A Final Update from Team 22

Bonjour on this beautiful morning in Haiti As we always say, it is not about numbers, but we were able to care for almost 900 people. On our last day, the Good Lord brought us a smaller number, allowing us to calmly finish patient procedures, gather our thoughts regarding needs in the clinic for our next team trip, and even get our group photos...CHEESE!!!!

I want to turn this over to Team 22 to share with you thoughts, feelings or experiences from our week together...

Sharon Feehan, Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)

This is my 6th trip with Little by Little. We all come here hoping to give a little bit of comfort and hope to the wonderful people of Gramothe. I am forever amazed that I come away feeling like I received SO much more than I gave. All of our hearts our very full as we conclude an amazing week!

Jessica Ittner, FNP student at UIC

It's been an incredible week.  I'll miss waking up to roosters crowing and walking through town on the way to clinic, seeing smiling faces.  I'll miss our patients in clinic, hopefully we brought them comfort and healing this week.  I've learned so much, thank you to Little by Little for organizing this life changing trip.  Go Team 22, such a compassionate talented group of people! 

Maggie Schumm, FNP Student at CUW

This was my first trip with LBL. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn from such compassionate providers. The patients seemed very thankful. It was a nice end to the clinic that no patients were turned away. I hope to return some day as a provider.

Jeanna Carlson, FNP Student at UIC

I feel so lucky to have come on this trip for the first time with LBL! It has been an incredible experience. The Haitian people have captured my heart with their smiles. I am grateful to have been working alongside a great team to bring much needed care to them. I will miss my time here and can't wait to return! 

Jacqueline Rincon, FNP Student at UIC

This was my first trip to Haiti. The week has been an emotional roller coaster, but I am grateful for every minute of it. Not only have I learned so much clinically, I have also learned so much about myself as well as the Haitian culture. I cannot wait to go home and share my experiences with my family and friends. We have touched so many lives. The Haitian people have however, touched us in a way that will change our lives forever. Thank you to our wonderful team!

Heather Overmyer, ER RN

What an amazing experience!! I am so thankful I got to travel with team 22 to Haiti and work with such a great team! I will never forget this experience as it and the Haitian people have changed my heart forever!  I look forward to returning to Haiti in the future. Thank you Haiti and team 22! 

Renee Landa, FNP Student at UIC

This is a trip I will never forget. Just seeing how appreciative, lively, and kind the Haitian people are gives a new perspective on life. My favorite was seeing the elderly patients give a huge smile, usually exposing a toothless, gummy smile, but still beautiful nonetheless. I am also so grateful for making new friends who are so compassionate, kind, and FUN!

Debbie Barnes, Pediatric RN

Another amazing trip with a fabulous group of people!!  My sixth trip has been nothing short of incredible - love, laughter, healing, sharing, compassion, and beauty.  We were blessed as a group by the unique talents each team member brought to the table.  As I prepare to go home, I find it interesting that I come to help "heal", but going home feeling "healed" myself.  Love you all and will never foget you. 

Joanne McCluskey

Team 22 has been a great experience! This is my fourth trip to Haiti and the gracious people that participate on these trips never ceases to amaze me! There has been so much laughter, love and compassion this week, it has been incredible. As for the people of Haiti and the country itself I continue to see great improvements! I have seen much healthier people this year, and signs of rebuilding everywhere! It is so exciting to see what a difference we can make in one short week!

Kim Hogan, APN

This is my sixth trip to Gramothe with Little By Little. I fell in love with Haiti on my first trip, and it only grows each time I’m here. I never cease to be impressed by the dignity and grace of the Haitian people, and I’m happy to have an opportunity to serve them. I’m also pleased to see improvements in the health of the local people, and the signs of rebuilding in Port au Prince. Team 22 is a great group, flexible, hard working, smart and fun!  I’ve loved meeting up with my old friends and making new ones.

Bernie, RN

This has been the best experience of my life. I loved the people and the place. I have learned so much and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity. I am really impressed about how well coordinated the clinic was and how every person on the team helped out. I hope to come back! J 

Robin Afeld, FNP student

This was my first trip to Haiti and wow what a week! As an FNP student, I went into clinic every day with energy, inquisitiveness, and motivation to do as much as I could in just one short week. My experiences with the patients will stick with me the rest of my life. I learned many things, not only about caring for people of all ages, but I learned things about myself and my capabilities as a future provider. Although, I may have returned home each night exhausted, it was a rewarding and fulfilling exhausted. I truly felt like Team 22 touched the lives of many Haitian people and in the process, the Haitian people have left an everlasting impression on ours.

Pat Kalensky

This is my fourth trip to Haiti with the Little by Little team. Each team has been a unique group of individuals but our strengths have blended beautifully to enrich each other as we serve the people of the Gramothe clinic under Mountain Top Ministries. I am grateful for the support and aid we have been able to provide to the people who walk from near and far to trust this team with their health; 900 in all this week.  The improvements and changes I have seen here in Haiti over the past 3 years have been remarkable. I am very encouraged by these people’s resiliency. God bless.

Charlie Yingling, FNP

It is a joy to return to Gramothe and see the changes that have occurred in the community since my last trip here.  New crop fields are planted.  New, permanent structures are erected and there is far less malnutrition than on previous trips.  I am so appreciative that the people of this community continue to invite us back to work with them to improve their health.  The team of professionals with whom I have shared this week are selfless, humble and truly a pleasure to work with. Good humor and flexibility have made joyful a week of hard work.

And thus we end this week of care to our Haitian friends. As always we leave with mixed feelings of excitement to reunite with our families but with a heavy heart to leave this hardworking village of Gramothe. We finished our day today with a very loud crazy game of "garbage", sang Happy Birthday to Team 22 members Taylor and Joanne and enjoyed a pizza party. We are now packing to come home to you.

Thank you for being with us in spirit this week and for your thoughts and prayers.

God bless, Vanda Marsh and Team 22

Anniversary Mourn (by sue walsh) The early dawn, as the sweet strum of the crickets quiet, The dogs and night frogs rest, As the rosters finally lose their voice, My eyes are reflexively pulled upward To pink and purple puffy clouds ~ a fresh sunrise in my repertoire. Slowly drawing back from the soft, slumbering mountain they Wisp and dissipate; rugged rocks not yet visible. Morning light is ever energizing and reassuring! Monday is here. The first day after the last day of the 4th year Since the ground broke and took up so many to You too soon! Blanket Haiti with your precious nature of hope and joy this New Year. Thank you for this fresh morning. Lovingly wake those who need care and walk with them to our clinic. Wrap your arms of this new day around Haiti.

Bonjour! Thank you everyone for praying our way with traveling mercies ~ and for our luggage. Always my worst time of the trip...waiting for the flash of each ribbon in the luggage pile. Now, instead, each bag arrives via a new turnstile - and there are enough of us that no bag gets dizzy circling. Each bag arrived with its bounty! Takeoff was uneventful with just a 45 minute delay. We can barely remember the frigid and snowy weather we left behind and the travel nightmare that accompanied so many over the holiday exodus. We have a talented and diverse medical team with each provider bringing a specialty; exceptional nursing and pharmacy students and plenty of very eager non-medical helpers bless our team! Our work in the clinic has been a joy and an everlasting experience for all. The faces of well over 1000 men, women, children and babies we cared for in the clinic and at the MTM school will be ever clear in our memories. Oh yes, we’ve been slathering on sun screen, aerobicizing with daily mountain walks and soaking up every minute of the warmth of the people, baby goats and the weather in Haiti!!! Hope all of you can be warm just thinking about us :) Below is a prayer written by Tim Fitzpatrick, a pharmacy student from Roosevelt University. He lovingly wrote this prayer to be said before our final meal at the guest house at MTM… His penance for losing a game of Jenga the night before ~ “Dear Lord, Bless this meal; amid the oh-so-proven talented hands that have prepared it. Bless the tired feet that traveled up the mountain for treatment. Also bless our equally tired feet that found their way up the mountain to serve in the clinic. Thank you for helping us with our mission to lower blood pressure, relieve itches and pain, alleviate reflux, infections, worms and so many other conditions that are a result of a hard but beautiful life. Thank you for the opportunity to make so many new friends and the chance to learn from so many open, knowledgeable and modest people. Bless those who may find their way back to this beautiful country to continue to serve. And may everyone here continue to grow and learn and have great careers. Thank you for the things we found that we weren’t looking for such as great scenery, heart-shaped rocks, best friends or a baby from the orphanage we all wished we could take home! Also, thank you for the wonderful creation of Epocrates. May those who we could not help find the help they need, and may you guide us safely on our trip home. Amen.” Thank you for following our January 2014 trip, Team 21, as we serve, little by little in Haiti. Sue Walsh

October 2013 Greetings from Haiti- We are more then halfway through our week here at Mountain Top Ministries and we wanted to send out greetings from the Team. Our travel was uneventful and we arrived at the Guest house without a hitch. No one was lost in the airport, everyone's luggage arrived and Willem was there to take us up the mountain in the back of the big blue truck. Clinic has been a little less busy then usual - there was another team here only 2 weeks ago, but it seems like more of the patients that have come have been significantly ill. After 3 days of clinic we sat together last night and shared the path that brought us each to this team at this time and it was amazing to see the creative ways that God used to connect this team for this week. It is clearly evident in our time here that each person is here for a specific purpose. Our pharmacist Dachelle and her pharmacy "techs", Ray, Betsy,and Debbie have been awesome. Our inventory manager Lou and his storeroom staff, Catherine, Cheryl, Chris, Pat and Mike have keep us in good supply. Kara runs the lab (and is the lab), Lanelle mans the scabies station (lucky Lanelle), and Ashley captures it all in living color as our team photographer. We have Murph Jr, Jon and Patty triaging the patients in a chaotic entrance hall- and the rest of us are able to see patient in steady flow. Clinic has run like a well-oiled machine... well, most of the time. Vanda and Lisa are doing a great job keeping us aimed in the right direction. There have been plenty of challenges presented by some very sick patients that need far more then we can offer like a 12 year old boy who likely has a brain tumor of some sort. We have also experienced a few miracles like the tiny 8 week old female infant brought to us this AM from the orphanage with a 2 week history of vomiting. We unwrapped the swaddled infant to find a severely dehydrated little baby "raisin" peering up at us with tired, sunken eyes. It was clear this little one needed immediate intervention and a quick decision was made to take the baby into PAP to try and get her into a hospital. A group from the team took her in and were reassured to find the Medishare hospital to be a well run and organized hospital adequately staffed and knowledgeable in their care. The baby was rehydrated successfully and then admitted for more care with a working diagnosis of pyloric stenosis. We have another sick baby from the orphanage with severe failure to thrive and very abnormal anatomy that we uncovered on X-ray. We were able to get input from a pediatric surgeon in the states and it is clear the infant needs a complicated abdominal surgery soon if he is to survive. So we are praying for another miracle. Of course intermixed with the serious nature of our mission are moments of laughter... hearing a little Haitian girl skipping by down the path by the stray dogs singing "who let the dogs out" in creole...trying to shoe the gecko off the bug net... watching Lou's imitation of Peewee Herman and Vanda doing her version of Michael Jackson in a game of garbage.... and the joys of being on a team that is made up of newbies, returning old-timers, life long friends, a father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife- all working together as one to deliver God's love in many forms. Thank you for your prayers as we continue God's work, Fondly, LBL Team 20