Grounded

On Friday February 26th the last four remaining HOPE volunteers debarked the Comfort to go ashore. There we were met by Project HOPE employee Matt Peterson (a great guy) and were taken to a hotel in the center of Port au Prince (PAP) where we linked up with Frederick. There we had lunch, swapped stories, and got a quick intro to what lay ahead of us. After lunch we proceeded in two cars to Deschapelles north west of PAP where the Albert Schweitzer hospital is.

There we met with the director of the hospital Ian Rawson. We were able to get a tour of their impressive facility and have dinner with the group before turning in for the night. Ian's mother Gwen Mellon and his stepfather Larry Mellon opened the Albert Schweitzer hospital in 1956. They were inspired to open the hospital by a Life magazine article they have read in 1947 about Albert Schweitzer's work in Africa. The hospital usually carries a maximum census of 80 patients but post earthquake they received 800 injured and sick patients that were cared for by a staff of approximately 75. Since the earthquake they have succeeded in opening a prosthetics lab and physical therapy training center for all of the amputee victims of the earthquake.

They will likely become a referral center for patients in need of prosthetics because of their success in getting this PT and prosthetics training center up and running so quickly. All of the people we met from PT's to prosthetics people to physicians and ward nurses are all so committed to the suffering in Haiti both pre and post earthquake. What a wonderful group of people. After our tour of the hospital and a meal with the group we settled in for the night.

We were able to sleep in the main house that belonged to the Mellon's and was designed by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students and is a beautiful but subtle property in keeping with the landscape of the Haitian countryside.

The following day three of the Project HOPE volunteers (Sunder, Rosemary and Anne) were put to work in their respective specialties. They will remain there for the duration of most of the week supporting the post earthquake medical relief efforts there at Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Matt Peterson, Frederick and I will move on from Deschapelles to head to Cap Haitien to do a site survey to identify potential sites for future on the ground HOPE volunteer opportunities.