Quiet Sunday evening

Hello all you folks out in the cyber world. I am currently beaming to you from a satellite that is cruising over Les cayes, Haiti at about one zillion mph.

Well a lot of the water from yesterday is gone but it left lots of mud around here. Anyway mass was good this am even tho it started about 2 hours late. Kind of like a World Series game...with a rain delay.

The boys were playing basketball after the rain. One got smacked in the face and bled like a stuck pig. They woke me from a perfectly good nap around 4:00 PM to see him. He needed stitches and I haven't done this in a while. Oh well, kind of like riding a bike. Hope he doesn't come after me in a few weeks. Had to do some fancy eyelid work but I did it with pink stitches so at least he should like the color co-ordination. Just kidding about not doing it in a while, but I certainly shake a lot more than I used to. Too much caffeine??? Not enough RUM????

Remember the young lady I told you about with Malaria a few days ago. Well she came to church today and looked pretty bad. lots of pain, very tired, a little fever. Just kind of beat up in general. Now she looks and acts like the malaria the textbooks talk about- POOR LADY!!!!

Had Pizza for lunch after church-homemade by PETER. Then for supper had Barbancourt RUM (haitian), sprite and cold pizza - nice combo.

It is now about 10:00 PM and time to go nite-nite....see you....jerry

Sunday AM b4 MASS

Wow, mass starts in a half hour. I'll pray the rains stay away. Finally quit yesterday afternoon. four feet of water in downtown. buildings flooded. Tent city under water for those from PaP who were displaced to here.

Couple of young folks on a scooter who tried to go over a bridge that was underwater swept away when they got to the opposite side and about 10 feet of raging water. i have no idea about other parts of Haiti but there was a lot of rain here. The Good Lord certainly has a sense of humor, I guess????

Never made it to town last pm for dinner because roads around here all flooded.

This am--no rain, a little sunshine and I am washing my undies and hanging them out to dry just like my mama used to do

That's Haiti....type later if internet stays on . It went out for about 12 hours yesterday and overnight.........bye.....nase

Rainy saturday morning

What is up with you guys??? I just got some great news from back home. I will share it all with you when he sees it in writing but not until then because I am in haiti and nothing happens here like it is supposed to happen.

Remember that ship that I told you about that was to deliver #8 trailers loaded and a lot of other things. seems it is halted up the coast and the gov't here is changing the rules on them. Needs different papers then they were told bv4 proceeding. Now they won;t come until sometime next week but that could change .


Big time rains this AM . whole property flooded. Just what the folks in tent city needed. After 4 hours or so the rain stopped and the water is moving on. Holy cow, haven;t these folks suffered enough. Still working on the video portion of this blog but I am at a standstill. Only hope are my fellow volunteers who I am trying to entice with the possibility of receiving my children.s inheritance ( that should get at least 3 comments).

If the water drains off the roads here we are hoping to go into town for dinner tonight from the proceeds of all of you nice folks who have subscribed to this blog.

hugs & kisses....nase

HUMBLE PIE FOR JERRY

GOOD EVENING ALL YOU PEOPLE...

A day when one must swallow a piece of humble pie.

A youngish lady, about 40, had been having muscle pains, very tired,& just wiped out for the past several days. She did not have fever, chills, blood in her urine, etc,, .


So along comes this pediatrician we all know who was seeing a lot of the same stuff in clinic in Haiti and thought everyone in Haiti had post earthquake flu-like illness. So this pediatrician chalks up this young lady's illness to the same diagnosis. But because he works with her and sees her daily he examines her daily without much change for the better or worse.

Note: she is in Haiti for the second visit in about 6 months and she was told not to take any drugs for malaria prophylaxis this trip even though she did during her first trip. Along comes this smart Haitian nurse who tells her to have a malaria test just to check it out. She does and it comes back positive and she is started on therapy for malaria. Turns out this rookie pediatrician is from Alaska where the mosquitoes may stab you to death but won't kill you with Malaria parasite.

Bleach boy came back to see me and he was fine today.

The baby from earlier this week who was 4+ sick- no one has heard from since she left the clinic. don't even know if they went to hospital or not. That info seems very hard to get-hope to learn more

Another thing, my laptop seems to have been chosen by a family of the tiniest ants in the world and they drive me nuts when i try to smash them and thpe the wrong key. Now you all know I am not the greatest typist in the world

That issue about rounds up my first 10 days in Haiti- how about you guys?????

One more issue to get off my chest...these roosters are crazy here. they start about 3:00AM and scream about every 20 minutes or so , just to bug me..I had a dream they were all spinning in the roaster at Costco and I was screaming ay them every 20 minutes....bye....love....nase

cleaning out your pipes !!!!

Called over to clinic around 5:00 PM yesterday. Several adults talking to me in Kreole with a little 6 yo sheepishly sitting in clinic with a big bloated belly.he was wearing a milk mustache. After finding one of the older boys (high school)who spoke some English it turns out the kid drank the bottom of aa bottle that had bleach in it. we checked him out and most was well. He was afraid about the whole situ and that he had caused it. Watched him for a while and later sent him home to see me this AM.

Some folks were visiting when I got back to the Quad. One gent from Cross International and 4 ladies from a new organization that is trying to help out with the orphans. Had some Pasta and GARLIC BREAD with them and chatted for a while.

Some excitement this Saturday.

A ship left Maine area loaded with goodies about 3-4 weeks ago. Ten trailers (20ft.) on deck and a hole full of people's stuff from their homes wrapped in garbage bags. It is meant for Espwa. They will unload the trailers about 60 miles up the coast and drive them here. This process needs a crane and none around here (no port).

Then the big boat will come here and the stuff in the hole will be offloaded to small fishing boats and brought ashore. Father Marc is hiring extra police and UN peace keepers to be available just in case this all causes some sort of a riot---exciting,NO????!!!!!

Some of the trailers are headed for other communities around
Haiti. Very expensive to truck stuff around these days down here

Check out the news or CNN this weekend to see if anything happens.
Have a good Friday night.....jerry

Good Mornin' to you

Hey, get up it is 0500 darn roosters

Sorry for the little rant yesterday

I really do like what I do on a normal day!!!!!

Small group of people arrived last night . they drove from Port au Prince to Cayes in a truck. They said PAP was weird. Some streets cleaned up but all the buildings still down. lots of folks in the streets. I don't think they trust the buildings too much.

Sounds like at least American airlines is flying, now.

Time for a "shower" some coffee and off to work later.

Type later....nase

sometimes I hate what I do!!!!

Sorry about that- I hit the wrong button. Clinic this am was going along nicely and a mom and baby (2 month old) come in.

She says diarrhea for 3 days but seizures for a week. They are from the local community. Patient is posturing and seizing in front of me. very dry with tenting skin. looks only to the left with intermittent jerking movements (having a seizure).
Soft spot on head is bulging.

Most likely bacterial meningitis or cerebral malaria -neither of which is a good diagnosis even in the states.

We told her she needed to take babe directly to hospital for evaluation and spinal tap and IV antibiotics and anti malarial drugs....who knows if they will go. or go to a local healer first or no money to take to a hospital. Say a prayer for the kid!!!!!

No such thing as an ambulance service here.

This morning sucked(pardon my language).....nase

Sometimes , I hate what I do!!!!

A request from Haiti from me.......

Now besides your money I want STUFF, too.

Here is a sad story.
A friend from Haiti who attends med school here lost a teacher and some classmates in the EQ. He had left the school building just a short time before. Today he was studying physiology from a book published in 1974 in French. The official medical school language here is French.

If any of you (my friends) have any medical texts that are slightly outdated- like published since 1999- they would be well used down here. French is nice but English is great also. He speaks fair English as do many of his classmates. check your bookcases for old dusty med texts AND ANSWER ME ON THIS BLOG IN COMMENTS SECTION ( I may run out of rum).

Subjects of interest would ne Anatomy & physiology, internal medicine, pediatrics , surgery, clinical exam, liver, cardiology,etc.
I am working on a place (East Coast area???) where they could be sent to and shipped to Florida for possible small plane transport here or with other volunteers who will be coming to Les Cayes from the U.S.

Sure appreciate your listening.........love..jerry nase

NOON UPDATE

To all you mad musicians:

Good day yesterday and today. Monday clinic very busy. All the folks want to come and see the new doc "papa noel" (that's me) to see if I have any magic potions for them.

Alas nothing magic!!!!! I am seeing a viral flu=like illness going thru the community with fever, Headache, diarrhea, muscle aches and a little vomiting . Lots of kids with abdominal pain and bloating (most likely parasites). I don't look for them , just treat the kids. Not ideal but then again a bunch of stools samples sitting in a clinic with no AC is also not ideal!!!! Know what I mean!!!!

The Haitian folks around Cayes are great. Very appreciative that someone comes down here with a bag of Ibuprofen and Penicillin and creme for scabies, etc...Cayes is a town of about 30,000 or so that has just about tripled in size since the EQ so I am seeing lots of folks from PORT AU PRINCE, also

Went to Father Marc's pad for lunch. Boy those Catholics sure eat well. Just Kidding, I probably gained weight in the past week---love those rice & beans!!!

All for now....love...papa noel

I almost forgot. The mosquitoes down here are voracious. In Alaska, the mosquitoes never give me the time of day but down here they are having picnics on my legs. I think they are hungrier than most of the Haitian people.

Someone asked if I was drinking those RUMS that I mentioned a few days ago..NO, NO
those are coming back to Alaska and everyone who comments on my blog gets a nip as well as my donation of an extra grain of rice, as previously mentioned. BYE-BYE

rice raiser

Hey all,

I know about 8-9 folks at least have read one or more of these posts, but you have posted very few comments, so far. Now , I realize a lot of my friends are shy (just like me) but did you realize that every comment you make I match it with an extra grain of rice. I really miss that Alaskan cynsism .....nase

sunday night in Ayiti

hi kids,

Went to mass this AM- CUTE!!!!

Trying to make about 200 young boys quiet to start Mass is very much like herding skunks-not that easy. Father Marc had to do a little yelling just to get started. Mass in French with singing and Bongo drums is always pretty cool.

Got another small plane load of stuff from Florida via the Bahamas today.lots of medical supplies came in that will have to dealt with by the clinic nurses-most of it pretty useful and the rest will go to local hospital in Les Cayes. They ( hospital folks) are pretty much done with the acute medical stuff that came down from PAP. Now lots of wound care, infection treatment as well as lots of long term physical therapy for the amputees (kids & adults). One problem is not too many therapists in Cayes.

Some young musicians from Florida here talking about getting the older boys from Espwa to make a CD (singing) with some of the profits coming back here. Only problem is there are a lot of folks and groups with great ideas out there without enough soldiers on the ground here to GET 'ER DONE.
This will be an interesting idea to follow.

Really things aren't very different for me other than they have been on previous trips except that there are many more people in town so our clinic sees more non Espwa patients ( adults and kids). Good for the Haitian people because they get seen for nothing and meds are free if we have them available(while they last).

Pretty warm today, a little rain last night Actually sweat most of the day while contemplating my belly button lint....allfornow.....love...jerry

Saturday night

Me Again,

Busy day today. To town this morning for a look around. saw the only building that collapsed in Les Cayes. Business as usual here except for lots of price gouging going on. stopped at a bottle shop and got some old Haitian rum and a bottle of Cuban rum

Went to the airport to meet some guys in from the bahamas with a private plane loaded with goodies for the orphanage. Rice, powdered milk,towels sandals tools and some antibiotics that we can use.

then made a late trip to a different orphanage with about 12 little ladies about 4-10 years old or so. they were shy for about 2 minutes. Someone said they had scabies but they didn't. 6 or so had impetigo sores in their scalp. they share same comb and always braid each others hair. after the exams I took some pictures and then they wanted to work on my white hair. they tried to braid it and my eyebrows and my beard. It was like a day at the spa....

then home for some pizza seems the electricity went out and they couldn't mske any dough , so the pizzas were on bread from the solar ovens that the boys make up- not bad

have a vgood Sunday....nase

and another thing!!!!

A little quiz for all of you out in the suburbs of haiti:

A little quiz: What is the coldest?

1)A Bering sea dip

2) a Goose lake dip

3)My lasagna last evening after I napped too long( I am definitely not starving)

4)A Haitian shower at Pwoje Espwa

Answer: come on down and find out !!!!!!

Love, nase

see you in the funnies

Happy Friday night

Great weather here in beautiful downtown Aux Cayes (Les Cayes) today. sunny and in the 80s or so. No humidity yet to speak of.

Day plans changed about 42 tines today b4 I even got started. Was supposed to go into town to Lamadone (old Espwa building). There I was supposed to see some girls that had come from Port au Prince and were being helped to find spots for them either locally or back to PAP.

Part of the everybody needs an entry physical idea. Good idea on paper but not necessarily in practice. So these 15-18 year old young ladies show up for Exams and each one supposedly had female problems and problems with their periods, etc.
Now those of you who know me all know I enjoy seeing KIDS but not necessarily with these issues. I save them for my OB & midwife friends and refer them along
I am convinced that this issue was real but also that it may have been passed on amongst them while they were talking and waiting to see me.

Anyway that made my day because I saw only a few kids in the age brackets I prefer

Anyone is allowed to say well he is the dummy that went down there. What is he complaining about?? You are absolutely right, this is just a little venting that's all!!!!

Lots of folks and groups coming through here to see the site and visit Haiti in general.
Kind of like " I'm going to Disneyland"

Will wait to see what Saturday brings....hopefully Sunday!!!!

One neat thing is I met alot of these young guys about 5 years ago and they have grown up to be pretty neat young men. Wish I could speak more Kreole with them

Good nite Ricky, good nite Lucy.....jerry

Made IT !!!!!!!

Guess who made it to Haiti (nah nah),
I have been here since yesterday , where have you guys been??
Flew from Fort myers to Les cayes in about 3 hours or so. arrived at 11:00 am, grabbed some lunch and went to clinic. There are about 50 new kids that just arrived from some orphanage somewhere and all needed Physical exams so that all the paper work looks good. All were boys from 4-16 years old and all were healthy except for some scabies cases and colds.

not too many folks in volunteer quarters right now, but more are coming. Had a beeer with some folks that I knew from before and then crashed for about 6 hours.
Weather is great warm but no humidity with fairly cook nights. I still sweat like a pig, however.

Today had a busy day in clinic which included seeing some adult patients which I have never been to fond of but what you gonna do?

One little boy with sickle cell crisis and 106 temperature that scared the crap out of the staff. he was pretty bad. by the way if I had sickle cell disease I would not want to have a crisis in Haiti after a big ' Quake. not good Karma!!!!

There are about 15 young girls at another of ESPWA's buildings in town that are coming tomorrow for checkups as well as regular clinic load. ESPWA clinic sees all of the orphanage kid as well as people who live in the area( no cost-The Real Public Option-send this to Barack for me, OK???)

If YOU missed previous or past notes a good story of Haiti in real life as opposed to NY Times
is pwoje espwa.blogspot.com

If anyone has a spare coin or two drop it off at www.freethekids.org. I hate to keep buging all my friends about this but one thing that should come out of all this mess is that Haiti needs to stop allowing child slavery (see Restavec) here and abroad.

This my newest crusade-no one should do this to kids-and USA should styop helping Haiti until this occurs---------tell your friends-------start shoutin'-----I'll calm down now

Still working on forwarding some photos to you all....coming soon....be well....jerry

False Alarm

What's up,

Just like my momma said, "you have to learn to take baby steps first"

Got on a plane in Fort Lauderdale around 3:00 P.M. Stopped in Fort Myers to pick up two other guys going to Les Cayes . By the time we arrived it was too late to fly out. Trip takes about 2.5 hours and has to land and unload b4 5:30 and take off again. No lights at airport in Les Cayes (ever) so no late flights. Might hit a donkey on the runway....
Besides the pilot just came from Las Vegas (6 hours) and needs his (and Mine) beauty sleep!!!!!

New plan is take off at 7:00 am on Wednesday and go for it...
We'll see how it goes...
Be well...jerry

Hopin' & waitin'

Hi guys,
Tues AM in Fort Lauderdale (0900). Leaving for small plane airport in about one hour. Hope the plane goes. a little cloudy here. Saw Sean Penn on TV last night talking about tghe situ in Haiti-sounds grim but he has been in Port au Prince since the EQ. Hopefully I will Be able to know more in a few days..

Looking up, My car to small airport just called to learn what airport I need to go to- so at least I will get that far today.

Hope these mundane issues don't turn anyone off. I feel like a" twitter guy", only with a blog

Be well kids...love & Peace....jerry

Also hope to learn how to put some photos on this blog or else I'll have to e-mail them from my photos to Hotmail and then onward. We'll see how it goes!!!

Hey,
Pretty good. I am at the airport. To be honest Michael(my Boy) helped me with the last entry and I did this all by myself.(old dog,new tricks)...

Tired but can't sleep. went to a christening earlier today in Anchorage. New little Chinese lady is not only a citizen, but also a Catholic(look out).

If all flights hook up O.K. should be in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow afternoon and take off for Haiti on Tuesday. Plan is to overfly Port Au Prince and go straght to Les Cayes.

Hope you all had a good Valentine's day. Good night....j

The Journey Begins

Hi everyone, leaving Anchorage tonight for a vacation in Haiti.
I am learning to use blogspot and hope to keep you all updated via my new Blog.
Check back in about a week to see if I am capable of learning this level of high tech.