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.