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This is farmland planted
primarily with beans and sugar cane. Working the fields are dozens of
men and women wielding primitive hoes, bent nearly double in the hot
sun, the women always wearing dresses.
Daily we passed small carts
heavily laden with sugar cane, pulled by two or four oxen. One day we
passed a cart that had overturned spilling its cargo into the ditch.
True to form, the ancient bus broke down once and got stuck once but the
Haitian people are remarkably resilient and creative---no AAA on call
there.
Again this year we saw hundreds
of people in our five-day clinic. Malnutrition is common, intestinal
parasites and stomach pains are almost universal and hypertension is a
serious problem for large numbers.
We treated several terrible,
disease-caused deformities that would be easily treated or repaired in
the US as well as patients who had suffered accidents. We had barely
arrived on the first morning when a man who had fallen from a tree was
brought in with multiple fractures.
Most of the time I worked in the pharmacy (a grand name for the small,
chaotic room where we dispense medications). The most difficult time for
me was the hour I spent debriding the third degree burns on a two year
old child’s lower legs and feet. In this country she would be in a
hospital and getting skin grafts.
Medications are in better supply
than past years because we are now able to order through the
International Dispensary Association, a non-profit agency in the
Netherlands that stocks drugs from the WHO essential medication list.
Choice is limited so there are still some things that we must transport
but we no longer have to depend on an assortment begged from drug
companies and pharmacies. Getting the medications through Haitian
customs isn’t easy but it eventually reaches us.
I remained the only nurse in the clinic while four members of our group,
along with two interpreters, spent an arduous two-hour ride, three-hour
hike up the mountains to the village of Demier. There they set up a
clinic on a table under some trees and saw some 200 patients including
several seriously ill babies and children.
In addition to the medical
clinic, one of our men assisted in a latrine project aimed at providing
latrines for every extended family group. These are modeled after those
in our wilderness National Parks and expected to last for several
generations.
The past two years Demier was
not safely accessible. The last clinic had been held there in 2002 and a
clean water project was started. The group who went to Demier this year
was delighted to find that health has improved overall and infant
mortality has dropped dramatically. An example of how clean water, clear
mountain air and improved sanitation can make a dramatic difference in
health even when medical care is largely unavailable.
The group returned exhilarated
by the experience. In the evenings there had been music making, dancing
and story telling.
We were a bit disconcerted in
arriving at the home where we always stay, to find steel bars with a
gate closing off the bedroom area of the house. House break-ins are
becoming routine and lawlessness rampant. Some of the local people that
we talked to stated that UN forces appear to be doing little to prevent
crime and vigilante groups are forming to deal with it. There seemed to
be a general feeling that the UN soldiers are basically useless, just
enjoying a vacation in Haiti. They are the only ones eating in the
restaurants and swimming at the beaches and even they have been the
target of robberies.
In the midst of disillusionment
with the post-Aristide government and worsening political/economic
conditions (some feel it is worse than it has ever been) the village of
Dumay continues to see progress.
The school is providing 1-6
education to hundreds of children who are too poor to otherwise receive
an education. The water project is thriving with filtration units made
in the village being distributed in the countryside and local people
being trained to teach how to use them and to monitor their use.
The medical clinic is staffed four or five days a week by Haitian
doctors including an OB/GYN one day and two General Practice doctors who
come two or three days. There are a surgeon and an ophthalmologist once
a month. Two lab technicians have been hired and trained and lab
materials purchased.
The HIV project is beginning
with local people trained to monitor patients. There is still much to be
accomplished in this area. One HIV patient decided against treatment,
opting for a Voodoo doctor who promised a cure.
The latest project underway is a
library. Some of the villagers have built a wall of rough shelves in the
school principal’s office. Right now there are only a few books brought
with us from the States but they are already collecting cement blocks to
construct a separate building to house a community library and perhaps
in the future, adult literacy classes.
As always, a high point of our
visit was attending the village church. Although the church is not large
every pew is packed with nearly 400 adults and children. As the
congregation sang hymns I could only think of the expression “they
raised the roof”. The energy of the people is infectious and being
present is a joyous experience. The 53-member choir sang several songs
and a five-piece band played. Pastor Dieudonne, who oversees all the
projects, preached a dynamic sermon of hope and love---moving even to a
confirmed Unitarian.
Once again I feel incredibly
privileged to have made this journey.
Meredith Russell |
