I just got off the phone with Candace. Very, very difficult to get through. We were lucky to have about 20 minutes and then the line went dead. She wants everyone to know that she is doing very well. Unfortunately, there is no internet service and the phone lines come and go. Texting appears to be working, so if you want to try to communicate that way, here is the number: 011 509 3436 4730
She is very busy - doing about 2 births a day. While we were talking there was a mom waiting to deliver. It's very hot - no rain yet. They can cool off by taking a dip in the ocean.
I was going to send her some powdered Gatorade, but unfortunately, due to the earthquake, Canadian and US postal service is not forwarding any mail. Even FedEx is not sending anything to Haiti. They could have service back sometime in May.
So, she says a big HELLO to everyone. She is thinking of family and friends back home but is doing really good. So, if you want to communicate briefly with her - try texting.
Krys
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
49 mosquito bites
That's the going count on just my lower legs... Good thing is that it is not yet the rainy season! It's been sunny here every single day. Mmmmmmm.
Two nights ago, I went to my first 2 birthing dome births! They were both having their 5th babies so things went relatively fast, I think they were only an hour long each! Both babies were in the early 6lb range which is the normal birthweight here. It's been so really fascinating to learn about chinese medicine/homeopathy remedies for different pregnancy or labour-related things - here they use Yunnan baiyao as a herb to stop bleeding after the birth and rarely have to use oxytocin (all you birthing folks will know what that means). We also do cord burning rather than clamping and cutting cords, since it cauterizes the cord and prevents infection from tetanus and other bacteria since most babies are going home to tents right now and are much more exposed to infection. The process involves 2 people burning an area on the cord with candles, and eventually the cord breaks away. Virtually no cord is clamped and cut before the placenta is delivered (which happens also very fast here from what I've heard and seen). It was really quite serene to be in the birth dome with Eliana with the new mom and baby and sit quietly in the darkness only lit up by our two candles and two lanterns and wait patiently for the cord to bun through. The babies don't seem to mind either! They are SO incredibly cute by the way.
Yesterday was a day off, so Eliana and I and one of our many friends and helpers here at the house (Ambroise) headed out to the beach again, this time on scooters. They are pretty much the craziest drivers ever! But the trip was awesome - wind blowing through my dusty hair, past the corn fields and banana trees... Everything outside of Jacmel was fairly untouched by the earthquake, and I had never envisioned Haiti to be so lush and green given all of the images of broken down cities and debris and rubble that are everywhere on the internet. We ate fish and plantain chips on the beach, and swam in the most beautiful ocean EVER. The water was so warm and salty that you could just float around in the sunshine for hours probably. There were heaps of local children swimming around, and fishing. I think it's funny that when I tell the local women to swim in the ocean to help with their swollen feet, they always laugh at me! The other trend on my two beach days so far has been that we eventually get squeezed out of the main beach area in favour of the soccer players.
Today was another prenatal clinic day. The workers set up a tent outside for all of the women who were waiting today to shield them from the blistering sun! I'm sure it was already 30 degrees when we headed up there at 9am... Their patience is astounding- some women wait 3 hours to be seen, and don't ever complain. Virtually everyone here is anemic but we don't have much to give them besides prenatal vitamins and a bit of Floradix which we will run out of soon. (On a side note, my mosquito bites are SO itchy right now that I am scratching my legs off!!)
So now I am off for a nap and maybe some Haitian shopping. They have beautiful dresses here.
I hope you are all well and enjoying the cool, rainy weather! I am missing it just a bit right now... xo
Two nights ago, I went to my first 2 birthing dome births! They were both having their 5th babies so things went relatively fast, I think they were only an hour long each! Both babies were in the early 6lb range which is the normal birthweight here. It's been so really fascinating to learn about chinese medicine/homeopathy remedies for different pregnancy or labour-related things - here they use Yunnan baiyao as a herb to stop bleeding after the birth and rarely have to use oxytocin (all you birthing folks will know what that means). We also do cord burning rather than clamping and cutting cords, since it cauterizes the cord and prevents infection from tetanus and other bacteria since most babies are going home to tents right now and are much more exposed to infection. The process involves 2 people burning an area on the cord with candles, and eventually the cord breaks away. Virtually no cord is clamped and cut before the placenta is delivered (which happens also very fast here from what I've heard and seen). It was really quite serene to be in the birth dome with Eliana with the new mom and baby and sit quietly in the darkness only lit up by our two candles and two lanterns and wait patiently for the cord to bun through. The babies don't seem to mind either! They are SO incredibly cute by the way.
Yesterday was a day off, so Eliana and I and one of our many friends and helpers here at the house (Ambroise) headed out to the beach again, this time on scooters. They are pretty much the craziest drivers ever! But the trip was awesome - wind blowing through my dusty hair, past the corn fields and banana trees... Everything outside of Jacmel was fairly untouched by the earthquake, and I had never envisioned Haiti to be so lush and green given all of the images of broken down cities and debris and rubble that are everywhere on the internet. We ate fish and plantain chips on the beach, and swam in the most beautiful ocean EVER. The water was so warm and salty that you could just float around in the sunshine for hours probably. There were heaps of local children swimming around, and fishing. I think it's funny that when I tell the local women to swim in the ocean to help with their swollen feet, they always laugh at me! The other trend on my two beach days so far has been that we eventually get squeezed out of the main beach area in favour of the soccer players.
Today was another prenatal clinic day. The workers set up a tent outside for all of the women who were waiting today to shield them from the blistering sun! I'm sure it was already 30 degrees when we headed up there at 9am... Their patience is astounding- some women wait 3 hours to be seen, and don't ever complain. Virtually everyone here is anemic but we don't have much to give them besides prenatal vitamins and a bit of Floradix which we will run out of soon. (On a side note, my mosquito bites are SO itchy right now that I am scratching my legs off!!)
So now I am off for a nap and maybe some Haitian shopping. They have beautiful dresses here.
I hope you are all well and enjoying the cool, rainy weather! I am missing it just a bit right now... xo
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Miss U.S.A. comes to Haiti
I found it most interesting that on my second day in Haiti, I woke up to find out that Miss U.S.A. and Miss Dominican Republic were planning to fly into Jacmel in their own private jet, deliver an ultrasound machine from the 60's to the clinic, and then eat lunch with us and fly away! Their team, including their photographers and film-makers from Vancouver, arrived at 2:30pm at the clinic after walking through the tent city where 15 000 Haitian people now live until their homes can be rebuilt. Apparently Miss U.S.A. was quite lovely, I didn't actually do more than introduce myself to her! The team came to the Bumi Sehat birthing dome (which I LOVE by the way... it is so super space age!), did a bit of a photo shoot, and then literally had their private jet fly into the small aiport in Jacmel and took off to their next destination in Africa. The funniest part of all was when we opened the boxes that the ultrasound machines were in, only to find some kind of ancient ultrasound therapy machines, not at all an obstetrical ultrasound machine! Oooopsies. Apparently the real deal is on the way, and will arrive soon, which I hope is true since women are showing up every day to get access to ultrasound. Right now in Jacmel, women can pay around $30 US for an ultrasound, which might not sound like a lot, but is probably more than 1 family's income for the month.
That day was also my first day of doing the pediatric clinic at the dome. We see children up to the age of 3, once a week. There were lineups Zambia-style, all along the wall leading up to the dome, and likely 2 hour waits for the families. Most of the women and children spoke some French, but more spoke Creole so we have translaters who help us out. We saw mostly cases of impetigo (bacterial skin infections), lots of diarrhea and fever, and one hemorrhoid. One woman who had walked for likely 45min+ to get to the clinic with her sick 5-year old on her back and a ~6-month old in her arms, ended up having to be loaded onto a 'taxi', which here is actually a scooter, to take her sick son to the local hospital for a crazy high fever. Amazing! She carried her sick son down the hill to the road from the clinic while I carried her baby, and I can't even imagine what it was like to trek to us in the first place. Anyhow, it was a crazy day of pushing boundaries of my comfort zone in attempting to diagnose children's skin conditions and the sources of their diarrhea, and learning SO MUCH. The midwives here have been amazing and so patient with teaching me the ways of healthcare in Haiti! I've also been learning a lot about natural/chinese medicine treatments for different conditions, and starting to learn the ins and outs of distributing antibiotics. We gave out a lot of vitamins but unfortunately could not help the families with food.
Dinner was the feast that Miss U.S.A. was not able to eat with us due to her international engagements. I made friends with the chickens we were to eat that day and we all helped out with meal preparation. The food here rocks, I can't get enough rice and beans (but ask me again in about a week). So far so good, no gut issues for me yet!
Today we had a morning of some prenatal visits, including a woman 31 weeks pregnant with twins who was having some cramping. We saw her later on the street and luckily all had settled since we can't really deliver twins at that gestational age at the birthing centre. We then took a walk through the tent city - now housing 15 000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake. It was impressive. A sea of green army tents, each family allocated to an approximately 6ft x6ft space to live in. They had beds, and little campstoves. Various NGO's had tents set up to distribute food, and there was even a play area set up for the children. Shower tents were also set up. The situation was however quite grim - the tent interiors were stiffling and obviously not as clean as they could be. Children played with garbage bags and twine in the pathways and for some reason they kept running up to us and wanting to hold our hands or hug us. They call us 'blancs' ('whites'). We visited with a woman who gave birth on Friday in the night with a traditional birth attendant, in her tent. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Joseph. He was perfect when we examined him. I can't even write down here all of the stories that people stopped to tell us, about losing partners/family members/children in the earthquake. Despite it all, they had the biggest smiles on their faces! Incredible.
We ended the day today by taking a 'tap tap' (decorative bus!) out to the ocean. We swam in the incredible clear and warm water and soaked up some mood-boosting sun. The sand was white and soft and if you didn't know any differently you'd think you were at an expensive caribbean resort! It was amazing to relax and have time to digest all that the past 2 days have brought for me.
Tomorrow is the first day I'll be working at the prenatal clinic from 9-12, but apparently more like 9-3... Should be fun and interesting... Hope you are all well out there, I am doing just fine and meeting heaps of wonderful people.
That day was also my first day of doing the pediatric clinic at the dome. We see children up to the age of 3, once a week. There were lineups Zambia-style, all along the wall leading up to the dome, and likely 2 hour waits for the families. Most of the women and children spoke some French, but more spoke Creole so we have translaters who help us out. We saw mostly cases of impetigo (bacterial skin infections), lots of diarrhea and fever, and one hemorrhoid. One woman who had walked for likely 45min+ to get to the clinic with her sick 5-year old on her back and a ~6-month old in her arms, ended up having to be loaded onto a 'taxi', which here is actually a scooter, to take her sick son to the local hospital for a crazy high fever. Amazing! She carried her sick son down the hill to the road from the clinic while I carried her baby, and I can't even imagine what it was like to trek to us in the first place. Anyhow, it was a crazy day of pushing boundaries of my comfort zone in attempting to diagnose children's skin conditions and the sources of their diarrhea, and learning SO MUCH. The midwives here have been amazing and so patient with teaching me the ways of healthcare in Haiti! I've also been learning a lot about natural/chinese medicine treatments for different conditions, and starting to learn the ins and outs of distributing antibiotics. We gave out a lot of vitamins but unfortunately could not help the families with food.
Dinner was the feast that Miss U.S.A. was not able to eat with us due to her international engagements. I made friends with the chickens we were to eat that day and we all helped out with meal preparation. The food here rocks, I can't get enough rice and beans (but ask me again in about a week). So far so good, no gut issues for me yet!
Today we had a morning of some prenatal visits, including a woman 31 weeks pregnant with twins who was having some cramping. We saw her later on the street and luckily all had settled since we can't really deliver twins at that gestational age at the birthing centre. We then took a walk through the tent city - now housing 15 000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake. It was impressive. A sea of green army tents, each family allocated to an approximately 6ft x6ft space to live in. They had beds, and little campstoves. Various NGO's had tents set up to distribute food, and there was even a play area set up for the children. Shower tents were also set up. The situation was however quite grim - the tent interiors were stiffling and obviously not as clean as they could be. Children played with garbage bags and twine in the pathways and for some reason they kept running up to us and wanting to hold our hands or hug us. They call us 'blancs' ('whites'). We visited with a woman who gave birth on Friday in the night with a traditional birth attendant, in her tent. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Joseph. He was perfect when we examined him. I can't even write down here all of the stories that people stopped to tell us, about losing partners/family members/children in the earthquake. Despite it all, they had the biggest smiles on their faces! Incredible.
We ended the day today by taking a 'tap tap' (decorative bus!) out to the ocean. We swam in the incredible clear and warm water and soaked up some mood-boosting sun. The sand was white and soft and if you didn't know any differently you'd think you were at an expensive caribbean resort! It was amazing to relax and have time to digest all that the past 2 days have brought for me.
Tomorrow is the first day I'll be working at the prenatal clinic from 9-12, but apparently more like 9-3... Should be fun and interesting... Hope you are all well out there, I am doing just fine and meeting heaps of wonderful people.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Safe arrival
Today at about 12pm, I arrived in Port-au-Prince. The heat and humidity hit me with certain familiarity (maybe from being in Australia in the fall?). There were musicians playing their instruments and colourfully singing on and on while we waited to get on the bus that would take us through the Haitian customs. Out on the airstrip there were soldiers from a country I couldn't pin down, and U.S. Army planes taking off and helicopters landing with supplies to unload... The airport didn't have any signs of the destruction that I was soon to witness.
I picked up my bags which were miraculously totally intact despite having been searched (thank you to U.S. customs for leaving me the little 'note'). My 'team' picked me up, and I got so incredibly excited seeing my little name on a little sign with 'Bumi Sehat' written underneath! We piled into the hot car and started our journey into Port-au-Prince. All I could think to myself was 'this is worse than Zambia'. And if you would have asked me when I got home from Africa if I felt that things could get worse somewhere, I probably would have given you a definitive no. The similarities were there - women and men selling their items on the street - cd's, dvd's, fruits, clothing, water bottles. Every time the car stopped someone would walk up and try to sell us something. The difference though is that here in Haiti, the streets were in shambles. The air was thick with dust, the piles of rubble were EVERYWHERE. The palace lies toppled over to one side, an amazing site. Everywhere there are NGO's putting up tents, clearing rubble, working in the hospitals and tent clinics. I kept remembering that 250 000 people had been killed when the disaster struck, including one team member's good friend - an artist who made it out of the museum but went back in to get her laptop and was killed. He himself had a block of cement land on his leg, but he managed to heal and described his experience of bonding together with so many of the other people who were left homeless and in despair after the earthquake.
The road to Jacmel was 2.5 hours in the heat and sun along a windy mountain road. We could see the beautiful ocean and some areas of lush brush, which didn't seem to fit in with the little tent villages we ran into along the way and the constant piles of rubble that lines the roads, where houses and businesses once stood. I kept falling asleep and getting jolted awake by giant potholes. The volunteer housing is beautiful - a big pink building on the main road. I haven't been to the birth centre dome yet, but tomorrow is the first day. Tomorrow will be a prenatal class about the third trimester and signs of labour. Then a children's clinic where I will attempt to diagnose health concerns in kids over 6 weeks of age (Oh my gosh, so out of my comfort zone!!). I guess I'll do my best.
I have met my lovely co-workers - 4 other midwives from Canada and the U.S. We have awesome house helpers as well, one 15-year old named Rousseau who is planning to teach me labour words in French. I happened to fall upon this group just as they went through a huge tragedy today - losing a baby to GBS infection. The mother was 18 and lost her partner in the earthquake. He died of DIC, a bleeding disorder where the blood can't clot and results from infection. A very heavy day to arrive, but as they all informed me, this is what it means to work in this birthing centre in Haiti.
I will send another update soon.
I picked up my bags which were miraculously totally intact despite having been searched (thank you to U.S. customs for leaving me the little 'note'). My 'team' picked me up, and I got so incredibly excited seeing my little name on a little sign with 'Bumi Sehat' written underneath! We piled into the hot car and started our journey into Port-au-Prince. All I could think to myself was 'this is worse than Zambia'. And if you would have asked me when I got home from Africa if I felt that things could get worse somewhere, I probably would have given you a definitive no. The similarities were there - women and men selling their items on the street - cd's, dvd's, fruits, clothing, water bottles. Every time the car stopped someone would walk up and try to sell us something. The difference though is that here in Haiti, the streets were in shambles. The air was thick with dust, the piles of rubble were EVERYWHERE. The palace lies toppled over to one side, an amazing site. Everywhere there are NGO's putting up tents, clearing rubble, working in the hospitals and tent clinics. I kept remembering that 250 000 people had been killed when the disaster struck, including one team member's good friend - an artist who made it out of the museum but went back in to get her laptop and was killed. He himself had a block of cement land on his leg, but he managed to heal and described his experience of bonding together with so many of the other people who were left homeless and in despair after the earthquake.
The road to Jacmel was 2.5 hours in the heat and sun along a windy mountain road. We could see the beautiful ocean and some areas of lush brush, which didn't seem to fit in with the little tent villages we ran into along the way and the constant piles of rubble that lines the roads, where houses and businesses once stood. I kept falling asleep and getting jolted awake by giant potholes. The volunteer housing is beautiful - a big pink building on the main road. I haven't been to the birth centre dome yet, but tomorrow is the first day. Tomorrow will be a prenatal class about the third trimester and signs of labour. Then a children's clinic where I will attempt to diagnose health concerns in kids over 6 weeks of age (Oh my gosh, so out of my comfort zone!!). I guess I'll do my best.
I have met my lovely co-workers - 4 other midwives from Canada and the U.S. We have awesome house helpers as well, one 15-year old named Rousseau who is planning to teach me labour words in French. I happened to fall upon this group just as they went through a huge tragedy today - losing a baby to GBS infection. The mother was 18 and lost her partner in the earthquake. He died of DIC, a bleeding disorder where the blood can't clot and results from infection. A very heavy day to arrive, but as they all informed me, this is what it means to work in this birthing centre in Haiti.
I will send another update soon.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Here goes everything!
Well, time to departure is now 28 hours...
I am blown away by how many people have donated to my cost and so thrilled at how many supplies I've been able to buy to bring along! Too bad my bags will already weigh more than me, otherwise I would bring more. Rumour has it that sending stuff by freight may not get there, so loading myself up is the only way to get it there.
I only have time for a short post today, but stay tuned for an update as soon as I can when I get to Haiti. Or maybe tomorrow after my packing/breakfast party!
Now off to clinic because in typical Candace style, I am working right up until the day I leave.
I am blown away by how many people have donated to my cost and so thrilled at how many supplies I've been able to buy to bring along! Too bad my bags will already weigh more than me, otherwise I would bring more. Rumour has it that sending stuff by freight may not get there, so loading myself up is the only way to get it there.
I only have time for a short post today, but stay tuned for an update as soon as I can when I get to Haiti. Or maybe tomorrow after my packing/breakfast party!
Now off to clinic because in typical Candace style, I am working right up until the day I leave.
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