Hello From Haiti

Hi All –

Sorry for the delay in posting; I had intended to post at least once every other day, and I’ve failed thus far. Unfortunately for whatever reason there isn’t internet at the house currently, so I’ve only been able to get online briefly while at the hospital, and there isn’t a good place (or more important – time) for me to sit and compose my thoughts into a proper post. Instead, I decided to type it out at home and then post when we go in tomorrow morning.

First and foremost, this city is pretty much China, but with Haitians. I literally saw a truck with Chinese characters on it yesterday and had some serious déjà vu. The unmistakable essence of coal dust in the air/on clothes/everything, the trash lining the streets, the buildings, and of course, the utter ridiculousness that is “driving” are all eerily similar, and I’ve loved every minute of it thus far. The adventurous part of my soul –apparently powered by third world coal dust – has been watching quietly from the sidelines for some time now, and finally gets to play.

My flights were uneventful, aside from the woman who wore all four of her new derby hats (her husband wore the other two), as she did not have a hat box to transport them with. The airport in Port Au Prince was also pretty uneventful – although after exiting the newly air-conditioned immigration hall, you get a real dose of humidity. Also known as insta-sticky. I was met outside the airport by the other American I’m here with – Nicole – and our Haitian guide Saul. We quickly hopped in the back of the trusty Tap-Tap (basically, an old rickety truck with some wooden benches in the back) and off we went on our hour long (should be twenty minutes) traffic ridden death defying drive to the EMPACT House, up in the hills above the city proper. The house itself is fantastic – an extremely pleasant villa/compound-esque building with bunk rooms upstairs, a cold water shower (incredible), several balconies, and a great front porch. I’ll try and put some pictures up, internet connection willing.

Wednesday was our first full day, and we were scheduled to volunteer at Hospital Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare for the day shift – 6 am to 6 pm. We were absolutely warned before coming that time may not be of the same importance culturally, and, as predicted, we ended up leaving the house just after 8 in the morning. Throw in the hour drive, and suffice it to say we didn’t quite make our shift start time. The good news, however, is that it really didn’t matter a whole bunch. The triage area where Nicole and I were working already had two full-time Haitian EMT’s staffing it, and they ran the show. Nicole and I mostly just got in the way.  She volunteered for Project Medishare a few months ago, so she knew her way around a bit more than I did, but given that neither of us speak Créole, there was only so much we could do. Still, it was a good experience, as it gave me a much better idea of where the hospitals are at, what sort of patient is common, and most important what our students would see on a normal day, and what they were expected to treat.

In the span of several hours I saw more than one baby with hydrocephalus, an extremely septic woman who was having her infection largely ignored in lieu of other less important yet easier to identify treatments, a 16 month old responsive only to painful stimuli after falling and striking her head on the stairs, several broken arms, and an elderly gentleman with a history of diabetes who had been constipated for over four days, and now had extreme abdominal pain.  What was most interesting to me was the way in which these patients were prioritized. Altered baby and abdo-pain guy, the two patients who to me seemed both at higher risk of severe complications compared to the others, ironically took a back seat to the broken arms and sliced open finger.

Yesterday (Thursday) was our first day teaching, and by in large the class went really well. Only had 6 students, which was the perfect size to test the waters with. Today we are expecting a group of around 15-20 students, as well as an observer from an organization called “Global Giving,” which helps organizations raise money. Should be interesting to see, definitely ups the ante a bit. UPDATE: The global giving lady was quite the firecracker. She just moved to Haiti permanently from DC, and her job is basically going around vetting different organizations, making sure they are doing what they say the are doing. I actually think that's a good thing, but she definitely was grilling Nicole and I for a few minutes. Good fun. 

Anyway, for the sake of brevity, some interesting observations:

Spaghetti is a breakfast food – eaten with ketchup and mayo.

Spaghetti can also be turned in to a juice. Obviously.

Our house is up the gnarliest, pitted, steep, bumpy dirt and rock road one can think of. Big fun in the back of a rusted out 1980’s era Datsun.

Internet is still an issue, but I’ll try and get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Alright that’s all for now – I’m currently sitting on the roof of the hospital, which, at four in the afternoon is not pleasant.

Cheers,

Nick