Day 1- Arriving in Cabestor
We have arrived to Haiti safely. It was quite the trek to get here in Cabestor. I will start with leaving the house. I was on time!!! Normally I am packing everyone up and having to deal with the kids and Niles when we go on vacation but this time it was just myself to worry about. Niles packed the car up for me and it was time to say bye to my children. It was an emotional moment I was anticipating would be hard. I wear my emotions on my sleeve and I’m a fragile flower as Niles would say. I gathered the kids for a picture. We got a nice photo and then I started to kiss my babies good bye. Luke first, he was sad to see me go and told me he would miss me alot. Dylan just hugged me and ran off. I told him to come back so that I could kiss him. Alessa gave me a hug and kiss and said have fun in Haiti. It is so cute to hear her say Haiti. I walked over to Cody gave him a hug and kiss and he told me to have fun. I was getting emotional and walked over to the car. I got in and Dylan and Alessa started following us as we slowly started to drive away. The tears started and I told them I loved them so much. It normally isn’t that difficult to leave my kids. But this time was going to be 2 weeks and I was leaving them to go help others. We drove down our driveway and Luke was waiting at the end. He waved frantically til we couldn’t see him any more. I had to hold it together because I didn’t have any means to clean up the running mascara. Got my mind off of it and we headed to Seatac. Niles and I arrived and parked the car. We went to find a luggage cart and ran into Emily and her husband. We went back to the car and loaded the cart with 5 large bags, perfectly weighed to 50lbs. Or so I thought. When we arrived to the ticket counter, we were informed that our bags could be checked for free since they were medical supplies. Oh how we were so grateful. I had anticipated paying about $205 dollars for all the luggage to get there and for mine to come back. But then we were told that we could only check 2 bags each. Such a huge disappointment Apparently this is a Haitian rule. However, I have heard from a couple different resources a different story. So we quickly went through the bags and without unpacking anything decided to take the ones with the most medical supplies and less clothing. Niles would take those home and we will be ready for donations the next trip. My personal bag was about 12 lbs overweight. So with a eager line behind us, we moved out of the way and took things out of the overweighed bag and placed them into my huge carry on. We thanked the agent at the counter for his extreme generosity and went to security. The line was relatively short, luckily. We had given ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport, go get the bags and ourselves checked in and get through security. It was time to say good bye to Niles I wasn’t looking forward to that moment and I didn’t want to cry again. I gave him a huge hug and a quick kiss. If I would’ve made it a long kiss, the tears may have come. I will miss him. We headed to security and went through. All 3 of us were stopped for different reasons. Mine was batteries I had taken out of my luggage to lower the weight. Since I had so many, it flagged my bag. I brought them for my 2 small fans and my headlamps, both to use at night. We then headed to the lounge Emily had access to. Unfortunately, we all couldn’t go in. So we broke off into 2 and went and had a beer. We then had a bite to eat in the lounge. Then headed for our flight. Boarded the flight to NYC.I have this tradition of tapping the plane as I board. We got all settled into our seats. Ordered a glass of wine each and got our snacks. I will say, JetBlue made a good first impression on me. After snacks and wine, we all turned off our overhead light and tried to sleep. It was challenge for us all, but we did have some sleep. We arrived to NYC and went to another lounge. This time we all 3 could go in. We found a comfortable place to sit down, possibly sleep. We had something to drink and a snack. We were in there for 3 hours and then headed for our flight to Port au Prince Haiti. Boarded our flight and took off. I wasn’t sitting with girls this time. So, I mostly slept the next 4 hours to Haiti. My neck and back were getting super sore for sleeping the positions I was in. We flew in and had to circle around the bay a couple times because the airport wasn’t ready for us to land. When we were landing, I was looking out the window and was hit with reality of how impoverished this country really is. The homes I was seeing were steel and concrete. That must be hot! We landed safely and walked off the plane, We had to pay a $10 entrance fee and go to customs. Our customs lady had the best welcoming attitude ever..not. No smile, nothing. She just held her hand out, took documents and handed them back. No words were spoken. I said ‘am I done’ and she just shook her head. We headed down to get our bags and that was craziness!!! There was bags everywhere. We dug through them and found them, placed them on a rack and headed out to declare what we were bringing into the country. He just took our papers, didn’t look at them and told us we were good to go. Then the madness came. The taxi drivers and men to help with our luggage were becoming aggressive. Luckily, we didn’t have to deal with them long. Our person from MFH was waiting right there and was able to get the men away from us. They weren’t being rude or scary. Nothing different from any other country I have been in. They are just trying to make money. We walked out of the airport with all the bags and headed to the car. There we were greeted by Joanne, the volunteer coordinator. So happy to finally meet her. She took our donation bags and placed them into the car that was headed to Hinche. Our other personal bags went to the other car we were riding in. Joanne left with the bags and we waited for another volunteer to land. We sat under a tree in the shade. A man came by selling beverages. I bought Tiffany and I a drink. Before long the other volunteer arrived and we headed to the hotel Shani and Donna were hanging out at waiting for us. We went and picked them up and had a nice reunion with Donna, so great to see her again. All 11 of us loaded into the land rover, bags on top and carry on’s inside. Pretty packed full and we had a 3 hr drive, It was bumpy and windy. A couple of the girls get car sick and were having a challenging time. I offered peppermint to help as the Zofran wasn’t. Luckily before long we were at the meeting place where half the group was headed to Hinche and the other had 2 cars waiting for them to take them to Cabestor, which was our group. We unloaded the bags and went into the 2 cars. The ride was alot easier, less bumpy and windy. Let me just tell you what we saw. Many, many Haitians walking. The don’t have cars. They walk to the market to get the supplies they need. Sometimes 3 hours. Horses, donkeys, cows and pigs walking with people or tied up to trees and bushes. Chickens hanging alive off the sides of cars, We went into the town and went to the market and Mario, the house manager, interpreter and driver bought a few supplies. We got back in the car and headed to the birth center. We turned onto a very rocky road and drove about an hour into the country side, It was breathtaking in many ways. The landscape was amazing. We crossed 25 creeks/rivers to get to the birth center. But also got the first hand view of how these people live, WOW. The live like what we call homeless people. The have houses, made of steel sheets and concrete. It must be extremely hot in them but I assume they are acclimated. It reminds me of camping in alot of ways. But we glamp, they rough it. As we drive along, some are very happy to see the ‘blanco’ people or white people. They know why we are here and treat us as royalty. They want to touch us as if we were famous and get excited to shake our hands. Others give us blank stares. They aren’t sure what to think of us. I wish I knew what they were thinking. We arrive to the birth center and the tears come again. We are surrounded by mountains, where these people live and walk hours to and from. A catholic church and school are next door. We get to meet the Father and some of his workers. Later we find out that the Father and MFH are in disagreement, More on that later. We get out of the car and get our luggage up to our room. We were very pleased of the living conditions we will be staying in. Bunk beds, nice clean sheets, pillows and towels. Running water, toilets, showers and electricity. It is limited as it is solar. It takes all day to charge, so we limit what we use at night. We are all starving as we haven’t had a meal since we left Seattle. Alot of snacking though. We are told dinner will be ready in a couple hours, 7pm. We get in ,shower and change. We are given a tour of the birth center and are very happy with what they have done here. We are told dinner is ready and we head to eat. Sliced fried potatoes and plantains, oyster fritters, and goat meat. I have to say, not really impressed. But I was extremely grateful for this meal as many people around me probably haven’t eaten today. I was hungry and ate til I was full. We went and bought a beer from the man who has a little store, if you want to call it that.$1 per beer. Its pretty good beer too. Prestige beer is the name. We were all pretty tired from our long journey and decided it was time to go to sleep. We all took our anti-malarials and crawled into our beds. We pulled our mosquito net over our bed and tucked them into the corners. Mine had quite a few holes in it so Emily taped what she could closed. I am trying to use other methods besides bug spray to repel the mosquitos like bracelets with natural ingredients, skin so soft and dryer sheets. I woke up with no bites!! I feel asleep quickly with my 2 fans blowing on me, atop the sheets. I slept well until the roosters started crowing before the sun came up. Occasionally, dogs were barking too. It again reminded me of camping. Wake up to noises and then go back to sleep.
The staff here are very nice and helpful. I can tell we are safe and well taken care of. I have already fallen in love with Haiti. I’m very disappointed that I couldn’t bring all of the donations I received as it is needed badly. Talk to you all tomorrow!
Day 2- A trip to Saut D’eu, Creole for waterfall
We awake Sunday morning to the church bells that are located in a mango tree right in front of the birth center. We had already been intermittently awoken by the many, many roosters, dogs, pigs and people making all sorts of noise. We all wanted to kill the rooster. Little did we know, rooster was going to be lunch. We get up and get ready for the day. We all alerted that breakfast is ready and head to the next room over. A traditional Haitian breakfast is awaiting. Spaghetti noodles, lettuce, tomato and onion, hard boiled eggs and hot dogs. Coffee with canned condensed milk. The noodles were deliciously seasoned. They prepare alot of food for us and we don’t eat it all. We clean up the table and bring everything down to the kitchen house which is located behind the birth center. There we all see Michelle plucking our lunch, the rooster. I have never experienced seeing this before and it caught me off guard. I asked her if I could take a photo and she agreed. The neck of the rooster had been slit. Hopefully it died quickly.
Church will be happening soon and we are invited to go. None of us are religious and don’t wish to attend. But as we watch more and more people arrive, we get curious. The decision is made when Mario tells us we can leave whenever we would like as the catholic mass can last hours. It’s not considered rude to leave. Songs of praise are being sung and it’s a beautiful sound. We all go in and head to the back of the church. Haitians are looking at us and are probably wondering why we are there. They are all dressed in their best clothing and are all so beautiful. We don’t understand what they are saying. More and more people arrive and I notice its mostly woman and children. Eventually, many men start coming. I wonder if they come later because they are working and wait til the last possible moment to come. There isn’t much room left and people are looking for places to sit. We decide it is time for us to leave so they can all have seats. There is an American sitting a few pews in front of us. I can tell she is American because she is wearing Berkenstocks with an American flag on them. I had thought I had seen a white person sitting next to one the houses across the field the night before. But, I didn’t say or ask anyone about her. Now we are curious. I ask Randall and he tells me she is a lady who has been out here before and she is coming back to get information on possibly starting an orphanage. Later in the day she was gone and I’m not sure where she went.
We are told during lunch that things with Father Blot aren’t going as well anymore. The church owns the property and Father runs it. He owns the pump for the water and had turned it off and taken the key. He also isn’t allowing MFH to use his kitchen and cooks that MFH have used since this placed opened. So, this week Mario has had to do what he can to get by and feed us. The midwives, like Michelle, are cooking for us. We decide that we wont use much water until the disagreement gets over worth. I guess Father wants more money than they had originally agreed upon. I heard he gets quite alot of money. By then end of the day though, the pump is turned back on and things are a little better between the father and Mario.
We had some down town after and hung around and chatted. We aren’t allowed to leave the birth center and go exploring without an employee. Everyone around here seems safe, however, we don’t speak the language and I’m sure not everyone likes that we are here. We ask Randall to walk with us and we head off the property. Most of the homes are passed down from generation to generation. No one has to pay for the property, no taxes etc. Which is a great thing. These people can barely afford food and basic needs like clothing. If they had to pay for housing too, they would never survive. We walk down the gravel, rocky road and people see us coming. The little kids come running and alot of them follow us. They don’t try to make conversation, but just follow. We walk along and say ‘bonjour’ as everyone but Emily only know a few words in creole. We go as far as the first stream and then turn around and walk back. After some more relaxing down time lunch was ready. Lime rooster, creole rice and beans, lettuce, tomato and onion, fried plantains and fresh squeezed passionfruit juice. So, so yummy. There was a sauce they made to pour over the rice and chicken that was so good. We ate til we were full and again there was alot of food left over. We then got ready to go to the waterfall. We put on our swimsuits and all piled into Mario’s black car.Its a hour long ride in the countrside back to the main road. I was in the far back. The ride there was bumpy, rocky and at one point I let out a scream when a rock flew up and hit the undercarriage of the car. Everyone laughed at me and my occasional outbursts of sounds from the ride. We made into into town and stopped for gas. Mario asked if we wanted a beer and went and bought us all one after we gave him $1 each. We had been told we could purchase a pay as you go phone for $40 with minutes and that intrigued us as we wanted to let our family know we had made it and were okay. So, Mario stopped and bought us one after we gave him the money. We all split the cost, about $8 each, totally worth it. We headed to the waterfall and the road was covered in very large potholes. Mario would have to stop quickly to go through them and then would hit the gas again. This was causing me to be thrown back and forth in the back seat. Soon enough after all my noises, Mario would start to say “JessssEkaa’ as he was slowing down to alert me to be ready. This was very comical and made us all laugh everytime. The ride to the waterfall was very pretty. We went up and down hills and got great viewpoints. The road lead through a small village atop a hill and we drove through it leading us to the end of the road and the gated entrance to the waterfall. Very loud music is being played through large speakers at 2 of the 4 little huts that were selling goods. 2 different songs and it was difficult to hear the difference in the songs as it was loud and mingled together. We walk up to the gate and a few men are sitting there. Mario speaks to one of them and we can tell by the tone and the look on the mans face that the conversation wasn’t going well. I began to think we weren’t going to be let in and we had driven well over 2 hours to get there. After some talking, the man opened the gate and let us in. I asked Mario what happened, if the man wanted him to pay. He said the man asked for money but Mario didn’t like how he asked, I was uncomfortable for the first time in Haiti, a little nervous and didn’t feel 100% safe. A handful of young men followed us down a series of stairs. The view walking down was breathtaking. We stop to take photos and the boys wait for us girls to catch up. I say ‘we have escorts’ to the girls and I’m thinking they want to be sure we return to pay the entrance fee the man demanded. We get to the bottom of the stairs and I can hear the water. I look out and the waterfall is so majestic and beautiful. Mario told us that people come here for spiritual reasons and to pray. Mostly Catholics but some people who worship voodoo and do rituals here. I can see where candle wax has been melted on the rocks. This place did have a dark feeling to it while we were there and others agreed later. I can understand why locals come here for religious reasons, I’m blown away at its beauty. Some woman are washing clothing in the water and a man in sitting in an area where the water flows onto his back. Maybe he was bathing or perhaps just swimming and cooling off. Mario asks if we want to go in and I excitedly say yes. I take my shorts off and one of the young men grab my hand. I’m confused and Mario said he is going to show me how to walk up the rocks without slipping. Okay, ‘merci’ or thank you, I say to the young man. He guides me up the rocks and is walking alot faster than I would’ve liked. But I kept up. We took a series of rocks that lead up to where the waterfall was landing and I got under the water. I have never experienced such a thing. Even though it was cold, it felt refreshing for a few moments. I got out and got over the excitement I was experiencing and went back under. I felt like I just checked off a bucket list item that I didn’t even know was on my list. I didn’t want to leave but I wanted to give the other girls a chance to do it too and the other young men were leading them up. Tiffany went in and she was smiling and happy. She was really enjoying it. Shani came next and went in. She enjoyed it too but it was cold for her. Emily and Donna stayed down with Mario and our bags. We walk back down and we get a few group photos, some with the young men. Mario gives the boys a tip and we start walking back up the stairs. One of the boys stops and asks me and Tiffany for more money and we decline. At the top, the man from earlier awaits us. Mario and him start to talk. The conversation is not going great and we don’t know how to speak creole to understand it. I start to feel even more uncomfortable as more men arrive and surround us. Some are on the other side of the gate where the car awaits and the young men are standing being us ladies. A few other men come through the gate from the other side and stand near us. One of the boys say to me ‘that man is bad’ referring to Mario. The girls and I get closer to each other and say ‘rule number 1, don’t say anything, don’t do anything and don’t get involved.’ But all of us are uncomfortable. Mario gives the man some money but he wants more. $5 each and that is alot of money in Haiti. Mario had given him $15. I start to feel like we will be robbed but these men couldn’t afford a weapon like a gun but they could have a knife. The man is blocking the gate with a couple of the young men and wont let us leave. I don’t know what was said but a handshake happens and the gate opens. Mario protects us girls and we quickly walk past everyone and walk the 15 feet to the car. It’s locked and Mario had told us to bring everything with us and to not leave it in the car. We are all standing there and Mario is locked in the gate behind us and continues to argue with the man. I’m feeling very vulnerable at this point as Mario is on the other side of the gate and we are alone. The crowd is getting larger. At last, the gate is opened and Mario walks quickly toward the car. But the man and others are following right behind him and look very mad. Mario says ‘get in the car’ in a frantic manner. We jump in and say frantically to Emily who didn’t hear Mario as she was waiting to get in the very back, ‘get in, get the fuck in’. She heard the urgency in our voices and jumped in quickly. We all lock the doors behind us and Mario is talking to the man again. Eventually, a handshake happens again and Mario gets in the car. I thought for a moment that maybe the men wouldn’t let us leave and may block the car from turning around. Luckily, it didn’t happen and we were on our way. PHEW!! Mario explained to us that the man was just a local man and the person who accepts money for the entrance had already left for the day. This man was trying to get money when it wasn’t his job to do so. He wanted to take advantage of us and take our money. This is why Mario didn’t want to pay him. He also wanted way more money than he should’ve received. So, we were on our way back, feeling relieved to be safe, thanks to Mario. Along the way home we saw what they call a ‘tap tap’. It is a truck that is used as a taxi and has more than a dozen people in and on it. Mario has a joke that goes ‘how many people can you fit into a taptap?.... 1 more! There is always room for 1 more!’ True story. As we went to pass the tap tap, I rolled down the window to say ‘bonjour’ to the people. Most of them were happy and excited to see us. A man held out his hand so we could high 5. We slapped hands and laughter and excitement came from the taptap. They were happy to have met a blanco.
We put minutes on the phone and we all take turns calling our loved ones to check in. I call Niles and am very happy to hear his voice. I let him know he can call the phone if he needs to get ahold of me. I briefly talk to him and tell him I’m okay and safe. Tell him to say hi to the kids and send my love. We drove along home, after making 2 stops for a pee break, we arrived to the birth center. We order a round of beers and sat on the steps of the church and drank them. Dinner was ready and we went to eat. Dinner is typically a small meal and it was Haitian oatmeal. I don’t care for oatmeal if it isn’t instant oatmeal. I tried 4 times to eat it but I just couldn’t do it. I’m not a finicky eater at all. I had jerky I could eat and nuts. We sat around and ate and then I went and got the game ‘Watch ya mouth’. It’s the game where you place a mouth retractor in your mouth and try to talk while others try to guess what you are saying. We laughed hysterically and we were rolling on the floor till our belly’s hurt! We wound down and went to sleep for the night.
Day 3- 1st clinical day
We are awaken by a series of 40 to 50 church bells ringing at 0530 and then again a while later. It’s an exciting day because we finally get to care for Haitian people. Today is clinic day and everyone is welcome to come for various reasons. It is like a walk in clinic essentially. We get up and get ready for the day. Soon we are alerted that breakfast is ready. We go into the bedroom that has a table with food. We lift off the bug screen and see what looks like a male animal skinned parts soaking in water. Emily and I look at each other and say ‘what the heck is that?’ I fork one and take it out of the bowl. It looks like it could be skinny plantains, and probably is. But we couldn’t get over the visual look of them. We slice them up and soon others arrive and ask the same thing, ‘what is that’. We took a bite and we know it’s plantains. Haiti makes pretty good, thick, spiced peanut butter. We place it on the plantains and eat them. There are some other things on the table to eat and coffee to drink. We finish and go do the dishes in small placenta buckets. We head up stairs and finish getting ready. We look off the deck and see a small group of people whom have walked all sorts of distances to be seen. Young and old. We head down the stairs and the first person I lay my eyes on is Fafa. We see alot of people today but I will focus on Fafa’s story. It is a very sad story. He is a little boy, about 10, we suffers from asthma. He is visibly malnourished and his legs and arms arm very thin. He is barrel chested and I can hear him wheezing. He looks sad, depressed and has no soul in his eyes. I do his vital signs and listen to his lungs. They sound horrible. He is tachycardic (high heart rate) and is breathing rapidly. Mario tells us a little about his and how he has called him ‘my boy’ as he takes care of him and pays for Fafa’s school. We go to give him some albuterol but its in liquid form and the birth center doesn’t have a nebulizer. We were all brainstorming on how we could give him the medicine. Boil it in water and have him lean over it and inhale it? We didn’t want to take a chance of that not working and waste this precious medication. Eventually we found in the ‘pharmacy’ which is a small coat closet, an inhaler and instructed him how to take it. He was having a hard time understanding how to do it. We think he was able to get 1 or 2 little puffs in his lungs. Before long, we could tell he wasn’t wheezing as much. We found some solumedrol and gave him some and enough to take home. The Dr who was there today and every Monday, wrote a prescription that Mario would need to drive 3 hours to pick up. Mario left and Fafa waited....all day...for Mario to return. While we are seeing patients, 2 woman walk up, one leaning on the other and I alert Randall. She looks like she is in labor. Randall asks the woman why she is here and she tells him contractions. YES! Please tell us she is in labor!! She is brought to the labor room and examined by one of the midwives. She is 6cm, 2nd baby and ruptured just after she arrived! YAY, we are going to have our first Haitian delivery! The last delivery was early Saturday morning. A woman walked an hour to the birth center and delivered 10 minutes after arrival. She had left for home prior to us arriving to the birth center and we missed her. Shani and Tiffany follow this woman’s labor and were assisting with labor support and other tasks for the midwife. I peak in the curtain every once in a while to see how things are going and offer the girls any support.
There are alot of children at the school today. The have a break and about 200 of them play in the field next to the birth center. I want to take photos of them but I’m apprehensive. We’ve been told to be careful of taking photos of Haitians without their permission. I walk over to a little boy and say Bonjour! I take his photo and show him. He is so happy to see himself. This may be the first time he has ever seen what he looks like. There are no mirrors, windows or water to see a reflection of oneself! Can you imagine going your whole life without ever seeing what you look like? Before I know it, I am surrounded by children of all ages. It is such a moment I will never forget. All these children want their photo taken and push and shove each other to see it. There are alot of smiles and giggles. One particular boy manages to get in almost every photo. He is a beautiful boy with a special smile. I take various photos of them and some selfies as well. A moment I will never forget.
In the meantime, we continue to see patients for various illnesses. We feed Fafa our various snacks. He seems to enjoy them but we can’t seem to get him to smile. I bring him bottled water and he drinks it all at once. I go and fill it up again. He even received some of our lunch. How can we go up to eat lunch and leave him sitting down there and let him continue to starve? I could skip a few meals and I wasn’t going to let him not eat. Who knows when the last time he ate was. Lunch is rice and beans, yummy greens with beef and carrots, white rice and a bowl of what is like refried beans but there are runny. This is my favorite meal so far. We eat and clean off the table and do the dishes. We change out of our scrubs and go down to sit near where Fafa is. We are anxiously awaiting the delivery of the baby. Fafa is quite and if he is spoken to, he responds in a very soft, sad voice. We start to ask Randall questions about him. Randall translates and gets us the answers. This boy lost his mother and father. He has 5 brothers and 3 sisters, all displaced due to their parent’s deaths. Fafa lives and sleeps on the floor at his stepdads Dad or Step grandfather’s house, if that’s what you would call it. We all now understand why this boy is so sad and has no life or soul in his eyes. I get teary eyed and Donna has to turn her head so no one sees her tears. We know this is a reality in Haiti but to meet someone personally effected by it makes it difficult. We continue to feed Fafa and give him water. He waits all day for Mario to come back with his medicine and eventually makes his way home. But not before he listened to this woman giving birth. Other people are having their medical visit and listening to this woman moan and yell out in pain 1 room over separated by a thin curtain. There are no epidurals in Haiti. The sounds get louder and a trained ear in labor and delivery knows the universal cues that a baby is about to be born. It’s getting close and I peak in. She is 9cm and pushy. I walk out and sit down a while longer. I can hear the sounds getting louder and more frequent. Baby must be coming. Donna and I take turns peaking in the room. We stand in the doorway and just pull the curtain back enough to expose our heads. She can’t see that we are watching her as she is facing the other direction. I see the lady point down to her vagina and the midwife, Nelta, places her gloved hands down there and says ‘head’. I walk in and peak. A small amount of the head is emerging. She is gripping Tiffany very firmly and at times Tiffany was about to tell her to let go as she was hurting her. She has no family or friends supporting her in the room. Just us professionals. The friend she came with was awaiting outside the door on the bench. She says she doesn’t want to co in with her. Donna and I are still standing in the doorway. I’m excited to see my first Haitian birth. The woman pushes and the midwife reduces a nuchal cord. Next push a very small baby girl is born and placed on her Mom’s tummy. She is all wrapped up in her cord. Body, neck and arm. The midwife unwraps the cord and stimulates baby to cry. Then I start to cry. I’ve seen hundreds of births but this one was special. I’ve come all this way to watch and ensure safe deliveries for Haitian Mom’s and babies and here was one. I’m so, so happy. A bit jealous that I wasn’t able to support her, but know my turn will happen. She is given pitocin intramuscularly, it’s all ready drawn up , and her bleeding is normal. Shani and Tiffany finish the recovery of the woman. She can stay over night with her baby. Her recovery is normal and she is breastfeeding her baby well. I have a gift to give her. My Mom made things for Haitian woman. Blankets and tote bags. I pick out a bag and bring it to the woman. I have Randall translate. I get a little teary eyed when I tell the woman that my Mom made it for ladies like her. I give it to her and I hope she gets alot of use out of it. She thanks me and I have a big sense of pride.
A little boy is hanging around. He sits down and tries to get our attention. He wants something. Most of the children are shy and don’t like to ask for things. Maybe this is the culture here. I look at him and he has bloody shorts. I look at his knee and he has a infected abrasion. Randall translates for me and tells me he fell playing football. The amount of flies on and near his knee was disgusting. They were feeding off this boy and maybe even laying their eggs in his wound. I gather up things to clean his wound and I apply a bandage. I tell him to keep the bandage on and to keep it dry and clean. I ask for him to return the next day so I can clean it and place another bandage. He thanks me and leaves.
We are alerted that we need to go on a home visit. We will check in on the Mom who delivered Saturday. We all put on walking shoes as we are told we will be walking for awhile and will be going through thick brush. I pack up my fanny pack with gloves and basic supplies. I grab my headlamp, snacks, water and bug spray. I didn’t know how long this would take and if we were gone once the sun set, I wanted to have light. There are no street lights here or any light for that manner. Some locals have flashlights but then they have to have money to purchase batteries. So light is very rare here. The midwife and nurse, Michelle and Sheila, Randall and all 5 girls, start the walk. I really enjoyed this as I was finally able to get an up close look at how these people live instead of the quick drive by. Children would see us coming and run to the edge of the dirt road to see us. Some folks said excitedly ‘bonsoir’ or hello, said in the afternoon. Others just look at us. We still say hello to most if we see them. I snap away on my cell phone and capture many photos. We are told to speed up the pace of walking because if we don’t, we will be walking back in the dark and likely the rain as the clouds are very dark. We speed up and before long we are told to slow down. Mario had called and said he was on his way back with another 2 ladies. One is the communications director who is located in London. Her name is Summer. The other gal is a retired midwife who is now dedicating some of her time to being a photographer for MFH. Mario tells us that the ladies want to join us on our home visit to take photos. We take our time walking and come to the point where we need to leave to dirt road to head up the mountain to the ladies house. Randall calls Mario and finds out they are too far away and that we should just go on with out them. I ask Randall when we are walking how they know where the lady lives. He said ‘believe it or not we have have neighborhoods or sections out here. All divided up and we know where most of them are’. Also, word of mouth in the community is huge. We start walking up the trial to the mountain. Randall asks a young boy on a donkey where the woman lives. He points in the direction and we head that way. We start to walk up to a group of homes after a while. I think we’ve probably walked about an hour, maybe 3 or 4 miles. We walk across a handful of streams to get here and the lady has 1 in front of her home. Randall announces that we are here and a lady comes out. She is smiling and happy to see us. Michelle heads in first and Randall tells us to follow. I’m giddy inside. I get to actually go inside a Haitian home. I really wanted to see how they lived. There are 3 more woman inside. There is very little space. 2 beds, the postpartum mom is laying on one. There is also a bench where alot of things are sitting on. One of the ladies is the Grandma figure. Not sure who’s mother she is. May be all three of the younger woman’s mother. One of the ladies has 3 young children and the other is very pregnant with her 1st. I thought ‘do all of them live here and sleep in the 2 beds’? 4 woman, 4 children and another on the way. I’m also wondering where the men are. Do they stay here too? If they do, how are they intimate with so many people around? I get my answers on the way home while talking and walking with Randall. The inside of the home has dirt floors. I was surprised that it didn’t have an unpleasant odor. I had thought it would’ve smelled. The size of the hut is smaller than my walk in closet. You can barely move around. I offer to help Michelle with the assessment of the newborn. We undress it and immediately you can tell Michelle is upset with something. She is talking in a frustrated tone. Randall says that alot of the teaching they do is for nothing. That the woman don’t listen and do what the elders tell them to do instead. This particularly, the baby had its abdomen wrapped near the umbilical cord stump. It’s covered and tight. The base is red and swollen. They do this to keep the baby from have an ‘outie’ but in is causing the stump to not get air to it to dry out and could lead to infection. She educates them again on proper cord care. I start to measure the baby. Head and length . The baby decides then that he wants to poop and pee. Luckily, he misses me but we all laugh. I have noticed alot of the babies don’t wear diapers. None. No cloth. No disposable .They simply don’t have the money for it and just hand wash the clothes when the void or have a bowel movement. Speaking of hand washing, these people have such clean clothing. Their white clothes are whiter than mine. I want to know their trick. I do a set of vital signs on the baby and he looks good. I help the grandmother dress the baby. We educate them on not over dressing or wrapping the baby. Alot of the mothers over dress there babies with Hat, blankets, long sleeve clothing etc. The babies are visibly sweating. We thank and congratulate the Mom and start to leave. One of the woman has her 3 kids out to show us when we walk out of the house. One of them, the youngest, is being very shy, He is trying to get out of his mothers arms to run away. She eventually lets him go and he runs and hides behind a tree. I sneak around to the other side of the tree and when he sees me I yell ‘boo!’ He runs and says something that makes the Haitian people laugh. Randall stops laughing and says ‘he just swore at you. He told you to Fuck off!’ We all laugh. I just got cussed out by a 2 or 3 year old!!! We say goodbye and start our long walk home. Mario explains that the men of the home are likely working. But some just may be off doing other things. We are greeted on the way back by Mario and the ladies. We say hi and they keep driving and we keep walking. We again are greeted by many Haitians along the way. Some boys are even follow us. One of them have an old motorcycle tire that the are pushing with sticks and running with. These kids don’t have any toys. I’ve seen a toy car make out of a old soda bottle and the wheels were old soda caps. It was attached to a string and he pulled it and ran. We get back to the house and order a round of beers. We sit down, all 7 of us and chit chat. It turns out that Cheryl knows Rebecca Frevert, a midwife we work with. Such a small world. It is dark, sunset is about 530pm, and we use our head lamps for light. Dinner is soon ready and we all pile into the room we eat in. A loaf of bread, cheese spread and peanut butter is on the table. We kinda look at each other and say ‘is more coming’? nope. Bread with spread is dinner. Summer and Cheryl are shocked. They ask if this is what we’ve been eating and then apologize. The girls say its okay, we’ve been fed well. Which is true. Some of the meals have not been the best in my opinion but other meals make up for it. Summer lets us know that the meals in HInche are amazing. That is a relief for some of us and we can’t wait to taste the difference in the food that Hinche’s cooks make vs the midwives here. Emily is a vegetarian and some of the meals are limited for her diet. We have all had a long day. Summer has jetlag and is very tired. We eat, clean up and get ready for bed. I desperately need a shower. I have layers of skin so soft, bug spray, sweat and essential oils. It’s been 2 days since I showered. I go in the dark bathroom and put one of my headlamps facing upward so the light can spread out. I turn on the shower, it’s cold. I get some water on me and turn the water off. I lather up and turn the water on. I rinse and turn off the water. I get out and dry off. Fastest shower I’ve ever taken. It’s then the same routine every night. Malarone for all, change into our sleeping clothing, get the bug spray or what ever other method you use to keep the bugs away, get into bed, pull down the mosquito net, tuck it in....oh wait, I forgot something, untuck everything get what you forgot and climb back in. Retuck the net in. Everyone sleeps on top the sheets. ,There isn’t a blanket, its not needed. I have 2 fans that I brought and I turn them on. Summer is very overheated so I offer one of my small fans. She is very happy to take it and gets some relief form the humidity. I play on my phone, the game candy crush, others read. Soon I am tired and turn off my phone and go to sleep.
Day 4- Election day and Prenatal visits
Awaken again to church bells, over and over! 3 separate times. We hate them, but like a snooze button, we roll over and go back to sleep. Except for Emily. She gets up and starts her day. A while later, I wake up and brush my teeth. It’s election day and we are all nervous. I blog a little bit. I have alot of catching up to do. Blogging is taking a very long time. I want to remember everything. There is no possible way I can blog everything though as so much has happened everyday. I will type things up and then remember something that happened the day before. I have to go back and type that. I sometimes sit down to blog and immediately something happens and I have to stop without typing a word. Other times I type so long and get tired and need to stop. Occasionally, I will start to blog and get overwhelmed by it and stop without doing any typing. I have been 2 days behind. I’m trying to catch up.
It’s time for breakfast. We have scrambled eggs, fresh, small bananas and coffee. After breakfast we all take the dishes and left overs to the small kitchen hut behind the birth center. We help with the dishes. 3 five gallon buckets are lined up for us to help wash. We all feel like we need to contribute to things as much as we can. There hasn’t been a whole lot for us to do. I head upstairs to our room and start to get ready for clinic. Today I wear makeup because Cheryl will be taking pictures of everyone at the clinic. There is a chance I may end up on the website and I surely don’t want to look unbathed and dirty. Which I am but makeup can help cover that up. One by one we head down stairs and see about a dozen pregnant woman and a couple woman with babies waiting for us. Fafa is also here. We feed him breakfast. Many women have walked 3 hours to get here, pregnant or carrying a baby on their hips. They don’t seem tired and they must be very strong to carry those babies for so far. I would think that by now, woman would have created something to carry their babies in. Like a wrap or something. The center will see babies up to 6 months of age. So, Mom’s will bring the babies in for check ups. Woman hand us a card with their information on it and we pull their records. The clinic is free other than a one time payment of 100 goudes or about .50 cents. This is a filing fee. When we read over some of the prenatal documents, we see that most woman answer yes when asked if they feel depressed. Back in the states, most everyone says the opposite ,no. These women have a very tough life and don’t have much to be happy about. Often when we read the prenatal, it says that previous children have died. Haiti has horrible odds for children. 1 in 15 kids die before their 5th birthday. ONE IN 15! Life is so hard out here and many people die prematurely. This leaves spouses and children to fight harder to live. Vital signs are taken and they wait their turn to be seen by one of the 2 midwives, Nelta and Michelle. These midwives are smart and have devoted their whole lives to caring for these women and making odds better for them. Basic prenatal things are done. Fundal height, fetal heart tones, Leopolds to assess fetal position and teaching. During clinic, a woman arrives stating she is having contractions. I get excited because maybe I will have a birth today. She is immediately examined and is about 1cm. Darn. She probably isn’t in labor. There isn’t a machine to attach to her. So I use basic methods to assess her. My hands are on her belly. I feel for contractions and time them. About 2-3 mins apart and they palpate strong. She is hurting too. Every contraction brings her to tears. She says the top of her thighs hurt. I look at her belly and feel her fundus. Its low. I ask how many weeks she is. The midwife looks at her prenatal record, only 33 weeks. The EDC is often way off as many woman don’t have a calendar to acknowledge when their last menstrual period was. Often they don’t know they are pregnant because they don’t have tests. They just wait to see if their periods come and often wait for quickening, or fetal movement. There are no ultrasounds so a accurate EDC is difficult. I find out also that this is her 8th baby and she had walked 4 hours to get here. FOUR hours!! That’s like me walking to Seattle from my house but worse. If I walked to Seattle, I would walk a fairly flat surface. She essentially hiked to get here. Over a mountain! She is hot, sweaty and probably dehydrated. We encourage her to drink water and alot of it, We give her a slice of bread to eat. I ask what the cut off is for hospital transfer, 36 weeks. The plan is to watch her for a few hours and reassess. People are encouraged to come to the center once contractions start or for any concerns. MFH doesn’t want Mom’s to wait too long and end up delivering at home or on the way here. Sometimes they will let woman stay a night or two just to be sure whether labor is happening or not. I found out from Randall that matwon’s or tradition birth attendants are paid to bring laboring women here. Before the birth center was here, local matwon’s, both men and woman, were the only ones who delivered babies.
Slowly we finish up with the maternity patients. The boy returned today for me to change his bandages on his knee. The bandage is off and the wound looks so much better. As I am cleaning it, I notice more flies near his ankle. I take a look and there is another abrasion there. Randall asks him what happened and he reports he hit it with a machete. So I clean and bandage that one. I instruct him to return the next day to dress his wounds again. We eat lunch and have down time. We all sit down and read, talk or blog. It’s a very stressful day today. It’s election day and we are all very worried about the outcome. Father Blot, pronounced ‘blow’, has offered for us to watch his tv. He has CNN and we can watch the coverage on the election. We are grateful for that because it is an hour drive into town and we really didn’t want to do that and sit in some place for hours and then an hour drive back. After a few hours and a nap, the woman who arrived thinking she was in labor, is ready to go home. The contractions stopped. We give her some water to drink for her long walk home and she leaves. I can’t help but feel bad for her. She has to walk all that way and will likely be walking in the dark. It is a way of life out here though and this is just what they do. They don’t know any better.
We play with Mario’s puppy, “distingay” or distinguished in english. He is a cute little blonde dog about 10 weeks old. He loves to chew at our feet. Regardless or not if we have open toed shoes on or not. Most of the day he is locked up in a handmade crate Mario made for him. The local kids come closer from the field and slowly make their way over. Donna grabs a couple rocks and starts to pile the flat ones atop of each other. The kids like this and start to copy her. Later we are told dinner is ready. We had the oatmeal again. OH shoot. The girls all feel bad for me but I want to try it again. I place some Haitian peanut butter in it and swirl it around. It tastes way better and I’m able to eat a few more bites. There is also bread and spreadable cheese. I make my self a slice of cheese and a slice of peanut butter. The girls love the oatmeal and eat it up. We clean up and buy a round of beers. As the evening came around, we went back and forth to the Father’s house to get updates on the election. A few more beers in and we still don’t know which way the election is going. I find it funny that I’m drinking beer, in a priests home, watching the election. Eventually we call it a night as we have hours to go still and its late in Cabestor. We do our usually nightly routine and get into our beds and mosquito nets. Emily frequently wakes in the night to call her husband and gets updates.
Day 5- Prenatal clinic and depression
Another morning. Another rude wake up call from the bells. It wouldn’t bother me that much but it’s done at 0530 and 0600. I hear the girls talking and I open my eyes. There is Emily with a concerned look on her face. I ask her what’s wrong. She said ‘he won’. I said ‘are you serious?’ ‘I wouldn’t joke about that.’ I knew that but I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My heart sunk. How could America do this? He has zero experience and now he will be the most powerful person in the world. I couldn’t walk into the hospital I work at, prior to employment, and go straight to the top and become the CEO. So, how can it be possible that someone can do that and become the president? I don’t want my blog to become a political conversation so I won’t talk more about it. But just know that for the rest of the day tears were shed by all 5 of us. We were all very sad and confused.
We get ready for the day and we are alerted that breakfast is ready. The midwives and nurse Sheila cook for us. In the past, Father Blot’s cooks did all the cooking for MFH staff and the volunteers. It hasn’t been easy for the midwives to do all the cooking and take care of patients. Traditional Haitian breakfast again. Spaghetti noodles, hot dogs, lettuce, tomato and onion. Coffee and fresh squeezed juice. Limeaid I believe. We don’t really have much of an appetite but eat a little. There is alot left over. I see Fafa is here again and Mario feeds him breakfast. I put on my scrubs and head downstairs. Vital signs are taken and visits are completed. Donna helps to organize a shelf. Stuff is just everywhere and not easy to find. Tiffany, Donna and I all place prenatal vitamins and tylenol in baggies for the patients to take home. I’m to assist with a first prenatal visit. I run a pregnancy test, positive. I do a complete exam, including a breast exam. Its time to do the pelvic exam and I can tell this young girl is very embarrassed. I tell Michelle it is okay, I can leave. I find that a lot of the girls are extremely shy. I listen to fetal heart tones via doppler. Soon, the little boy arrives for his daily bandage change. His knee is cleaned. It looks better. I clean and place bandages on both his knee and ankle. I tell him to keep it clean and dry and I ask for him to come back tomorrow. Tiffany also helps a local man who had fallen off his motorcycle a couple days prior. He has multiple abrasions but is okay. She cleans them up and places bandages on. After clinic we eagerly take off our scrubs. They are so hot and the humidity is so high. The scrubs just stick to our skin. A lady is here to return Mario’s washing she did. Tiffany, Shani and I have some that needs to be cleaned. I go through mine and give her a handful of things. I keep my underclothes to do myself. Tiffany and I ask Sheila how we can wash our underclothes. We can’t do it in the sink or shower. There are signs saying not to do that. Sheila shows us where to go to wash and gives us some soap. Tiffany and I have a bonding moment as we wash our underclothes together! I ask Mario how much I should give the lady when she returns with our clothing. He said it’s a tip, you decide. It’s lunch time soon. It’s a beef stew with homemade dumplings. Very, very good. We eat, gather our dishes and help to clean up. Mario is going to head into town to get wifi service and offered for a couple of us to go. Shani and Emily decide to go. Emily really wants service so she can get more information on the election. We tell them to pick up some snacks and some Haitian rum. We know they will be gone for at least 3 hours. I kinda want to go into town but don’t want to be stuck starring at my phone. As much as I want to check for messages, I also like not being attached to my phone and being unplugged. Off they go leaving Donna, Tiffany and I. I call and chat with Niles and my parents. It’s good to hear their voices and to let them know I’m okay. I tell them a few stories so they have somewhat of an idea of what I’m doing and what it is like in Haiti. For a little while, Donna and I engage with the local boys playing. Take a few photos with them. They are so funny and they make us laugh alot. While playing with the boys, the kiddo that I’ve been taking care of comes walking up with a very obvious swollen eye, He can’t even open his eye. We try to communicate and I’m trying to find out what happened. Donna and I kinda chuckle because this poor kid keeps having things happen to him and then comes and finds me to fix it. Donna jokes around and says he has a crush on me. I start to make a buzzing sound to insinuate a bee stung him. He said ‘oui’ or yes. Luckily for him, no allergic reaction happens. Just localized swelling. There is no ice around so we try to think of ways to help him with the pain and swelling so that he can see okay. His eye is nearly swollen shut. Father Blot happens to be walking by and offers assistance. He goes into his house and comes back with a cold packet of water. In Haiti you can buy small packs of sealed water. They just bite the corner open and drink it. Its probably a cup or two of water total. We place it on his eye and tell him to hold it there for awhile. After some time, he walks off.
I am sitting there talking to the girls when Michelle calls me over. She asks for me to help with dinner. I am very happy to oblige. There is a sack of what looks like edamame or maybe peas. Sheila is taking the shell/outer pod off of them and asks me to help. There are 2 chairs, one for her and one for me. We sit there quietly. We can’t communicate. The other ladies preparing the meal, Sheila, Michelle and Nelta are all talking but I can’t join in the conversation, I don’t speak creole. Sheila speaks to me and tries to teach me some words. I try hard to repeat what she is saying but I can’t get the accent down. I have no clue what word she is trying to teach me but I try. We laugh a few times about it. I try to teach her some words too. Same thing happens for her. Michelle can speak a little english and we can communicate a little. I start to feel the bugs coming, its dusk. I stop and go up to the room and get some things to keep them away. Fabric softner sheet, a new bracelet repellant and skin so soft. I head back down and it is not helping. I keep batting away the bugs. I have had enough so I go back up. Sheila and I kinda laugh about it. I go up and spray myself with DEET. I HATE IT. I have been trying so hard not to use it. I can’t help but think that something that kills bugs is supposed to be sprayed on me. What is that doing to me? But, it is a last ditch effort to keep the bugs away and from getting something from a bug bite. I grab my headlamp because it’s getting dark. I head back down again. It is nice to be able to see what we are doing. The kitchen hut has a light attached to a battery, but it isn’t enough light for us who are working outside. After a while, the bugs are attacking me again. I think it’s because I have the light on my head. So Sheila and I laugh. I ask her if it happens to her and she said no. Why is that?? Is all the stuff I’m putting on to keep the bugs away making them attracted to me? I take the light off and put it in a bush pointed towards us. This works and I am finally free of the bugs and we have light. My fingers are starting to get sore from the work. I think to myself, that this is how it is in Haiti. All food comes raw. No previous packaging or prep. All meat needs to be killed, gutted and processed. Bones need to be cut and meat taken off the bone. Beans, rice, corn, flour etc, all have to be processed. I can hear Nelta frying something. Before long, Michelle hands me a small bowl of fried plantains, sliced potatoes, thin like chips, and a fried piece of salty meat. I am happy for this and the plantain was still hot. I like them alot better fresh out of the oil and hot. I feel spoiled!
I take my phone out of my pocket. Michelle had shared photos of her recent wedding and I thought it would be nice for them to see a photo of my family. I had taken one right before I left the house. So I show them my family and they like how the kids are so blonde. Soon we are finished with the peas. It took an hour to get 2 or 3 of us to get enough peas for a bowl full. At home, its all ready. I just open the freezer and pour it out of a bag. I am so spoiled at home. Here a meal takes minimum of 2 hours to prepare.
Just before dinner time, Mario and the ladies arrive back. They come with some pringles, cookies, coke and Haitian rum. It is a sweet rum with pictures of fruit like pineapple on the front. Dinner is ready and we have the plantains, potatoes and oyster fritters. We all eat up while enjoying rum and coke. Some of the girls are apprehensive of what we are eating. No one wants to get sick. Mario can’t finish his rum, he says it’s too strong. The employees I’ve noticed don’t drink. I guess it is because they are working and never know when they will need to be assisting a woman. Not us though, we are in the mood for some drinking after todays election results. After dinner, we clean up and head to the porch near our room. We partake in some drinks and are having an amazing time. The bonds are being built and the walls have crashed down. We have shared alot of private secrets, ones that no one will ever repeat, I’m sure. This experience has been life changing. I knew it would be but not in the aspect of the friendships I’m building. We are getting louder and the employees head to bed. Their room is in between ours. Shani and Tiffany on one side and Emily, Donna and I are on the other side. So we decide to go downstairs and sit at the table under the mango trees. We walk and there is a gate closed and locked. We have been locked in by Mario. Probably for our safety but we want to go out. Darn. We don’t want to disturb Mario so we all pile into our room. We finish off the bottle of rum and since we shared it with 6 people it went quickly. I want more beer. So I ask the security guard for more beer. Emily tries to ask him in French but she is having a hard time. Randall pops out from under the porch and we are relieved to see him. I throw down $5 for him to get us some beer from the Father. We wait for him to come back at the gate at the top of the stairs. The security guard comes back and we pull the bag of beers through the gate. He hands me the change, $2, and I tell him to keep it. We had back to the room and drink the beer. I have to admit, the alcohol was working and I was feeling pretty good. We try so hard to be quiet so not to wake up everyone. We look at the time and it’s near 11pm. Time to go to sleep. Shani and Tiffany leave and the rest of us stay up a while longer. About 11:45 we decide to call it a night and do the normal nightly routine. I then realize I probably drank too much. Mild spins. Oops. Eventually I fall asleep, fan blowing on my face.
Day 6- Day of sickness, clinic, home visit and the locust.
I awake in the middle of the night to one of the girls vomiting. I won’t say who, just cuz I know people that read this know this person. I feel awful for her. She apologizes, we tell her not to be sorry. I just wish I could make her feel better. We go back to sleep and not too longer she is vomiting again. What is happening? It’s hard to go back to sleep because I’m concerned for her. Soon, the bells are ringing. Those dumb bells. This time they did it 3 times. Shoot, time to get up. My girl still isn’t feeling well. Very sick to her stomach. I ask her if it’s the rum. She says no, she doesn’t feel hung over. Soon, one of the other girls comes into the room and tells us she is sick too. She woke up at 3am with extreme diarrhea. This is pretty close to when the other girl got sick. Now we know it’s not the rum. Something made them sick. The rest of us feel bad for them and kinda wait for it to hit us. I am being over sensitive to my body and over analyze every feeling I have from my abdomen. We get ready for the day and breakfast is served. Coffee and a soup/stew like creation. Mario tell us the that liquid in it is pumpkin. It looks and resembles chicken noodle soup. It had noodles and carrots in it. It is pretty tasty but now I am very scared to eat this food. We start to talk about how the food is being kept. The kitchen hut has no fridge. How is meat being keep cold? I had seen hot dogs sitting on the shelves. The produce is covered in bugs and looks like it needs to be thrown out if it was at my house. Haitians can’t and wont throw things out. Food is so limited here, it’s a crisis. I hadn’t thought too much about the food in the hut. I had hoped that MFH staff would be careful about what and how they cooked for us. Our bellies are not used to certain bacteria. But something lapsed somewhere. All day long we try to come to some idea of how this happened. After we eat, the little amount we do, the girls that aren’t sick head down to clinic. Fafa is here with his brother and we feed them. He is dressed for school but doesn’t have proper shoes. So, off Mario goes into town to buy him shoes. Fafa stays most of the day waiting for Mario. We weigh patients, do vital signs, check fetal heart tones via doppler and run urine tests. I sit through one prenatal visit and Randall does some translating. Michelle is with a lady who is 35 weeks. She is giving basic precautions. Not to drink the stimulant tea. It is made of ginger and can cause tachysystole or too frequent of contractions. She tells the patient this can cause death of the baby. Other warning signs associated with preeclampsia. Headache, pain in upper right abdomen and visual disturbances. She tells her if she starts bleeding or her water breaks to come to the birth center. I ask Randall if they teach patients to monitor fetal movement and he says yes. I ask if there is a fetal demise if they transport to hospital and he said yes as well. I also learned that they will transport to hospital if they baby is breech. There were alot of mom’s who brought their babies in for examination. Clinic was over quickly and the 3 of us go change into our regular clothing. I can’t help but think I am not doing much mission work. I get to care for patients for an hour or 2 a day. That time is divided by 5 nurses. So, it really isn’t much. I hear that when we get to Hinche we will be very busy and it will be different. The hospital is ran by the government and there are more rules. I am excited to go to Hinche and see the difference. I will miss Cabestor though. Lunch is ready, rice with the peas I helped with and the ‘legumes’. It the greens with carrot and meat. One of my favorite dishes. However, I don’t want to eat it. I am so scared to eat now, I really don’t want to be sick. I eat a little bit and we clean up. We make sure to place bleach in the water that we use to wash our dishes. Through out the day I check on the sick girls. They have been sleeping most of the morning. One in her bed and one other laying on the cold floor. My roommate is starting to feel a little better but the other one is feeling worse. She has lost a lot of electrolytes from her diarrhea and can’t seem to stomach drinking fluids. We let them rest for the day, crossing our fingers that they feel better. Our clean laundry arrives and we each give her $5. I don’t know if this is a good amount or not but I’d like to think so. I want to help these people so badly. I am alerted that the man who fell off his motorcycle is back to get his wounds cleaned again. I go down and clean them. I cover them with non adherent dressing. It probably takes me about 30 mins. I give him the left over dressing so he can do it himself. The 3 of us are just hanging around. Interact with the boys in the field. I give them a piece of gum. One of the boys says he thinks it’s toothpaste. It’s spearmint flavor so I can understand why he thinks that. Randall tells him no, it’s gum. The same kiddo comes again to get his wounds looked at. This time though, he brings a friend with him. He has an abrasion of his knee he wants me to look at. My regular boys’ wounds are all better now. My treatment worked and it should be okay. His friend’s knee just needs to be cleaned. I clean it and place a bandaid on it. Fafa’s brother is here without shoes. I ask Randall if he has shoes. The boy says no. Luckily for him, I brought 2 pair of shoes and my feet are small. My shoes are probably 2 or 3 sizes too big for him, but they are shoes! Alot of the children around here wear clothes and shoes either too small or too big. They don’t have a choice. So, I give him my shoes and he thanks me. A moment later he leaves. Randall says the boy is concerned that his stepsister will take them from him for herself. I sure hope she doesn’t.
Soon it’s time to go on the home visit for the woman who delivered in the center the other day. We pack up and walk down the road. We pass by where the men are getting ready to have a cock fight. The winner of the fight gets to take home all the dead roosters. There are also men playing dominos and dice. This must be the gambling spot. We don’t walk far before we arrive to the home. This lady didn’t have to walk far in labor. We walk into the house. It much bigger and nicer than the last one. We are welcomed warmly. The floor is made of concrete here. Everything is nice and clean. I walk into the room the new mom is in. It does have a bad smell in there. The first thing I notice in the room other than the mom is the bag I gave her. My mom had made bags for me to give to woman when they have their babies. I had a sense of pride immediately. I ask Randall to ask if I can take photos, she said yes, I took a photo to show my Mom. Nelta assesses the baby and Shani assesses the mom. Nelta educates the mother again on over dressing the baby. The baby is sweaty and overheated. Again, Randall explains to us that even though they educate these women, they don’t listen. Mom and baby are both doing well. Mom’s blood pressure is elevated so Shani assesses her for preeclampsia. She is okay but given warning signs. There are 2 women and a man watching us do the exam. Also, the baby’s big sister is there. I see a little boy run through the room. I immediately notice he has microcephaly, or a small head compared to his age and body size. I say ‘he has microcephaly’ and Randall says ‘yes he does, I thought so too.’ I follow him outside and look again. Still sure he has it. Others follow me out to see what I am talking about about. One of the woman and the man follow us too. This is their son. I start to ask them questions about him. We learn that he has an older sister who has microcephaly as well. I ask if the boy is mentally delayed and they said yes, him and his sister. He can’t speak well either, but his parents are able to understand him. I ask if I can take a photo and Randall says yes. I snap a photo and hand my phone to the boy. He became extremely excited as if I told him he was going to Disneyland. I think he had never seen himself. He started showing other people. Soon, Shani started playing music on her phone and the little girl and boy start dancing. He is a great dancer, I record it and show him. He played that video over and over again. I think this family will remember this for a long time. This was a very happy moment for him and me. The Mom to this boy went and got his big sister, the other child with microcephaly. She had extreme developmental delay. She was very happy to see us. She was biting her hand and pulling her hair. Her mom keep having her stop so she wouldn’t hurt herself. She didn’t like to face us and often had her back toward us. But, she really liked the music and started dancing. She too was a pretty good dancer considering her developmental delay. After a while, phones were given back, reluctantly. We said our goodbyes and went back to the clinic. The girls were napping and woke up. One was really feeling alot better, the other felt worse. At the clinic, the boys came again. We sat around the table and hung out. We noticed that their shoes are about to break, So Donna grabs some duct tape and tries to fix them. It probably is very short term, but we want to try. We occasionally check on the girls. We determine that we need to give an IV to one of them. She is weak, dehydrated, achy and ill. She can’t take anything orally. We give her IV zofran for the nausea and 1 liter of normal saline. We make an electrolyte solution and have her drink it. It makes her more sick to her stomach but she is a trooper and takes it. She feels worse but then starts to feel better. Dinner is ready and to my delight....not, its the oatmeal. This time though we think it may be malt o meal as its gritty. I try a taste, nope can’t do it. So, Shani got her and I one of her snack packs she brought. Pepperoni, spread cheese, crackers and a candy. The ants has gotten into the candy so I couldn’t eat it. Both sick girls come to dinner and attempt to eat a little bit. They were able to keep it down too. Seems like we may have the sickness put behind us. I was very happy to have this meal from Shani. Even if the cooks had made something different, I’m not sure I would want to eat it after watching the girls be sick all day. We clean up the table and bring things down to the kitchen hut. I help with the dishes and head back up to the room. I see a locust on the wall. I’ve never seen one before and snap a few pictures. It doesn’t even attempt to get away from me. Mario tells us it we can’t kill it. We weren’t planning on it. He says ‘it’s the house of God.’ I’m not sure why but we leave it alone. Not long after, Shani was getting out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around her. Emily went to shut the door and the locust flew in our room scaring her and caused her to scream. We laugh and it flies up to the high part of the wall. We are trying to come up with ideas on how to get it when it flies up to the ceiling. The ceilings are pretty high. Shani in her towel takes something and throws it up to the locust. She has good aim and HITS it. It starts to fall down and half down catches itself and starts to fly. It flies right in between her legs causing her to throw her towel off and scream, jumping up and down, naked, and shaking her arms. She ask if it flew up her vagina. We are laughing hysterically. Luckily for her, the locust was on the wall. We are concerned we may have hurt it. Emily grabs a baggie and holds it open and she entraps it against the wall. We gently take it off the wall and release it outside. We laughed for a long time about this. Even while I’m typing this I am laughing hysterically. I just read to the girls what I wrote and they are laughing too. We all get settled in for the night and tucked into our nets.
