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