Long day at Chardene!

Whew! We had a LONG day at Chardene. Poor Vanessa is still working with kids while I write. She has been going since this morning, working dilligently, to make sure that our students are able to hear God's word! We are so lucky to have an audiologist with us this week! As she works, the fisherman who have been out in the ocean every night this week, start their work. We went out last night and they showed us their catch. They catch these little fish that look like sardines but they call them Pickett. We have no idea what they use them for and our creole made it difficult for us to figure it out. From what we understand, they take them to market. According to our translators, "strangers" buy them. We don't know if that means foreigners? We know that they don't eat them. It was a really cool experience!
Heather and Sabine led us in song almost the entire ride to Chardene. We made a pit stop at Pierre Payan Hospital to check on our referrals from yesterday. This morning was a little rough at first, we moved our ear wash station 3 times before we had our set up just right. Poor Deb dropped the water pick the third time she moved it and we all had to take a deep breath before the first kid came through. Once the first class arrived, things were smooth sailing. With three providers the children moved through the lines quickly and there were breaks between patients for the first time this week. The littles were NOT happy about getting their ears cleaned or their hemoglobin checked, but after several renditions of "Jesus loves me" in Creole, they were all smiles!
Jeff took over height and weight and did an incredible job of organizing screaming children. Our Community Agents continue to improve and have become an indispensible part of our team. Marcia has found her calling with checking feet and has it down to a science. With Olivia's help they had the opportunity to check the feet of every child who came for their physical. With their trusty wipes they even had the opportunity to clean many of our students feet. What a humbling experience.
Johanna was busier than usual with 3 providers prescribing meds, though she didn't have as many crazy doses as Devin, Nick, and Jameson become more familiar with the dosing options that we have available. Of course, things become easier as the week is wrapping up. It was nice to have Jameson today as there was another set of eyes to look at all of the crazy skin issues that we aren't used to seeing in the States.
Rene continues to impress us all as she is able to get the kids from their classes without the help of the translators. Julie helped organize the children through the audiology station. It has been a struggle to find a quiet place to evaluate our students ability to hear. Kelly continued to be versatile as she switched between nurse assessments, ear cleaning and vision throughout the day, jumping in whenever needed. Emily continues to provide some of the most detailed notes ever, which has been unbelievably helpful for the providers.
As the week winds to a close, with only one more day of clinic, we are so thankul for the opportunity to work with eachother. We are sad that the week is coming to an end but so excited for the next team to continue the work that we have started.