Arrived in Haiti post Earthquake Jan 24 2010

End of 2 long days melted into one. Tired. Wounds abound, physical and mental, but the Haitian people are so stoic and resilient. Living on the streets, in tents, somehow still smiling from time to time. Hm.
January 24 at 6:44pm via Facebook for iPhon

From Haiti Jan 25 2010

There was a 'manifestation' today down the street where we were working in the tent city.(that's essentially a march or protest)
The people running through the street held signs saying they need food and water. They also said, "stop the corruption".

There actually is food and water getting in via several organizations, as is the medical care. But it does not reach everyone equally and quickly, because there is too much need and very widespread. The problem is more that transport and distribution of goods is slow and difficult- and there are just so very many displaced people to take care of.

We sat in traffic for 3hrs this morning en route to our site. It is normally only a 1 h ride. The dust and pollution is terrible.

But people had fruit and foods for sale on the roadside, clothing, and gasoline. There is an enormous gasoline tanker ship docked at the port. We have met Canadian medical people who've set up a mobile surgical hospital among the rubble. The Japanese set up an xray facility near that. There are docs from Israel everywhere. The other relief groups we've seen from various places have been generous in sharing meds and supplies, and we do the same. Things are really going quite well when you consider how many different people are here and that none had really communicated with the other before coming.

Tonight we are camped in a Mennonite compound in leogane. They fed us all, and opened their bathrooms and showers to us.
Every evening, they turn on their generator and are running a water purification system which then is accessible for free to the public for several hours.
One of the men here says ( when I asked him how long he forsees the rebuilding and recovery of the homes/ bldgs/ streets here) that it will likely be impossible. That people will have to just abandon and go to other parts of Haiti. Too much rubble- much of it huge chunks of concrete and rebar- no good way to remove or break it down easily. I don't know. I think many will stay and live around and among it.
But right now, no one will sleep indoors anyway, out of fear.

Including our hosts here--and us.
Understandable.
January 25 at 6:28pm via Facebook for iPhone

Haiti Jan 26 a

Today was a long, hot and humid one in Leogane. So busy I did not have time to take but one photo. There was a meeting of sorts with the UN reps and many reps from NGOs who've set up here--- try to assess, share, communicate and collaborate efforts. We sent Tony, our logistics guy. Then later today, about a half mile from our clinic site the Marines set up a heli landing and opened a warehouse/depot of sorts where orgz can come and donate, exchange, procure vmeds, MREs, and equipment that they may need. They are acting as a liason between groups to identify where needs are and where excesses are so things can be better distributed. We hope to acquire some albuterol inhalers, saline and a few other things there tomorrow.
I saw a Spanish red cross truck filling to water storage tanks right ndxtdoor to us today. This is good-- for the 100's of people living there in the former stadium.
January 26 at 5:17pm via Facebook for iPhone

Haiti Post Jan 26 2010

Bedtime now. Hope for NO natural alarm clock tomorrow! We are treating lots of wounds as they heal( or not) , the secondary infections, the diarrhea, vomiting,asthma ( dust EVERYWHERE), fever and lots of babies today. Most not gravely ill now but always a few who need real help for sure. Part of our team went to 2 smaller remote villages this afternoon and found people with injuries from the earthquake who still had had no access to medical care even 13 days out now. Several finger and toe amputations had to be done, but went well. These people are so tough! You can imagine they must have been in a lot of pain for days and days. Without even Tylenol or ibu. We have that ( most of the time) plus some other stronger meds and good old lidocaine!

---just felt another tiny tremor---so strange .

We need scalpels, inhalers, splint materials, minor surgical instruments, and maybe some ronguers would be helpful.

Pediatric things very useful, too!

The city is a mess, but bustling again for sure. We still see people hunched inside collapsed bldgs sorting through rubble. Sad, and dangerous. You can tell which flattened bldgs still have bodies in them by the smell. But this means that there are also many areas that no longer smell like death.

The tent cities remind me of pics I've seen of India. Tarps, boards, anything utilized. Trash everywhere, although you do see trash cleanup ongoing. Only this is not how they have always lived. It's new, it's sudden, and it's likely going to be prolonged.

Compare to ground zero in NY: this is same devastation spread over many kilometers. People' s homes gone along with their families, business places and landmarks.

But, on a bright note, it feels good to be here doing whatever we can. The people are lovely.
If they can persevere, of course we will, too. We get to go home after.
January 26 at 7:28pm via Facebook for iPhone

Haiti Post Jan 27-- 2010

Spent a while this am doing a little networking around leogane, trying to find some meds and deliver others . Met Canadians, the marines, and the wonderful team over at FLIS, also known as world wide village. They have a very impressive operation going there at one hell of a major tent city. Some pics to follow.
Good and nonstop day at clinic site-- hot, hot, hot and humid! But we all smell pretty badly so no one cares. Today, the UN or someone was distributing boxes of food and water to the people, so there were armed guards(army or marines I think) blocking off the streets to control flow in and out. Razor wire barricades. Line of people waiting for these handouts was so long, but it all went off fairly uneventfully from what we saw. Sometimes guards had to escort people out with their boxes to prevent them from being mugged for them, but it worked.
Saw for the third day in a row a girl with awful infected foot wound, who had been sent twice to hospital stations around town but never seemed to get treated. Dont know if she was being turned away or just not going or just didnt really understand the gravity of wound/-- or just didnt understand her instructions. Logistics and communication is a challenge here for sure. Finally, a nurse from the WWV camp came by at the fortuitous moment that she was back again ( and getting worse) and I showed her to him. He actually took her himself back to their hospital right then and there to get the care she's needed. Hope they can save her foot. But after meeting those guys this morning and seeing their setup and dedication, I this time have full faith that she will be taken care of.
This eve Dr Morsch (HTH founder and operations commander here in Haiti ) brought film crew around and they interviewed some of us. They now call me ' Indiana jen'-- mostly cause I looked pretty rough at the end of the day and was wearing a funky hat. I'll take it, though! They are gathering some pretty powerful stories from the locals as well as the volunteers. Can't wait to see the end product.
We've been staying at a Mennonite compound that is actually girl's shelter primarily. They continue to blow us away with their hospitality, and one of the American girls, Abigail, is fast becoming the best wound nurse in town! She is only 18 but so sharp and on the ball. This young lady will undoubtedly be headed to nursing school someday. And will already have such fantastic experience.
Looks like this team will be heading back to our main camp base back in Port au Prince sometime tomorrow afternoon. Time to regroup, restock/ raid base supply hold, and send off the next team to Leogane on Friday.
We'll do work in P au P Friday and maybe wash some clothes!
I leave Saturday, and I wish I could stay on longer. But going hone will give me a chance to pack a few things differently next time, ho read up on sone tropical medicine and some wound care, and be even more useful next trip. I do feel I've been well-utilized here, and that is good. I go to bed tired and wired (which is why writing this is good for me) and wake up refreshed and ready. It's a nice way to live, actually.

Jen

January 27 at 7:44pm via Facebook for iPhone

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

Haiti Post Jan 27 2010

pent a while this am doing a little networking around leogane, trying to find some meds and deliver others . Met Canadians, the marines, and the wonderful team over at FLIS, also known as world wide village. They have a very impressive operation going there at one hell of a major tent city. Some pics to follow.
Good and nonstop day at clinic site-- hot, hot, hot and humid! But we all smell pretty badly so no one cares. Today, the UN or someone was distributing boxes of food and water to the people, so there were armed guards(army or marines I think) blocking off the streets to control flow in and out. Razor wire barricades. Line of people waiting for these handouts was so long, but it all went off fairly uneventfully from what we saw. Sometimes guards had to escort people out with their boxes to prevent them from being mugged for them, but it worked.
Saw for the third day in a row a girl with awful infected foot wound, who had been sent twice to hospital stations around town but never seemed to get treated. Dont know if she was being turned away or just not going or just didnt really understand the gravity of wound/-- or just didnt understand her instructions. Logistics and communication is a challenge here for sure. Finally, a nurse from the WWV camp came by at the fortuitous moment that she was back again ( and getting worse) and I showed her to him. He actually took her himself back to their hospital right then and there to get the care she's needed. Hope they can save her foot. But after meeting those guys this morning and seeing their setup and dedication, I this time have full faith that she will be taken care of.
This eve Dr Morsch (HTH founder and operations commander here in Haiti ) brought film crew around and they interviewed some of us. They now call me ' Indiana jen'-- mostly cause I looked pretty rough at the end of the day and was wearing a funky hat. I'll take it, though! They are gathering some pretty powerful stories from the locals as well as the volunteers. Can't wait to see the end product.
We've been staying at a Mennonite compound that is actually girl's shelter primarily. They continue to blow us away with their hospitality, and one of the American girls, Abigail, is fast becoming the best wound nurse in town! She is only 18 but so sharp and on the ball. This young lady will undoubtedly be headed to nursing school someday. And will already have such fantastic experience.
Looks like this team will be heading back to our main camp base back in Port au Prince sometime tomorrow afternoon. Time to regroup, restock/ raid base supply hold, and send off the next team to Leogane on Friday.
We'll do work in P au P Friday and maybe wash some clothes!
I leave Saturday, and I wish I could stay on longer. But going hone will give me a chance to pack a few things differently next time, ho read up on sone tropical medicine and some wound care, and be even more useful next trip. I do feel I've been well-utilized here, and that is good. I go to bed tired and wired (which is why writing this is good for me) and wake up refreshed and ready. It's a nice way to live, actually.

Jen

January 27 at 7:44pm via Facebook for iPhone