Haiti - Day 5

Kim's group, assisted by the Ohio Disaster Medical Assessment Team (DMAT), went to the campus of a Catholic private school today. The "father" at the school turned down the small group because the security personnel traveling with them refused to disarm before entering the facility. There had been rumors of unrest at the school's campus which was the cause of the armed men's refusal to cooperate. It is good to hear that the safety of the volunteers is such a high priority to those involved in the rescue efforts.

They then visited another tent city which is exactly as it sounds. Kim made mention of a tent school, tent barber shop, and other "tent merchants". After mingling with the people in the tents, the volunteers went back to the hospital that they assisted at yesterday. The translator discovered that the reason the hospital lacked adequate nursing personnel was because the earthquake had destroyed a nurse training center next door. When the first earthquake hit, the building completely collapsed crushing and killing over 500 nursing students. Survivors were few and far between, but included a few Latter-Day saint women that had decided to skip class and fortunately preserved their lives by avoiding the crushing rubble. While at the hospital the group tended to wounds, and made due with the limited resources that they had. Corrections were made at the hospital when it was discovered that not having a night shift meant that patients were left in painful agony, packed like sardines and covered in flies, during the hours that the local medical staff were no where to be found.

Back at camp, the group was treated to Haitian food instead of the standard MREs that they were growing accustomed to. At the time Kim got off the phone she was understandably exhausted and a little worried about the safety of the meal. Hopefully her first taste of the foreign food will remain an enjoyable one.