Day 6: February 18, 2010

Last night it poured in Haiti and was an unrestful sleep for most of the team. Partly because our "home" was flooded on the first floor because a piece of our roof is missing and partly because we know the poor Haitians living outside were probably soaked and miserable. Dr. Sarbin spent most of the night trying to mop up the water and save our medical supplies. Before we were off to work this morning the Haitians were already tackling the mess in the basement. Boxes of supplies are soaked and there is dirt all over the beautiful floor.

This morning Rachel R. and I had peds ward duty. We were able to practice dressing some nasty wounds, which was fun for both of us because it is a change from our normal duties back home. The clinic had a slow day with maybe about 35 patients total. The Haitians are probably all cleaning up their "homes" after the rain. At least some of the dust has settled down and it is a little bit cooler.

In the afternoon Kez decided to take us outside the compound to hand out vitamins and worm medication to the children. Thanks to Vanessa and Sondra who covered for us at the ward, both Rachel R. and I were able to go since we hadn't had the chance to leave our compound since we had arrived. I had no idea the kind of living conditions these poor people had to endure. There is trash piled everywhere along the road and people are living in tents, makeshift shelters, or partially demolished buildings. It's filthy and reeks of the constant smoke from burning trash. The children ran to us, took the medicine gleefully, and pleaded for more. We had a system where we would mark their pinky with a Sharpee to know who had received medication or not. A lot of them would try to wipe off the mark so they could get more and it was hard to tell who you had seen before or not. At times they would make a crowd so thick around you that you couldn't move. We never felt threatened though, and we even caught a glimpse of some American soldiers patrolling the streets. I don't have many pictures from our walk. It seemed almost wrong to take pictures of the people sitting under their tarps, surrounded by trash, skinny stray dogs, and barefoot children. I know that if it were me I would probably be ashamed. I did manage to snap one good picture of the children who were more than willing to pose for us.

In the afternoon we played with the children in our compound..monkey in the middle, cards, and jump rope. It's amazing how much you can learn from them despite the language barrier. I never did get the hang of their card game they were trying to teach me. We brought Ois outside in his wheelchair so he could watch, but he seemed to not be that interested. Maybe because the children would stare at him, or maybe because he couldn't play with us.

Some people in our group were able to go to a restaurant, while the rest of us stayed behind to chill. We played cards and tried to clean up the soot in our home from the burning trash next door. We all put on masks after we started blowing nasty black snot out of our noses.

After dinner we went to the roof to play with the children. We played hand games and taught each other how to say the parts of the body in our native languages. When the generator comes on we all go back inside to take advantage of the electricity.

We were treated with cold beer and wine when we got back home from a friend named Reggie who wanted to show us his hospitality and gratitude for helping his people.

It is the last night we have to do night shift...yes! We decided to break up the night in three hour shifts to be fair. Lauren and Jenny will have 11p-1am. Rachel and I will do 1am-4am, and Rachel and Sondra will do 4am-7am. Then we will all work in the clinic as a group tomorrow for the first time.