The sounds of Haiti

...the planes as they descend for landing or shortly after take-off...the drones of the UN or NGO helicopters as they circle overhead...the palm trees scraping against the walls of my house...the agonized moans of women as they labor...the constant construction and the pounding of building improvements...the birds as they greet the sun...the steps on the stones as people pass by...the laughter and ascending conversations carrying over from the volunteer tents...the muffled Creole of the kitchen workers from a few walls away...the cries of the children from the open windows of the hospital wards...the blaring radio station broadcasts in Creole as I sit sit and a few sips of STRONG Haitian coffee...the dance music videos favored by the Haitian workers as they search online...the loud motors and gear shifts as the large trucks pass on the street...the broken English words uttered by those I walk by just outside the hospital...the bargaining and bartering of the corner marketplace...the frequent honking of horns for reasons only the drivers know...the bleating of the goats in the pasture as they feed on the few leaves and grass...the shrieks of the children at play as I approach the clinic...the greetings and running footsteps I hear on my arrival...the precious voices speaking to me in words I hope to soon understand...the grind of the fan and the refrigerator as they work exhaustively in the heat...the creak of the container rooms as they settle...the songs sung so beautifully in little voices...the shuffle of little feet as their owners try so very hard to sit still...the scrape of the forks on the plates as each one is eaten clean at mealtime...the rhythm of the broom held in small hands...the blare of the Call to Prayer as it is broadcast so many times a day over the neighboring Jordanian UN camp...the whirr of the water tower...the chirping of the insects as we take our daily walk...the pounding of the afternoon rain on my roof...the hum of the air conditioner for which I am so grateful...the massaging of my hair by tiny hands...the geckos calling out from the walls...the late-night serenades of the Italian volunteers...

Week One Complete...

I am sitting in my guesthouse as the rain pours outside, drenching my previously almost dry laundry. Such is the life here! Today was a working day, as I will be working 11 days and then be off for three. This is my weekend “on.” More to follow on today's adventures.

Wednesday was spent at the clinic meeting Mis Delice, another of the nurses I will work with at the FWAL clinic. She speaks good English and repeats everything I say as I say it. We reviewed all of the new paperwork that will be for the charts, and talked through the policy book with her. We took a little walk to Maison Handal, a Haitian version of a department store, which reminds me a lot of a scaled-down TJ Maxx, with ridiculous prices. We grabbed a hamburger for lunch – the place serves a variety of foods! - and saw numerous Embassy and UN workers as they filed in and ate. I wonder how many of them actually take the opportunity and experience the culture, interact with the people and really look at the country. I hope a large number of them do. It was a strange collision of worlds – the well-dressed, clean – cut professionals eating at the table right next to yours truly, in my scrubs, no make-up, sweaty from the morning's work and the long walk. The afternoon was a great success – I met the new clinic doctor, who speaks Spanish! What a fun gift for me! She is very enthusiastic, accommodating and easy to work with. We had a general meeting with the nurses, doctor and directors with our observations of what is needed at the clinic so far and how we can progress toward getting our basic function improved. All of the nurses so far have been extremely cooperative. Dinner Wednesday night was absolutely delicious, cooked by the Italians – pasta with pesto sauce, cooked in veggies. SO yummy!

Thursday morning, Lisette and I met with Kenson, the director of FWAL, and he took us to the hospital to introduce us to the staff there. We will be obtaining medications and supplies for the clinic from them, and will also bring any kids who need hospitalization there. A few kinks need to be worked out in terms of the process for all of this, as FWAL is still new and the clinic is really only recently known to others throughout NPH Haiti. We then had a very productive morning sorting through the dossiers for each kiddo in the St .Louis program, alphabetizing them and reviewing plans for more work with them. Many children arrived at the program with no official date of birth – that is not something that is recorded anywhere – so many of them have had a birthdate assigned to them. It gets tricky, because so many of the kids here are small for their age, both in height and weight, so what a non-medical person may decide is the age of the child has conflicted with the nurses' opinions once we have seen them!

Upon our return to St. Louis, we were met with a festive crowd! It was the feast of St. Louis, so there was a day-long program of celebrations. Oh my goodness – it was the sweetest show of talent for the remainder of the morning, with singing, dancing, skits and laughter. These kids must come out of the womb with rhythm – they are extraordinary dancers! A native dance, Shakira, it doesn't matter. They are gifted. All dressed up in their white dresses and long-sleeved white shirts and long pants, they had a blast. A huge cake was brought out at the beginning of the show, but still had not been eaten by the time we left in the afternoon! Bummer for me, the dessert lover. Oh well. In the afternoon, I was able to meet the third nurse, Mis Boirand, who is a light-hearted lady with a huge bright smile. We introduced ourselves and reviewed with her what we had talked about with the other nurses. She has been at FWAL since the beginning of the program, and was very excited to hear our plans. She was a little nervous that Lisette was leaving so soon and that I did not yet speak Creole, but we made plans to have lessons when things were slow at the clinic, me teaching her English and she teaching me Creole/French. We then watched a soccer match after work, and I sat while the kids played with my hair, asked me more questions, sat in my lap, opened my backpack and asked me what everything was. So fun to just sit with them and enjoy their company. Thursday was also Sr. Kathleen's birthday, so we went to a historic museum and restaurant, Cane Sucre (Sugar Cane), for dinner. There is spice in everything here! Even in what I thought was plain white chicken breast. Can't escape it. Then cake and Rocky Road ice cream for dessert – Mmmmmm.

Watching the festivities 

The guys

A new pair of glasses, just received!

Friday morning came with another visit to Ste. Anne to meet the director of the house and look again at how medications are given and where they are stored. They are in a cabinet – good – that is left unlocked for most of the day – not good. One of the clinic nurses, who works 8 hours a day from Monday through Friday, spends time at Ste. Anne every morning giving meds before taking kids to the hospital for tests or exams. It was heartbreaking to look more closely at one of the little girls, who has clearly been abused. She is very neurologically challenged and has a likely seizure disorder of unknown origin. There are visible healed scars on her back where she was whipped with something repeatedly. She was also sexually abused. Her age is unknown and she is identified by the staff as “ababa,” the only sounds she makes. She smiles and loves to hug, but needs serious therapy and one-on-one attention. The home has wisely assigned one staff member to care for only her and the other two little boys who are disabled. Another little boy was abandoned in the Cholera camp and is physically challenged – it appears to be Cerebral Palsy – but has the most beautiful wide smile!

The rest of the day was spent at St. Louis, taking inventory of what is in the clinic, discovering that there is a container with many more medications and supplies, much to my excitement, and then having our first Creole/English lesson for the afternoon. Body parts, at the request of the nurse. She is delightful and laughs a lot. Another walk, then a chill evening in anticipation of working today.

This morning the doctor and myself did physicals for the kids at Ste. Anne. Remarkably, all of the about 35 children were very well behaved! There is a lot of catching up to do, but that was expected. The doctor is very fun to work with, excellent with the kids, and efficient. The rest of today was a lot of online catching up, cleaning the bathroom and then we have another goodbye party tonight, for one of the French workers who has been working with water projects. So many moments to try and capture!

It has been a whirlwind three days...

Sunday was HOT – we were drenched by the time we walked from our house to Kay St. Louis (about 1/3 mile walk) for mass – before 9 am! The air was still and extremely humid. We sat with the children – all of the kids from St. Louis and the older ones from Ste. Anne attend mass, held outside under the awnings at St. Louis. The singing was precious and all of the kids attempted to sing – a large part of the mass is sung. They behaved very well, even the girls who were saturated with sweat in their polyester Sunday best dresses. They were friendly, smiling at me curiously and studying my skin, watch and the ring I wear on my right hand. During the sign of peace, swarms of children rushed to greet the “blans” as we are called, the word for “foreigner” or “light skinned person.” After mass, the day was easy – I did laundry, kept studying Creole, went to the supermarket for more breakfast and dinner food, walked with Sr. Kathleen, and caught up on emails. I am trying to make my corner of the living room neat and tidy, so I organized that better. Then for dinner I was invited to one of the other houses here, Kay Germaine, an outpatient center for children with disabilities, for a goodbye dinner. Sr. Loraine, a long-time volunteer from Canada, was returning there after many years working with the children. It was a wonderful time, with a small group of employees of NPH Haiti, a fun chance to get to know them better and hear stories about their work.

Monday morning was an early one – I was up and to St. Louis by 7:15 am, as Joanne wanted to introduce me to the kids as they ate their breakfast. They greeted me with smiles and excitement, and kept peeking in the door of the clinic as we sat and got started with the monumental task ahead of us. I met one of the nurses, Mis Laurent, who is very kind and eager to learn. I will be able to teach her how to use the computer, as she has no experience with it! The clinic is currently contained in a shipping container, about 20 feet long. It has very basic supplies and medications, and all of the charting is incomplete. This is understandable, as the home has only been in existence for about 19 months, and the staff has had no instruction or familiarity with the policies written by NPH. Lisette, the nurse from St. Helene in Kenscoff, and I spent the morning going over the basics of the policies, required inventory, charting and then playing with the kids as we waited for the clinic computer to arrive. It was vaccination day, so the kids kept asking me if I was going to give them a “picky,” their name for shots. They kept asking me questions in Creole, and I learned a few words...then they asked me the English word for many things – colors, skin, eyes, nose, mouth, clothing. They are extremely interested in me, my hair, my freckles, my clothes, and closely examine everything – ears, toes, (they liked the colored nail polish – have to keep that up and change the color every so often!), fingers, and were very concerned about my mosquito bites. They just plain love to love.

one of the container bedrooms at St. Louis. It sleeps 16 children with a 'Madame' in charge of each room.

The courtyard at St. Louis, surrounded by the container "rooms"

Erline, one of the youngest residents of Ste. Anne

A Sunday dress

Lisette is suffering from a nasty sinus infection, so we came back to the tents (the common area just a few meters from my house) and sat on the computer for a while as she generously shared her many spreadsheets with me and showed me how she has taught the nurses to document things. The Haitian culture is an oral culture; not much is written. So to teach regular documentation and consistency will be a challenge. After lunch, she rested while I took on another monumental task – matching randomly gifted eye glasses with the children that need them! That was an awesome story problem...matching glasses of certain prescriptions with kids based on their eye exams. Some were a perfect match, some were close, but my goodness! The glasses are clearly from a variety of decades, and the lenses have not been replaced. So some of these frames I know are not wearable (try to get a teenage girl to accept a pair of 1980's multicolored HUGE frames, a la Growing Pains or Who's the Boss? Era...not going to happen! Or try to fit a pair of senior men's frames to a tiny little face!) So after 2 ½ hours of going back and forth, the task was almost completed. 18 out of 21 kids were matched with a pair of new glasses! That will be a fun job for me – to meet the kids and see how they react to seeing better. And I am expecting a few headaches as their eyes adjust. We went to Mama Rafael's for chicken and fried plantains again. SO delicious! There is a steady stream of foreign volunteers who comes through. Right now there is an Italian team of doctors here for two weeks, and they sit and talk and have a wonderful time together. Some of them are very social, and have chatted about anything and everything with me.

One of the hardest parts of the day yesterday was my visit to the hospital. I got a tour, which was quite impressive. The hospital is very well-planned, well-built, and has 120 beds. It has expanded drastically since the earthquake, out of necessity, and has a maternity ward (behind which my house is situated) and a NICU. The tour was delightful – the rooms are clean and colorful and the care seems to be good. But the Emergency room was sad, overcrowded, and quiet. There is a lot of death here, and there are funerals every day. Small bodies are carried out of the hospital covered in white sheets, to the back corner of the property, where there is a morgue and a crematorium. Or they are put directly in a casket and a funeral is completed as soon as possible. There is no embalming, so the body must be buried quickly. Funerals are often held in a covered area adjacent to the chapel. Once Fr. Rick, the director of NPH Haiti, returns from the States, we will again have daily mass. Daily mass is almost always a funeral mass, as the bodies from the previous day and night will be annointed and then buried.

The most difficult part of the visit to the hospital was the abandoned babies' room. Children, whose parents leave them at the hospital once an admission is done, are placed in a room together. They are kept there until parents return or until they are placed in a permanent living situation. It takes three months to declare a child officially “abandoned” and then takes longer for an investigation into family and history. So some of these kids have been living in their beds for a LONG time. They get little to no attention from the nurses, so they need loving! We are free to visit the room and be with the children whenever we have free time. So sad and precious – a little boy was there who is only two weeks old, left by his mom. He was clearly hungry, and I was able to hold him and feed him an ounce of formula from a syringe. He has a great suck and would clearly respond to drinking from a bottle – but none was to be found. Some children have been left due to conditions which are debilitating, such as cerebral palsy or a similar condition, or hydrocephalus which was not treated. So those kids await a slow death.

Today, we spent the morning at Ste. Anne, the baby house. You can imagine how adorable they are! We played and played, went through the charting at the house and were not surprised that the lack of paperwork and adequate medical care. Since the FWAL program was created out of urgency, there is much to do to bring things current. Good job security for me!

Lisette is still quite sick, so I spent the afternoon at the warehouses with Dani, sorting through and inventorying supplies. She has a huge job! It was a fun afternoon though, explaining different supplies and items to her and tallying donated medications. I like being busy! A shower was a welcome end to the afternoon. A brisk walk before the thunderstorm arrived, then an evening of ping-pong and reading about the earthquake in the States – a rather ironic twist.

Two Days Grace

I arrived Thursday afternoon, a few hours late thanks to poor weather in the Atlantic. I marveled at the gorgeous Caribbean water during the flight – the bottom of the sea is visible from 37,000 feet up! So incredible. As we circled over Haiti, I attempted to see the damage still evident in Port-au-Prince – but it is so difficult to gauge where you are when landing. But it was such a juxtaposition – this beautiful Caribbean water, islands in the sea, then a huge and sprawling city with tents and shacks built just outside the walls of mansions. The airport was chaotic, to say the least, and the memories of my first trip to Nicaragua came flashing back to me, when I could not understand the language and luggage was thrown all over the floor as it came through on the conveyor belt. So after a few panicked minutes of filling out forms and searching for my bags, I was on my way...the gracious woman in Detroit forgot to give me my 3^rd luggage tag, so it took a bit of convincing to let the woman checking tags to let me through...I was not going to give up my entire wardrobe that easily! Then it was a slow walk down about 50 – 75 meters to the parking lot, with a very kind and persistent gentleman who kept flashing his ID and telling me he was at my service...I walked ahead, thinking I might easily be totally lost in a land where language did not come easily, and finally saw the sign with my name on it – phew! - and Joanne, the advisor to the FWAL (Father Wasson Angels of Light) program. Such a relief to see and be recognized! Then it was a slow drive to Hospital St. Damien, with a stop at the supermarket. Pretty much anything I may need or want is available here, but at a major price increase, since it is all imported. So it will be easy to resist temptation. ($10 or more for a bottle of US brand juice, $8 or more for US brand cereal!) I am responsible for two meals a day, so I will have to budget accordingly. The mid-day meal is provided around 1 or 1:30 pm, and it is spicy – oh my wimpy tongue has some work to do!

I arrived at my temporary living quarters in a pre-fabricated house right behind the hospital and settled in. There is air-conditioning, running water and currently daily access to the internet. That may change, depending on where I am permanently placed to live. I am currently living with Joanne, the program advisor, and Sr. Kathleen, a social worker volunteering with FWAL. We are right behind the maternity ward, so we are met with the sounds of labor on a regular basis. I met Ivy and Dani, two other volunteers, and then took a little walk for a plate of chicken and fried plantains – a perfect first meal! Sleep was slow to come, but eventually did – thank goodness!

The sun comes up early here – between 5 and 6 am. My exhausted body begged for more sleep, and I had a slow morning before a tour with Joanne. Kay St. Louis is actually a temporary home, built out of necessity after the earthquake for displaced children. Investigations are done regarding each child, and NPH works with families when they are located, assisting with stable housing and the attainment of stable income, with a goal of returning the children to those families if possible. If children are determined to be officially orphaned, they are sent to Kay Ste. Helene, the permanent orphanage in Kenscoff, in the mountains high above Port-au-Prince. I am impressed with the speed at which NPH is developing their program – the property has evolved from tents initially, to a dormitory-like setting of shipping containers, each container housing 16 children and with a “Monsieur” or “Madame” of each. A permanent school is being built, which will accommodate the approximately 180 children in the FWAL program and an additional 600 + children from the surrounding areas. I saw the clinic space, where I will start work on Monday, and quickly regretted my lack of good French and total lack of Creole. I have a HUGE amount of work to do organizing the clinic, training the staff and caring for the kids. Eventually, I will assist in working 24-hour shifts at the clinic, sleeping on-site and tending to any emergencies. Yikes!

NPH has a goal of placing native citizens in all positions of authority in the programs they run, which is also another HUGE draw for me – teaching the people how to fish, and entrusting them with the care of their own children, with continuing education and assistance provided for as long as necessary. So the directors of the FWAL program are now Haitians, with non-Haitians serving in an advisory capacity. A few of them spoke English, and I was glad to meet them and learn a few Creole words in the meantime. We then went to Kay Ste. Anne, the house for the young children, aged 13 months to 5 years. Oh, so precious! They just love on you and want to play and once the camera comes out, well, it's crazy time! I could have stayed there the rest of the day snuggling with the little ones. There are about 40 of them. What a task, running that house! But all of the kids are clearly well-cared for, dressed and fed and clean.

Joanne had several meetings, so I studied French and began studying Creole for the remainder of the day, with a break for my spicy lunch. My head pounded with all of the information and attempts to retain the words – oh my goodness. Lord, help me learn! I walked with Sr. Kathleen and Ivy – a regular occurrence for them, doing several loops around the property. So exercise will be available! Then we went to a hotel for dinner – and did I mention that the UN presence here is quite visible? Currently there are soldiers from Canada, Bangladesh, the Phillipines, and Jordan, with another country moving in shortly. Their trucks are everywhere, and governments clearly spend a lot of money on their soldiers.

Today, we went to Kenscoff, with 11 children who will be moving there this week. We took them for a visit – Ste. Helene is about 25 km from Port-au-Prince, a scenic 1 ½ hour drive. Quite an entertaining ride, with vomit bags provided – the kids hardly ever ride in cars, so they become motion sick very easily (!) - and children ranging in age from 2 years to 11, I think. So well-behaved, and thank goodness no one lost their breakfast, including me. It is a gorgeous drive, up into the mountains, to a cool and humid climate which is a drastic change from the 95+ degree highs in Tabarre. We took a tour of the new place, which houses around 400 children. The kids were understandably timid – this is quite a big move for them. We ate a quick lunch, and I saw the volunteer/guest house – a fabulous little place which will be a perfect weekend away when the occasion arises. The way back was an adventure – a torrential downpour started just as we were leaving the orphanage, and not even 5 kilometers down the road, 3 large trees were over the roadway. Hence an hour-long wait for them to be cleared, and every single child needed to use the bathroom. So we parked ourselves in someone's front walkway and allowed business to be done, while stepping around the downed power line that was just outside the bus. When you gotta go... Even the youngest ones are potty-trained! We sang and played, and everyone did such a good job on a long trip. I want to explore more of the city, and want a deeper understanding of the lives and stories. I know it will come, but for now I am the new girl, a title most willingly given to me by Dani, the previous holder.

Tomorrow I get introduced to the children at FWAL at mass, and hope I can remember my Creole greeting at the right time! Monday, the nurse from Kenscoff is coming down and will help me get things started at the clinic. And hopefully soon, I will locate the coffee.

More to come! Thanks for reading. This was a long one.  

The Journey Begins

I am finally on the way! Five months of anticipation and planning and purging and fundraising and wrapping up my American life have been a total whirlwind, and I'm sure I forgot some things. But I am on the plane, over the Carolinas, and am in disbelief that the day has come. But after two hours' sleep and frantic rearrangement of bags, (and an upgrade to first class - one final luxury!), I am officially on the road to Haiti.Yes, I fretted over what to wear on the plane and how much to pack - I have a picture in my mind of what will greet me, but I have a feeling that the picture is not totally accurate! I learned that I will be living in a small air-conditioned guesthouse behind the St. Damien pediatric hospital, living with a Haitian woman working for the hospital program. A live-in Creole tutor, thank goodness! My French is nowhere near where I would like it to be - Rosetta Stone was not a terribly helpful way for me to learn it, and I learn so much better by immersion anyway - so prayers for quick French ability would be greatly appreciated! Two languages to tackle in the next few weeks. I will be spending my first few days getting a feel for the place, visiting the programs and meeting the kiddos, and starting Monday the nurse from the other home in Haiti will be coming to help me get oriented and begin setting up the clinic. Dani, the other American volunteer living in Haiti right now, (I just posted a link to her blog), continues to tell me how amazing the kids are and how she is slightly envious of me because I will be seeing them so much!

More to come soon, pictures and all, once I am on the ground and living the life. Thank you so much for your encouragement and support - they are greatly needed!