Haiti Post Jan 28 2010

Tonight, my away team returned to P au P from Leogane. Clinic this morning off to a rough start with complete lack of translators for first hour or so, combined with trouble coordinating logistics in our little tent sauna.
We saw some pretty sick little kids, but not too many, thankfully.
Stopped in Carrefour on way back for some surveillance of reported needs. Huge tent city at a place called Grace Valley church/ hospital. Thousands of people living there.
MSF had already established there it seemed.
After a very dusty, noisy, bumpy and traffic-jammed ride into base camp, we met the latest volunteer arrivals and had our first hot shower in days. Of course I can't help but think how although for us having only cold showers at the leogane camp had been "roughing it" for us, the thousands of people we just left and passed on the road had no showers, were living in improvised walls of corrugated tin sheds, dirty blankets and cardboard, and certainly no privacy were the ones really roughing it. We all have absolutely no idea what real hard times ate like. Really.
After dinner and our meeting to catch up the teams on each other's activities, I listened to one of the nurse's stories about her week here in p au p. Some very sad cases. Babies near death because mother's milk dried up after stress of earthquake and resultant displacement and lack of basic nutrition or shelter. Young girl with obvious displaced and externally rotated femur fracture who'd been without any care for 2 weeks now.
Unbeleivable things.
Apparently, she was like a new person when she received just a little morphine and Tylenol for her pain and could finally rest for a moment in relative comfort.

The people here are so resilient. Just amazing.
January 28 at 9:03pm via Facebook for iPhone