|
|
March 2007 Trip
On February 4, 2007, Nathan Dieudonne was kidnapped while driving home
after leading Sunday services in the Bethel Church of Dumay. He
was released when his ransom was paid, but he was beaten, starved, and
deprived of water, leaving him near death when he was finally freed.
(Read his own account here.)
HAM had planned to hold a pediatric clinic in Dumay during the March
trip. Due to obvious security concerns, the team trip was cancelled and
new plans were made. I went for a week's visit.
Saturday: I traveled to Haiti alone and met up with Haitian
friends to help with translation, transportation and security.
Yvon met me at the airport and got me through customs without a snag.
Once again, I stayed at St. Joseph’s guest house and boys home, a
wonderful guest house with great company and conversation, and excellent
food. Every meal begins with a platter of fresh mangos and
pineapple – something I really miss when I return to the USA. I
don’t miss the bathroom accommodations which consist of toilets flushed
with buckets and showers with a spigot of cold water a bucket and
cup…makes you appreciate hot running water in your shower.
Sunday: One of the original boys who started St. Joseph’s with
Michael died this morning of AIDS. The Sunday Morning service was
filled with tears, but Michael would not cry. Some of the boys
performed a song and one performed a dance in their friend’s honor.
I went out to lunch with Carolyn, a long time friend and nurse
practitioner who works at the US Embassy and used to work in Dumay.
Due to Nathan’s kidnapping, the US Embassy will no longer allow her to
go to Dumay. We discussed the situation in Dumay, and I was told
the word is that the “blanc with money” is next on the kidnappers list.
Kidnappers are still living in the Dumay area. Our ophthalmologist
is also not willing to go to Dumay after the kidnapping.
That evening, Claude, who works at St. Joseph’s/Wings of Hope, and
others staying at St. Joseph’s were very patient with me, listening to
my sob stories about the state of Dumay and our clinic.
Monday: Charles and Jn. Mark were ready to travel with me at 7:00
am, and Lamou came to drive us to NPFS (Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs)
pediatric hospital. Kyra took us on a detailed tour of the
facility. We met with the outpatient coordinators including HIV
treatment, physician, nursing, and lab staff. The facility is new,
clean and spacious.
That afternoon we went up the mountain to “Wings of Hope,” a home for
disabled children run by the St. Joseph’s people. With Claude’s
help, I evaluated children with cerebral palsy, and seizure disorders.
One little boy found abandoned in the woods would not tell his name or
his story to anyone. He constantly held his peeling hands to his
face and would not use them. With some prompting he chose a name
for himself from a list offered by Wing’s staff. My guess was that
he may have had his hands burned, which was supported by the discovery
that he is terrified of candlelight. We rode back to St. Joseph’s
in a tap tap (public transportation) – a very crowded experience.
The guy sitting next to me had injured his hand with a machete (it was
wrapped in a towel). I nervously asked him to show me, wondering
what I was going to see under that towel. Happily, it had been
sutured and looked like it was healing without infection.
Tuesday: At 7:00 am, I met with Bernard, who works for Angel
Missions Haiti, an organization that brings children to the USA for
procedures that cannot be done in Haiti. We exchanged information
on some children we’ve identified in Dumay who need to come to the USA
for care. Jn. Mark lost the coin toss, so he was ready to spend
Tuesday with me (Mark and Charles both wanted to go to Cite Soleil on
Wednesday). Lamou drove us to NPFS to meet with Fr. Rick, who took
us to Mother Theresa’s hospital at Delmas 31. There we met several
sisters of Charity and Sister Judy who pointed us in the right
direction. There were patients lined up on the porch for me to
see: a baby with burns that needed debrided, a man with a pre-patellar
bursitis needing drained, a diabetic woman with a near dead foot, a boy
with possible Typhoid fever…. After seeing the outpatients, it was
time to see those who were admitted to the hospice unit. They were
mostly young men dying of AIDS. They looked hopeless and distant,
probably 50 cots to a room (I didn’t count). The room was clean
and the men were fed and clothed, but there was no medicine to treat HIV
infection, only medicine to help comfort. The last 2 patients we
saw were young men who were admitted that day. One saw that we had
a cell phone and asked if he could make a call. I gave him my
phone and he used it to call his mom to tell her he was suffering and
wanted to come home. It struck me that I might be listening to the
last conversation between a mother and son. As sad as it was, I
was glad we were able to make it happen. Jn. Mark and I made it
home by hitching rides on a series of vans and tap taps. Others on
the tap taps seemed a bit annoyed they had to share their ride with a
Blanc (maybe I was just a little paranoid).
Wednesday: At 6:00 am, Charles (who won the coin toss) was ready
to ride with Lamou and myself to NPFS. We arrived before 7:00 am
so we could attend mass with the NPFS staff and Fr. Rick. After
mass, we traveled to Wharf Jeremy, an unimaginably horrible place to
live. We drove past heaps of trash, mud, and sewage covered with
people walking, working, talking, and surviving in every direction.
It seemed disrespectful to photograph these scenes when there, but I
wish I had photos to share; it would be easier to understand. Our
vehicle stopped at the end of a narrow street and we walked across well
placed cement blocks to arrive on a piece of high ground with walls of
sticks and scrap metal. Tables were set up to hold plastic
containers of meds unpacked from coolers, and to write orders on scraps
of paper used to chart diagnosis and medications. I saw children
with respiratory infections, parasites, and malnutrition, pregnant women
with severe anemia, and an old woman who I decided had a recent heart
attack and was in congestive heart failure. A young man brought
the old woman to the clinic and left her saying he could no longer care
for her. Soon after we began to see patients at Wharf Jeremy, Fr.
Rick was called to meet with UN officials. He had been advocating
for 2 young patients, Stephanie and Alexandra, who were shot and killed
during the Feb. 1st UN raid on Cite Soleil. The UN was not happy
about the publicity.
We finished seeing patients and packed up to leave before Fr. Rick
returned. Luckily he met us while we were leaving, because I
didn’t know what to do with the old lady with CHF. He took her to
a hospital while the rest of us traveled to Cite Soleil. There
were side trips to drop patients off at hospitals, to pick up supplies,
and to investigate car accidents and make sure the wounded got the care
they needed.
In Cite Soleil, patients were ready to see us in a crumbling cement
block building. The one patient that stands out in my mind is a
middle aged man whose complaint was “I have a hernia”. I’ve seen
hundreds of hernias in Haiti, so I thought I knew what to expect, but
when I asked him to show me, I saw the biggest hernia I’ve ever seen.
A large portion of his intestines were in his scrotum. A surgeon
was seeing patients with us, so I asked for her opinion on the case.
She said she thought she could fix the hernia. I asked her to give
me a quote so we could pay her to do the surgery. Fr. Rick
returned in time to review the patients lined up with their x-ray to see
if they needed to be started on TB medication. The majority needed
treatment. We met up with a Haitian working to bring sports and
education to the children of Cite Soliel. He was concerned about
the trash and mud accumulating in Wharf Jeremy with each rain storm, and
wanted to discuss ways to open the canals and establish an outlet for
the mud and sewage.
Thursday: We rode to NPFS at 7:00 AM to meet up with Fr. Rick and
his “gang” to travel to Dumay. There was a problem; the Oxygen
production facility at NPFS Hospital was not working and Fr. Rick had to
try to get it fixed. There were many children in the hospital that
were O2 dependant and the tanks would only last about 4 days. It
was decided that I would go to Dumay with Fr. Rick’s driver, Charles,
and another NPFS employee. Jn. Mark stayed with Fr. Rick to show
him the way when he was ready to come. It was a muddy ride, but we
made it to Dumay without a problem – Jn. Mark and Fr. Rick were not so
lucky. T hey were stuck in the mud for over 2 hours and didn’t arrive
until I was finishing up with patients.
In Dumay, Dr’s Jn Louis and Romain were seeing patients (as usual on
Thursdays). The HIV patients, and all the patients I had told to
follow up with me in January were there to see me. I was able to
use one of the new computers donated by JCC to see the HIV patients and
chart their progress. Many of them were improving.
Sherline’s parotid masses are smaller since she started ARV’s
(antiretroviral therapy) , a couple of women on ARV treatment have
gained so much I had to tell them to eat less – they just laughed at me.
The young family who’s home burned down and father/husband had committed
suicide in January returned to see me, and I gave them each (6 children
and mom) new outfits collected by members of Womenade. I brought
needed medication including vitamins collected by Granville Girl Scout
Troop #173 to the clinic pharmacy. Our lab technicians drew blood
on all the HIV patients so we could monitor their response to therapy.
When we finished seeing patients, we had a staff meeting to discuss the
future of the clinic and the security situation in Dumay. No one
was willing to talk about the security situation. The staff was
unusually quiet and unwilling to talk during the meeting.
I told staff administrators I had been in contact with human rights
organizations AUMOHD, Hurah, and CHRC who work with Mario Andresol
(newly appointed chief of the Haitian National Police) with the hope of
getting the kidnappers living in and near Dumay arrested. A few
told me any work to get the kidnappers arrested must be “secret.”
It is clear that there are people in Dumay and in the Croix-des-Bouquet
police department working with the kidnappers. We agreed to form a
committee in Dumay that would meet with the human rights organizations
and work toward getting the kidnappers arrested. I left the new
computer to be used to keep clinic records.
We hope to begin building a guest house next to the clinic as soon as
the kidnappers are arrested. A copy of the plans, developed by
O.A.Spencer, Inc. at no cost, for the future bunk house was also left
with the clinic staff.
After the staff meeting, we took Fr. Rick on a tour of the “Gift of
Water” facility and showed him how the filtration systems work.
Although he spent much of his day stuck in the mud, I was so grateful to
have Fr. Rick and his staff with us in Dumay. I would not have
been comfortable traveling to Dumay, knowing the “blanc with the money”
was a target, without them.
On the way home, we stopped at the Bethel church of Croix-des-Bouquets,
where we were met by Dr. Paul who is the director of HIV treatment at
Zanmi Lasante in Hinche. He waited in the hot sun on the busy and
sometimes dangerous streets of CDB to receive our patients blood
samples, to transport them to his hospital so the needed lab tests could
be done at no charge….And, he said thank you to me.
There are so many examples, one after another, of people generously
giving their time and talents to help us accomplish our goals! I
feel like I was surrounded by angels the entire time I was in Haiti.
Friday: Charles, Jn. Mark, and I set off with Lamou driving to
purchase art in Croix-des-Bouquets. At Serge Jolimeau’s, we
negotiated to purchase several metal pieces cut from old metal drums;
then we purchased artwork in a shop selling production pieces.
We met with Daniel and Esaie, Nathan’s brothers in their CDB home.
I wanted to check Esaie’s blood pressure and talk to Daniel about
bringing his wife’s nephew to the USA for possible surgery. We
talked about working toward getting the kidnappers arrested, and I was
again told that this must be a “secret.”
We then left for a meeting with the administrators of the Petionville
Community Hospital. Occasionally, we send our patients to the
Petionville hospital for surgeries we cannot do in Dumay. I wanted
to discuss their need for equipment and the work we are doing in the USA
to try to get needed equipment donated. I needed to know the size
of their generator and current ability to get the items transported to
Haiti, if we can get them donated. After being served coffee, and
having all our questions answered, we left for our next meeting.
On the way, we got some lunch, then dropped off the art we purchased at
St. Joseph’s, along with my medical bag.
We were driving to USAID, where many artists waited to sell me their
paintings, when we stopped to buy a painting I had admired on the street
on Monday. The painting was sold, but we discovered a street boy
who had tried to hop on the back of a moving tap tap and fell off.
He was screaming in pain and drawing a crowd on the sidewalk. I
had no medications or bandages, and we were a long way from St.
Joseph’s. I examined the boy and determined he had no broken
bones, just scrapes and bruises. I asked if we could take him
home, but he said he had no home and no family, so I gave him money for
transportation and a hospital appointment if his symptoms worsened.
I plan to never travel in Haiti without basic medication and first aid
again. At USAID there were many artists from Cite Soleil waiting
to sell me paintings, beadwork, jewelry, metalwork… I purchased a
variety of paintings for our sales in the USA. Hopefully, HAM will have
Haitian art auctions in Seattle, Asheville, and Granville this year.
Carolyn and I then left to meet with Dr. George, a Haitian surgeon who
has donated his service to our patients, for dinner at “the Cascade”, a
beautiful restaurant with indoor waterfalls. There are many
“worlds” in Haiti. It started to rain, which felt a little ominous
knowing that during the week downpours had caused mudslides making roads
impassable. Carolyn and I, nevertheless decided to drive to the US
Marine’s house to attend a party. On the way, we saw an SUV on its
side in the road. It was an embassy vehicle, so Carolyn had to
stop and make sure everyone was OK and the right officials had been
informed…yes to both, so we drove on. At the Marine’s house,
Robert, the guy I met who had sports programs in Cite Soleil was sitting
at the bar…small world. Carolyn introduced me to Rachanee, who
worked with the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in their HIV program.
I was happy to tell her about the Dumay Clinic and our HIV treatment
program. She gave me her e-mail address and said she might be able
to help us obtain ARV’s (I was suddenly very happy we decided to go to
the Marine’s party). We made it home in the rain without any
problems. I was worried I would not be able to get to my room because I
was getting home past the time St. Joseph’s is locked up, but it was lit
and full of people. They were having a wake for Arnold, who died
the previous Sunday. T he funeral was the next morning.
Saturday: I packed all the art purchased through the week in two
50 lb. packages. Jn. Mark and Charles came to ride with me to the
airport. Another trip that ended way before the work was done…..
At home I communicated with AUMOHD and Hurah the community human rights
groups working in Haiti. They organized a team, and went to Dumay
to talk to those willing to discuss information about the kidnappers.
They then took the information to Andresol. Another kidnapper has since
been arrested. We continue to work on improving security.
-- Tracee
tracee@healingartmissions.org
|
|
