Til Next We Meet.....

Dearest Friends,

Just a quick note to say "see you soon" to those of you who check in on me from time to time.  Hubbs and I are headed to Haiti for a medical mission trip this Friday.  We will be working in a hospital in Carrafour ( a densely populated area of Port-au-Prince) for the next week....treating patients with chronic medical problems as a result of the January earthquake.

So many people have asked me if I am "excited" for this trip.  I find that this is a tough question to answer. Excitement does not describe my feelings....of which I have many.  There is a part of me that is anticipating this trip with the hope that I will be able to make some small difference for the short time that I am there.  There is a small part of me that is uneasy, maybe even a bit fearful, that what I see will be difficult to handle.  I do not look forward to seeing so many people living such desperate lives.  I do not look forward to seeing the ongoing suffering, the hunger, the pain.  These things, I know, will be indelibly etched into my heart.

(pictures courtesy of J. Spence Reid, M.D.)

I am glad to have the opportunity to dust off my nursing skills and once again put them to good use.

There is a small part of me that fears for my own  safety...the incidence of HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and many more diseases is incredibly high.  However, this fear is overshadowed by the knowledge that going is the right thing to do.

I have so many questions.....all of which will be answered, I am sure, in the coming week.

I am thankful for having been given this opportunity.  I am thankful for the life that I live.  My world is a happy one, free from suffering.  I am lucky, for this is not the case for so many others.  All of this makes me so acutely aware of how crazy this world is....that some should live lives of destitution and desperation, while others live lives of privilege.  

I pray, that in some very small way, I can help to make this world a better place....

I pray that some day all children born in any country of this world will live without hunger, without poverty, without their life being shortened by treatable disease.

I thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers.  I will share my experiences when we return home next week.

I am thankful for all of you who care about me....my life is blessed by your presence.

And so with two suitcases full of medical supplies and two suitcases full of teddy bears, hubbs and I join 5 other physicians and nurses on this trip to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the 4th hungriest country in the world, where the average life expectancy is only 53 years.....amazingly, my age.