10 Days

So I leave in 10 days to return to Haiti with another medical team. I'm looking forward to seeing any changes since I was here in January. I will be traveling up north with my medical team to give medical care in a remote village. It will be interesting to see what is in store for the team, what we will see, how many Haitians we will be able to help. So I started packing this weekend. I have a busy week ahead of me as I'm trying to tie loose ends at work, get everything taken care of at home, etc.. Have a good week. Many Blessings, ~M

Matt Bouthillier

Matthew BOUTHILLIER Matthew Romain Bouthillier of Renton, WA passed away unexpectedly in Haiti on March 1, 2010. A seasoned ER nurse, Matt was in Port-au-Prince serving earthquake survivors as a volun teer for Medical Teams Interna tional. While on the trip, Matt suffered a cardiac arrest which claimed his life at the age of 36. Born on September 22, 1973, Matt grew up in Connecticut and Texas. He attended Pacific Lutheran University and gradu ated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. While at PLU, he fell in love with Melissa Leppke, and they married on July 12, 1998. Matt and Melissa consider their two sons, Brian (7) and Logan (4), life's most precious gifts and above all, Matt cherished spending time with his family. Matt had a tender heart and a fearless spirit. He had served as a Captain in the US Army at Brooke Army Medical Center. He was an ER nurse for Virginia Mason and Swedish Medical Center in Issa quah. Described by his colleagues and patients as an extraordinary medical professional, Matt pos sessed an uncanny measure of experience, skills, and wisdom for someone his age. He served his country and fellow man with courage, conviction, and care. Matt was also an avid outdoors man who enjoyed hiking, camp ing, and mountain climbing. His many friends and family remem ber him for his terrific sense of humor, his authenticity, and fierce loyalty to those he loved. Whether serving his country, saving lives, climbing mountain peaks, or playing with his boys, Matt embraced life and lived it to the fullest. Matt is survived by his wife, Melissa, and two sons, Brian Michael and Logan James. In ad dition to his wife and children, he is survived by his mother, Dale Bouthillier, and four sisters: Gail Garcia of San Antonio, TX; Kris Gauthier, Zionsville IN; Catherine Menounos of Brooklyn, CT; and Lynn Bouthillier of Brooklyn, CT. Matt had eight nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brother, Michael Bouthillier and his father, Dr. Joseph Bouthillier. American hero, loyal friend, lov ing husband and Dad - Matt's life was brief, but his legacy lives on in the countless lives he touched. A Memorial Service open to the public will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 13 at the East Renton Community Church, 13232 156th Ave SE, Renton, WA. A Matthew Bouthillier Children's Fund has been set up for the family at US Bank. Please sign Matt's online guest book at www.legacy.com.

God Bless you Matt for your service, dedication and compassion

A 36-year-old medical volunteer with Medical Teams International died Monday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the victim of a heart attack, according to the Portland-based aid organization.

Matthew Bouthillier, of Renton, had been in Haiti helping with recovery efforts in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

MTI announced Bouthillier's sudden death on its Web site.

“We are shocked and saddened beyond words at this enormous loss,” said Bas Vanderzalm, president of Medical Teams International, who recently returned from Haiti. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Matt’s wife, Melissa, and his family, as well as our team in Haiti.”

Bouthillier was on leave from his job as an emergency-room nurse at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah. He was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at a University of Miami field hospital in the Haitian capitol.

A relative posted on Medical Teams International's Facebook page words Bouthillier reportedly wrote on Sunday: "Continue to be a part of something big by doing something small."

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So I left Jan 21st, and spent 3 weeks down in Haiti with Medical Teams International (Northwest Medical Teams)... We worked in Kings Hospitals with mostly alot of orthopedic injuries and amputations.. and then I went out with a mobile team to Carrefour, the epicenter of the earthquake and camped at a refugee camp of 17,000 people on 5 acres of land... a little from that experience.

From Northwest news article

The grim news has been told to the Molly Hightower’s family. 22-year-old Molly Tower is an American woman who had been volunteering in a Haitian orphanage. Her dead body was found from the ruble of the seven-story building where she used to live and work.

Molly Hightower of Port Orchard, Washington, went to Haiti in June 2009 to volunteer for ‘Friends of the Orphans’. ‘Friends of the Orphans’ is a Chicago-based group which runs orphanages across South and North America. Her family tells that Molly Hightower had an ambition in her life – to work for International adoption. She studied at University of Portland.

Molly Hightower’s family told that she returned to America to visit her family before Christian holidays, but left soon to get back at the orphanage.

Molly Hightower maintained a blog where she used to write
about her experience at the orphanage and about the mixed emotions she felt for the orphans. In one of her posts, she wrote that she could never understand why anyone would want to give their children up.

Molly Hightower’s friend Rachel was visiting her at Haiti when the earthquake hit the area. She described how the building shook and how they ran towards the door when it collapsed. Rachel is alive and has received some injuries.

Molly Hightower was found dead in the rubble when the rescue teams searched for her. She is survived by her parents and three siblings.

interesting news article: Pat Robertson

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Robertson+blames+Haitian+earthquake+pact+with+devil+asks+donations/2438448/story.html

U.S. television evangelist Pat Robertson has, perhaps predictably, run to the TV cameras once more, hot on the heels of a global tragedy, and blamed that tragedy on the godlessness of the nation it has struck.

Not content with having once called Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists the "spirit of the antichrist," referring to China's policy of compulsory abortions as "doing what they have to do," and calling Scotland a "dark land" teeming with homosexuals - and fresh off having called for the assassination of Venezuela leader Hugo Chavez - Robertson simply couldn't help but aim his billy club at Haiti, even as rescue workers attempted to dig bodies out of the rubble.

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it ... They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon III and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story,” the aging preacher said on his weekly TV show on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

As his sidekick Christy looked on and nodded, Robertson continued, "And so the devil said, ‘Okay, it’s a deal ... But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another."

Apparently the entire population of the island nation got together, had a meeting with the devil, signed a really big contract and the horned one said, "Sure, I'm hiring. Can you start Monday?"

True story.

The history lesson continued, "And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor."

He soon switched to geography and economics; "The Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands. They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God."

Robertson has been previously pilloried for defending the brutal Liberian government administration of Charles Taylor, who was subsequently indicted for war crimes by the UN and has been accused of harbouring al Queda terrorists.

Robertson was investigated by the Commonwealth of Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs, which determined that he had "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications" when he asked for support for Rwandan refugees, but used the money to airlift mining equipment from the diamond mines he had started with Zaire dictator Mobuto Sese Seko.

The OCA called for him to be criminally prosecuted, but Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley declined that request. Earley's biggest single contributor in his run for office was Robertson.

Robertson ended his Christian Broadcasting Network broadcast on the topic of the Haitian earthquake by asking viewers to send donations for his Haitian relief effort.

True story.
____________________________________________________________
Another church leader not being "Christ-like" at all. Very sad. I don't get how they feel they have authority to judge others and can justify being hypocrites?? I stopped going to church for this very reason. Whatever happened to just loving people?? Not only loving them if they go to your church or are doing something to benefit YOU?!?

I will pray for Pat Robertson.. The man surely needs it....

re: Haiti

When I heard the news of the earthquake I thought to myself, "Seriously?!! Have this people not been through enough?!" My heart thoughts and prayers have been with the Haitians this past week. I was asked last week about going down for disaster relief, but they wanted a 4-5 week commitment and I can't do that long away from my family and job. And I am already committed to the June 2010 medical team to Haiti. I received another email last nite about a possible relief team to head down but only for a couple weeks. HFH/MTI have sent a disaster team including Papa Joe and Linda on Thursday.. I cannot even fathom what they are seeing. I recognize so many of the buildings and areas that have collapsed. The UN headquarters that collapsed were just warehouses in 1994 that we stayed in when I went down with the military... Many of the police stations and even the prison I recognize because as military police we worked at them all while we were down there. I am, however, happy to see so much news coverage on the situation. When the Hurricanes hit in 2008, it was barely mentioned on news.

I am up up in Portland this weekend. It is has been a very busy last couple weekends for us but fun as well. And it's nice to get out of town every once in a while.
Many Blessings,
~M

From HFH website

At work in Port-au-Prince
Jan. 16, 2010

The disaster relief team sent by Medical Teams International and which includes two board members from Haiti Foundation of Hope has made its way to Port-au-Prince to help in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake. The team flew into Cap-Haitien at the north end of Haiti and took part of two days to drive to the capital, where they began work at Kings Hospital, located about 20 minutes from the airport.

http://www.kptv.com/video/22225046/

Earthquake in Haiti - from Oregon newspaper

Medical Teams International was whipped into a whirlwind of activity today, organizing a medical team to send to quake-devastated Haiti.
Staff members were up at the crack of dawn firing off emails. Some huddled in meetings. Others worked the phones. They solicited donations and packed up medical supplies.
By noon, the Tigard-based group had ironed out key details. It is sending a team of one doctor and three nurses to Haiti on Thursday, leaving on an American Airlines flight out of PDX International for Miami at 12:26 p.m. On Friday morning, that crew will take an 8:30 a.m. Air France flight to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
The 7.0-magnitude quake that hit the impoverished Caribbean nation flattened buildings, likely killing thousands and leaving many injured and without necessary services.
More from Haiti
Read more coverage from The Oregonian and see photos from The Associated Press.
Medical Teams International will provide medical help. Dr. Joe Markee and his wife Linda Markee, who's a nurse, have spent 15 years working on long-term development and providing disaster relief in Haiti, said Marlene Minor, spokeswoman for Medical Teams International.
"They go down to Haiti and work all the time," Minor said.
The couple, who are retired, even have their own group -- Haiti Foundation of Hope. But the couple will be working under the Tigard-based relief group.
The other members of the team include Anne Blaufaus, a nurse at Providence Medical Center in Portland, and Deanna King, a nurse in Washington state who had been on 14 trips with Medical Teams International.
"They're all very experienced," Minor said.
They're taking $7,000 worth of medical supplies, including antibiotics and other medicine, along with their own food and water.
Minor said the conditions in Haiti are pretty dire.
"There are immediate health needs of those who have been injured," Minor said. "In a case like Haiti where 80 percent of the people live in poverty, there's no water. There's no electricity. They don't even have a rescue team. There's no fire department. They're going to be dependent on everyone who comes in."
She said the agency is working the phones, trying to figure out where to set up in Haiti.
"One of the challenges is finding the safest place to set up in terms of securing a clean, adequate area to do medical work," Minor said.
Another challenge is actually getting through to contacts in Haiti where communications are limited.
At the same time, Medical Teams International is organizing a second team of orthopedic surgeons to send in. That group will probably leave next week.
crews could be in the Caribbean nation for some time.
"This ranks as one of the worst disasters," Minor said

An article I came across...

After years of traveling to Haiti with volunteer medical teams, a Vancouver couple has stepped up its commitment to the poorest country in the Americas.

Joe and Linda Markee have created the Haiti Foundation of Hope to firm up their support for a village so poor it barely has dirt.

People around the country have been helping, which is why Linda Markee opened an envelope recently at the downtown post office and found a $2,000 check from Michelle and Barack Obama.

"I went to the bank and said, 'Look at this!' And they said, 'Wow!'" Linda recounted.

The Markees' son-in-law, a member of the foundation board, called the accountant's office listed on the check to confirm its authenticity; so did an executive at the local bank.

According to online reports published after their tax records were released, that contribution was among $172,050 — about 6 percent of their adjusted gross income — the Obamas donated to 37 different charities.

The $2,000 sure will help, and the star power of the first philanthropists can't hurt. But the level of need is numbing, said Mike Wenrick, Latin America program manager with Portland-based Medical Teams International.

"We try to work with the neediest populations. And without a doubt, Haiti is the most extreme situation as far as environmental degradation, community health, household income," said Wenrick. "It's shocking when you go to Haiti and see hardships people deal with. It's an economy based on charcoal. Water quality is terrible. Years of civil war. It's by far the neediest by any indicator."

It can be tough even to savor the successes, said Joe Markee, who started making medical-mission trips to Haiti in 1983.

"When we took teams to Haiti, there always was someone who lived — someone who would have died without us," the retired doctor said.

It was a reason to feel excited, a success story to enjoy.

But a Haitian friend explained the tragic side of that story.

"You don't know about all the people who die when you're gone," their friend said. "So many babies die when you're not here."

Actually, Joe kind of had a clue.

"When a team comes in once or twice a year, people almost riot to get in," he said. "If there is a good chance your child will die, and the team is leaving, you do what you can."

The foundation brings more stable care to the village of Terre Blanche. The name — French for "White Earth" — reflects its lack of resources. That white "dirt" is calcium carbonate.

"You walk outside," Linda said, "and the sun coming off it is blinding. They have a hard time growing anything."

"It's desert," Joe said.

There's no drinkable water, and the road stops at a town five miles away.

Now the foundation is operating a school and a clinic in Terre Blanche.

"The Haitians call it a hospital," Joe said. "It's not a hospital."

The Haitian ministry of health found a physician for the clinic, which also employs a Haitian nurse, lab technician and pharmacist. The foundation, with an operating budget of $175,000 for 2009, pays the salaries.

The clinic also is a place where Medical Teams International can assign volunteer teams, and it's a reliable destination for medical supplies and gear, Wenrick said.

"We rely on partners to provide on-the-ground knowledge, and in this place, that's the Markees and the strong relationships they've built," Wenrick said. "They have the Haitian contacts who know the local needs and can provide the necessary leadership."

That's the key to progress, said Joe Markee, who's lost count of the number of times — "50 or 60" — he's gone to Haiti.

"Focus on one village," the 69-year-old doctor said. "Get to know the problems."

Linda, 67, said the Markees also gained a lot of perspective when they lived in Haiti for two years during the 1990s.

"I've heard people say, 'We're Americans, and we know what's best for you.'"
• • •

www.haitifoundationofhope.org