It hasn't stopped raining for days and days, I don't even know how many nights and days it's rained. When it rains in Haiti, it's what we call torrential. After the second things pretty much grind to a halt. I haven't been able to get to work, nor has anybody else at the clinic site. The plan as to finish building the first floor-ready to form and pour the slab when I get back. It still might be possible, but I doubt it. Being in Haiti means constantly setting goals, then re-setting them when reality sets in. The reality is there are parallel universes here, one that make sense to us and seems realistic, and one that that is governed by a different set of rules. It takes a long time to figure out what the rules, so far, I have surmised there are NO rules, just put on foot in front of the other, and hope you go forward.
The bad thing about this tropical storm or depression that is happening isn't about not getting the clinic built. It's not that I'm surrounded by a virtual lake of muddy water. No, the worst part is the suffering the Haitian people are enduring. Most of the roads or trails are dirt, creating slip and slides to work. If people are lucky enough to live in a decent house, take it to the bank the roof leaks. Most of the floors are dirt, so that means mud. Schools and business close, the hand to mouth existence that goes on ceases, crops are damaged,and they were doing so well, and cholera starts to creep back in.
One thing that doesn't wain is their spirits. Kids take their clothes off and run and slide whereever they can. Pockets of people gather and laugh and joke, knowing all things pass. Considering the obstacles the Haitian people face they have remarkably positive attitudes.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Finding Scneider
Last Saturday Evens, Zico, and I drove our motorcycles to an outlying area, towards a very well put together town- Camp Perren. Our goal for the day was to locate a boy (we thought at the time we were looking for a girl) that had been born a year ago, almost to the day. Forward in Health was doing a clinic in Les Ceyes and delivered Schneider, a healthy baby, with the exception of a unicorn type growth between his eyes. It was determined at the time that the growth was in fact spinal fluid.
For most people living in Haiti, disappearing into the slipstream is the norm. We had a number for the family, but in time it was lost. So off we go, dropping into full detective mode. It didn't take long for the road to go from paved to dirt. This means dirt biking at it's best-mud, gravel, oncoming dump trucks at warp speed, all a great work out for the adrenal gland. As the road became a trail, we starting inquiring about the whereabouts of our child. It's funny how our minds work, initially people drew blanks, then the more we talked the brighter the light bulb got.
Eventually we came to a small rustic house in a beautiful setting. The family poured out, bringing all their chairs with them. We had the right family, including Grandma. We called the father in Port Au Prince and made arrangements for us all to meet at Grandma's the following Saturday. So yesterday we headed back out, except this time Evens was on the back of my bike, and the boy needs to start exercising. Much as I love him, handling those roads was much more challenging. But we got there in one piece, and Schneider was there.
The first thing that struck me about him, wasn't the fact that, indeed, he had a unicorn growth between his eyes, but how sweet he was. He appeared lethargic, but in fact is shy. He also appeared to have a fever and lung congestion, which he suffers from chronically. The more I held him, the more he wiggled, he could not get over the hair on my arms. The boy and his father were obviously quite close. The father has been trying to resolve this for some time, he had x-rays and reports. We took every scrape of information we could glwww.facebook.com/ean, everything. We also took measurements of his head, which was challenging because he really became the wiggle worm then, and lots of photos.
The next step is to try and get Scneider, and hopefully his Mom or Dad medical visas. There is a surgeon from Boston that has agreed to do the surgery. I suspect finding a plastic surgeon won't be hard.
A great day indeed.
For most people living in Haiti, disappearing into the slipstream is the norm. We had a number for the family, but in time it was lost. So off we go, dropping into full detective mode. It didn't take long for the road to go from paved to dirt. This means dirt biking at it's best-mud, gravel, oncoming dump trucks at warp speed, all a great work out for the adrenal gland. As the road became a trail, we starting inquiring about the whereabouts of our child. It's funny how our minds work, initially people drew blanks, then the more we talked the brighter the light bulb got.
Eventually we came to a small rustic house in a beautiful setting. The family poured out, bringing all their chairs with them. We had the right family, including Grandma. We called the father in Port Au Prince and made arrangements for us all to meet at Grandma's the following Saturday. So yesterday we headed back out, except this time Evens was on the back of my bike, and the boy needs to start exercising. Much as I love him, handling those roads was much more challenging. But we got there in one piece, and Schneider was there.
The first thing that struck me about him, wasn't the fact that, indeed, he had a unicorn growth between his eyes, but how sweet he was. He appeared lethargic, but in fact is shy. He also appeared to have a fever and lung congestion, which he suffers from chronically. The more I held him, the more he wiggled, he could not get over the hair on my arms. The boy and his father were obviously quite close. The father has been trying to resolve this for some time, he had x-rays and reports. We took every scrape of information we could glwww.facebook.com/ean, everything. We also took measurements of his head, which was challenging because he really became the wiggle worm then, and lots of photos.
The next step is to try and get Scneider, and hopefully his Mom or Dad medical visas. There is a surgeon from Boston that has agreed to do the surgery. I suspect finding a plastic surgeon won't be hard.
A great day indeed.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Labor Negotiations AKA Attitude adjustment
The day before yesterday we had a load of two-celled block delivered to us. For a variety of reasons the workers at the clinic decided to not unload the blocks. This caused a rippling effect that went from Fondefred to Boston and finally back to me. I had every intention of going to the site yesterday and ripping. During the night as I was putting together my presentation to them, I remembered Fr. Mark telling the reason the Haitians react so violently to social injustices, is they have never had a voice. So I readjusted my approach. There is a group of college students from Ohio staying here, and one of the leaders asked to come along, so she was going to witness whatever was going to happen.
The first thing I did when I got there, because my trusty translator, Evens, wasn't there yet, was to build a prototype of the engineered re bar header. That gave me a few authenticity points. When Evens and Zico arrived we assembled the workers, 20 or so, and I asked them what were there thoughts on things. Boy was I in for a wait. To a man, they were articulate and very long-winded. Many of their complaints were ancient history, but need to be vented. Some points were valid, some not, so we kicked things back and forth, each giving and getting, had a few laughs, and came out with a clearer understanding of each others needs and expectations. I slipped in at the end that all of us, including myself will unload the blocks. We'll see.
The problems that arise here, which come up daily, really http://halinhaitiblogspot.com/have to be looked at with truth and compassion. Many of our customs and expectations are very different from Haitians. We as Americans working in Haiti, bring knowledge and skill here,
but completely dependent on the Haitians to execute them. Also, the goal is to help them develop sustainable skills, we aren't going to be here forever, they are.
The first thing I did when I got there, because my trusty translator, Evens, wasn't there yet, was to build a prototype of the engineered re bar header. That gave me a few authenticity points. When Evens and Zico arrived we assembled the workers, 20 or so, and I asked them what were there thoughts on things. Boy was I in for a wait. To a man, they were articulate and very long-winded. Many of their complaints were ancient history, but need to be vented. Some points were valid, some not, so we kicked things back and forth, each giving and getting, had a few laughs, and came out with a clearer understanding of each others needs and expectations. I slipped in at the end that all of us, including myself will unload the blocks. We'll see.
The problems that arise here, which come up daily, really http://halinhaitiblogspot.com/have to be looked at with truth and compassion. Many of our customs and expectations are very different from Haitians. We as Americans working in Haiti, bring knowledge and skill here,
but completely dependent on the Haitians to execute them. Also, the goal is to help them develop sustainable skills, we aren't going to be here forever, they are.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Compassion
The project of building a medical clinic in rural Haiti is proving to test just about everything I've learned along the way working my way through Life. The people here do things the way they do them because it's what they know and have always done. Uh-oh looks like somebody is riding in really fast on a white horse, yep, just what I was afraid of, an American. Don't get me wrong, I'm American, and am very proud and thankful to be. You have to admit, we think we know what's best, and in many cases we're right. We've been blessed with constant progress, innovation, and being able to pretty much shape our own destiny. Sometimes that has been a hindrance, but mostly it's allowed us to find better solutions to our problems. We've been brought up to believe if we have a problem, it's within our ability to find a viable solution. Sometimes it turns out very different than we thought it would, but the point is believe we can better ourselves.
Haiti has a very different mindset. They have been oppressed since they were brought to this island as slaves. Even after they won a long and bloody war of independence, they have been exploited. Their natural resources have been stripped to serve the needs of people very far away, who had little or no regard for the Haitian people's well being. Few schools were built, few medical facilities, nothing that they could count on to be sustainable. The forests were literally stripped bare, top soil tumbling to the ocean, ruining streams and rivers in the process. So they've been swimming upstream for sometime now, 1804, to be precise.
People come here from all over the world to help, and help they do. There are people trying to improve every aspect of life here, education, water quality, agriculture, medicine, spiritual awakenings, all aspects of life, many of which we've come to take for granted. Education, for example, when we were galloping across the US heading west, when we stopped to settle in, the first public buildings were schools and churches. We take for granted getting an education, whether we agree with it or not, that all of our children will go to school from 5 to 18 years of age. Not so, here in Haiti. I'm not sure the ratio of schools versus children, but my guess is there is less than half of the kids have a school to go to, never mind being able to afford it. Kids here have to pay to go to school, on top of having to buy uniforms. Even if there was enough schools to go around, people have no money to pay for. Most people don't have enough money to feed themselves or their families.
A by-product of not going to school is the lack of development of critical thinking skills. Even if we aren't paying attention in school, we learn how http//facebook.comto figure things out. One of the frustrating things people from other lands complain about here is people just don't get it. The majority of people haul their water, from a young age, don't have a clue what a toilet is, don't have electricity, don't even have the word leftover in their vocabulary. All of these facts can make it very frustrating for people with the same values as ours. If you loan something to someone, it now belongs to them. Hey, where's that wrench I loaned you? Huh? We look at them as thieves, they look at us as confused and misguided.
In spite of many of these gaps there is progress being made. The clinic I'm building is designed and engineered by Americans. If I turn my back for two seconds they go right back to what they know. The minute I assume they are getting it, they disappoint me. I constantly have to adjust my expectations. The thing is they are inherently really good people, incredible workers, many of them working through the day with little or no food. They are tough yet compassionate. Many of the problems they have really aren't their fault. All of us working here have to bite our tongue and embrace the broad spectrum of wonderful qualities these people have.
Haiti has a very different mindset. They have been oppressed since they were brought to this island as slaves. Even after they won a long and bloody war of independence, they have been exploited. Their natural resources have been stripped to serve the needs of people very far away, who had little or no regard for the Haitian people's well being. Few schools were built, few medical facilities, nothing that they could count on to be sustainable. The forests were literally stripped bare, top soil tumbling to the ocean, ruining streams and rivers in the process. So they've been swimming upstream for sometime now, 1804, to be precise.
People come here from all over the world to help, and help they do. There are people trying to improve every aspect of life here, education, water quality, agriculture, medicine, spiritual awakenings, all aspects of life, many of which we've come to take for granted. Education, for example, when we were galloping across the US heading west, when we stopped to settle in, the first public buildings were schools and churches. We take for granted getting an education, whether we agree with it or not, that all of our children will go to school from 5 to 18 years of age. Not so, here in Haiti. I'm not sure the ratio of schools versus children, but my guess is there is less than half of the kids have a school to go to, never mind being able to afford it. Kids here have to pay to go to school, on top of having to buy uniforms. Even if there was enough schools to go around, people have no money to pay for. Most people don't have enough money to feed themselves or their families.
A by-product of not going to school is the lack of development of critical thinking skills. Even if we aren't paying attention in school, we learn how http//facebook.comto figure things out. One of the frustrating things people from other lands complain about here is people just don't get it. The majority of people haul their water, from a young age, don't have a clue what a toilet is, don't have electricity, don't even have the word leftover in their vocabulary. All of these facts can make it very frustrating for people with the same values as ours. If you loan something to someone, it now belongs to them. Hey, where's that wrench I loaned you? Huh? We look at them as thieves, they look at us as confused and misguided.
In spite of many of these gaps there is progress being made. The clinic I'm building is designed and engineered by Americans. If I turn my back for two seconds they go right back to what they know. The minute I assume they are getting it, they disappoint me. I constantly have to adjust my expectations. The thing is they are inherently really good people, incredible workers, many of them working through the day with little or no food. They are tough yet compassionate. Many of the problems they have really aren't their fault. All of us working here have to bite our tongue and embrace the broad spectrum of wonderful qualities these people have.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Rough Roads in Haiti
Last week the medical team returned to resume their lives in the states. When they left I thought I was allergic to something, my lower lip was quivering. The week was spent organizing, pouring over the engineers plans, meeting with the foreman, trying to figure out how to get temporary housing for the orphans we are caring for, and generally preparing for getting the clinic in the air. The children were evicted from their house and are living under a tarp, AND, it's raining a lot. We are trying to re-register the orphanage, the most recent one expired. Our goal right now is to house themfacebook.com within the walls of the clinic site. There are many NGO's offering transistional housing, we just have to connect with the right one. We met with an attorney who is helping get the correct papers filed.
This week we are at the site, with 12 workers, working on laying the bricks for the walls. The crew is really quite competent and efficient. Paula sent down gloves for them all, first they fought over them, then when they figured out they all get a pair, they were happy happy. The laborers laugh all day long. The masons are a little more serious.
I go there at 7 to open things up, at about 9 a local woman comes and sells bread with peanut butter and coffee. Getting there this morning was particularly challenging, slipping and sliding in the mud, I buried the rear wheel almost to the axle. At least I know my adrenal gland still works. Ah, all roads are rough in Haiti.
This week we are at the site, with 12 workers, working on laying the bricks for the walls. The crew is really quite competent and efficient. Paula sent down gloves for them all, first they fought over them, then when they figured out they all get a pair, they were happy happy. The laborers laugh all day long. The masons are a little more serious.
I go there at 7 to open things up, at about 9 a local woman comes and sells bread with peanut butter and coffee. Getting there this morning was particularly challenging, slipping and sliding in the mud, I buried the rear wheel almost to the axle. At least I know my adrenal gland still works. Ah, all roads are rough in Haiti.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Medical Team
A group of people, including two docs and six nurses, from the greater Boston area, Gadna, Woosta, West Minny and others, recently returned to the states. They were here to conduct clinics in several locations, many of which were far from any definitive care. Some patients had never set foot in a clinic. The way it worked was: there was an intake table, usually staffed by two people, each with excellent translators, the patients each got their vitals taken, weighed, then off to the diagnostic center, four stations, two with docs and two with nurses, then they went, with their intake sheet, complete with diagnosis and treatment, to the pharmacy, and a fairly complete pharmacy it was, drugs on wheels, their order was filled along with soap, lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, vitamins, and suckers for the youngsters, they then went to see two more nurses with translators to explain to the patients what and how to take their meds, then off they went.
This is a great start, but it doesn't offer any continuity of care. And THAT is the point of building the clinic and surgical center in Les Ceyes, to offer follow-up care to these wonderful people. For many people, when their medicines are gone their condition will revert, and THAT is really unacceptable.
We also went out into the true middle of nowhere to see the orphans we are care taking of. They are now living under a big tarp, having been evicted from their home by the Department of Health for substandard living conditions. They did a musical/dance performance that was nothing short of amazing. The music was provided by a lone trumpet, a bass drum and a snare drum, played with two sticks. Their ages ranged from four to eighteen. After the performance every child was looked at and treated accordingly.
I am trying to track down some transitional housing kits, which are in evidence all over the country since the earthquake, www.facebook.com and put them up on the property of Forward in Health. We can get by with two or three, and hopefully we obtain them before it starts raining too much more. They will be living in a mud puddle if we don't. We'll see.......
The crew of people were great, we got along like extended family. We ate and played well together, laughed a lot. The docs and nurses had about two hundred years of experience between them, an incredible level of competency. It was a privilege working with them.
This is a great start, but it doesn't offer any continuity of care. And THAT is the point of building the clinic and surgical center in Les Ceyes, to offer follow-up care to these wonderful people. For many people, when their medicines are gone their condition will revert, and THAT is really unacceptable.
We also went out into the true middle of nowhere to see the orphans we are care taking of. They are now living under a big tarp, having been evicted from their home by the Department of Health for substandard living conditions. They did a musical/dance performance that was nothing short of amazing. The music was provided by a lone trumpet, a bass drum and a snare drum, played with two sticks. Their ages ranged from four to eighteen. After the performance every child was looked at and treated accordingly.
I am trying to track down some transitional housing kits, which are in evidence all over the country since the earthquake, www.facebook.com and put them up on the property of Forward in Health. We can get by with two or three, and hopefully we obtain them before it starts raining too much more. They will be living in a mud puddle if we don't. We'll see.......
The crew of people were great, we got along like extended family. We ate and played well together, laughed a lot. The docs and nurses had about two hundred years of experience between them, an incredible level of competency. It was a privilege working with them.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Back
We left Les Cayes yesterday morning at 7, arrived about 40 minutes later in Port au Prince. Two props, two pilots (Latin), probably 20 passengers. Beautiful mountains and farmland. Farms that are so isolated, no roads, just trails, a long way to market, fertile, verdant land. Listening to Adele, her beautiful voice wrapping around deep sentiments. After landing we tried to rush to the airport in time to catch an 8:50 to Fort Lauhttp://halinhaiti.blogspot.com/derdale, fat chance, so we waited for the 3:45, which was late of course. A group of people sat with us from Atlanta. They were part of a tech school in Les Cayes, which is exactly what the boys at Espwa need when they finish school, to learn a trade and be able to make a decent living with dignity, which is what we all want, no? Turns out flying was a lucky move because manifestations (demonstrations) were starting, not for the anticipated announcement of the election results, but the sharp increases in gas prices. Whew, made it.
It's only about a two hour flight from PAP to FLL , but we were in the air a long time, turns out we had to land in Miami, take a bus to FLL. All said and done the day ended at midnight. Fort Lauderdale is humid and humbling, seen better days. Now I feel silly for writing all this, heck I'm in Haiti anymore, kind of in the hinterland. Ok, bye, bye
It's only about a two hour flight from PAP to FLL , but we were in the air a long time, turns out we had to land in Miami, take a bus to FLL. All said and done the day ended at midnight. Fort Lauderdale is humid and humbling, seen better days. Now I feel silly for writing all this, heck I'm in Haiti anymore, kind of in the hinterland. Ok, bye, bye
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