My Mom is in Haiti

It's been a week since I last posted, and in this week, A LOT has happened. There's been the regular insanity of juggling university, babysitting, dance, homework, life in general, etc etc etc, but we also got a whole 'nother bucket of insanity dumped on our heads.

Yesterday, my mom left for Haiti.

You see, my mom is a nurse. A really well trained nurse. She's had experience in intensive care, operating rooms, and pediatrics (ICU, as well as regular pediatrics) and babies (NICU). She has been in third-world countries before, and can speak fluent French. The language in Haiti, Creole, is like relaxed French dialect (or so I've been told? Correct me if I'm wrong).

It was Tuesday that a medical team leaving for Haiti asked her to go with them. Yes, Tuesday. Three days before they were set to leave. She was hesitant at first for a multitude of reasons (if someone asked you to go to Haiti in three days, you'd probably hesitate too!). Also, my birthday happens to be in just a few days. I'm turning seventeen! And my mom didn't really want to miss that. But honestly, Haiti needs her more then I do right now. So after I assured her many times that it was okay, and I wanted her to go even if that meant her missing my birthday, she agreed to go.

And then the real chaos began.

How the heck are you supposed to prepare to go to Haiti in three days!? Along with having to get various vaccinations, the doctors and nurses each had to bring two giant bags full of medical supplies. That was crazy. My mom went to the hospital to scrounge supplies and just threw in as much as she could into those poor bags. Then she came home and to take everything out and repack it in an intelligent fashion (not just throwing it in). It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen- our entire living room, swamped with various medical supplies. As well as gathering supplies, the team leader told everyone to take ten days worth of protein bars, because it wasn't guaranteed that they were going to have food there. Oh, and everyone also had to take pills that would hopefully prevent them from getting Malaria, as well as bug spray to prevent Malaria-infected mosquito's from biting them.

Yeah, that's just part of the list. I know I'm forgetting other things. Let's just say those were some of the craziest days I have ever experienced.



Oh, and like the good blogger I am (hah!) I actually got some photos of the madness itself!

The anti-Malaria pills (their official name has escaped me). I like the color!

41 pairs of flip-flops. I believe this was my dads idea. One of the previous teams that had returned from Haiti said there was a dire need for shoes, so my dad went out on a mission for flip-flops (it's actually very hard to find flip-flops in February).

Love these shoes. The moment I saw them, I could perfectly picture a little boy wearing them. (Please ignore my ugly medic-alert bracelet).

Yes, this is a disposable scalpel. I didn't even know there was such thing as disposable scalpels! I found it in the huge pile of medical supplies.

Pretty awesome, I must say.

One of the piles, in the process of being sorted.

Our living room, after being taken over by medical supplies.

My mom alone was bring 50 IV starts. Remember, every doctor and nurse had to bring just as much as my mom. A crazy amount of medical supplies, but still, they'll probably run out.

Everything stuffed into the two big (hippopotamus sized) bags. That's medical supplies, protein bars, and forty one pairs of flip-flops. Wow.