It's the weekend!

Friday was a whirlwind. We had 6 team members return to the guesthouse yesterday. Sue, Bob, Terry, and Kevin returned from Les Cayes. They completed their mission having made 8 prostheses and watching each and every one of them get up and walk. The patients that the Les Cayes team saw will continue to return to the hospital for therapy to gain further independence with their newfound mobility.

Barb and Jill returned from Jacmel yesterday afternoon. They treated about 6 people in the morning and then made the trek back. They saw about 20-30 patients per day and managed to have biweekly therapies as well. They are hoping that their documentation makes it through to the next group for consistent follow up. This week another therapist will arrive in Jacmel from the US to pick up where they left off.

Jamie, Wendy, and Leah said Au Revoir to the crew down at the Medishare tents. We are able to document our treatments daily (inpatient, not outpatient) which helps with follow through from the next group. Their will not be any overlap of therapists in the pediatric tent so a summary sheet was provided to ease the next group into their adventure. We said goodbye to all of "our" patients and took pictures with the new friends/colleagues we made throughout the week.

Jim and Steve spent the day advocating for Healing Hands. Yesterday, an organizational called Direct Relief International made a visit to Healing Hands Handicap International prosthetics/orthotics lab and are interested in our project. We are also in discussions regarding a new temporary location for our Kay Kapab clinic until the Rehab Institute is built. It's time to move out of the tent!

Following our reunion last night, Rick made pizza for everyone. We all enjoyed and discussed our adventures throughout the week. Later, a Troubadour band showed up to play music for us and we rocked out to some superb Hatian music on our patio. We have some amazing dancers in our group! The HHHI orthotic/prosthetic lab staff, Dr. Nau, Jasmine and Mac our interpreters, and Noel our driver, among others, joined us in our celebration.

This morning we all part again. The group that came last Thursday will be moving on to the beach - with a stop at a magnificent waterfall along the way. The group that arrived last Saturday will be returning to the states today. We all had an extremely productive week and will likely take a lot of today reflecting on what a powerful presence volunteers have here in Haiti and what an experience this was.

Mark and Emily have been off the radar with all of the activity around the house. We hope they were able to sleep with the music last night :)

The next post will not be until tomorrow evening as yours truly will be enjoying some beach time. Look forward to the next update!