Haiti Part #2

After a very restful Sunday (March 1^st) on the CAM base, we had a nice little bible study under the stars Sunday evening.  We sang hymns using our cell phones for flashlights.  Embarrassed by accidently hitting the button and it said, “Seri not available, you must connect to the internet” Right in a Mennonite meeting it seemed pretty loud.  But the embarrassment soon faded when a couple benches over after the next hymn ended I hear the same thing!  LOL

So Monday morning came and after a hot night we got up and washed clothes for Nicole and us in the wringer washer.  I remember my Grandma had one in her basement.  She also had a regular washer, but she loved her wringer washer and thought they did a much better job.  We hung the clothes out on the line and within an hour they were dry.  We had a hot breeze that was faster then the dryer!

Monica holding an employee's baby

Rice and Beans, chicken, fried plantain.  This is a typical Haitian lunch

After our Haitian lunch of saucy chicken pieces beans and rice and cabbage salad, we were just waiting for our ride to “Zach’s clinic” We kept hearing about Zach’s clinic and “they probably need help up there”.  So soon Zach was there to pick us up. Zach is 68 yrs old and has been in Haiti for 21 yrs now. He kept us entertained with telling his testimony and the story of how he came to Haiti.  He had been a drug addict for 22 years when God saved him!  It was about an hour drive to this clinic on a very rocky road.  I think the best way to describe the road is it’s like driving on a dried up riverbed.  Rocks jutting out every which way, big deep crevasses.  We were on the main road for only a few miles when we turned off onto this “river bed”. Strangest thing was, there are lots of cars driving on this riverbed, up into the mountain.  There are shacks and homes, graveyards, even stores (stands with people selling something) all along this “road”.  You never seem to drive anywhere in Haiti where there isn’t a lot of people still.  You feel like you are going to the wilderness, where there would be no one, but there are still LOT’s of people everywhere.  Here we drove the “river bed” for an hour or so and finally come to the clinic.  I’m thinking; people come way out here to a clinic?  But there are so many people that live on this mountain that they would never get any help or care if there wasn’t a clinic up here.  Some have no ability to “get to town”.  We often saw 4 people on a motorcycle pass us by.  Most homes we passed were about the size of my bedroom or maybe Monica’s bedroom. They have no water.  It’s just a big bathroom out side.  They carry water and supplies on their heads.  Can you imagine carrying a 5-gallon bucket of water on your head!!  It’s a common sight here. 

So my first question when we got up there was “do people come all the way here to this clinic?”  He said we have 38,000 charts here.  They generally see about 220 people a day.  At one time they were seeing as many as 550 in a day, but had to limit the amount since they didn’t have enough nurses.  They charge them $1 for adults.  Nothing for children, HIV or feeding days.  The $1 covers their visit and all their meds.  A Haitian $ is not very much.

Notice I said nurses.  They don’t have a Doctor, but nurses run most clinics here.

So tonight after dinner we had to measure out these “mamba” packets.  It was these packets of peanut butter flavored stuff that is made for malnourished children.  They have a feeding program for kids whose weight and arm measurement is under normal, showing they are not getting enough food.  Each night we will squeeze this stuff out of the packets and prepare this mixture so it’s ready for the Nanny’s to feed the kids in the morning. 

This place actually has 4 sections:  ICU, regular care, Cholera clinic, and the regular clinic.  In the regular clinic we will do prenatals and well women care.

Tuesday:

We started our day in the clinic.  Monica and other volunteers divided 1000’s of pills in little bags for distribution.  They hand out lots of vitamins and medicine.  They bring people in the clinic is groups of 50.  They teach a little bible study and an educational lesson on health, eating, cleanliness etc.  Then everyone gets weighed, BP, pulse etc.  If they are malnourished they go on the feeding program, which gives extra food.  They often put them on the mamba program.  Which means they take these peanut butter type stuff in packets home to supplement their diet.  It’s not really peanut butter, but it has that consistency.  They can make it into a soup, put it on crackers or eat it straight out of the package.

In the ICU there are the kids you see in the pictures starving.  One little girl crying in her crib was 2 yrs old, but looked like she was 1 mo.  Most of the kids in the ICU have IVs in.  When a child has not had enough protein, the child swells up.  Their skin gets taunt and shinny because of the swelling.  There was one little girl still in that state, and a few that were on the road to recovery.

 

Cribs in the hospital

This was the nurse I worked with

Some very sick, malnourish baby's

The next building over has the regular care clinic where the kids that are getting better stay.  They feed everyone 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.  They have one hired nanny for each 15 kids.  The kids are hungry for attention and this clinic always needs volunteers to come and cuddle with the kids.  Every time the children see us they are waving at us or hanging on us.  They are not shy but quickly come sit on your lap.  They think our white skin is pretty.  The whiter the better!  LOL

We went to a small market today.  No one has tables.  They have a blanket they lay on the ground and lay their items around the blanket.  A pile of beans or a pile of noodles.  Veggies, or clothes. Some people were cooking over open fires.  Donkeys everywhere as this is one mode of transportation to market if you didn’t walk. 

People were polite and little kids seemed happy to see us.  Market

Wednesday:

It’s hard to believe it was just a week since we left home.  It seems like we have seen so much, learned so much that in this week seems like a long time.

Today I again went in to help the nurse with women care.  She thought I didn’t enjoy working with her since I didn’t come back in the afternoon yesterday.  I thought I wasn’t very helpful and she didn’t need me.  She said she really liked having a white midwife in her room!  LOL

So today I did many prenatals and checked over lots of newborns.    Measurements were way off on a couple of ladies.  They either are having twins or their dates are off.  They do have someone that can come do ultra sounds once a month.  I had two breech babies and one lady, as soon as she walked in she had the look that showed she was malnourished.  Their head is disproportionate to their body.  She weighed 100lbs, being about 6 mo pregnant and obviously needs to eat more.  We sent her home with 2 large bags of Mamba.   One baby came in all chubby and happy.  She smiled at us and let us take her pictures.  Come to find out she has been on the feeding program since she was 8 weeks old.  Such a difference compared to the malnourished children.  They don’t smile, and act lethargic.

There is a lot of STD’s, and infections.  The nurse was telling one lady you cannot have many partners, but if you do, come back because we can help you.    We saw one baby that had Malaria!  Thankfully there is a sink in the room and I can wash my hands after ever patient.

Overall the nurse we were helping saw approximately 50 people today. We were all really tired by the end of the day. 

Cholera clinic:

We were told in the morning that if we wanted to see the cholera clinic we could go at 4 pm.  I said is there room in the car for all of us?  She said yes so I thought, great I want to go see it.  I heard there are 35 cases up there right now.  I guess there was a couple months when there was none and they thought it was wiped out of Haiti, but that lasted only a couple of months.  During the rainy season it’s worse.  At one time they had as many as 150 at once.

So 4 pm came and our guide was a Haitian man named Gordon.  We were told we should bring some water and I thought that was strange, but I didn’t realize the plan had changed and we were now walking to the clinic.  When I hesitated our guide said,  “it’s ok, I know a short cut!”  LOL

Haitians walk everywhere.  One lady at the clinic said she had walked 4 hours with the baby to get her checked.  It wasn’t the new mama, it was an Aunt.  So does this mean that baby went 8 hours without eating while the Aunt brought her in for a check? Or did another nursing mom give the baby a snack?  So off we went on a hike, up a mountain!!!!  I have never been someone to hike much anyways, let alone in very hot climate.  It took us 1 hour to get there, all the young people ahead of me where wondering what was taking me so long! 

We got to see up close a lot of Haitian homes and some beautiful views.

Add caption

Those are giant Avocado's

A typical house (one of the nicer ones) They sweep their yards everyday.  

Cholera clinic

We finally got to the clinic and took me a while to catch my breath. 

There was a locked gate and a guard.  You walk in and you have to step on a bleach soaked sponge.  The place was spotless clean everywhere.  They have long rooms of beds.  Only one dorm was filled.  IV’s hung everywhere.  Mamas and children in the same bed.

We stopped and sang a couple of songs and made them so happy!  The smiles were huge! 

Cholera is a disease that is very treatable.  The problem is from the onset of the sickness you can die within hours from dehydration.   So when you find your neighbor who you were talking to just hours before, now lying in the garden passed out, by the time you get him on a motorcycle or get neighbors to carry him on a stretcher to help, many die.  They have lost 4 people in the last month that died on the way to the clinic.  They usually use about 12-15 liters of IV fluid per person.  Sometimes more, and I read one time they used 35 liters on one person to keep him hydrated.  That’s over 170 lbs of fluid they put in him through IV’s.    The hard part is getting good IV’s in when the person is so dehydrated. 

This is a cholera bed.

We would step in this bleach water to keep from tracking bacteria  around .

Grave yard

This is the clinic with the patients

So after they showed us around and answered all our questions, they told us to wash up with soap and water.  I’m not sure if the water had bleach in it.  Bleach kills cholera, so everything is bleached.  Then to our shock they sprayed us all down.  We think it was bleach water.  They sprayed all our clothes, the bottom of our shoes with a light spray (like a garden sprayer) We were all a little wet when we walked out.  Back to hike all the way back!  We took the main road back, which was longer, but still took an hour because it down hill part way.    It felt like the old saying “up hill both ways!”  Lol

Glad we made it back to the clinic, where we were greeted with a lot of happy children reaching up to us wanting to be held. 

We are going to miss all the great young people we have met here, Martha and Mary are sisters, planning to stay in Haiti for 6 mo working with a mobile clinic and putting on children’s clubs.  Mary has been my translator while doing prenatals. The language here is Creole, close to French.   Once in a while I catch a word that sounds like Spanish.

You meet people from all over the US down here.  So many missions, it’s a great place for young people to volunteer.  If you live in the East it only costs about $200 to fly down here.   Nathan (another volunteer) painted cribs all day.  Girls sorted clothes, bagged pills, made an educational poster.  Held, fed and played with children!  Always children to love on.

We were sitting on the porch and the little kids yelled up to us on the second floor, where is Mary?  Mary went home we answered.  “Where is Monica?”  She’s sleeping.  Tell Monica to come down”  “Please tell Monica to come down”  “Please”

Monica with children all trying to get on her lap!

I had another day with the nurse today.  She is giving me more jobs now.  Giving shots, filling in paper work, bagging pills.  I saw so many cute babies today.  I check over the baby while the nurse asks the moms all the questions.  I speak to the babies in English and they smile so big at me with their big brown eyes.

Friday was a last day at the clinic.  It was sad to leave.  Monica came in and worked with the nurse and I today.  I taught Monica to do blood pressures and she had lots to practice on.

One time a man walked in and right away Monica started taking his blood pressure.  Since she is just learning she wasn’t quite sure she had it right, so she repeated it on the other side.  Then she took his temperature, just like every other patient.  But when she went to right the info in the book, the nurse put her arms over it and said no.  We were very confused until she finally made us understand, that he was here for his baby to get checked!  He sat their patiently letting Monica take his vitals, and the appointment was for the baby!  LOL!

So we are now at the CAM base again for one day and then off to another Mountain clinic tomorrow.