Life's a Journey, Aye!: December 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Franklin Graham Haiti Festival

A promo of Samaritan's Purse in Haiti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1w3Uj0mrv0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

and the link to the festival -

samaritanspurse.org/haitilive January 9, 2011 130 pm EST

Haitian Earthquake - Anniversary coming up

It will be one year since an earthquake devastated the impoverishe country of Haiti.

January 12, 2011 will mark the year anniversary of this - - -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake

I will land in Haiti on January 8, 2011, eager to join the Samaritan's Purse Cite Soliel medical team. Pray for safety, and for the skills needed to help.

Samaritan's Purse link

http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/ourwork/reliefwork/haiti/webinar.aspx

Follow this link to see Samaritan's Purse work in Haiti. This is the team I am priviledged to join January 7th, 2011

Friday, December 10, 2010

Violence in Haiti

Sure hoping that peace will come to haiti soon.....

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/haiti-candidates-move-toward-direct-confrontation-count-continues.html

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Haiti - the map

Global Outreach - the compound or base where we will stay

Vaccinations for Haiti.....

This is the list of vaccinations suggested by Samaritan's Purse/World Medical Missions foe Haiti - - -

A number of vaccines are recommended for travelers to Haiti. See your doctor before you travel to make sure you have had all necessary vaccines.
Routine: Be sure that you are up to date on vaccines such as...

Tetanus – EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!
Measles/mumps/rubella (MMR)
Diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT)
Polio
Seasonal and H1N1flu
Varicella (aka chicken pox)

• Hepatitis A or immune globulin (IG): Even if your departure is imminent, one dose of hepatitis A vaccine provides adequate short-term protection for healthy people. For long term protection, a second dose is required 6–18 months after the first dose, depending on the brand of vaccine used.

• Typhoid: There are 2 vaccines available for typhoid prevention. The injectable vaccine may be preferable to the oral vaccine in cases where travel is imminent but is only good for two years. The oral vaccine requires refrigeration and 4 tablets taken every other day over one week but provides coverage for up to 5 years.

• Hepatitis B: If your departure is imminent, the first in a 3-dose series (day 0, 1 month and 6 months) may provide some protection. An accelerated dosing schedule may be used (doses at days 0, 7, and at 21–30 days with a booster at 12 months).

• Malaria: Occurs in all parts of Haiti. Ways to prevent malaria include:
Taking a prescription antimalarial drug
Using insect repellent and wearing long pants and sleeves to prevent mosquito bites

Sleeping in air-conditioned or well-screened rooms or using bed net
No antimalarial drug is 100% protective, so it is important to use all three ways to prevent malaria. All of the following antimalarial drugs are equal options for preventing malaria in Haiti: Atovaquone/proguanil (Malarone), chloroquine, doxycycline, or mefloquine. Each drug has its own side effects, contraindications, and precautions. You will need to talk to your doctor to decide which of these drugs would be best for you. Additional information can be found on the Drugs to Prevent Malaria at www.cdc.gov.

Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. If you become ill with a fever or flu-like illness either while in Haiti or after you return home (for up to 1 year), you should seek immediate medical attention and should tell the doctor that you have recently been in Haiti.

• Dengue: Dengue is a common infection in Haiti. Dengue is a disease caused by a virus transmitted to people by the bite of an infected mosquito.
No vaccine or medications are available to prevent or treat dengue.
The best way to reduce your risk of dengue is to protect yourself from mosquito bites. Symptoms and signs are high fever, chills, headache and muscle pain. Additionally, a faint rash on the trunk and upper arms may appear on the second to third day of illness. Treatment is supportive with fever-reducing medicines and fluids.

These are being organized right now - - I will have sore arms!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Haiti - the run up to..........

Hi all,
Did get the word yesterday from Samaritan's Purse, World Medical Missions, that I will be added to a volunteer medical team going to do cholera relief clinics. Lots of preparations to make for the trip, so probably a good thing that my date to leave is January 7 to fly to Miami, and January 8 to fly with team members to Haiti.

Preparations so far:

Visit to family doctor to arrange vaccinations (wow, there are a lot....) and a personal medical kit for 'just in case". Did this yesterday, and will be picking up the vaccines today I think.

Have to start fairly soon with the anti-malarial meds and start to gather some personal effects I will need.

I spoke last night with my family and presented the full plan to them, and asked for input and if anyone really didn't want me to go. Everyone seems fine with it.

Had a long talk with the contact from Samaritans Purse this morning, and got a few more details. I will be working at a cholera relief camp hospital. They do run other medical facilities in Haiti, but this is what I will be doing. Shifts will be 12 hours long, 6 days on, one day off. Will be tough physically in the heat and humidity. Also, they are in their rainy season and the mosquitos are quite a problem. I will be searching out some high concentration DEET for this.....

SP will be sending me a package of information today by email, so will be able to start looking at the finer details.

So I am excited.... and just hoping like crazy that I will be equal to this challenge.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Adventures, not for Adventure's sake - Change in Direction

Hello,

Been a while since I blogged. Have felt the need to volunteer to go to Haiti on a medical relief mission. Application just in amd waiting to hear.

So - different blog - not all fluff and fun.... more real life. Keep me in your thoughts if I am choosen to go.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone! And as we let our light shine, we give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Get out there, and let your light shine! (and yup, that last bit added by me!)

A quote often attributed to Nelson Mandela, but written by Marianne Williamson. Shared with me by my sister Noelle.

Change in Direction

Have been watching with more and more horror the images which reach us here in our nice, warm, safe home of Haiti, post-earthquake.

Many calls have gone out for help, and many have responded in ways they are able - donations, time, with prayer, and deeds.

The thought of all they are suffering has been niggling at my conscience. So. I asked my sister if she knew of aid agencies taking volunteers She did, and put me in touch with a very large and well known one. One with resources and 'pull' - one which is respected and known around the globe. Seemed snesible to me to volunteer with one which is well known, and has resources to support its activities and its volunteers.

So. Tuesday I sent in my application to go as a paramedic to serve in the field hospitals/clinics of Haiti.

If accepted I will go.

So from you dear readers, I will need a continuous supply of positive thoughts, and encouragement. My stint will be for only 2 weeks but I fully expect it will be a life changing experience.

So this will be a different sort of blog that I usually write. No night shots of the Eiffel Tower, no cathedrals, no castles, no Scottish countryside scenes, no flower gardens. I expect the only monuments I will see are those of human spirit - struggling to make themselves and their country right.

I will start by posting some facts about Haiti, and you shall learn about this country right along with me as I do.

I have always known a certain saying, and have always felt it applies to me, in that I have been quite blessed in life. The way I remembered it is:

"To whom much is given, much is expected".

-Michelle, to whom much has been given - and who is staring into the near future, hoping to be more than adequate to the job ahead.

The History of the Scottish flag - The saltire

From http://www.scotlandsource.com/ -

It has been believed by generations of Scotsmen that the national flag, the white saltire on a blue background, the oldest flag in Europe, originated in a battle fought here in Athelstaneford (and I am going there, wahoo!!) in the Dark Ages between the Picts and Scots on the one side and the Angles of Northumbria on the other. (around 832 AD).

There are many versions of the story but they generally agree that an army of the Picts under their King Angus (or Hungus) aided by a contingent of the Scots was invading Lothian (then and for long afterwards Northumbrian territory), and found themselves surrounded by a massive force of the Angles under their leader Athelstan. King Angus and his host prayed earnestly for deliverance to God and the saints.

That night St. Andrew (the Patron Saint of Scotland) appeared to the king and promised him victory.

On the next day when battle was joined, the vision of a white saltire (the diagonal cross on which the Apostle had been martyred) was seen by all against the blue sky. This so encouraged the Picts and Scots and frightened their adversaries that the former won a signal victory.

In the pursuit, so the tradition goes on, the Northumhbrian leader Athelstan was slain at the crossing of the Peffer or Cogtail Burn, the site of which is marked by Athelstaneford Mains Farm, about half a mile south-east of the village.

The probable site of the battle is at nearby Prora Farm,where there is a field called "The Bloody Field, close by the Peffer Burn, (this burn runs into Aberlady Bay, to the west, whereas the first mentioned Peffer Burn runs east to the sea).

The Saltire is also known as the Saint Andrew' s Cross.

Robbie Burns

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.
He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world, celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was voted by the Scottish public as being the Greatest Scot.

Life's a Journey, Aye!

In the words of Ewan MacGregor, "The Long Way Down"