Culture Shock

I don't know how many people will read this...if any... but culture shock really really REALLY sucks. I'm kind of struggling to readjust to things here at home, I miss haiti so much it physically hurts, I miss the people I met out there even more and I've become an emotional wreck...so if you're reading this please pray that yes I'll adjust (cos i need to in order to function as a human being!!) but that I won't forget or push my experiences away ... That I won't loose my follow through. Thanks

God Bless
Laura xo

I've completely lost what little sanity I ever had!!

Ok so now... we're sitting in JFK, we missed our flight out of JFK to heathrow because the delta flight out of fort lauderdale was delayed by 45mins. So pretty much we've been screwed over by ALL the airlines (I'm never flying with Delta again!!) We've had to book a flight from JFK to Dublin with aerlingus (hopefully we'll get some money back on our travel insurance) and our bags well... apparently one of them - we don't know which one - has been sent to atlanta and from there to cincinatti and it's supposed to go from there to heathrow - where aren't even going anymore so that could be fun trying to get that back! and we still haven't seen the other bag which is supposed to be here in JFK!!! Its now 2am and Evan and I are kinks of laughter at everything ... cos lets face it if we don't laugh we'd probably cry!!! Just wanted to keep you updated!! Hoping to get into Dublin (hopefully) at around 5.15 on monday morning and get a bus up to newry... so with a bit of luck I'll see you sometime this week but who knows...
Love you all lots!!!
Laura xoxo

ARGHHHHHHH!!!

Ok so clearly I have the worst luck in the world (and I HATE fort lauderdale - nothing good ever happens there!!!) so once again I'm sitting in this random airport -this time with my luggage - but no flight!! we missed our connecting flight from fort lauderdale to JFK because our lynx flight (the one from haiti to fort lauderdale) was delayed and well... its haitian!! so we've been booked onto another later flight to JFK with delta and they've booked us on later flight from JFK to London with british airways but we need to get our ticket re issused there apparently and we only have an hour and 15 mins between the 2 flights and if we get it that will get us into heathrow for 10.20 tomorrow morning and our aerlingus flight leaves at 10.50 so we probably aren't gonna make that one!!!

So Pray for us please this is driving me insane I'm completly dehydrated Ive been crying so much!!
Hopefully see you all soon
God Bless
Laura xoxo

Maybe my last post??? Then again maybe not...

Ok so I'm leaving Haiti on saturday and this could be my last post... then again it might not... cos lets face it Haiti has stolen my heart in so many ways and more than likely I'll be 'hittin haiti' again. I've made some wonderful friends, done some pretty indescribable stuff, seen some heart wrenching soul breaking things, and I have so many stories to tell you all when i get home I just hope that God will help me to show you all just a glimpse of what I've experienced here in Haiti... I also hope I don't bore you all to death with my stories!!!! (sorry in advance if I do!) All I ask now is that you pray for me as I prepare to leave because leaving WILL be the hardest thing I have to do pray that God will give me peace the strength to say my goodbyes...preferably without too much dehydration!!! By the way... when on earth did I turn into such a wuss??? I've cried wayyyy toooo much in Haiti!!! lol

And can I just say again THANK-YOU!!!! Thank you so much I wouldn't have been able to get to Haiti without all your support... I wouldn't have been able to have coped or survived out here for so long without all your encouragement through text messages, commments, posts, emails facebook comments and most importantly prayer - prayer is the reason I've lasted in Haiti because none of this would have been possible without God and I want to Thank Him for giving me this opportunity.

Hopefully see you all soon!!
Laura xoxo
Ps pray for safe travel- again four flights and some VERY tight connection times
pps love you all lots!!!

21

Oh my goodness - it's the 14th of july - I'm 21 today - I'm offically old - Mid-life crisis - I can't cope!!!!!!!!! lol

xo

I don't want to come home!!

Much as I love you lot at home ... I really really really don't want to come home, I love it here and God is teaching me soo much. I've learnt so much about myself, I've learnt I need to rely on God completely, I've learnt that I'm not gonna save the world only God can and maybe sometimes we need to get out of the way and let Him, I've learnt that in order to not waste my life i need to spend it boasting only in the cross and that everything good in life is because of Jesus, as is everything bad but God uses those bad experiences to teach us and through hardship we learn endurance through endurance character and through character hope... Jesus is our reason for hope he is the saviour of the world I think I needed to be retaught that because we ...well i... get complacent and loose the awe I shoould have of His wonderful Grace ... ok I'm rambling now sorry! But that's what the christian life is about - Transforming Grace.

I can't believe I've been here 6 weeks!!! I only have 1 left and I know God has soo much more to show me and tell me I'm excited! I'm excited about what I've learnt already! Even silly things like why we can't wear tank-tops, and never stick your tongue out at haitian boys cos to them - that's a come on ... yikes!!! and don't accept all the marriage proposals you get in life (if i did I'd be married 30 times over - a week - in Haiti lol!)

The last thing i want to say is - yes Ive had tough times in haiti but Ive had loads of funny times, good nights of craic laughing soo hard my sides hurt, blonde moments and just general silliness. We nothern Irish amuse ourselves if not anyone else at least! And I want to yes learn from the hard times because 'When I am weak then I am strong' but I also want to let you know that I've had alot of fun out here - seriously - alot!!!! I'm still trying to convince some of the others to play knock door run at night but I think thats where the line gets drawn!!! Its definitely gonna happen before I leave!!

Thank you so much for all your prayers
laura xoxo

PS antibiotics make me sick - not good!!!
pps bug bites make me itchy
ppps it gets really really really hot when the electricity goes out at night and there's no more fans!!!!
pppps thats all!! lol
xo

Growth

Hi Everyone, so there was a reason behind the tone of my last blog entry, We had a patient - a wee boy He was 6 and was called Ogblion (i think thats how it was spelt) he was very very very sick and we worked with him for about 3 hours trying to secure him a decent airway he was on nebulisers, we had the equipment ready to do a traecheostomy we gave him the max amount of adrenaline he could have, his mum said it had started on Friday so he had been struggling to get oxygen for nearly 4 days he was getting very tired, which was dangerous- it was a really rough morning. When we ran out of options (and prayed alot) we decided to take a chance and try and get him to the hospital which is about half an hour away ( on a good day). So God was with us and we got him there in record time. I won't bore you with all the details but pretty much we found out he had Diptheria (which we get vaccinated for at home) None of us had ever seen this before. We found out yesterday (wednesday) that he died that morning ... so ... I've lost my first patient ... and I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this, plus we were all exposed to a very serious and dangerous disease which killed people in the UK years ago and still does in Haiti Its transferred by airborne droplets - bearing in mind he was on a nebuliser and we were in an enclosed space with no air conditioning with him for 3 hours. So yesterday we all had to get a booster for tetnus and diptheria and we have to take antibiotics for a week. There were 5 of us in the room - Gavin, Evan Sharkey (a dr from NI) Amy (a nurse from Canada) Sun Min ( a med student from America) and Me so we were exposed the most. Pray for our health that God will keep his hand upon us. Pray that I'll be able to grow from this experience and that God will use it and all the other things I see and do out here to teach me, increasing my faith and reliance on him.

Thanks for all your support guys it really means ALOT to me!!!
Lots of Love
God Bless
Laura xoxoxo