Building Steam

               Another whirlwind week has gone by! When the second group of University of Philadelphia midwife students arrived last weekend, I could no longer look like a deer in headlights. I was all of a sudden the "experienced one" with all of the answers. The events of the week, however, went smoothly.

While the midwives were busy teaching or working in St. Therese's L&D room (St. Therese is the government hospital in Hinche), I paid a visit to the brand new hospital in Trianon. MFH is opening a new birth center there staffed with two of their trained Haitian midwives. My task for the day was to deliver supplies and make a list of what was needed. I wondered, How the heck am I to know what goes into a labor and delivery room? I tried to picture the room from the hospital in Hinche in my mind, but I am afraid that my lack of clinical experience only got me a few additional items on the list.

More organizing, making lists, and throwing out expired items was also in dire need this week. A volunteer found an item from 1980! That was tossed, of course. As a gift, I gave two 1990 glass syringes to some very happy volunteers.

One last thing I would like to mention is the Flower of Hope Outreach School. I had visited this during my first week but had failed to mention it in my last post!

Manno, MFH Manager, and his friend, Elficase, have a nonprofit and fully functional K- 4th elementary school in the countryside. The school gives access to the children who would otherwise have no education. Manno took me out for a ride to see the place. A very lovely setting, as you can see!

The school oversees the uniforms, food, and supplies for 300+ children. It is undergoing some construction right now, but it will be back in session in October.

I had a wonderful visit and told Manno that I would help in anyway that I could. This past week I helped he and Elficase with updating their Facebook page and with using Twitter

Find and Like Flower of Hope Outreach School and on Twitter now! We will see where that goes.