Jan 30
Day 1-The advance team watched the delivery if 2 truckloads of food for the orphanages with awe. So satisfying to see it come together. Then we went to Kenscoff in the mountains to pick up our stored pharmacy. While there we did well child exams on the children required by the Department of Social Affairs for licensing. One with a cold and raspy lungs. Albuterol helped. A couple of cavities on a couple if kids that only got fluoride over the last couple of years. Francois Marc Arthur's kids are sooo healthy, happy, safe and IMPROVED! Good job Marco!
Day 2- (late post, poor connection)This morning the advanced team traveled to see the orphanage Omega Sully is building!!! Every year we see improvements and we are inspired by Omega's dedication to helping the children and his community.
Then a wild trip to DeliMart for team refreshments (aka banana soda) where we spent $8888.00!!! Don't worry it exchanged to $113 usd and we had 2 shopping carts full!!!
Day 3-Whole team has arrived safe in Haiti! Team building has already commenced. Team Redwood Dental Team! 3 dentists, 2 assistants, one 4th year dental student and a Haitian nurse. Teaching students and nurses to increase the chances of gainful employment with experience!!!
Day 4-Today we got an up close tour from our friend Leo of a non-profit coffee company Singing Rooster. They have partnered with our friends at Delivrance Pour Tous for fundraising. 66% of proceeds go directly to the small farm growers around the country. Team Redwood will also use this for fundraising in the future which will benefit all 3 of these organizations!
The rest of the day is prep for classes and clinics and sorting of the supplies and pharmacy.
Thank you all for you support, love, and prayers!!!
Day 5- 1st clinic today, Johnny's orphanage. It's too dangerous to go there so we had our driver bring the kids to us. Improved health this year. Tons of fun with toys and crafts and beautiful children. Now off to Lifed Christian Orphanage for the rest of the day.
Day 5.5 at Lifed Christian Orphanage. One of our very favorite places on earth! Love, princess power, dental, wound care, food drop, meds for Davidson for 1 year, Bible stories and crafts, more love and the best Haitian lunch!
Day 6-Plan change due to potential riots in downtown. Moving Education/Training Day for volunteers with DT (Deliverance Pour Tous) to our Villa. Waiting for the students and cheesing with our fantastic translators and security. First aid/disaster assistance/rescue/CPR class with adult scouts and translators under the direction of Janine Manny and Team Redwood. 36 newly trained disaster response volunteers!
Day 7-Full dental and medical clinic today at a school way outside the city. (Croix de Bouquets). It's really hot and really humid. This team runs like a well-oiled machine!
Some after dinner team fun. Trying to untie a human knot. Success!!
Day 8- Day 8- I'm so proud of this team!! We arrived at Zelin's late due to traffic and the team got right to it. Even though there was chaos in the streets (which some of you heard on the news) we were safe inside the gate. Our translators were in constant communication with their network and we were able to leave the orphanage and return to our villa safely. When the team was told to pack up and load in the truck they did it in under 2 minutes! Police escort thru the hot spots and an amazing driver added to our adventure. Tomorrow there are planned demonstrations and for safety we may stay tucked in our villa. Safety of the team is our 1st priority.
Day 9- Sheltered in place at the villa while the city is in chaos. Team Building activity tonight was "Wise or Otherwise" translated by Leo. Partial Proverbs from around the world with the team finishing the sentence. Funny. Very funny!
Day 10- We tried to leave the villa today at 6am to go to a village in Bohoc. The bus was unable to get thru so we were unable to leave. Still sheltering in place at the villa. The team is still productive with dental clinic in our dining room for staff, translators, neighbors. The pharmacy is inventoried and packed for next year. Then we had some time for orphan love with Omega's newest daughter. We are all very safe.
Day 11-Safety and security conference in session. Difficult to get to airport due to demonstrations but we may attempt to fly out tomorrow. Protests last night outside our walls, we are tired from being awake but it was mostly the dogs barking keeping us awake, the protesters were mostly organized and calm in our neighborhood. The team remains safe and secure. Plans to leave the country TBA.
Day 12-Evacuated at daybreak from the safety of our villa to the airport. The villa staff was kind enough to start their day very early and fed us breakfast VERY EARLY. We made a very surreal ride to the airport and all of us arrived back in the states safely, but sad.
Jennifer's numbers. We were bummed too but after doing some math we applied/provided fluoride to over 300 easily, pulled 52 teeth, provided over 800# of food to each orphanage,CERT training for a large group that covers multiple areas, supplied them with emergency packs, provided bedding for a community in desperate need, delivered 65# of colored pencils for orphans and multiple schools, wormed hundreds of kids, wormed and flea treated the animals, hundreds of hugs and kisses on the kiddos, trained Haitian nurses and dentists....dang we did good. Almost forgot! We were able to provide new windows to a church/school in Bohoc and we helped DT start up a microloan program.l Details of the success of this program coming!!!