at her home for the past year due to the severity of her illness.  The walk was definitely a nice break from the bumpy rides, and it also gave us a chance to view the beautiful, mountainous scenery.

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Mission to Haiti
from Emily Morse, Robin Cobb and Cory Smeltzer

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get out of the way of our Tap Tap!

Today was an adventure, to say the least! We started the day with a pasta-salad-with-mystery-meat breakfast and freshly squeezed orange juice. (A clarification on the meat from yesterday’s lunch – We found out some people had beef, some people had chicken, and some had goat!)

We left the compound bright and early and picked up supplies where we met our tap tap driver. When we told some girls on the street that what our plan for the day included, they couldn’t stop laughing. We didn’t realize what was in store. The tap tap was a 1980’s model Nissan pick up with benches in the back and a low ceiling camper top… and it should be mentioned not many Haitian vehicles have special Mountain Climbing tires!

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Mission to Haiti
from Robin Queen, Rebecca Senn and Marie Peters

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

Today we woke up to a little more overcast and cloudy day, although it was still warm and beautiful.  In fact , it was a relief to have it be a bit cooler.  We started this morning with a more traditional American breakfast of cereal–no exciting Haitian spaghetti today! Then we gathered our stuff for the day and walked from the bungalows, parading through the town of Grand Goave to the Siloe campus for the dedication of the Grand Goave Baptist Church.

We stood to the side as the church congregation lined up outside and the choir sung just before the ribbon cutting. Although everything was spoken in Creole we recognized  some of the readings and some of the songs. This community of people have so much joy and expression when they sing.  It is contagious. Then, we processed into the church and were invited to sit in the very front pew! The church was incredibly gracious and grateful. The service was conducted with a translator throughout so we were able to participate. They even provided us with hymnals so that we could sing the Creole songs. We were able to hear two groups of young Haitians from different churches perform for us.

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Mission to Haiti
from Jordan Bennett, Cory Smeltzer and Sara Demaagd

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

Hello all! What an incredible first full day in Grand Goave, Haiti!  Our day was as full and busy as it was hot.  We began with a traditional Haitian breakfast: spaghetti! It was actually quite delicious, we are considering bringing this tradition home to the states.  After breakfast we got to ride in the back of a pick up truck through the little town of Grand Goave to the Siloe school and church.

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Mission to Haiti
from Katelyn Walker

A team of students and faculty from Belmont University School of Nursing is ministering in Haiti during Belmont’s Spring Break.  This is the second year a team has traveled there.

After some delay in Miami, we finally arrived with no problems a little after 1 p.m.  The journey to our destination was definitely an experience to say the least.  We were able to see much of Port Au Prince and many of the towns on the way to Grand Guave.  We are settled in and had a wonderful dinner with our hosts.  Tomorrow, Saturday, we are looking forward to helping out at the pharmacy and organizing meds for our upcoming days at our mobile clinics.

P.S. The caribbean is gorgeous, but the bugs definitely are not.

From your friends and family in Haiti!!!  We will update as we can, hopefully every evening.

Last month a group of Belmont faculty, staff and students took the opportunity to bring their skills and expertise “from here to Haiti.” On July 18, the group left Nashville for a week-long mission trip to Grand Goave, one of Haiti’s oldest cities, which suffered significant damage in the 2010 earthquake in that region. The trip evolved out of a task force created by the provost; Belmont has recently developed a partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which has a mission project in Haiti. This nursing trip was the first to take advantage of this partnership. In the future, the interdisciplinary task force hopes to organize trips for students in several other programs.

Each day, the group was woken up by a rooster—lovingly nicknamed “El Diablo”—at approximately 3:30 a.m. “That bird was the bane of our existence,” claimed Assistant Professor of Nursing Sara Camp. They would then—after languishing in the heat for several more hours—meet with their contact, Judy, who is also a registered nurse and represents the Christian Baptist Fellowship.  (At right – Senior Nursing students Charly Hood (right) and Reiley Heaberlin (left) tend to a baby at one of the mobile clinics.)

The nursing students volunteered at a number of mobile clinics, which provided basic services such as vital sign checks and general diagnoses. Each clinic was able to see up to 50 people a day, and each day the staff and students quickly met their capacity. “This is their healthcare,” said Nursing Instructor Martha Ezell. “They can’t just go into Port Au Prince to see a doctor.”At the mobile clinics, the students checked vitals and compiled patients’ medical histories—a difficult task since many patients did not even know their own birthdays. The Belmont students were also able to assist Ezell and Camp with general assessments and distribute what medications were available. “[The Belmont students] got about a year’s worth of nursing in a week,” stated Ezell. Continue reading →

Mission to Haiti 2012
Photos from Emily Hawley

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Mission to Haiti 2012
from Sara Camp

Our last day in Haiti began with a lovely sunrise and something like a grits and spinach casserole for breakfast. We have so enjoyed the authentic Haitian cuisine we have had.

Then we headed halfway up the mountain for our last clinic day where we saw over 50 people, bringing our total for the week to around 200. Today the people we saw included several with severe hypertension, a 33 year old lady with bilateral pitting edema (swollen feet), and two pregnant women. All the students were thrilled to hear the fetal heart sounds! As we headed back down the mountain we stopped to make a home visit to a lady with severe ascites, who Jenny sees on a regular basis. Despite her extremely poor physical condition, her smile lit up the room. She was one of many we will always remember because of her inner joy.

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Mission to Haiti 2012
Photographs from Emily Hawley

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Mission to Haiti 2012
from Todd Lake and Martha Ezell

Today started off with a bang… Not really a bang, more of a whoosh. We got a flat tire shortly after leaving the place we stay.  We napped for two hours on the steps of a church before the tire was replaced and we were off again in our open-backed truck with 27 Haitians and Americans, three trunks of medicine, all our water and food, and several unexplained bags of cement.

We set up the clinic three hours late in a large open cinderblock church with a beautiful view of the mountains.  As always, the Haitians were endlessly patient.  We had five stations:  check-in, vitals, history, assessments, pharmacy, and prayer. We rotate each day, getting to interact with the team and patients in different ways. Late in the afternoon after the last patient was seen, we learned that our truck had yet another flat tire. FYI: we were eight miles up a mountain. The decision was mad that we would begin walking down while the tire was repaired. 3 miles down, the truck rolled by. God is indeed faithful and we made it safely home.

We have all fallen in love with the people we have met here. Each morning before clinic opens, the assembled community gathers with us for a hymn and prayer. This is not, as some of us had been warned, a “dark or godless” place. We see hope everywhere. The faces of children and the smiles of the elderly remind us that God is here and He is working. Continue reading →

Mission to Haiti 2012
from Martha Ezell and Charly Hood

We apologize for the lack of news last night; we did not have internet. This is information from Sunday:

Post Saturday nights blog, we took a trip to the local smoothie shop for our first Haitian night life experience. We arrived to find a crowd of people, a single light bulb, a woman, and her blender. Our options for the night were: papaya, bread fruit, or potato. The majority of us thought we were playing it safe by choosing papaya, but the mixture of evaporated milk, sugar, and the raw fruit itself made for an interesting taste sensation.

Following a delightful late night thunderstorm, our fifth day in Haiti dawned warm and sunny. Breakfast was a traditional Haitian staple, pumpkin soup with potatoes and carrots. We were honored to attend an outdoor worship service with the group of believers in Grand Goave. Every member of our team was impacted by the passion and authenticity of the worship! We were struck by the realization that those who actually depend on God’s mercy for their “daily bread” do not find it difficult to express gratitude to Him. Continue reading →

Mission to Haiti 2012
from Julia Jordan-Lake (The baby)

“only one life ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last”.

The previous line was used in last nights devotion. Each night we have had a chance to debrief and process our day as a group. Waking up, we were greeted with mystery meat or as we later agreed upon, “spicy tuna”. After breakfast, we walked to the market. Sort of like the hip, organic farmers markets, but…not. We learned quickly to make way for various chickens, donkeys, pigs, and children carrying huge bushels of bananas. The “parking lot” at the end of the market held roughly 30 donkeys…and their waste. On the walk back, we stopped to buy cold beverages and were thrilled to hear a karaoke cover of Rhinna and see Reese’s peanut cups. Continue reading →

Mission to Haiti 2012
from Emily Hawley and Hailey Wickles (pictured)

Picking up from last night we will tell you about our nighttime adventure… We were getting ready for bed and miss Martha startled the room announcing “ohhh my gosh- WE HAVE A CRAB!” of course hostess Jenny came in wondering why the crazy Americans were yelling and found us trying to coax the football size crab (no joke) out from underneath Julia’s bed. We soon settled down for another night of rest and we were glad to “sleep in” until 5am when the rooster (that we have named el diablo- Spanish for the devil) had our wake up call.

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Mission to Haiti 2012
from Charly Hood & Reiley Heaberlin

Our day started off early as our little rooster friend woke us up at 3am. We ignored him as best we could until breakfast was served at 6am (where we had spicy peanut butter.) We then prepared for the day, loaded up our open cage truck, and headed up the mountain.

We traveled about an hour through rough terrain, holding on for dear life all the while. Thankfully, we had a beautiful view to distract us. The mountains, the trees, the crops, the houses, the animals, the water, and the people were absolutely beautiful to see. Once we made it to our sight for the day, Mt. Sinai, we unloaded the truck and hiked about a quarter of a mile to the church at where we would be setting up our clinic.

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Mission to Haiti 2012
from Martha Ezell

We arrived safely in port au prince then traveled with our hosts to Grand Goave, we are all settled in at the conscience international house. We have dined on delicious chicken and rice. Tomorrow we will travel “up the mountain” to a small community called Mt. Sinai and help conduct a clinic. We feel God’s presence and faithfulness. Love from Sara, Martha, Cilla, Todd, Julia, Charly, Hailey, Reiley, Julie and Emily.