Sitting at the Plaza having a mango daiquiri with Tuwanda, Jeanne, and Ralph. It's been a busy and productive week. On Monday, Tuwanda, Jeanne and I went to a clinic that is set up at an old water park. It is run by a group called AIMER Haiti and is open 7 days a week. They usually have volunteer groups with 8-10 doctors and can see up to 500 patients a day. But when we were there it was just Tuwanda and a Haitian doctor. It was crazy but Tuwanda got the job done and saw over 50 patients by herself (that's a lot). Jeanne and I started off the day triaging patients but we soon learned this wasn't really efficient because we had to refer about 95% of the patients we saw to the doctor (which meant they were basically being asked the same questions twice and taking twice the amount of time necessary). So we found other things to do but we were still there 10 hours.
Tuesday was spent at the TB tents, nothing crazy but it was good to feel comfortable and efficient. Wednesday morning we went over to the Partners in Development clinic (the one I mentioned earlier). We never did figure out if it was actually in Cite Soleil, but we never felt like we were in a dangerous place. On the contrary it was actually the most peaceful environment we'd experienced so far. I really can't say enough good things about this organization...they have a 20 year presence in Haiti and provide a great resource to the community. Not only do they have a free clinic but they give loans to small businesses. They treated us so well (the best meals we have eaten yet) and it was great to see another part of the city. We stayed there Wednesday night....they have a newly built guest house with space for almost 30 people in bunk beds. My first experience sleeping in a mosquito net, and it was quite hot. Jeanne and I woke up with probably about 20 bites on each knee...we are thinking it might be fleas. I don't deal well with rashes, especially on my own body, and everyone around has to make sure I don't scratch. I think I've almost gone through an entire tube of anti-itch cream. We visited a tent village on the way home from PID so that Tuwanda could check on a young boy with cerebral palsy. He is on three different seizure medications and still seizing often. His mom takes really good care of him and he was not as contracted as you might expect. We drew a crowd of kids, they all say "Hey you! Give me ______ (a dollar/chocolate/your watch)!" But they're sweet and I just wish I could communicate with them more. One group of boys had a book of Creole-American phrases and asked us for our phone numbers.
Today we went up to J/P HRO (Sean Penn's organization) and worked in the clinic. This is also a great organization from what I saw today. They have a lot of permanent and temporary staff who are well established in Petion-ville. A large part of J/P HRO that you might have read about is the 52,000 person tent city they run, the largest in PAP. We were given a tour today and it is pretty cool. I can't really explain everything about it but it really seems like they have figured out how to run the whole show really well. I think that Jeanne and I will probably spend a good amount of time here over the next few weeks as long as they will have us. The tent city is on a 9-hole golf course up on the mountain overlooking the whole city....there is a pretty cool view. All the staff, translators, and volunteers were great. I saw a lot of people with fevers, ear aches, upper respiratory infections, and muscle aches. The translator I worked with most of the day, Sammy, was awesome...he wants to come to the states and go to college and then hopefully medical school. The fact that most of the translators I've met have taught themselves English continues to amaze me. I WILL learn at least one foreign language over the next 3-5 years. If anyone has a Rosetta Stone Spanish or French that would let me use/borrow it, let me know!
That's all for now. One last story- Riaan (a Marine who's staying with us for a few weeks) wanted to get tazed today. He put on an adult diaper (because of the effects that tazers can have....) and tazed himself. With two tazers at the same time. And he didn't even flinch or fall down or anything. He says he's been tazed probably 30 times. That was about the craziest thing I've seen in a while. He's a really nice guy who is always down to do anything for anyone. He is teaching an emergency medical training class at Medishare for the Haitian OR staff. We stood in on his class for a few minutes the other night and it looked great. The 5-6 guys he's teaching are so motivated and eager to learn...they want to have class 5-7 AM before work and then 7-9 PM after work.
That's really all for now. The power just went out at the Plaza so I should probably post this soon. Orevwa!
No comments:
Post a Comment