2010 Mission Trip to Guatemala
Just a quick little blog as we drive down the roads of Guatemala City. We have all arrived safe and sound after an EARLY morning, very long layover in Miami, and a adventurous landing in the rain. We are on the way to take a tour of the Shalom Surgery Center. More to come later!!
Category Archives: Service Learning & Medical Missions
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!
“One, Two, Bat” (Bat pronounced “Bot”)
2010 Mission Trip to Cambodia
from Emily Tice
What a day! We all woke up this morning and boarded a van that took us on a 3 1/2 hour journey to Hon Long Bay, which not only showed us the beautiful countryside of Vietnam, but let us experience some of Vietnam’s culture in one of their most popular tourist spots. Once we got on a boat that would take us around the bay, our tour guide (Hong –> greatest tour guide ever!) educated us on some more Vietnamese culture and history.
We stopped once to explore on of the famous caves in one of the hundreds of islands within the bay, which is also where we took most of our pictures for this day (hopefully we will be able to add them later). This is where the title of my blog (“One, Two, Bat”) was created. As Hong was trying to teach us all Vietnamese numbers (and what a struggle that was!), we all decided we liked the number three in Vietnamese (bat), so instead of saying “one, two, three” before we would take one of our many pictures, we said “one, two, bat!” Not only did we all fall to pieces in laughter every time we said this, but other tourists found our hilarity and silliness amusing as well.
An early morning start
2010 Mission Trip to Guatemala
Thirty two somewhat blurry eyed healthcare professional and students met at the Nashville International Airport in the wee hours of the morning to begin their week long trip to provide heathcare and training in Guatemala. This years’ multidisciplinary team consists of nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathologist. By 5 am everyone was checked in with their luggage and supplies including orthotics, gloves, masks, casting supplies, (and lots of Belmont T-shirts!). After a layover in Miami, they should arrive in Guatemala this afternoon. Good luck Team!!!!
Let Us Commence the Journey!
2010 Pine Ridge Trip
It is Saturday morning, May 15th, and I’m on Belmont campus amidst the many preparations for Commencement. The music from the carillon is calling all of us to gather, remember, and to celebrate. Our Belmont phrase is From Here to Anywhere and as the 630 names are being read we will all be having our own images of Anywhere.
I will be thinking about Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and the spirit of the Lakota people. What will we discover and learn about ourselves as 18 of us from the Belmont community commence our journey together tomorrow morning? Will we have a wider definition of community? Will we find friends and new directions?
This quote by Maria Montessori speaks to me and may resonate with those who hear the bells of Belmont:
We abandon all and travel the world, as did those in former times who would sow seeds and go their way. This is our destiny: to sow! To sow everywhere, without ceasing never to harvest.
We Have Arrived!
2010 Mission Trip to Cambodia
Well, we have finally made it to the beautiful Hanoi, Vietnam. It was a long trip, and for a first time international traveler like myself, it was a little scary and overwhelming at times… well pretty much all the time. By the time we were boarding our international flight in LAX, we were all so exhausted and delirious that everything was funny to us. After our 13.5 hour flight to Taiwan, and another 2.5 hour flight to Hanoi, we finally were at our short term destination. During this process though,we completely skipped Friday, which was kind of a joke among us!
Thursday’s Departure from Nashville
2010 Mission Trip to Cambodia
from Chelsea Stevens
Guatemala Missions Trip 2010
2010 Mission Trip to Guatemala
On Sunday, we leave for Guatemala City, Guatemala for the 2010 Guatemala Missions Trip. There are a total of 32 students and clinicians going on the trip this year in a variety of fields such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and nursing. For a handful of students going, it will be their first time out of the U.S. We are excited for this wonderful opportunity to serve others and we appreciate all of the support and prayers as we travel almost 1500 miles.
Pharmacy Students Embark on Pine Ridge Trip
2010 Trip to Pine Ridge Lakota Indian Reservation
Six students from the Belmont University School of Pharmacy and myself, Dr. Mark Chirico will leave for Pine Ridge, SD on May 16, 2010 to engage in cultural learning experiences on the Lakota Indian reservation. This will be the first time that the pharmacy program will have such a large representation on this annual trip.
A total of 18 participants will begin the mission of “Okiciyapi” which is Lakota for “Helping One Another”. We look forward to partnering with several tribal elders, including Leonard Little Finger and Basil Brave Heart to learn of the health needs of the Lakota people. We will have the unique opportunity at the end of this trip to interact with community members to discuss their medication issues. Follow us on this blog to keep up with our adventure!
A Snapshot of the Trip
2010 Mission Trip to Cambodia
from Susan Taplin
Today we leave Nashville for our 6th trip to Cambodia! We are so grateful to each of you who sacrifice time with loved ones so we can go make a difference in the lives of poor and needy in Cambodia. This year there are 5 nursing students going along with Sharon, Keary and I.
Our first stop is Hanoi Vietnam where we will visit Halong Bay and other cultural sites. We will use this time to bond as a group and recover from the long flights and 12 hour time difference. We get there on Saturday around 11AM. We should be able to email/post a blog entry while there. Not sure about phone calls.
We head into Phnom Penh on Tuesday the 18th around 8AM and will be there until the weekend. For the two weekends we are there, we will be visiting a village on one and going to Siem Reap for the other. The plans are not yet finalized for which weekend we will be doing which.
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!
Pine Ridge 2010 Cultural Experiences
The 2010 spring cultural activities trip is a key part of the Belmont-Pine Ridge Community Partnership. It is an important phase in the building of ongoing relationships and sustainable activities between Belmont University and the communities of the Lakota (Sioux) people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
During the week of May 16-23, participants will immerse in an educational experience led by Leonard Little Finger and Basil Brave Heart, traditional Lakota elders and experienced educators of the Pine Ridge community. Selected participants include a variety of members of the Belmont community of students, faculty, staff, and friends. During the 6 days on site, participants will immerse in educational experiences where they will learn the beauty and strengths of traditional Lakota ways and reflect on whether the lessons learned have relevance for them personally and for modern times.
Readings, lectures, and discussions both at Belmont and at Pine Ridge will cover the significance of history and policies, spirituality and religion, relationship to nature, ceremonies, language, dance and music, cultural ways that are specific to the Lakota people, and the role of the Belmont and Pine Ridge as partners. Activities include a number of visits to sacred and historical sites (Wounded Knee, Black Hills, Badlands, etc.) and participation in a sweat lodge prayer ceremony. A special emphasis will be placed on studying the cultures of the Lakota as a way of developing individual cultural competence. Healthy cultural competence includes an understanding of our own prejudices and worldviews as well as those of others and the ability to communicate effectively with peoples of other cultures.
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!
Safari 2
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
From March 15 through 18 we took our second safari, traveling west and south to Queen Elizabeth Game Park and then to the far southwest corner of Uganda where it meets Rwanda and Congo. The road between Kampala and Mityana was dirt and bone-jarring; it has been under construction for about seven years. From Mityana westward was a smooth, paved road, steadily climbing in elevation until we reached the lush tea and matooke plantations of Fort Portal. Beyond Fort Portal were the majestic Renzori Mountains, the Mountains of the Moon.
We descended into the Western Rift Valley south from Fort Portal, traveling with the Renzoris on our right and passing matooke-laden bicycles like this one. One could feel the heat increasing from the cool mountain air of Fort Portal to hot, dusty Kasese. Just south of Kasese, we stopped to take photos at the Equator and pass from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere.
Money Matters
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
Kampala and larger Ugandan cities and towns are full of well-dressed folks busy with cell phones and other electronic devices. The streets buzz with vehicles, bodas, and the press of business. Yes, it is a developing country but “develop” is a dynamic word and Uganda is a dynamic country by what the eye can see. Happy hour billboards and slick-paged magazines like “The African Woman,” (http://www.africanwomanmagazine.net/) communicate universal issues of modern life: family, fashion, business, romance, work and leisure. There seems to be a certain cosmopolitan sameness to the world’s urban centers. Perhaps that is where we are all headed in the end: vast cities stratified by economically defined neighborhoods: the posh gated communities, the rows of industrial looking apartment complexes, and the slums.
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!
Haiti Update #3
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 6:00pm
Bonsoir! (Good Afternoon!)
This has been a very bittersweet week for me in Haiti, which so many amazing things and also some big challenges. First, I found out on Tuesday that my grandmother passed away on Monday, her visitation was Wednesday and the funeral mass on Thursday, so there was really no possibility of me to go. It was really hard for me to be here in Haiti, so far away from everyone, but I did get to talk with my family several times – they even called me on my Haiti phone when the skype wasn’t working out, which I am sure they will regret when they see their phone bill – but I definitely appreciated it. Everyone here was great too and I got lots of hugs from my housemates! My grandma loved angels, and even though I am sad that she is not with us here, I know that now she is resting with the angels and I am comforted by the thought =) If you think of it – your prayers for my grandma and for my family will be much appreciated!
Haiti Update #2
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 1:40pm
Bon Jour !!!!
First I want to give a disclaimer that I am typing this on a French computer and while I’m getting more used to the different keyboard, I haven’t mastered it yet, so please forgive my typos !!
Wow ! What an amazing week ! I’m not sure if I should write more frequently or just save everything up for Sunday. I’m afraid these « little » updates will turn into novels very quickly ! I guess you can always read them little by little, so I’ll just write and not worry about it ! =)
This week I was stationed at the same antenna as last week (CDTI) ; which was great for getting to know the local staff ; the patients ; and also the Americans at the hospital next door. We’ve really had some nice collaboration where they’re referring pts to us and I’m taking pts up there, which is a nice change from me just running up there 3 or 4 times a day ! We had our busiest week at the clinic yet ; one day we had 54 pts who had come by 12 :30 ! (we are set up to see about 45 a day) so that was little crazy ! We also had the clowns without borders come and do shows at all our hospitals and clinics this week which was SO awesome ! Unfortunately I missed the show at my clinic because that was the day we had so many pts, but I saw some pictures from the other clinics and they were great ! I could definitely hear everyone laughing so, it sounded like they had a great time !
If you put it that way…
Dr. Ruby Dunlap’s Uganda Fulbright Blog
“Newtonian mechanics is satisfactory,” says Polkinghorne, “for largish objects moving at ten miles an hour, unsatisfactory for the same objects moving at a hundred thousand miles a second.” “Kuhn dismisses as an irrelevancy the well-known fact that Newtonian mechanics is the slow-moving limit of Einstein’s mechanics. Yet to physicists this relationship would seem to be important, for it explains why classical mechanics was so long an adequate theory and why it remains so for systems whose velocities are small compared with the velocity of light.” (One World The Interaction of Science and Theology, pp. 14,17)
Probably Newtonian mechanics sufficed for explaining the movements of your vehicles on ice and snow this winter in the U.S. The reports about your winter have been remarkable, especially since, while the Equator crosses southern Uganda, the elevations are high enough to make it balmy most of the time. Some days have been downright chilly, a few hot in the afternoons. Mornings in paradise are almost always perfect mornings of comfortably cool freshness. And the look from our “tree house” apartment is always one of lush rain forest. Here is a photo from the family home in Ohio where I spent my teen years and one from where we are living now to show the difference this winter. We also see monkeys in the trees around our house, unlikely in either Ohio or Tennessee.
Haiti Update #1
Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 1:41pm
Hello! Bon jour! (which works in French and Creole)
I hope that this finds everyone doing well!! Today is Sunday, which is our day off every week. It was a very nice surprise since I wasn’t sure if we would work straight through the week or not. Today has already been a very nice day. I got up this morning and went to mass at the main cathedral in Port Au Prince with several of my housemates. Even though the cathedral was completely destroyed, the crucifix is still standing! And there are several other churches like that in the city – amazing! We had mass outside.