I had never been to Haiti before but have heard many reports from my friend Matt Parvus. When we touched down in Port-au-Prince I was speechless. We began making our way from the airport to the orphanage we were staying at and the whole time we saw poverty. People living in the streets, no homes, no clean water. This trip was extremely special to me because it was an experience I got to share with my sister Kristen.  Our group was outstanding we had a team of brilliant doctors and an amazing support staff. This trip, from what I understand, was a bit different than others.  Instead of staying at the hotel where the volunteers usually stay, Dr. Parvus arranged for us to stay at the New Life children’s orphanage which, in my opinion, was one of the most rewarding parts of the trip. Not only is it much more cost effective but we also were given the chance to spend time with a great group of kids. We spent 2 days at the clinic in Cité Soleil and WOW was it eye opening. I thought that working in an operating room at our local hospital would have prepared me pretty well but frankly noting could have prepared me for what we saw. In those two short days we saw over 700 patients. Cases ranging from scabies to HIV, we saw them all. Our teams doctors ranged in specialties…we had Emergency medicine, Gynecology, Opthamology, Infectious Disease and even Gastroenterology and we used them all! There were lines of people waiting to be seen by us and we did our best to see each and every one of them.  Each day when we left the clinic, we were bombarded with people begging for food, money or anything they could get and honestly you want to help everyone but you can’t.

The trip was an amazing humbling experience and I recommend to any one who’s thinking about going to DO IT! You will never be the same again.