Driving/riding in Haiti is one of the memorable experiences of our whole week. Mountainous terrain being traveled by vehicles of many levels of repair and reliability is a challenge each day for the Haitians. Thank goodness we were not driving. Picture a two lane roadway with two way traffic that suddenly has three lanes of traffic and a motorcycle passes making four moving vehicles at one time. The edge of the road may be a mountain or an open market with hundreds of people milling about with goats, chickens, cattle, pigs or bananas. The roadway itself may be in disrepair or not even paved. Our vehicles often had ten or more people in the truck box and four in the cab. Seat belts are non-existent. Speed bumps or ditches are common along the way. Hanging on tight was necessary as the curvy mountain roads were traveled to get to our work sites. On one curvy road, a crashed dump truck lay along side. The driver calmly stated: that probably was a fatal crash. The speedometer was generally near 40 but it felt much faster.
On one trip home the driver stopped at his family home and introduced us to his mother. After an introductory hug, a couple members of the group had surprise evaluations. (For more on this hilarious story, please ask Colleen directly). The unexpected touch caused much giggling within the group!
The children we cared for were found to be happy and healthy. The greatest need that we continued to recognize was for each child to have a bit of personal attention. Holding a child on one’ s lap or having a child slip their hand in yours was very renewing for the care givers. One care giver was able to tell that several children had fevers and report that to us as we did our physical assessments. She was right and the child was able to have treatment.
Teaching at the community college was another experience. Our books and materials are very important to our success at SWTC. They do not have books or access to learning materials like we have. 55 students avidly listened and took notes as we present material in English and a translator provided our message in Creole.