Cheri Kay in Haiti....where my life became meaningful.

This is my daughter Ecrissa . We have not had formal testing, but through various informal testing, it is presumed that she is deaf. She does not respond to any noises, is not verbal and shows no signs of hearing even loud gun shots or thunder. She is doing great though. She is learning sign language and is using some signs independently without prompting. I took her with me to The Baptist Haiti Mission the other day. This is a large mission group here in Haiti, but we were on the street looking at the street vendors merchandise, when this Haitian man came up to me and Ecrissa and started talking to Ecrissa . He was telling her that she was cute and asking her name. After a couple of attempts and no responses from Ecrissa , I told the man that she her name is Ecrissa , that she is deaf and was unable to answer his question. He immediately took 3 steps back with a look of horror on his face. "OH" he said, "she is sick". "No", I replied, "sh...

Well, there has been a lot going on these last couple of days! I met Benjamin, the little boy in the picture above. He is a 7 year old boy with severe cerebral palsy. We will begin therapy intervention 1 time a week with me with the goal of gaining a little bit more mobility, functional use of his arms and hands and to address his poor range of motion in his wrists, ankles, and hips. He has not had any therapy his whole life, but he tolerated our first session very well. I am very excited to see what a little therapeutic attention will do for this child. I also was involved with a medical clinic in a village near Titiayan . I was able to do physical therapy with 2 children who have disabilities that I had met in November. When I met them the first time, I gave both families exercises to encourage proper development and to help improve the function of their children. The one little girl and her family have not done anything to help improve her arm, but the little boy is look...

This picture is from an area of Port au Prince called La Saline. La Saline is what is often referred to as a slum. This means that most of these people are "squatters" and do not actually own the land that they are on. Some may be paying a small amount of rent, but most are just hanging out until they get caught by the landowner and are forced out. These people are very very poor. What you see in the above picture is very typical of housing for a large majority of Haitian people. There is basically one room inside that metal shack, although sometimes they'll separate the room with a hanging piece of cloth to make two rooms and often there are at least 8 or more people living in the same home. The roof is most likely leaky and the floors are dirt. So during the rainy season, this home is often a muddy mess and the people living in it are dealing with hardships in maintaining their home and their fragile health. There is no toilet, they will just go outside somewhere, u...

This has been a fun week! The above man is a missionary here in Haiti who was having severe back pain! He was treated yesterday and he is no longer having any pain! This is what PTs are all about! How fun! I also got word that the missionary that I told you about with arthritic changes also had a pain free day! This has made me so happy! Emmanuel had a great therapy session today too! His fever was gone and he was able to stand with the loftstrand crutches for 1-2 seconds and he did that a bunch of times! That was really fun too. The medical clinics that I am usually involved with on Wednesdays has been moved to Thursdays, but we didn't have it this week because the Doctor passed a kidney stone the night before. YIKES, he was in alot of pain and so we took the day off and will resume again next week. Well, i'll write more later!

What a busy week!!!! I have been doing so many things this last week. The little boy in the picture above is Emmanuel. He has clubbed feet and his mother would really like to get help for him. There was a lady that tried to get a medical visa for him and so I was initially doing physical therapy with the thoughts of preparing his trunk and lower extremities for future walking. However, they could not find a doctor and a hospital to donate services, so now I am trying to teach him to walk with loftstrand crutches. I'd love to use a walker, but I don't have one available, so I am using what I can. This is something that I am dealing with as a therapist here. I have to learn to use what I have, and not have all of the technology and "things" that I am used to having at my fingertips in the states. In the U.S., I would never teach a child to walk on feet that are like his, or using the loftstrand crutches at this stage, but here in Haiti, we just need to do the best we...

Today was another Haitian Holiday, a continuation of the Independence celebration. I am sad that I never got to try some pumpkin soup, but I'll guess I'll save that for next year! So, we decided to hike through the mountains up near Kenscoff . We drove up the mountain and then down into a ravine and then we hiked up the mountain through a village called Gamot and we hiked all the way over to a waterfall that the locals call, dlo ti sous . It was such a beautiful hike, so peaceful and so different than the hustle and bustle of Port au Prince. The villagers are so friendly. They are less malnourished than the people that we see in the city, because they are truly living off of the land. There were banana trees, lettuce gardens, corn, onions, peppers, black berries, and we saw lots of cattle, goats and donkeys. The water was so clear and clean, and in a country where drinking water is not readily available, it is such a joy to see clear and clean water that is actually safe to ...