Yon bon ekip (a good team)

Yesterday we said goodbye to Kristen, the Cornell medical student who spent 8 weeks working with our nutrition team this summer. Not only was K a fabulous addition to our work team - but she quickly became a dear friend. It's sad to see her go but am thankful that my frequent stopovers in NYC mean that this wasn't a final farewell.

The nutrition team wanted to plan a real Haitian style send-off for K. Here are some photos. It's also a great chance to finally introduce you to the people I'm privileged to work with for this peanut-buttery good endeavor: Adeline, Suzette, Kristen, Ghisline, Miss Maitre (photo left to right).

A and S identify and recruit new participants, follow-on on our baseline control group and generally get all little the things that need to be done done. They are usually one step ahead of me - when I was worrying about how we were going to find mothers of children a certain age, A told me not to worry because she had been collecting phone numbers of mothers with small babies who visited the clinic for the previous few months - totally on her own initiative. G is an amazing counselor and educator - her last job was with a community-based child health program. She is our go-to woman for creative health education song lyrics. She conducts interviews with the mothers, provides one-on-one nutritional conselling and helps facilitate group sessions. Miss Maitre (Miss is term used for nurses in Haiti) is our fearless (truly fearless) leader. She radiates confidence and enthusiasm, is passionate about education, loves people where they are at - and is looked up to by the other staff and patients. She is a truly amazing person - a woman of faith and constant prayer, a tireless advocate of family planning and breast cancer survivor (she had cancer in her early 30's). Her first job was on a Haitian psychiatric ward - a job she loved - but that most anyone else would hate. MM supervises our team, is involved with planning and data management, and supports G in leading group and individual sessions. She laughs at me (and with me) every single day.

I can't even begin to describe how blessed I am to work with these women. There is a story of answered prayer behind how each of them came to join our team. I can't imagine doing this without them - si bondye vle (God willing) I won't ever have to!