First and Second Days In Haiti

Tuesday morning began with a 3:00 a.m. wake up call!  We boarded our first plane to Miami at 7:00 a.m., and landed in Port au Prince around 3:30 p.m.  Our ride to the guest house was quite an experience.  The streets were lined with garbage; people were walking and sitting all along the roads; random animals were walking down the roads – cattle, dogs, goats; no seatbelts + no driving laws = WOW!

We arrived at The New Life guest house in Mirebalais and were welcomed by Brian, Jamie, and their family, who served us a delicious supper including rice and beans, cashew sauce, beet salad, avocado, chicken legs, and bread pudding with caramel sauce.  After our meal, we were all very excited to take a much needed shower.

The temperature here has been around 100 F with the heat index.  The generator that runs our dorm room air conditioner turns on at 9:00 p.m. and shuts off at 2:00 a.m.; however, the air conditioners were not working properly the first evening.  We are hoping for a cooler evening tonight.

Wednesday morning we were served another delicious meal – fried rice with scrambled eggs, fresh papaya and pineapple, and fresh fruit juice.  After breakfast, the nursing team headed to the new hospital in Mirebalais.  The children’s team went to Pastor Benoit’s in Mirebalais.

The nursing team had the experience of what “Haitian Time” is. our day was t start at 0800 and being good nurses we were there and ready, but we soon found out that we had to wait and then wait and then wait some more. Our day actually started at 1100 instead of 0800. We were given a tour of the hospital.  There were over 100 people at the hospital waiting to be seen.  We were told by our interpreter that the people wait several hours to be seen and that some of the people would have to go home or stay overnight in the waiting room to be seen the next day because there was not enough time to see everyone.  The patients’ beds were lined side by side.  We noted areas for improvement including IV’s, clean technique, privacy, medical equipment.  The patients’ families were present at most bedsides.  We saw external fixators on broken legs, catheters, nasogastric tubes, amputations, and feeding tubes.  We saw many babies that we so tiny that as we walked away from the bedside we wondered if they would ever go home. The nursing team also gave presentations on diabetes and hypertension to 54 nursing students.  Despite the heat and the small room, the nursing students were very receptive and asked several questions throughout the presentations.

The children’s team also had an eventful day:

We began the day doing all sorts of fun sorting: toys, dresses, snacks and candy. Eagerly anticipating meeting and greeting the sweet faces we had only seen in pictures.  Next, we made a trip to the kitchen to make 50 peanut butter and raisin sandwiches with fresh Haitian bread. A quick practice of our award worthy puppet (pupet) show and we were ready to roll.

Then we made our quick trip over the mountain pass and through town—waving at the locals and drinking in the bizarre and wonderful unforgettable sights, sounds and smells all around. Our final left turn brings us up a rocky path to a group of buildings with sweet faces peeking from the doorways. A large part of the group went to tour the school and we were mauled by a sea of soulful brown eyes wanting to touch us and know us and be close to us.

Photos were the ice breakers—everyone with a serious face until they saw their images, then a smile would break across their dark faces showing joy and their vibrant white teeth.  Our stations were set and we split into groups. PB, Fleurs (paper flowers), puppets and  a story under a mango tree.

We took time to enjoy watching the boys play with as many kids on our lap as we could fit. When it was time to say good bye, we loaded into the tap tap and drove away waving and blowing kisses…We can’t wait to return in a few days.