Here’s the quick recap:
• Clinics conducted? 5. Two in tent cities, 2 in rural communities outside of Port-Au-Prince, 1 church congregation
• Patients treated? 1,400
• Orphanages visited? 3
• Babies delivered? 1
• Hours in the tap-tap? 26 minimum. Still have a bruise across my lower back from the metal bar I banged against all week.
• Bug bites? 1
• Beaches visited? 1
• Sunburns? 0
• Number of roosters needing to be eaten so they would stop crowing between the hours of 10:30 pm and 4 am? 4
• Number of moments I thought “How is it possible I am here, doing this?” Every day, all day.
• Experience? Priceless
• Going back? Definitely
So there you have it. My trip to Haiti in 111 words.
But since my mom and aunts read this, and they like details, I will write a little more.
We arrived on Saturday and held our first clinic on Monday. On Sunday, we attended a Haitian church that had a 3-hour service. In Creole. Suffice to say, I understood 3 words during the whole service: Amen, hallelujah, and Facebook. (Apparently, the pastor told a joke about Facebook. Missed the joke, understood the word.) We also visited an orphanage up one of the mountains, and saw some of the earthquake devastation around Port-Au-Prince.
Monday was our first clinic day. We overlapped with another team, so we did the clinic together in a small community call Thomeauz. That’s where the baby was born who was named after my Obstetrics and Women’s Health Professor, Louise—who delivered him. Talk about crazy day! We saw around 200 patients that day. I think. It was kind of a blur. All I remember is at one point I went to find my professor because I was pretty sure my patient had some bleeding in her brain. Yes, that’s right, I remembered the questions to ask to attempt to figure out if she had a brain bleed. Apparently, I know things.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were very similar minus the delivering of babies.
Friday stands out a little more simply because it was a day where we saw more patients, and probably because we were all tired from the week. However, that was the day that I saw more serious medical conditions. I found 2 masses that were likely cancer, a case of stable/unstable angina (basically a heart attack waiting to happen), and a potential case of tuberculosis. (Which is a kind of funny, in a serious way story, that I may tell at another time.)
But, when Friday ended we got to go to the beach! It was a great way to end the week.
Here are a couple pictures from my trip.
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| Tent cities really are everywhere. |
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| Part of the Catholic cathedral that was destroyed during the earthquake. Haunting beauty. |
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| The beach! |
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| It's really a beautiful country. |
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| The tap-tap |
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| Clinic site in Thomeauz. House on the left is where the baby was born. |
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| Some of our patients. |
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| Group photo |
