Firefighter and Pepperdine student Scott Mortensen, a volunteer with the Transformational Development Agency in Haiti, sat at daybreak Tuesday morning and wrote some of his thoughts about the team's time in Haiti.
"As soon as I arrived here, I felt like I stepped off a whirlwind and landed in a tornado," Mortensen, of Westlake Village wrote.
The 40-strong team from Ventura County has set up a makeshift medical clinic in the New Life Children's Home, which is close to the Port-au-Prince airport.
Rikki Alakijan, who is heading the TDA relief team, said the medical personnel treated about 60 patients in the first hour Monday and continuing, nonstop for the next seven hours.
Among the patients were a baby with skull trauma, and two young boys who cried as the team examined their head wounds.
"They cried as we examined their wounds and replaced their bandages," Mortensen said. "I grabbed a couple of stuffed animals from my bag and within minutes the boys were playing as if childhood could be normal again. The resilience of these people is amazing."
The group has set up an encampment near the New Life Children's Home.
Alakija rented two flatbed trucks and a van to get the team around, which isn't easy on what amounts to broken pathways lined with rubble.
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