I am still alive! The internet comes in and out and the electricity does too. Our "shopping" trip consisted of going to 3 different pharmacies, and a street vender for "natural herbs" that some Haitians believe in... We have learned that during these outreach clinics, we are having a hard time getting through to people that medicine will help them and we are trying to meet in the middle.

The poverty here is unreal.... really exactly what is on the "children's christian" commercials that you see with children looking through trash mounds for food and bathing in the same water they cook from. Worms crawl into their skin through their toes from still water. It is quite a sight that children and people actually live like this, though most seem happy.

Yesterday we went to the orphanage and saw the saddest, most untreated disabled children I have ever seen. We worked on just positioning them to keep them from getting bed sores and avoiding contractures. They were the most malnourished children I had ever skin... literally skin and bone. Some of the children we couldn't help because their legs had folded outwards and towards their heads to and stayed that way for 15 years. We could not get his legs or arms to move at all. They all had diseases. From cutaneous anthrax, malaria, scabies, and meningitis. We went digging threw the trash piles for materials to make a walker and we were able to make one with an old rusted commode. We decorated it wit colors and two of the girls in the orphanage can now walk with help. We did a lot of education and fixed a lot of wheelchairs with duct tape, foam, and pieces of splinting material. I made a splint for one girl and she is now able to use her hand to pick up a toy for the first time.

Today we went to an outreach medical clinic out of a church that was nice. It had cement floors that were finished and electricity. It was very different than Friday's clinic. Tomorrow we are giving a "conference" for 8 hours and I feel like this is the REAL way that we will make a difference because therapy for 1 hour total is worthless when there is no follow through or understanding of anything. The problems that this country faces is hard to even make a dent in. They are so primal with medicine, treatment of people, and treatment of all children. At times you wonder if you are doing the right thing be helping because it feels like it would be more moral to not give some people treatment at all because it will be a quicker, more peaceful death. It is hard to hear myself say that because in America, really EVERYONE has a "fighting chance" and life is so much more comfortable for sick people.

It is hard to take pictures of them because it feels so exploitative (is that a word). We are so busy and I feel bad stopping to "take a picture" because it is SO bad. I have to walk away some times because it is so overwhelming at times it is hard to breath.

I missed the beach from getting sick, but I feel better now. I have been taking antibiotics for 3 days... I am surrounded by MD's and nurses though.