Friday May 28, 2010

This week, Sara and her brother AJ came in on Monday. Dustin and I went into town to pick them up, which tested our patience a little bit. We got the tap tap that stopped every five minutes to pick someone or something up, then had to be push-started every time to restart the engine. This was all after waiting in the hot sun for an hour in Passe Catabois while the back of the pick up filled with people, which is normal. Then to make the ride even better, the truck ran out of gas just before the big river crossing to Port de Paix. So we opted (a wise choice) to walk the rest of the way to the airport and take a canoe across the river instead of waiting in the hot sun (again) for gas to arrive. The ride back home was not much better (which included an old lady vomiting over the side) but one thing is always true: insight to the Haitian is found in the back of the tap tap. Jokes, talk, philosophy, you get it all, which is always an educational experience. Needless to say we were burnt and all had sore butts, but Sara and AJ arrived well!

The rain continues. Almost everyday some form of wetness falls from the sky. The land is GREEN. Wednesday, Sara, Esther, and I got caught in a downpour after making trip across the street to the bakery. We had to camp out beneath Madam Jal's store (sticks and a tarp) while the street turned into a rushing river of mud. But alas, after twenty minutes, the sun is out and we were able to slop through the mud back home.

Had a patient on Wednesday that horrified us all. A fourteen year old boy came with "vomiting and diarrhea". He had been sent by another rural dispensary after they saw they could do nothing more. As the rest of the crew went to help this boy at the clinic, Annelies and I finished rounds at the hospital. By the time I got back to the clinic, there were IVs and meds running on the boy but it was obvious he was taking his last breaths. I wasn't there two minutes and his very last breath came. It was obvious something else was going on - something that seemed to be so difficult to get out of the family. His face was so skeletal looking and some talk of poisoning was being tossed around. It's so hard to tell what the truth is here, but yeah...a fourteen year old boy died. The brother's wailing and flailing about (rolling on the ground and running up and down the road) brought the whole town to come and watch. Just another horrid scene for the books...