Heading Back to Haiti

Bonjou and welcome to the official Team Sinai Haiti blog for our upcoming mission to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Our team is returning to volunteer at the same hospital where we served last year (June 2010), Adventiste Hopital d’Haiti.  From the moment we left after our weeklong mission last June, we couldn’t wait to go back. We had an amazing, life altering experience, and were able to help over 50 indigent patients who needed orthopedic surgery. Many were originally injured in the earthquake of January 12, 2010, and some were more recent trauma victims, and many were children with birth defects.  We had arranged to return to Adventiste Hopital over the Christmas break, 2010, but our plans were thwarted by political and civil instability surrounding the December elections. Things in Port-au-Prince got pretty hairy, prompting American Airlines to temporarily suspend flights. Moreover, the organization hosting us, Adventist Health International, decided to temporarily evacuate their expatriate staff at Adventiste to the Dominican Republic. By the time the smoke settled, we had lost our travel window. Over the next few months, we planned, calculated, and regrouped, and finally were able to reschedule our mission to this June 2011. Most of the original 18-team members from last year were not able to make the new date, but we have successfully recruited replacements. The returning team includes six veterans: Merrill, John, and Brittany Herzenberg, Job Timeny, Ram Shetty, and John Russell. (See me, Job Timeny, and John Russell rounding last year...)The brave newcomers are John and Chris Sauter, Ed O’Laughlin, Arup De, Julia Ramberg, Tara Leroy, Ron Delanois, Alex Herzenberg, Jossie Abraham, Jennifer D’Amico, Janel Slonaker, and Cindy Swanson. Over the next few weeks we will be introducing our new team members. We haven't yet told them about the first class accommodations for volunteers at Adventiste (see below), or the fact that it is 95 degrees in the daytime and 85 degrees at night. Air conditioning? Guess again...

Last year, we worked with Dr. Scott Nelson, who spent 6 months at Adventiste after the January earthquake. Scott's replacement is Dr. Terry Dietrich, who is serving for one year, together with his lovely wife Jeannie. We really look forward to helping Terry and Jeannie, as they are so tireless and committed to providing orthopedic care to the indigent population of Port au Prince. Stay tuned, more to follow in the coming weeks.