Assembling in Miami

Miami airport -

The team is assembling in the airport for our trip to Port-au-Prince. Already we have Steve from Charlotte plus the group of eight from RDU - Kathy and Sean, Janet, Nicole, Jean and Russ, Matt and Craig. We have team members soon to arrive from SC, CA, and WI.

The group will include 5 doctors - a dermatologist, a pediatrician, a pediatric radiation oncologist, and two Ob/Gyns. The dermatologist and oncologist will do general medicine, and one of the Ob/Gyns will travel daily to FHM's cervical cancer prevention clinic, running this week in Cite Soleil.

Also on the team are a nurse and a nurse practitioner, 3 young men, 2 young women, and 3 other adults. We have two groups of moms and their progeny plus a husband/wife combo. Six of the 15 of us have traveled to Haiti before, a number of us multiple times.

The non-medical members of the team will collect patients' vital signs, do triage to determine patient needs, and operate the pharmacy, under supervision, of course.

Members of the Christian Community Church and their friends have bought tickets for approximately 1 USD for the privilege of attending the clinic with the "missionary doctors" as they call us. They can also pay a small amount for FHM's regular clinic in Blanchard where they see Haiti medical staff. However, the clinic we conduct includes free medicines as needed, so it is very attractive to many of our patients. Patients are assigned one of the 4 days of the clinic. Most will arrive early in the day and spend the day at the clinic compound, waiting to see the doctors.

In addition to the clinic, there is also a church and a school in the Christian Community Church's walled property, so there is lots of action, with school children coming and going, and later in the day, church members attending choir rehearsals.