Day 7 - A New Year, A New Outlook

January 1, 2011
Day 7 - A New Year, A New Outlook

Fireworks at midnight on the beach of Ile A Vache

A view of Abaka Bay Resort from the water at night!

Happy New Year to everyone! We rang in 2011 with many locals on the beautiful island of Ile A Vache where we had a traditional Haitian meal around 10 p.m. and lit off fireworks at midnight. We were very blessed to be staying at the beautiful Abaka Bay Resort to celebrate this new year and had a wonderful time!

Leanne, Duckens, Natalie & Teasha on New Years!

After rolling out of a bed a little later than planned (On true Haitian time!) we made about a mile long hike up a hill to a small village where a church and school were nestled into the beautiful Haitian mountains. As we approached the village, we came across a small tidal pool that we had to brave and run across!! It was definitely an experience!

The group discussing how to get across the tidal pool

Making a run for it! :)

We finally got to the village and set up our clinic in a beautiful little church. There were probably about thirty children already sitting there waiting for us to arrive! Then we began another day of handing out medications and diagnosing anything we could.

The children were waiting for us when we got to the church

This clinic day was especially exciting because we came across a large supply of Combatrin. Combatrin is a de-worming medication that you can give to children and adults. For every 25 pounds in weight, you give the person 1 pill. A person weighing 75 pounds would get 3. Because our supply was so large, we were able to de-worm every child and baby we came across that day. We even had enough to supply some adults with the medication! All in all, we were able to de-worm over 100 babies, children and adults :)

Some of the kids we de-wormed :)

Also on this day, another baby came in that was severly dehydrated and I got to feed her Pedialyte through a dropper again! I just love those little babies! It makes me want to adopt a little Haitian! We were also able to supply each child with a small toy and some snacks such as granola bars, crackers, cheese and beef jerky.

Precious little baby!

After a long clinic day, the villagers asked us to take a small walk and showed us their beautiful new school that they are building. We were also able to see a gorgeous old church that was right along the beach with beautiful stone work in the windows and along the walls. Kelci took a gorgeous photo of the church that I'll defintely post on here for you all to see.

The gorgeous church

A seashell lined path to the new school

After spending most of the day in the village we hiked back down the mountain to the beach and spent the rest of the day relaxing and swimming in the gorgeous Carribbean Sea! Not a bad way to ring in 2011 huh? :)

A view of Ile A Vache from the top of the hill in the village