Day Two

It took nearly 3 hours each way around the bay due to terrible trafficjams.  Today they put benches in the backs of the trucks, but I was more comfortable standing than bouncing on wooden benches.

Today clinic was held under tarps, sitting on wooden benches.  Ephesianis a pastor, but his church was destroyed in the earthquake, so he is helping to translate.  We've only been a team for two days, but we've learned to work well together & I was at a loss when I had to have a different interpreter for a while today, He's even learning the "HomeHip Exercises" and learning them for me!

I was excited to be able to use OMT with several patients today for lower & upper back pain.  All of this had to be done seated on a bench.The last man was excited that the the pain in his lower back was gone when I was teaching it to him.

We saw food lines today. World Vision was supplying the 50 lb sacks of flour & the US Army supplied the order.

Canadian soldiers were with a backhoe helping to dig out a building just outside the city.

Lots of other stories to tell, but I'm too tired to keep my eyes open.  Lights out, good night.



First Day of Clinic

Wow!  How else do I explain today?  The neighborhood we went to today was very devistated.  The last turn towards the elementary school revealed the entire right side of the road had been pancaked, three stories flattened on top of each other, an SUV flat in its garage.  As I walked by, I realized that this was the first time that I had smelled death so far.

We held the clinic in the only classroom still stable.  About 12-13 clinitians saw 527 patients in a little less than five hours.  The docs sat around the edges of the room with a translator positioned between every two.  Most of the nurses took care of filling the prescriptions with two translators to explain all of the instructions.  Two administered deworming meds and another two gave tetanus shots.  We tried to give vitamins to everyone, but we ran out.

I did well most of the time, treating a lot of coughs due to the cement dust and headaches and abdominal pain due to insufficient water and food.  I lost it and cried when one woman told me that she had lost her 10 year old daughter in the earthquake.  I showed her my 10 year old daughter's photo, and then my son's photo and we both cried.

Tonight, after dinner, we spent several hours putting medications into baggies for rapid distribution tomorrow.  It's almost 23h30. Time for sleep.

Arrived Safely in Port au Prince

It's 0550 Dominican time and we've been on the road since 23h30. About 30 minutes ago I realized that we were slowing down, creaping down a windy hill behind a very large truck carrying a CAT backhoe.

06h00, an hour later, Haitan time. We stopped at the boarder with a whole convoy of other vehicles: two CAT backhoes, containers with red crosses on the grill of the semi, a tractor trailer with four brand new generators.

18h00 We arrived safely, unpacked the meds, supplies and our personal goods.  I'm in a room with five bunks, all filled with women. We have about 32 team members.

After a briefing of how we were going to run the first clinic, we loaded supplies & people in two trucks. We traveled all over town, gradually seeing more & more devastation, then passed a road with a big truck tipped over, blocking the entire road.  Little did we know that that was the only safe route to our clinic for the day. So... The police advised that we NOT proceed.

Flexibility is the key.  Instead, we drove through the heart of the city and all of the devistation. It's beyond description. I took close to 250 photos. It's hard to process what we saw, driving, constantly moving, throngs of people everywhere, makeshift tents in any open space & on top of buildings, halves of rooms sheered off, furniture untouched, sheets on beds blowing in the wind, smashed under layers of cement.

We're back & it's time for some dinner. It's hot, we're tired physically & emotionally, and everyone's legs are swollen from the heat. Rest will be good as I barely slept on the bus overnight.

Tomorrow we start early. Keep us in your prayers. God Bless. Doc Shay

Arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Eva, David and Allison before the gals left for Haiti 1/ 31/10.Thank you for praying us through our travels. God has had His hand on all of us. None of the eight of us who arrived this afternoon had to pay for extra baggage, overweight or had our bags inspected. I brought 2.5 large suitcases of antibiotics, pill bottles and half of the gauze from UMPI. The rest will need to be shipped.

The area looks very much like in Congo. If people were speaking in French rather than Spanish it would be difficult to differentiate.

There are several different teams here, including a building team from Southern Maine, working here in La Romana. Our medical team will sort medications and supplies after breakfast before we head over to Portau Prince tomorrow night. Looks like it should be a good team.

Tonight was capped off with a cool shower and now to sleep on a top bunk under fans to keep us cool. Metal slats in the windows, but no glass necessary. The dorm room is on the second floor, two ladies rooms, with 10 filled bunk beds in this room.

Time for lights out. We have a very long day tomorrow.

Dr. Shay leaving for Haiti medical relief work

Many of you saw me on the Channel 8/WAGM news last night, describing my upcoming medical relief trip to Haiti.  If so, then you know by now that I will not be in the office for the month of February.  Chris Mayer, LAc, Diana Higgins, LMT and Leslie Smith, LMT will all be having normal office hours.  Tabitha will be here for abbreviated morning hours during the time that I am away.

It's been a whirl wind of planning and activity since the earthquake in Haiti on 12th of Jan.  I realized that I needed to be helping in Haiti with the relief work.  In less than two weeks, it's all fallen into place.  The flight leaves Portland, ME on the 31st for the Dominican Republic and we will be traveling in a bus to Haiti overnight Feb 1 into the 2nd to arrive outside of Port Au Prince by about 7am.  The weeks will be spent in Haiti, delivering medical aid, then returning to the Dominican Republic on the weekends to restock and pick up more volunteers as they arrive.  I plan to come home in the beginning of March.  I am volunteering as a short term medical missionary with the American Baptist International Ministries.

So far I am aware of close to $2500 that have been donated for antibiotics, medical supplies, shipping of the supplies, transportation, food, lodging, etc.  Food and lodging down there will be roughly $340 per week. (Cheap by our rates!)  I made a commitment to step out in faith and commit $2500 towards antibiotics and $2000 in other supplies (bandages, ACE wraps, betadine, saline, multivitamins, etc).  Much of this will need to be shipped to us in the Dominican Republic due to the baggage limitations with the airlines.  As more donations arrive, Tabitha and I will be in contact on the weekends and she will order more supplies and mail them out to us.

If anyone would still like to donate towards this trip for medical relief, knowing that your money will go directly to medical work that I will be doing in Haiti, then you may give cash or checks to:

Grant Memorial United Methodist Church (GMUMC)

79 Fleetwood St.
P.O. Box 992
Presque Isle, ME 04769

(207) 762-9531

Mark in the memo "Haiti relief" and put a note with it that it is for me.  Please do not put my name on the check.

The church will then give me a check for the full amount and you may receive a tax deductable receipt.

If you do not need a tax deductable receipt, then you may deliver cash or checks in my name to our office and Tabitha will deposit them into a checking account that was created for this relief missions trip.  She will use the money to buy and ship more supplies as it comes in.

Tom is working on making sure that I will have a functional phone for the trip, so I hope that I will at least have internet access on the weekends.  No guarantees.  If I do, then I will try to update the blog at least weekly.

Need to run, still have LOTS to do to finish off everyday paperwork, make more arrangements, pack and spend time with my family!

God's Blessings as you pray for physical and spiritual healing and safety in Haiti!

 - Eva B. Shay, DO