Things are starting to move.....

Slow but Steady….

Our daily schedule books are starting to look a little more used in the past two weeks with the number of meetings and tasks increasing. One key happening occurred last week when I decided to contact a couple former colleagues to see if they had any ideas on how I could get some resources. One of them, Thomas Allison, a former doctoral colleague at Pitt, has worked at Mayo Clinic almost as long as I was at BU. I proceeded to explain what we were doing since I hadn’t seen him in a couple years….then I asked him if he knew of any foundations or organizations that donated used equipment or computers. Within four hours of my original email he informed me that he had an electrocardiograph machine waiting to be shipped to Jamaica along with supplies, batteries, and electrodes. I just found out today (Tuesday, September 16, 2008) that the machine arrived in Kingston and will be delivered to Chapelton Community Hospital next week. The realization of an EKG lab here at the hospital has materialized. I could hardly sleep one night last week thinking of how I would arrange, set-up, and train the nurses here at the hospital. It also turned out that a doctor at Mayo Clinic, a Jamaican, called me and wants to include me in a fact finding mission that the Jamaican Minnesota Organization is making in November. They are going to visit Chapelton as well as the whole Clarendon parish.

Margaret has a number of presentations in the health and healthy lifestyles area and is currently about 20 miles west of the hospital with another health educator. We both attended the Caribbean Health Day fair at May Pen. Although a minor event it was an attempt to share literature about health and healthy lifestyles with community members.

Another task that we are undertaking, a resurrection of a former community center in our neighborhood, is fraught with a number of challenges. Politics and religion may play a heavy hand in this plan…but we are talking to former community leaders (from both political parties), church representatives, and leaders in other communities to see if we can facilitate this venture.

Caribbean weather has been pretty stable for the last week or 10 days with the passing of Ike (just a little rain from that beauty), but the temperatures still top out at 32 or 33 degrees Celsius mid-day. Can’t wait till November/December when the locals promised me that I’ll need a sweater…Yea, mon, yu see!.