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Thursday, February 17, 2011

13 months later - We have returned

Our 20 hour day yesterday was exhausting but rewarding. American Airlines allowed us to take all our overweight and extra bags of dental equipment along (for the bargain price of $360) despite their recent embargo on extra luggage. Thank you very much, Tiffany at the American Airlines baggage check counter!

Within those bags were the contributing pieces of the new state-of-the-art Dental School - manikin heads, a Nomad x-ray unit, networked computers, compressors and much more. Dr. Suzette Stines and Dr. Sammy Prophete greeted us with big smiles and hugs when we arrived at the Haitian Faculte d`Odontologie. They had been busy with a dedicated group of workers putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls of the dental clinic and lab. Dr. Suzette had commandeered 25 durable dental chairs from NYU that she had professionally reupholstered through a friend of hers in Haiti. As she says in her Facebook post, "It`s looking more like North Carolina evey day. We were pleasantly surprised and excited at the progress they have made since our last visit. Expect some amazing pictures soon by our professional photographer ,Tom B., from DEXIS."

We reconnected with Nadia and Frantz who safely drove us through ferocious traffic to Fahima and Joe`s house at the US Embassy. We dined on a lovely dinner prepared by Fahima and carried on provocative and insightful conversation until our eyes could not stay open any more.

Today, the dental crew carries on their installation of the delivered goods at the dental school, while Carol delivers vaccines to Gaetan, and connects with local medical projects. The dental school is planning an Open House for Friday, with a big celebration at the end of the day.

All is good in our Haiti world right now.