Dr. visits (and a trip to PaP)

I have mentioned that Chances for Children operates a medical clinic and that it's right next to the guest house (entrance through the same gate). They employee two physicians and a handful of nurses to run this pediatric medical clinic that is open to the community. It costs $1.50 to be seen for an appointment and you just show up and get a number and wait to be seen.

We took the girls over one afternoon for a checkup and to go over what information they have in their chart. The staff and Dr. Augustine were wonderful.

We are choosing (like most parents do) to keep our girls health concerns private so I won't be sharing those here, but I will tell you that both girls were nervous at this appointment...but that Il was super, super scared and she screamed the entire time that she was on the exam table. The doctor even turned to me and asked me if this was normal behavior for her and he was pleased to hear that it isn't. We appreciated how thorough he was with looking at the girls and answering our questions and he wrote us a prescription for some testing that we needed to have done in Port-au-Prince. 

We were able to go (with a driver and nurse Makenzi) to PaP on one of our last days spent in Haiti. On Friday, November 30th we made the drive down the mountain. First we went to a clinic and then to the hospital. Makenzi was so great to take care of communicating everything for us and the girls were champs. I was relieved that Il didn't seem distressed like she did at the prior doctor visit and neither of them fussed at their blood draw either.

I have to mention on thing that was funny...we didn't know until right before we left that we were able to go to PaP that day for their appointments. We already had dressed them in matching outfits we brought with us, so that is what they wore. Staff at both the clinic and hospital we took them to commented on how baffled they were at how alike they looked and that they couldn't tell them apart. One even triple checked to make sure that she wasn't helping the same child the second time around. It was pretty amusing.

Taking the drive to PaP was quite the adventure for the girls. Some of it they seemed to be interested in and some of it they fussed and didn't enjoy. So, basically they were 2 year olds.

Anyway, the drive back to the orphanage took significantly longer. It was a full day to make the drive and visit both appointments. We were pretty tired once we got back, but tried to soak in as much as we could of the vibrancy of this country of our children's birth.

And a couple very short video clips we took while driving...

I just have to comment briefly on these last couple photos. On our way back to the guesthouse/orphanage we had to navigate a road with a market running on either side.  I can't tell you how glad I was that we weren't behind the wheel as he maneuvered merchants and oncoming traffic like here...

I'm so grateful that our girls are able to get this medical attention. I'm also so grateful that they have such a sweet relationship with nurse Makenzi. You can tell they really love her. She held El most of the drive home since the winding roads were making Mark feel sick and El was fussy. It became more and more difficult to imagine leaving the girls as we neared the end of our time in Haiti, but it certainly did soften things to know that they are receiving such good care, and that they have caregivers that love them...and they love too.