Traveling to Haiti with Holly • By Allison Mayo
I actually think my first trip with Holly and Jim to Haiti was in the fall of 2017. We were accompanied by Katarina Vandish who is now in veterinary school. My part on that trip was placing IV catheters and anesthetizing patients in addition to vaccines and deworming. Several local young men helped with restraining animals. They were rougher than needed and Holly decided that we’d bring an extra assistant for future trips. By us demonstrating that you don’t have to be rough, we had hopes that the children ( always watching ) would learn gentleness with animals. Holly doing surgery. That trip in 2017 was during rainy season. The roads were terrible already but the downpours made them worse each day. I remember the first place we set up was outside of a little store under a tree in the dirt. There were chickens, goats, and children wandering through our “surgery suite” constantly. When it rained, the big branches of the tree and an umbrella helped keep the surgery table and patie