234 patients…

We finally made it to the last day of clinics! It was a bittersweet feeling because it meant the trip was coming to an end and we would soon be leaving to go back our separate ways.  The day started off a bit late because breakfast was not prepared by the time we were downstairs. When we got to the clinic site, it was overflowing with patients. This was the largest crowd of individuals that we had seen at the clinic thus far. It was equal parts scary to see so many individuals waiting on us, and equal part exciting because this meant the word of our presence had spread and more people that didn’t have access to health care were going to be helped.

It was a quick-paced day trying to see as many patients as possible before we were set to leave. In total, we saw 234 patients for the day. That was the largest count by far that had been seen by this the team. Watson had another sexual education talk with a new group of young girls and women, and passed out the Days for Girls kits to them.

After the clinic, we went to a school in town to play basketball with the girls’ basketball team. The game had already been arranged by Mayor/Pastor Gueillant Dorsainvil before we arrived. Even though we were all tired after clinic and just wanted to go rest, we still went to play with the team. The coach met us before to let us know he just wanted us to come and play with the team and motivate them. Their goal was to have at least one girl from the school, make it to the 2020 Basketball World Cup in Japan. The game was surprisingly very intense but our team pulled through in the end and won 22-20.

When we got home, we all sat down to have dinner and our last team meeting. During the team meeting, we had the pleasure of meeting one of the Mayors of St. Michele de l’Attalaye. She expressed her gratitude to the team for coming to her town and giving back to her people. She told us “health is one of the most important things in life, without it we couldn’t do anything. Thank you God, thanks to the Mayor, and thanks to the team for giving back their time”. The team concluded that this was one of the best trips ever with Cassandra stating this trip was definitely her favorite trip; Noelle wouldn’t go as far as claiming this her favorite trip even though she said it was high up there. She did say she was “happy to see Haitians, especially young Haitians, giving back to Haiti”. There were very few, if any, complaints made by team members with everyone getting along soooo well.

Today was Maxine’s birthday and tomorrow will be my birthday so the team decided to have a joint birthday party for both of us. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get cake but we had some sparkling juice, Cremas, and candy. We listened to music, danced Kompa, played mafia
(which became the favorite game of the trip to play) and played spades. Cassandra, Watson, and Geraldine did an amazing job planning this trip and being the team leaders. They managed to make every day run so smoothly, even when Geraldine was sick she was still actively participating in clinic days. Stevenson, Dany, and Sam were an amazing support system back in the States. They constantly called and checked in on us, ensuring things were running smoothly.

-Amanda Muana