The Northwest Haiti Christian Mission is a special place. They do have full time staff that live at the mission and help it run, but for two months out of the year the Haitians run all operations. Here are some photos of the grounds to give you an idea what we were working with.
This is a picture of one of the women's dorm rooms. They were totally full during my trip because there were so many volunteers at the mission.
The kitchen area. The mural cracked me up because it was a painting of every food you would not be enjoying during your time in Haiti. Pizza, ice cream and wedding cake were not on the menu. We ate a lot of rice, beans, goat meat, and oatmeal. I'm not a picky eater at all, so I didn't mind the menu. It's hard to say no to the food they offer when you know there are literally hundreds of kids downstairs that don't get enough food to eat.
The dining area.
This is a new chapel area at the mission - where we had morning and evening devotionals.
This is going to be a new aquaponics facility. They will raise fish and grow plants on water in hopes of making the mission for self sustaining. There is a cool couple who lives at the mission full time trying to get this off the ground.
Waiting area in front of the clinic. A surgeon out of Kansas City paid for this clinic to be built. The benches (and more) were completely full all day when we were in clinic.
This is the machine I ran most of the time while I was in clinic. It's called an autorefractor and tells you their prescription. See that AC unit in the window? It. Was. Glorious.
The mission has two orphanges on campus. This is the infant orphanage and there is also a special needs orphanage. I think both have 20-30 kiddos enrolled.
This is the post-operative recovery room.
Pre-operative area.
When I helped in pre-op I just administered dilating drops, pain medicine and took vital signs.
There are two operating rooms at the mission. Physicians and surgeons coming from all specialties visit the mission.
The mission also runs a nutrition program. Kids have to be in the 2nd or 3rd stage of malnutrition to enter the program. Once admitted, the kids and their caregivers can get two meals a day M-F at the mission. Kids who are in school can also get breakfast before heading to their classes. The meal is a special type of rice that has been infused with vitamins missing in their typical diet. Something else I learned about while is Haiti is a product called Medika Mamba {peanut butter medicine in Creole}. It's produced by a company called Meds and Food for Kids, owned by doctor out of St. Louis. Visit this website to learn more and see some before and after pictures.
It was pretty hot at night, so a lot of people just put their mattresses out on the deck to sleep. I did this the last night I was there and it felt amazing {but I was covered in mosquito bites, which is why I didn't do it every night}. That dog, Duke, lives at the mission. He came from America to stay with his family who also lives at the mission.
The mission itself has high concrete walls and guards at all gates {armed with sawed off shotguns...yikes!}. They really try to ensure that everyone within the gates is there for a purpose. I felt very safe the whole time I was at the mission.
The next post I will share with you some photos, videos and stories about the precious Haitian kids I had the priviledge of loving on.
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