Passe Catabois, Ti Visit

So spent a good five days in Passe Catabois. It’s always worth the trip. I always feel so many emotions coming back. We had such a good visit just sitting and talking with so many people, blan and Haitian alike; making a few house visits and walking around the community seeing what trouble we could find... That’s what I love about Haiti; it is perfectly reasonable to spend an afternoon sitting and chatting with people about how they are and what’s been going on. Leah had some brainstorming meetings to try to figure out kids camp for the summer and I chatted a lot with Miss Jacqui, the Dutch nurse who is here again working her guts out with Anne Marie and Michael and Esther. I love and respect them all for all that they stick out and all they sacrifice. It’s a hard life.

I hang around the hospital a lot and as always see the worst medical cases as poverty and lack of medical care is rampant. A seven year old girl with Tb in her spine so she will be hunched over all her life; but who is also maybe the most joyful girl I’ve been around in a while. After almost 2 months of treatment she is running around pretending she is a nurse. And also a 3-year old boy who had all of the skin burned off his right lower leg in a fire; who will be there for the long haul as skin grafting is not possible. A 7-month old girl with Kwashiorkor malnutrition whose mother (age 15) hasn’t had breast milk in many months. Medical issues plus social issues plus life in Haiti makes everything so difficult. And as always, people with severe TB, HIV, and difficulties with labor and deliveries.