Haiti Optometry Mission 
January, 2011   Dr. Marvin Walker


    Thursday, Jan 20
 It is good knowing my friends at home are praying for me. Thank you for that.  So far I have been a part of two clinic days. 45 people yesterday, 40 today,  but we got a late start, no electricity for the first hour. Lots of glaucoma down here.  I really like the Optometrist here. The language is still a big barrier for me. Internet access is very limited and I'll not be able to send photo's.   I will bring some home. Your prayers are coveted here,
                                          In Christ,  Marvin

     Tuesday, Jan 25.   Home safe.   Photo report below:



This is a typical market scene in Port au Prince This is a "Tap Tap" taxi, a small pick up truck modified to transport about thirty people The sign at back translated "Life is not easy"


Hatians carry large loads on their heads, here two young men are carrying/selling cell phone chargers and accessories. Cell phones are everywhere in Haiti, and fairly cheap. $20 for a phone and about 3 cents per minute, sold on "cards" you load on the phone. This is a colorful display of towels, in Haiti everyone is hustling to sell something. Other than the churches, there is no social safety net.


This man is carrying chickens for sale. They are alive with their feet tied. He has about twenty. This man was standing in the middle of the road, selling telephone calls in addition to the "one pill at a time" drug store on his head.


Not all mobile markets are on the head! This guy gets a lot of merchandise in a wheel barrow This is another fancy variety of "Tap-Tap" They get the name from the way you signal to get off, You Tap Tap the side to signal the driver.


This picture has trash in close proximity to food service, under the yellow umbrellas, can you find the dog in the trash pile? This is a Doctors Without Borders Cholera hydration clinic. Better known there by the initials in French, MSF. They really saved the day on the Cholera epidemic. Cases are dropping in the original site, where the Tibetian UN forces unintentionally brought in the Cholera, but cases were still increasing in the south where we were, 300-400 new cases per week.


Temporary housing for about 85 families Dr. Steve James, full time Missionary doctor in Limbe, Haiti with the truck that makes his work possible, donated several years ago by the Mitchell-Yancey Medical Society. He and his wife Nancy own a home in Yancey County.


The wife and family of Max, one of the construction guys I met through Christianville Road damage, untouched since the earthquake
 


This water purification unit was paid for by a Rotary Club in Winston Salem. It was in place at the center of the Cholera outbreak in November. Spruce Pine Rotary will be sponsoring one in another school A young man finds a way to get arround town


Beautiful Lake above a hydroelectric dam. The electricity all goes to Port au Prince though, 120 miles away. This is the lake that displaced Dr. Paul Farmer's clinic and the community of Cange. Mountain top at Cange, where Dr. Paul Farmer moved his clinic. A well known book about the clinic and the village of Cange is called Mountains Beyond Mountains.


Farming Tobacco, Cabbage and Eggplant with irrigation from the river on the right Watering the eggplant with a coconut with river water


A new hospital is under construction in Mirabalais, where the water projects are. Partners in Health will operate it as the new teaching hospital for Haiti.  The one in Port au Prince was destroyed in the earthquake. This is a car that has wrecked and turned on its side. They will probably turn it right and fix it on the spot. This was one of three vehicles involved in this crash.


The complex of "Hands On" ministry, there are about 150 houses to be distributed for the Leagone area. Leogone was the epicenter of the earthquake, and is just now getting the rubble cleared out, this is saying something since 98% of structures were ruined. Typical  Hatian home after the earthquake. A tent to start out, a Samaritan's Purse shelter until they get their home re-built, and the everpresent motorcycle to get arround on.
 


A typical motorcycle with four riders, I saw as many as six. Two students from the Christianville School were killed while I was there in a motorcycle accident. Coming to school from Leagone (plus the motorcycle driver). 
Dr. Ryan outside the eye clinic where patients start to gather at 6:00AM for the 8:00AM clinic. The staff limit the number to about 70, mostly glaucoma, even at young ages. Glaucoma is a genetic eye disease.


The inside waiting room. This clinic was modified from a kindergarden classroom after the earthquake, The cost is about $2. Dr Ryan treats a two year old girl with cellulitis. Untreated, this condition could be sight and even life threatening 


Dr. Ryan and his daughter, Eleanor, ninteen months, and Titus, his three month old son in their home. 
This lady was going to town to sell some banannas


This truck was traveling down the road with steel re-bar to put into concrete for stregnth. It was dragging the pavement with sparks flying everywhere. I hope nobody has a gasoline leak. I hear they do this with motorcycles too, just a drag! The Korean UN contiengent was about a mile from our mission campus. They are an engineering group of about 100 soldiers. They played taps and revile daily at 22:00 and 06:00 loud enough to wake our entire camp!


Dr. Arch Woodard in the bunkhouse reading with his headlamp. Christianville is on a 40 acre campus and has an elementary and high school, agricultural school, medical, eye and dental clinics. They have a feeding program that has local young men raising chickens for a profit, as well as Tilipia fish farming (aquaponics). This young man is named Christian, he is the director for volunteer services at Christianville. He is from the North of Haiti. He was educated in Port au Prince in French, Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic in spanish, and speaks very good english. He quit his well paying job in the DR to return to his homeland after the earthquake, to work for near nothing. It was on his heart to help Haiti. He represents the hope I have for Haiti's future in the face of disasters and corruption.