zanmi mwen

The chaos at the rehab center has calmed down a little bit the past few days. Our decision not to admit any new patients before we leave and the new therapist comes has really allowed us to
Pour our energy into the patients we already have. We are seeing some nice progress from most of our patients, which has been exciting to see. We have had both of our stroke patients and our spinal cord injury patient up and walking with supports. We have been focusing on extensive training for their caregivers, which we're finding is very necessary in order to be discharged from here. We are also trying to really focus our energy on training the rehab nurse and our rehab tech (both from Haiti) on the work.
Because we see most of these patients everyday or a few times a week, they have really become some of my buddies... I have begun to call them zanmi mwen, which means my friend in Creole. I learned that when i put my arm around one of patients with an above knee amputation, who knows some english.. And i said "my buddy, my friend!" He then shared with me the creole term for that. They like to laugh at me when I try to talk to them in Creole because I'm quite bad at speaking it, but they like me because I continue to try. We have had pretty consistent help from translators this week, which has also been a huge blessing especially for caregiver education. Some of the frustration has been in the need for many of our patients to be on medications. We have access to many of the medications because there is a pharmacy and a primary clinic on the grounds. However we found out today that the nursing staff has not been very consistent with giving out the prescribed medications to the patients who need them... and when we're dealing with patients having really high blood pressures and intense pain, it gets scary
to know their limits with therapy. So we are finding that our job becomes much more than a therapist, and instead we are spending time being a social worker and a nurse, and a manager and educator of the staff. I'm sure this is a need in most third world countries!
It's been raining a lot at night.. I think because it's hurricane season, but last night we kept ourself busy by cooking an international meal representing dishes from the various countries represented on the grounds here. It was very enjoyable. All the rain helped cool us off today, and there was even a little breeze!!! So I went walking around our neighborhood with some others here. On our walk we stumbled upon a camp for children that had been found in the streets... Most abandoned... That was difficult to see, but the children were smiling, laughing, and playing! There were also many Haitian people that had taken on caring for these kids... What a sacrifice!
I can't believe I only have one week left! I have been very thankful for the other two therapists here to share this experience with. I will most definitely miss all my new Haitian "zanmi mwens" Friday afternoon we will hold a basketball practice for our patients in hopes to have an actual game with our patients and some if the volunteers here. I'm looking forward to this and our last weekend to really explore haiti!
Bon nuit!!