'Retou a la Vi: Ayiti Pap Peri' ... 'Return to Life: Haiti Has Not Died'

After a wonderful day in Leogane -- I was involved in a gas stove fire that evening. I was incredibly lucky because it was a pretty big blast that literally set my whole head on fire. But other than a bad hairdo and a few pretty minor blisters-- I'm fine. The two remarkably quick thinking NPs that I was fortunate to be working with threw me in the shower and the medical director for all of Haiti was, amazing as this sounds, 10 minutes away by car so he came over immediately and whisked me back to PAP to be seen in the ER. IMC truly has it's volunteers backs--- before he even got to me, Zurab had arranged for transport and burn care back in the States which, fortunately, I didn't need.

I spent the night in PAP and the next day - IMC and I jointly decided that it probably wasn't smart to be back out in the field with a wound that could potentially get infected. They offered to let me stay & work in the office which, I'm sure, would have been fascinating but ultimately not why I went to Haiti. So with quite a few tears and a jarring lack of closure -- I came back home. Kathy, God love her, decided to accompany me so I wouldn't have to travel alone. Got home in the middle of the night, talked Chuck's ear off (While driving back to PAP -- Zurab calld the ED and told them my injuries were much more minor than he had feared and that it appeared I didn't have any inhalation burns because I was talking "too much"!), and fell asleep for hours.

As the plane left Haiti, I watched the row of tents lining the runways and had myself a good cry. The picture is literally right outside of the airport. The title of this post is from a banner that hangs outside of the hotel that serves as IMC's headquarters in PAP. I pray it's prophetic. The resiliency of the Haitian people is beyond description. With the support of the world community -- they have the internal resources to build a nation that will be better than before. Thank you to everyone for sharing my trip with me. May take me a bit of time to readjust to home..........but I'm grateful to have a wonderful home and family and friends that will, I know, ease that adjustment.

Renmen anpil (Much love),

Laurie

Leogane

Bon jour! I don't know how to describe the whirlwind of the last few days. Left for Leogane early on Saturday. Leogane was apparently the true epicenter of the main earthquake-- though Petit Goave was the epicenter of the first major aftershock. The destruction in Leogane defies description. We were told that 90% of the buildings were destroyed and over 25% of the population killed here. Everywhere you look is rubble -- almost like pictures of Dresden after the war. You can see where homes & buildings were by an isolated wall of a pancaked section -- but nothing intact. Tents are everywhere. There are no lights at night and it is just surreal. Haiti didn't have a big middle class-- but that is the group that was wiped out. Merchants, teachers, nurses...... The poor who lived in corrugated metal and plywood and banana leaf huts reconstructed. And the rich-- and they do exist-- who live in mini-green zones consisting of mansions made of think cement and surrounded by high walls & barbed wire---- they are getting richer because those are the buildings that are being rented to the NGOs at exorbitant rates. The house in Leogane that will serve as IMC's center is 1 story, 6 rooms, the required high walls, a small outdoor space---- and its $3000 US a month!

But back to our arrival on Saturday. We literally were the first folks to walk into the Leogane center-- 3 volunteers & the site director. We arrived at 8:30 and by 9 the house was Grand Central--- security staff from PAP, logistics, trucks of supplies and literally hundreds of Haitians asking for jobs. I don't know how they knew we were there-- but the word went viral on the streets. The center director handed the 3 of us a stack of resumes for nurses - and we literally hired the permanent staff. We set up the pharmacy, helped choose the site for the clinic.........it was amazing, scary, exhilarating, exhausting..........and all done in 100 degree heat. Haitians nurses arrived for interviews wearing skirts, heels, crisp & smiling.......and were greeted by Americn nurses wearing scrubs and sweat stained t-shirts who truly gave the term Ugly American a whole new meaning.

Too hot to sleep that night so we hauled our cots up on the roof and slept under the stars.

Sunday is truly a day for family & church in Haiti and so we caught our breath on Sunday until about 4P when a whole new shipment of stuff -- and people -- arrived from PAP. A logistics coordinator from Croatia who recently worked in Burundi, a security guy, ex-military, from Great Britain........and too many others to name. The remarkable thing is that aside from a psychiatrist in Petit Goave, we've not seen another American though we were told by one of the IMC folks that Clinton and Bush 2 were arriving on Monday. Funny-- they didn't come visit us!

Monday we hit the ground running at 7AM. After literally being under house arrest in Petit Goave, not allowed to set a toe outside of the hotel, Kathy & I were taken to the site and dropped off to set up clinic! The tent village consists of about 2000 families and is run--- pretty smoothly I might add -- by a group of men who are described as the officers of the Homeowner's Association! They are young, just a tad bit threatening -- and more than eager to help. They have appointed security staff---- young men built like brick shithouses with baseball bats! Was I ever glad they were on our side! They literally followed us everywhere! So -- two American clueless nurses, a gazilliion Haitians, children everywhere who grabbed our hands and arms and had to be pried off so we could pick up a box, the UN police arrived with officers from El Salvador so at least I could sort of communicate with them -- and in the middle of all of that chaos-- the Cuban army shows up to fumigate, so they are spraying who-knows-what all over, the dust from the road, which is a few feet away and choked with the most amazing traffic (every see a mini-bike with 3 people and a full size mattress on it?) has created a haze, there are more people than a NYC block at rush hour............

A little while later the rest of IMC staff plus our local Haitian nurses & a physician arrived along with translators with varying degrees of English-- and we started registering patients. The community president was announcing that with a bullhorn and within 30 minutes the tent was packed with so many people that we had to tell him to stop! I have no clue how many patients we saw--- one smiling child after another, the tent was suffocating, the noise so loud I could barely hear through my stethoscope........

But we did it. End of the day the local leaders were beaming, we were exhausted, everybody was telling us Merci...........and we headed back to the house which by now, mercifully, had water for the first time in two days and I took the best cold shower of my life!

I had to come back to PAP last night -- which is just what I remembered, a riot of people everywhere, dust, traffic that has no idea there is a proper side of the road on which to drive......and destruction. We spent the night at the hotel here and will, with luck, head back to Leogane this morning. But one thing I've learned in Haiti-- nothing stays the same!

So -- no idea if I'll be able to write again but I'll try. Hard to believe I've been in Haiti almost two weeks..........in some ways it feels like a lifetime and in other ways I don't know where the time went.

Much love,

Laurie

Sunday - phone call!

Hey everyone, Chuck here. Laurie called today, first time we've talked since she left (Verizon is great in the states, but in Haiti they're not up to the challenge it seems - downhill since I left). She's tired and homesick, but healthy, safe, and doing really well - she's on a mission, and we all know her heart and soul are in it. After 30+ years, I still don't know where she gets her energy. I'm posting because she did end up in the village she mentioned in her last post, where they are indeed setting up a new clinic - literally hiring people, gathering supplies, and figuring out how best to serve the locals - but no internet. It's amazing to me that she's had the access she's had so far. She may get a chance to post later this week if she gets to a UN facility, but otherwise, no internet. So she sends her love to all, and she (and I) are incredibly grateful for the support you've all expressed. She returns a week from today - if anyone has any suggestions for me on helping her decompress, I'm all ears! (PS - she's lucky I answered the phone! Didn't recognize it on caller ID, and it was the last minute of the Maryland-Mich st game, which Lainie and I were watching - MD lost on buzzer beater - I think she heard the air burst from our balloon when the last shot dropped! I figured it was someone calling about the game, so I answered, thank God. We forgive ya dear! Be careful - love ya).

Friday

A very odd day. The man who apparently owned the lean-to where our clinic was located died-- and his family demanded more money from IMC, who refused. So -- we got kicked out! We were so distressed as we had a number of patients that we had asked to return so we could check on them. Life in Haiti is such chaos. We spent the day, instead, traveling with the medical director to two other clinics. And as impossible as it sounds -- they were in communities that were more poor than ours. Up on a mountain, filled with makeshift cloth tents, children everywhere, most of whom had no shoes...........but they were more than happy to have their picture taken as you can see!

Tonight we will move to IMC's guest house in Petit Guinea but it seems to be a bit uncertain what comes next........we thought we'd be returning to Port-au-Prince but it appears we may go to help start a clinic in the next center, another town on this peninsula called Leogane. If we do go there-- I'll be out of touch the whole week.

Wish me luck. I guess it was too much to expect organization amongst off of this upheaval..... The Leogane director said she specifically asked for our little group of 3 NPs because we're so low maintenance -- a term that my family surely has never used when describing me!

Love,

Laurie

Thursday in Petit Guinea

A very busy day in Petit Guinea. I'm still not able to really wrap my head around life here. I find myself just open mouthed as we drive to clinic each morning. Very few people can afford their own transportation-- but there is such a mix of public vehicles. Incredible painted buses that were never intended to be double decker-- but have an extra 6 or 10 folks sitting on the roof hanging on for dear life. Pick up trucks with 20 or 30 people standing in the back-- throw in a few chickens, a goat or two, a sack of bananas....... But far and away the main mode of transport is mini-bikes with 3 or 4 people plus drayage--- might be a piece of furniture, a satchel. Today I saw 4 people on the same mini-bike-- 4 if you count the breast feeding infant!

The sheer volume of patients in the clinic is mind-numbing--- and the amount of things I don't know depressing. Today we saw patients with malaria (of course!), measles, typhoid, dengue fever, secondary syphilis (!!), malnutrition...........Just no idea where to begin and no clue if we're really doing any good. It's raining outside and I can't imagine what that means for families living outside or in a tent rigged out of an old bed sheet that we would have tossed at home.

It's really remarkable to have this brief opportunity to interact with the NGO world. We just ate dinner with an amazing young woman from France who is recently returned from Banda Aceh, a physician from Sierra Leone by way of Russia, a water engineer from Kenya who most recently lived in Somalia. The center director here can't be more than 30 and her last placement prior to Haiti was Darfur! They are inspiring and daunting and admirable. I'm so lucky to have this opportunity -- and even more blessed to have an amazing home and family and friends to return to. Love you all!

Laurie

Happy St. Patrick's day from Petit Guinea

Chuck sent me pictures of crocus from the backyard so I don't feel guilty posting pictures of "my office". The first picture is my little space in our clinic- the second is the view. Just in case anybody was feeling sorry for me...........looking out at the Caribbean as you work certainly makes life easier.

Life here is actually slow. Steady stream of patients but truly not overwhelming. I'm getting pretty good at figuring out malaria. I had a young man in today-- he is working for one of the many NGO-funded projects, this one cleaning rubble off of the roads. He stopped by our clinic because he was out front lifting cement. He had a 105 fever and malaria -- and was working! Michael's age -- which is just amazing to me to try and fathom the uncountable number of ways in which their lives differ.

Too tired to write too much tonight-- but I'll close with today's beautiful Haitian child. The first ruly fat baby I've seen! She was gorgeous!

Bon nuit, everyone! I am so grateful for the notes, emails, support. Merci!

Love,

Laurie

Tuesday in Petit Guinea

Bon Nuit from Haiti.

I'm sitting outside at our hotel listening to Caribbean music and feeling this beautiful breeze......what a disconnect from the reality for Haitians. This hotel is chockablock full of "ex pats" which is what the Haitians call us. Someone told me that there are over 900 NGOs registered in Haiti since the earthquake and that coordination is really becoming a major issue. I can believe it. We met a family physician from Canada who is working at a local hospital through the Salvation Army and he said there are so many surgeons there that they are duking it out over OR time.

But not at our little clinic. Just us and the Haitian doctor, Africo, who is just delighted to talk to me in Spanish- and I don't think has figured out that I'm missing half of what he says! The kids are remarkably healthy-- horrible nutrition and hygiene and no immunizations.....and yet they are developmentally just like kids the world over. That is one of the most consistently amazing things to me with having the wonderful chance to see children in other countries -- a 2 year old is a 2 year old is a 2 year old. No matter the color or the language or the nationality or the religion---they are doing the same things and just as beautiful. The picture is some of the kids from our clinic today. And the other one is the most ingenious toy that a little boy "shared" with me. The body of that truck is a juice bottle and the wheels are bottle caps and that little raggedy driver has surely seen better days....

It's so nice to work with Haitian staff. You get to dispel a few myths, teach a few things, and, more importantly, learn alot. My translator is teaching me about voodoo, especially the connection that that religion has with Catholicism in Haiti, and the local nurse has explained some of the herbal medicines to us.

We're all grateful for this time here and think we'll be better prepared for Port-au-Prince when we go back this weekend.

Again--- thank you to everyone for reading my ramblings each night and all of the support!

Mesi!

Laurie

First day of patients, Petit Guinea

What a different world now that we're in rural Haiti. I was so overwhelmed by Port-au-Prince and so glad to leave the huge city and come to a smaller town. Today was our first day of patients. One other NP & I joined a Haitian doctor and saw patients in a small seaside village. The destruction-- I know I sound like a broken record -- is just beyond words. We passed a huge stretch of complete rubble right on the ocean that had held two rows of homes -- the first crumbled into the sea when the ocean floor-- we were told-- dropped 7 or 8 feet. The rest collapsed onto ground. You can now see royal palm trees that are 10 or 12 feet out in the ocean- on what used to be land. Everywhere are the uniquitous tents-- USAID, French Red Cross, UN Refugee Agency-- every NGO and language imaginable. And yet still not enough. But the government and the organizations are working so hard. We met a gentleman from Kenya and another from the Netherlands who are water engineers-- and that truly is the whole ballgame, to get water and and sanitation into these communities. The local volunteers told us that Petit Goave is hoping to open schools by April-- and the British psychiatrist who was with us was just in tears he was so happy as he knows so well that the best hope for the children is to get back to some sense of normalcy.

Our clinic is a lean-to made up of a crumbling wall and a corrugated metal roof and it faces the ocean which is gorgeous. Saw lots of chidren-- truly couldn't even count how many -- but I am including some of their pictures. The sad one has malaria-- which is truly fixable. And the happy one-- I have no idea why she was there because I sure couldn't find a thing wrong with her but I'm glad she came!

We worked today with a Haitian doctor who went to medical school in Cuba. We were just not communicating between his so-so-English and my non-existent Creole. And I think just in pure frustration he lapsed into some Spanish-- and was just delighted when I understood that. But then all bets were off when he thought that meant I could actually communicate in Spanish and took off in warp speed-- I truly don't think there is anything faster than Cuban Spanish! But I was delighted that I caught most of it and the other NP is fluent in French so she clarified a few things with his Creole. It was truly a hoot with this polyglot of languages the rest of the day-- I'm not sure we did a single sentence all in the same language but we understood each other. And he really taught us alot. I had a number of kids with malaria and typhoid and e coli -- things I just don't see in the US.

Internet is iffy as is electricity-- but I'll try and post tomorrow! I'm so grateful to everyone for listening to me and all your words of encouragement.

Love,

Laurie

Petit Goave

Left Port-au-Prince this morning and am now in Petit Goave, a much smaller town out on the peninsula on the West side of Haiti. Such a convergence of agencies and people here. We've met folks from Great Britain and the Netherlands and Kenya and Sierra Leone. We're in the hotel but the grassy areas around the hotel are full of tents. The UN High Commission for Refugees is here as is the Salvation Army, World Food Fund, Feed the Children......

All week we'll be in smaller clinics partnered with Haitian physicians & nurses which I'm really looking forward to.......even though I was forewarned to brush up on treatment for malaria and typhoid.

The devastation in this country is truly beyond description. Everywhere you look there are piles of rubble and endless cities of tents. The main highway out here was pretty damaged -- a few places where the road just cracked and dropped a foot. Our driver told us this was the epicenter for the quake.

So a long slow day & not much to tell anyone.....but I hope to hit the ground running at 7AM. The internet access here is very spotty -- but I'll try and stay in touch.

Love to all,

Laurie

Day 1 in the ER

What a day! I truly thought I was prepared -- at some level-- for Haiti but I wasn't. We arrived at the hospital at 7A and by 7:30 there were literally hundreds of people in line, it was hot already, the smell was overwhelming. I saw things I haven't seen in 33 years as a nurse. And we have so little we can do--- and yet we can do so much more than the Haitian hospitals.

Everything is in tents-- the people are truly afraid to go into buildings.

The picture attached is the ER. Behind it are two inpatient tents and behind that an orthopedic tent. We had heart attacks, pneumonias, gunshot wounds, rape victims, asthma, wound infections, fractures--- and all compounded by dirt and poverty and poor nutrition. We're back tonight at this gorgeous hotel-- it really is amazing-- and yet its surrounded by tent cities. It's so hard to reconcile the two. That's the other image above

Just found out at tonight's team meeting that tomorrow I'll be going to a small village on the southern peninsula about 2 or 3 hours away so we'll stay there until Saturday. Four of us going and we'll see mostly primary care. I feel like such a chicken booking out of the city after 1 day...but I have to believe I'll be more useful there. I'll try and post from there.

I am so grateful for everyone's support.

Love,

Laurie

Just in to Port-au-Prince

Just arrived in Port-au-Prince about 9PM. A bit overwhelming to land at night--- couldn't figure out what all of the orange lights were until we got close to the ground and then realized it was fires literally everywhere. The city is still without central lighting but lots of buildings with generators. It's just a chaos of tents right next to rubble right next to an apparently undamaged building with lights and curtains at the windows. I promise to not complain about Honduran roads next trip. Yikes! Maybe I'm glad we were driving in at night when I really couldn't see much.

The hotel which is IMC's headquarters is gorgeous-- across the street from a tent village with no latrines and no electricity........I'm actually sitting in this gorgeous Caribbean bar with beautiful tile and lush plants and ceiling fans...........and the important thing is I'm doing it with a glass of a really good cab! But it's pretty jarring to be doing it with such horror so close. Again-- maybe arriving at night isn't such a bad thing.

Off to bed. We have to be up at six to be on the bus to the hospital at 7. Though we've been told we're very likely to be sent to a mobile primary care village about a 2 hour drive from here on Tuesday.

My phone doesn't seem to work and internet access is really slow -- but I'll do my best to stay in touch.

Can't get my email to work either so this may be my primary mode of communication.

Love,

Laurie

T - 1 day for Haiti

Well--time to take a big breath, put my money where my mouth is.........and head to Haiti. I leave first tomorrow morning, fly though Puerto Rico, and land in Port-au-Prince by evening. I'll be staying at a hotel that serves as International Medical Corps' headquarters in the center of the city. From there -- who knows? IMC shares the space with a number of other organizations and I've been told it's a mini-UN. The conference rooms have been converted to dormitories for medical workers. I don't know if I'll be staying there or moving to one of the outlying mobile clinics. I sort of hope I'll be in the clinics and have the opportunity to see more of the country.

As my family knows-- I'm a nurse mostly because I read way too many Cherry Ames books as a little girl. Cherry Ames, night nurse. Cherry Ames, camp nurse. Cherry Ames, visiting nurse. I couldn't get enough of them. But I secretly always harbored a dream of being Lois Lane. So maybe I'll get to be both -- a nurse in a mobile clinic and a reporter telling all of you about life in Haiti 6 weeks after the earthquake. I'll try and post-- with photos --as I'm able.

Thank you all of you for your support and well wishes. I'll be in touch!

Laurie