If you like Pina Coladas, Getting Caught in the Rain...

You know how in some music videos or movies you see rain coming down and there are people standing in the street enjoying the rain and singing, that's exactly how it is here...NOT!

The first time I had my first experience of getting caught in the rain in Haiti, I was at the clinic and we had already finished work for the day so we were waiting to get picked up by a tap-tap to take us back to the volunteer house (before we moved in with Dwight). It started raining and everyone ran inside. I was so confused, wasn't rain a good thing? It meant water for showering, cleaning, etc. and equally important in my book, it would cool everything down! I walked out into the rain to feel it cool me off while I went to go help an elderly woman walking on the street who was pushing water toward a stream that had begun to grow in size (there is always a flow of water down the road but when it rains that obviously gets bigger). She yelled at me in Kreyol and gestured for me to go inside saying "You're crazy you're going to get wet!" I just looked at her confused thinking "Yea, it feels good nd I won't melt" but I walked back inside because it wasn't worth arguing and she didn't seem to want any help.

About 5 minutes later I saw why she wanted me out of the street and why everyone was going inside. The rain came down in sheets (just like it is right now as I'm sitting and writing this, which means I'm going to be spending the night at the clinic tonight cause that's where I am now and it's already late) and almost instantaneously the road turned into a river (literally there were rapids you could have rafted it! Can't wait to post pictures!) As this happened, people all around began running toward the street throwing trash into the "river"! Before I knew it, the "river" was carrying down bags and bags of trash quickly and other kinds of waste without bags. I watched in abject horror as 3 kids ran into the streat naked to bathe in the trash-filled-flash flood. No wonder we see so many cases of people with water parasites! But not everyone was using the street to shower, many people ran onto their roofs and bathed there some filling buckets of water to use later others just finding an area on the roof where there was a pipe they could stand under to get a nice steady flow of water.

Meanwhile the water just kept getting higher and higher and on a flooded rock/dirt road that's already uneven, there was no way to get any kind of car or truck through. This could only mean one thing, it was time to start making the trek up the raging river of trash to get to the main road where the tap-tap was waiting fo us. 2 guys from the house came to get Doucette and me so the 4 of us (Santil, Adams, Doucette and I) made our way carefully trying to stay to the sides up against the houses and avoid the water, but there was almost no way to avoid it in many areas where the water came up past my knees. All I could do was tell myself, "Just don't think about what you're stepping in", but that failed miserably. All I could picture in my head was the severed finger I had found on the road earlier that day which must have been washed onto the road from the storm the previous night (probably from underneath a pile of rubble somewhere).

Just when I thought I couldn't take the thought of walking in God-only-knows what, I looked over the ledge of the house I was clinging to and realized the inside was flooding with garbage and water. I couldn't stand the thought of walking in this for 15-20 minutes imagine how whoever lived here felt. Not just in that house, but houses all down the road had water flooding them whenever it rained (because it usually pours when it rains and when it doesn't pour, the rain just brings up heat from the ground and makes it even hotter so either way you lose).

When we finally made it to the tap-tap we were all soaked to the bone but the adventure didn't end there. Driving back to the house the tap-tap had to go through so much water I was worried we wouldn't make it (though a much more recent tap-tap experience like this one involved water coming up through the floor and into the tap-tap and the driver telling Doucette that we better pray because he had little to no control and was worried we would be spending the night in Karfu because the engine was flooding and we were basically floating down the road until we were able to get close to the back of a truck so that we could follow it and ride in it's wake!)

This tap-tap experience was also made a little scarier when a man jumped into the back of the tap-tap with us and when we tried to tell him it was a private tap-tap he flipped out and decided to single me out even though I spoke the least and the only thing I had said was "No". He started screaming obscenities at me which included comments regarding the color of my skin, but before he was able to lunge at me, Adams and Santil pulled him away from me and pushed him out of the tap-tap and wouldn't let him back on. Then they explained to me that the man was mentally unstable and was muttering to himself and I shouldn't worry about him. At that point I just wanted to get home it was more than enough excitement for me for one day!

We made it home just fine but I couldn't stop thinking about the rain. Not only does it compromise travel which causes a lot of problems on its own, but the sanitation problems that arise and bring a myriad of other problems (some as serious as birth defects like the one a little girl named Bushna, who we treat at the clinic, has. Hers prohibits her from growing or gaining weight so even though she is about 2 years old she only weighs 7.5 Kg which is roughly 16.5 lbs and it is related to a lack of clean water).

I also want to reiterate at this time that not everyone lives this way. There are people in Haiti with showers in their homes who don't shower in the streets (though some of these people may have a shower in their home and still chose to shower in the streets). Also I would like to remind you that not everyone in Haiti throws their trash into the street when it rains, there are wealthy and poor areas of Haiti just like everywhere else. But at the main clinic where I was working on this particular day that was the case. My wish is that everyone could have access to clean water and a sanitation system that would discourage people from throwing their trash into the street when it rains (or any other time for that matter), and lastly of course for better roads and a sewage system that helps prevent flooding but at the moment those feel like distant dreams so I hope to continue talks with those in the process of helping plan to come up with a solution for the problems I've mentioned in this entry. If anyone else has any solutions I'm all ears!

Just Another Day at the Beach

Perhaps I have neglected to mention a very crucial part of the Haiti experience, EXTREME HEAT! Take it from someone who is normally always cold, having a layer of skin feels like too much in this heat! There is a remedy to the heat and humidity it's called, the beach!

When Doucette and I finally convinced Dwight to take us to the beach I had no idea what I was in for. The drive was about 45 mins but luckily we were in Dwight's car not in a Tap-Tap so it was a pleasant ride. On the way, Doucette and Dwight got into a discussion about the mass graves. After the earth quake so many people were killed that there wasn't enough space to bury people so Dwight told me that the bodies were loaded into dump trucks and taken to ditches where they were dumped and covered. Dwight warned us that when driving near any of the mass graves the smell of decomposing bodies is so overwhelming that there's no way to ignore what you're driving past. He also explained that after the quake, one of the ways people were able to locate dead bodies burried underneath rubble was by following large groups of flies. Where the flies were heavily concentrated, there was usually dead bodies underneath. We didn't pass any of the mass graves on the way to the beach but we did pass a few areas where people were buried after the quake.

Upon our arrival at the beach, Doucette informed me that I had to try a delicacy known as Lan Bi. Lan Bi is conch from a conch shell and it tastes kind of like Octapus. It is very popular at the beach where it's the most fresh and where it's cooked over an open fire and covered in a sauce containing a variety of Haitian spices (but it is cooked differently depending on where you eat it). After I had already devoured a plate full of Lan Bi, Doucette and Dwight started laughing and told me that Lan Bi is notorious for being a very powerful aphrodesiac...jokes ensued. Thanks a lot guys, thanks a lot!

After eating, I went right back into the water where there was a man swimming laps. I directed Doucette's attention toward the man because I noticed right away he was very good looking. He had a tan body which he clearly took excellent care of, dark hair, and when he came closer, bright blue eyes. I didn't want to be obvious so I didn't stare but maybe he saw us looking or maybe I just stand out because I am very light, whatever the reason he came over to us and tried to talk. He was from Brasil, his name was Christiano (the same name as my favorite soccer player), and he was in Haiti working for the UN as an officer. That was about all I was able to decipher through a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish (which I learned are very different!) He was trying to talk to me beyond that and I couldn't understand him until we found a Haitian guy who spoke Portuguese and he was able to translate into Kreyol for Doucette who was able to translate into English for me (quite the process).

Christiano said to me, "You are so beautiful! I love to look at you and if you lived in my country Brasil I want to marry you and make you my wife!" This was followed by a short amount of talking before Christiano said, "I want to sleep with you tonight"...GAME OVER BRAZILIAN MAN, GAME OVER! I don't know if he ate too much Lan Bi or I ate too little, but I just walked away and left him standing there. I heard stories of UN officers attempting to proposition Haitian women for sex (Flo, Doucette, and their friends told me stories of officers coming up to them and holding out money asking for sex) but I was still caught off guard by his epic fail of a pick up attempt and all I could do was laugh hysterically and walk away.

An hour or so after shattering Christiano's ego, Aigo (Doucette's boyfriend) came running down the beach yelling for me to come with him. At first I thought he was joking then he got more insistant and said, "Lee, Doucette needs your help someone is in trouble." I ran out of the water and threw on a shirt as I continued to run down the beach baywatch style (though so much less gracefully).

About 1/2 a mile down the beach a very large crowd was gathered around a man laying on the ground and there were Brazilian UN officers controlling the scene. Although Doucette tried to help because she told me the man who was the primary on the scene was having difficulty (which became apparent later) the officers would not let her through. When they saw me, they saw that I was white and they automatically assumed I was a doctor (that happens a lot here) and they let me right in. I pulled Doucette through with me and told them if they wanted my help they had to let her come with me. Then another man stopped me and good old Christiano explained that I wasn't a doctor but I could help because I had training for this situation. One of the men spoke English so I asked him what happened.

He told me the Haitian man laying on the ground was very drunk (which I didn't need him to tell me because I could smell that he'd been drinking for hours) and that he had jumped off a pier and when he didn't come up 4 men carried him out of the water and he wasn't breathing. The man speaking told me he was a nurse so he gave the man "chest thrusts" (which could either mean CPR or maybe he meant abdominal thrusts I wasn't really sure) but he looked at me scared and in a panicked voice he said, "What do I do now?!?!" I had already been checking the man's ABC's (airway, breathing, and circulation) so I knew that he had a pulse and he was breathing. I told the man good job he's breathing now, but he's vommiting and asphixiating on vomit so we have to turn him on his side and keep his airway open. 3 officers helped me turn him on his side and keep his airway open while the others continued to help with crowd control and take pictures (which I thought was inappropriate but I had enough to do so I ignored it), and Doucette stayed back with Aigo and explained to him what was going on. I told the nurse we had to do finger sweeps because there was vomit stuck in the man's mouth and it was obstructing his airway (and I could see it to remove it).

I didn't have gloves so the nurse handed me guaze and I used that as a disease barrier while I did continual finger sweeps and kept the man's airway open using a jaw thrust. I noticed he was shaking and he had shallow breathing (he was also still very out of it) so I told the nurse that we needed to get him out of the sun, away from the crowds, and to a hospital. I also suspected he might be going into shock (shallow breathing, paling skin, and shaking are all signs of shock) so I instructed the nurse that absolutely no one was to give him food or water even though he stopped vommiting.

We lifted the man and carried him into the shade while the Brazilian nurse managed to recruit someone from the crowd that followed us to drive a car and transport the man and a small team of officers to the hospital where he could receive further medical care and observation that he needed. I instructed the nurse to keep the man's airway open and continue with finger sweeps if necessary and no food or water. I made him repeat what I told him to make sure he had heard me and was paying attention. He said thank you and they left with the man to take him to the hospital. I got a smile and a nod from Christiano before I headed to the outdoor showers to rinse off and that was the last I saw of my misguided Brazilian friend.

The rest of the day was spent swimming and relaxing before stopping in Acaye (not sure about the spelling) for dinner and dancing. A perfect end to an eventful day!

TAP-TAP Confessions!

After the last blog entry, I felt something less emotional might be a good idea. In the beginning I touched slightly on how insane the driving here is, now I'm going to go into a little more detail. The stories in this entry are all things I have witnessed from the back of a Tap-Tap or things that I have seen a Tap-Tap do.

Welcome to a world where stop lights are optional, lanes are non-existant, and pedestrians on the sidewalks are "fair game". The next time someone complains about my driving I'm going to tell them to come here!

For clarification, a "Tap-Tap" is a small truck with wooden benches lining either side of the back and soem kind of tin covering the top and sides in some way. They are usually what I would call "lest leg" cars because they are on their "last leg". Most Tap-Taps are barely held together and by some miracle they still run (most of the time). Tap-Taps are like buses in that you can call and order one to take a group to a specific location or drive a group around for the day at a set price, or you can hail one off the street (like a taxi) and ride its set route. In order to stop the Tap-Tap you use a pen attached to a piece of string to tap on the back window of the truck so that the driver knows to stop, hence the name "Tap-Tap".

When you hail a Tap-Tap off the street it's all about survival skills. Who can you beat out to get thtere first and who can you physically beat out of the way to get on. Almost every time we go by Tap-Tap, the race to get on starts about half a block away and we have to try to get on while it's still moving. Once we are on, we watch as people fist fight, push, and shove to get on and find a seat.

Once you finally get on a Tap-Tap who and who and what are you sharing it with? The answer is as many people as can humanly fit and whatever those people are carrying (that includes livestock!) Most of the Tap-Taps even have a rusty untrustworthy ledge for people to stand on and hang off the back of the Tap-Tap. I refuse to be that person after watching a man holding onto a Tap-Tap fall off and roll onto the street because the metal piece suddenly fell off! Luckily the man was ok but I will never trust those flimsy pieces of metal again!

Another day I was sitting in the back of a Tap-Tap talking to Doucette about how crazy and random driving in Haiti is. She told me it was only random because I didn't understand it but that there was actually a system. Shortly after telling me this we witnessed 2 cars get into a car accident and block off the whole street while the drivers sat there arguing. I looked at Doucette and said "Guess I'm not the only one who doesn't understand the 'system'!"

My lack of understanding Haitian driving extends to sidewalks. I always thought that if you are walking on the sidewalk you are safe from cars for I learned that this is false while Marie, Wibbins, Oksana, Doucette, "G", and I had to dive off ot the sidewalk to avoid a truck who decided that passing in the left lane was not enough, so he drove onto the sidewalk next to the left lane to pass a Tap-Tap that was stuck! Sadly I have seen many cars (including Tap-Taps I was in) do this every day and pedestrians just have to jump out of the way where ever they can to avoid being hit.

Riding in the back of a Tap-Tap yesterday on my way to work, Doucette and I saw a Bies (pronounced bees)catch on fire. A bies is a slightly more expensive (but equally run down) kind of tap-tap that is more van-like and has the doors missing. Somehow the passanger side was on fire and it was in a gas station (not somewhere I would chose to go with a car on fire, but hey, I wasn't driving) while people were trying to throw water at it so that they could put out the flames. No one appeared to be hurt, but our Tap-Tap was not sticking around very long to find out details.

One of the most "interesting" experiences I have had while riding in a Tap-Tap happened on Doucette and my way to the clinic one day. Doucette and I were the only 2 in the Tap-Tap because our group rented it out for the morning so that we could get to work. We were going up a hill that was fairly steep when all of a sudden we started sliding down it backwards. The driver pressed the brake as hard as he could and we stopped sliding temporarily but everytime he tried to press the gas we continued to slide down the hill backwards. Doucette and I tried to get out of the car but the driver told us to stay in, he told us we would be ok. There was an Iraqi UN officer standing outside and he asked us if we were ok. We said yes but he waited and watched to make sure. That was when our driver lost all control and we went careening backwards down the street and off the road onto a pile of rubble from a supermarket that had collapsed during the earthquake.

That's when the driver told us he had "transmission problems" (meanwhile his break light and oil light were both on and he clearly had no control over his car) so that's when Doucette and I got out and ignored him while he was insisting we would be fine and we should stay in the car. We watched from our position perched atop a nearby pile of rubble as the driver again attempted wedge his way off the pile of rubble and onto the street. Then, as he tried again to make it up the hill, he went all of the way backward down the road almost taking out a pedestrian and a bunch of angry cars as he did. While he continued to struggle, Doucette and I decided it was quickly time to rethink our own location due to falling rubble from what was left of the supermarket. We made our way toward the Iraqi officer who gave us a nod and left after seeing that we were ok. We were just rounding the corner when the Tap-Tap driver finally made it up the hill and made his way over to us telling us to get back in his Tap-Tap. I don't know what he was smoking but neither Doucette nor I were willing to go with him after that. There were plenty more hills busier and steeper than that one on our way to the clinic and neither of us wanted to risk staying with him for those so we called and had somebody from the house pick us up. The best part was the driver, who didn't even come close to getting us halfway to the clinic, driving back to the house and asking to be paid for his "services" YEA RIGHT! (Le Fou = he's crazy!)

Needless to say, life is never dull in the back of a Tap-Tap in Haiti!

Kreyol Word: Manifestacion (pronounced "manifestasy own" pretty much just as its spelled) and means riot

The Tip of the Iceberg

As I stated before, although Doucette and I are living with Dwight now, we are still continuing to work with Dr. Joey and Dr. Jackie at their various free clinics. We are helping them to expand their work into areas that normally don't see medicine.

For instance, we have set up a tent clinic in one of the tent cities near the main clinic. In a previous entry I talked about tent cities and some signs posted outside of them saying "We need help! Send doctors, food, water, tents, and money". We are the doctor portion of the answer for at least one of the tent cities where they had no prior access to medicine. Going into my first tent city was a very powerful experience. There were people lined up all around us waiting to get their blood pressure checked by Doucette and I and then get in to see the doctors and receive medicine. Dr. Joey and Dr. Jackie have started a new blood pressure program to treat people with high and low blood pressure so we registered over 200 people!

During a break I was able to walk around and take pictures. As far as I could see there were tents everywhere! Ironically, the landscape looked so beautiful covered with different colored and shaped tents with beautiful mountains for a back drop. But what you won't see in the photos (once I'm able to post them) is the extreme heat from the sun beating down on the tents and tarps, or the lack of clean drinking and bathing water, the lack of a waste management system so that in addition to malnourishment the people living in tent cities are at risk for an assortment of other health problems (i.e. parasites, birth defects, high infant mortality, etc.)

In addition to the problems I briefly mentioned above, another problem plaguing many residents of the tent cities and other impoverished areas in Haiti is a lack of school. I can't speak for all tent cities or all children in Cite Soliel (another area that is extremely below the poverty line) but in the tent city we were in there was no evidence of a school system in place. In Cite Soliel there are some schools but it is my understanding that in many cases a lack of funding to buy uniforms prevents a large group of children from access to education as well.

While many kids elsewhere in the world who have education available to them have a tendency to take it for granted (myself included), the children in these areas are extremely limited in what they can do during the day to keep occupied. I found a few kids with toys that seemed to bring them joy but lacking an education is a real problem that seems to only further enforce the glass ceiling that is ever present over these kids' heads.

Additionally, adults and children alike in these areas are finding other ways to entertain themselves. As Dr. Joey put it "Their choices are either having sex, listening to the radio, or having sex while listening to the radio". While sex is a healthy part of human nature, whithout taking certain precautions, sex can cause a lot of problems. Hence, the quest to promote safe sex!

I wish I could convey how many cases of STDs and infections we see on a regular basis and tell some of the stories but due to a shortage of time I suppose those will have to wait for another day. I will say that on Friday, Doucette and I were able to go into the 2 clinics Dr. Jackie and Dr. Joey run in Cite Soliel and conduct HIV testing! It was probably one of the most exciting things we have gotten to do because before Friday there was no documented information about how prevalant HIV/AIDS are in that area. After we told people their results, Doucette or Flo (one of the nurses we work with) talked to each patient about how to protect against HIV and STDs and encouraged the individual to ask any questions he or she might have. (My Kreyol is nowhere near advanced enough to have that conversation).

We were pleasantly surprised to find almost every patient we tested was negative! We only had 2 patients with results of "unkown" and 1 patient who tested positive for HIV. (I don't know the exact number off hand of how many people we tested but if I had to guess it would be around 60 or more).

I was testing one woman, and I pricked her finger and squeezed out the droplets of blood onto the test strip just like I did with everyone else. Once the test was finished I sent her away and told her that I'd call her back when I had her results. I looked at the strip a few minutes later and it had 2 lines...positive for HIV. A sheer panic shot through my body and immediately I checked my gloves for holes and made sure there was no blood on my body or clothes. Of course there were no holes and ther was no blood because I had been careful while testing her just like I was careful testing everyone else and in general working with cuts. But the reaction was so instictive, so automatic I couldn't help it. Then there was more fear...how was I going to tell this woman that she was HIV positive? How was I going to tell her that she came in for something small and her whole life was about to change?

I called Flo over to show her the results and I asked her what we should do? She said it was better if one of the doctors talked to the woman. I hate myself for feeling this way but when I heard her say that I was so relieved. I was relieved that I didn't have to be the one to tell her that her life was about to change, I was relieved I wouldn't have to see the look on her face when she found out, and most of all I was relieved it wasn't me who was HIV positive.

I heard from Flo that when the doctor told her she was completely surprised and said she had only had sex with her husband. Instead of stating what we usually find in a lot of cases with STDs (the spouse is cheating), Flo explained that there are other ways to get HIV and she told the woman about those as well and got her information so that she could continue to receive treatment she needs.

In spite of my gut reaction, I still want to continue testing people and helping with preventative medicine because my hope is that each day that we help explain how to protect from HIV will be one less person who tests positive hopefully in the future.

Dr. Joey has proposed a plan to gain access to a giant movie projector and show movies for free once a week or so in some of the tent cities to help reduce boredom and give people in those areas soemthing to look forward to. Although it's not a perfect solution to the whole problem, it will help. Being in Haiti has taught me that while it's important not to ignore the whole picture, it's also important to break it down sometimes and take wins where you can because little wins here and there add up eventually.

Kreyol Word: Kijen Ou Ye (pronounced key jay ooo yeay) means How are you?

It's been a while...

The purpose of this blog entry is to give you a brief update about what has transpired since it's been a while since my last entry and there's been a lot going on. I wish I could cover everything, but I can't so I'll just go over some of the major things in this entry and the next few entries to catch you up to speed. I want to warn you that because it has been so long since my last post, the next few entries didn't occur in chronological order but have occurred some time in the past few weeks.

First and foremost, Doucette and I moved out of the house! We are now staying with Doucette's brother, Dwight, (my Haitian brother) at his house. We will most likely be spending the remainder of our stay in Haiti at Dwight's house where we are spoiled with cold water and our own rooms! We even have pets living with us at the house including 4 dogs and a cat. We were warned at first that the dogs were mean and would tear us up because they are very protective but within about a week of us living in the house they seem to have adjusted and will now let me go outside without barking at me and pet them or roll over for a belly rub (not so tough now I guess!)

Having animals around has been good for me because I love animals and being around them makes me feel at home, but there is one animal I'm not happy to have around me. Her name is Mimi and she is the most spoiled, stuck up cat on the planet. While other cats in Haiti are starving because they can't find food, Mimi is starving because she refuses to eat anything that isn't "people food" she is literally wasting away. Not only that, but she waits by our feet while we eat meowing loudly and biting and scratching when you don't give her food. When she does get food, she shuts up long enough to eat it and then continues being the spoiled brat that she is. One day she was really getting terrible and she clawed my leg which is already full of cuts so it started bleeding. Needless to say I was not happy so I locked her in the bathroom in my room thinking she would stop after that. Somehow that psycho cat scaled the bathroom wall to a ledge where she made her way down and then scaled my bedroom door (way above the ground) to a perch where she watched us through glass and pawed at the glass wining for food still, unbelievable! I kid you not when I say that I have never been one to believe in animal abuse and this cat is testing that theory to the max! She also makes her way into my room late at night while I'm sleeping and starts meowing or clawing me so I have threatened to fry her up with some nice picklees (Haitian spices) and serve her to people who are hungry (though to be honest she wouldn't even feed one person she is that snobby about her food!) I have learned to get her away for short periods of time by spraying her with water (it annoys her but doesn't hurt her so I feel O.K. about doing it). Ironically the same solution I used when boys at the house were peeping through our window while we were changing (I took a spray bottle and sprayed them so they would stop peaking through! haha).

Luckily my time with Mimi is fairly limited because Doucette and I are busy most of the days going to work. Although we moved out of the house, Doucette and I are continuing our work with Dr. Joey and his staff at the various clinics (mostly in Cite Soliel). We plan to expand our work so that we can also work with the Red Cross during the week when we are not at the clinic and then help with HIV/AIDS and STD prevention on the weekends by working with the CDC (Center for Disease Control) or a few other groups in teaching sex ed classes to people, handing out condoms, providing testing and medication for HIV and medication for STDs to those who need it. At the clinic we are still working in with Dr. Joey I have been learning so much. In addition to the medical work Doucette and I were doing before, Dr. Joey and Dr. Jackie have me sitting in on incisions they are doing so that I can learn to souture (I still need some practice on a Chicken before I can do those on a human), inserting IVs, sitting in on diagnoses so I can see and hear symptoms for diseases that are common here (lots of scavies, malaria, and TB), and a variety of other medical procedures. I am very excited about the work we are doing and although there have been days that are hard, my enthusiasm for the work has not died out in the least!

Especially after having some unfortunate experience with sickness myself, I understand a little bit what some of the patients we see are going through and I am so thankful to be a part of the effort to bring them medication. Unfortunately, even though I have tried to take every precaution possible (unlike Doucette who at a Pattie from a street vendor in Cite Soliel and got sick that way), I somehow managed to get a terrible case of food poisoning and lucky me, I had parasites at the same time (Joy of all joys!) Without going into too much detail, I will say it was an extremely unpleasant experience but I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Joey there to give me medicine for both so I am feeling much better now! I hope to stay healthy the rest of the trip and continue to enjoy the rich food and culture Haiti has to offer!

I want to finish this entry by promising that I will try to continue updating the blog but now that we live with Dwight internet is even more limited and we have to go to an internet cafe to pay for internet where we may or may not have it available. At the moment one of Doucette's friends is lending me the internet at his house so I can post a few entries today but I apologize in advance if there are long periods of time between posts in the future or for the mass posts like the one today. If you have any comments or questions please let me know any suggestions on something you would like to hear more about or less about I will try to take into consideration! Other than that, hope you are enjoying the blog!

Kreyol Word: Ou Fou (pronounced oo fooo) means "You're crazy"

You Bite Me I Bite Back!!!

As some of you may have heard, Haiti is still experiencing after shocks and storms. The after shocks are not that bad, it is just every once in a while there is random shaking. I usually don't even feel it but many of the Haitians that do are extremely terrified and run out of their homes into the street at the first sign of shaking it is very scary for them. Our cook was in the upstairs bathroom when we had one of the after shocks and he came running down to tell us the toilet shook! One of the Russian guys in the house started laughing and teased him that it wasn't the after shook it was what he was doing that made the toilet shake haha!

The storms usually come at night and are good for cooling off, but terrible for what they do to the camps. One of the first storms caused a lot of trouble at Miami hospital. When I went with Marie to get her belongings and look around Miami Hospital we met with the head of the OR who is our P.O.C. (point of contact) and she told us that the OR is down because the storm caused water to mix with the electricity and there was a fire in the OR so they were working to repair and reopen it while we were there. Sandra, our P.O.C., told us that she will probably need us to stay and help out for at least a month so I worked everything out so that we are scheduled to go to Miami Hospital after Marie leaves because that way we can finish up working with Dr. Joey some more and spend more time with Marie before she
leaves next week ;(

How much are Doucette, Oksana, and I going to miss our little French Canadian friend you ask? We don't have T.V. in Haiti so Marie is basically our entertainment. Sometimes she doesn't even mean to be entertaining, I'll just walk into the room and she will be doing something ridiculous like chasing random flies and mosquitoes in our room with bug spray while screaming in her French accent "YOU BITE ME AND I BITE YOU BACK MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Usually when this happens I have learned to get out of the way or I get soaked in mosquito repellent while she yells, "NO ONE IS SAFE!!!!" If you have ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the dad in it is obsessed with Windex which he uses on everyone for everything, Marie is the same way with bug spray! Yes, we will miss our beloved roommate dearly!

But what does she do when she do when she isn't in bug zapping mode? She works at the clinic with us and helps translate when needed. The other day she helped me to work with a man who came to us and told us that he had been unable to feel better since losing his two young cousins in the earth quake. He pulled out pictures and showed us these two adorable kids while we talked to him and taught him ways he could try to feel better and develop support groups. He told me that was the first time anyone listened to him and he felt so good that he wanted to talk to me every day! I told him that I would talk to him whenever we were at the tent clinic he was close to and he seemed very relieved and optimistic to have someone to talk to. It was
very rewarding.

As a matter of fact, many of the recent days have brought successes such as that man, but one of my favorite success stories is about a woman named Roseline. Rosie, as she likes to be called, speaks English so I was able to talk to her without a translator! She to the clinic complaining of lack of sleep, headaches, and stress due to her son who displays traits of both ADHD and Autism. I didn't talk to her son as much, instead I focused on her. She opened up to me and explained that her house collapsed during the earthquake killing four people as it came down. There were four people who were renting from her and she has been carrying around guilt since the quake because she felt that the house she built was what killed them. She said that when she tried to talk to people about how she was feeling they told her that she should care more about losing her house than about the people it killed but that didn't sit well with her. After the quake, she told me that people she once considered her friends looted her house with her and her son inside and she felt powerless and scared for her and her son's life. She also felt so alone, telling me, "Before the quake I was Mom to everyone, after the quake no one came to me and asked 'how are you doing Mom?' Or told me they were glad that I was ok. If I died in the quake who would notice who would care? I'm so sad all of the time and I feel like I have no control over my life or Richie anymore. I can't even look at my house. I take other ways on the street to avoid passing it and when I have to pass it I cover my eyes so I don't have to see the place where my house killed people I ate with,
slept with, talked with, etc every day."

She started crying and I did something a little un-orthadox. I reached out my hands for her to hold and told her that her story meant something to me and that I was thankful she and Richie were OK. I also told her that if there was ever another earth quake I would notice if she went missing because she could always write to me and keep in touch. She told me that was exactly what she needed to hear and no one said it. I promised her that I would write her story here for all of my family, friends, and the world to see so that everyone would know and care if anything happened to her. She gave me a huge hug saying over and over, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I also told her that she needed to stop blaming herself, she did not cause the earthquake and the deaths were not her fault. We discussed some other things going on and I told her that I would see her the next day.

Yesterday she came back to the clinic to talk to me. She told me that after talking to me the day before, she was able to go to her house for the first time since the quake and look at it without crying. She said she spent hours in front of her house planting flowers on her lawn to commemorate the people who died inside of it when it collapsed. She told me she did not feel sad or feel like crying she felt relieved and she finally felt some closure. She also told me that she thought about it and decided that she wanted to live with her sister in New York for a little while so that her son could receive some treatment and schooling he needed and that she was going to try to help the family of one of the people who died in her house.

All in all, the days have gotten better now that I am used to the routine and I feel like I have been able to help people and I cannot wait to continue to help more in the days and months to come!

Kreyol Word of the Day: mwen renmen ou (mwoy ray-mayo) I Love You

My Night as Haitian Pop Artist Arm Candy

Although the plan for my birthday was to go to Miami hospital, that ended up not working out due to transportation complications so instead we got the day to sleep which turned out fine by me because I needed the sleep! At our nightly meeting, one of the guys in the house announced to the entire group that it was my birthday and everyone sang to me. It was so sweet!

The next day we didn't go to Miami Hospital either. Instead the whole house was called to help unload a ship full of supplies that we got in. We were there for the entire day until we were finally able to take a Tap Tap (Haitian cab/bus) home. I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was shower and sleep but my roommates had other plans.

They convinced me to go out and we got ready in a hurry. Yes, that's right, I GOT READY IN A HURRY AND DIDN'T MAKE PEOPLE WAIT (to my Mom, Nana, and anyone else who knows me well, I have been the cleanest roommate and I have always been on time which Doucette, Marie, and Oksana will all back me up in saying!) We were going to see a Haitian concert which is actually called a "ball". It's a little more fancy than a concert and slightly smaller, but not by much. This was a black and white party which meant everyone needed to be dressed in black and white, and it was the first ball or decent sized gathering of any kind since the earthquake hit so it was a very big deal. The main artist was a guy named Shabba who is very famous here in Haiti and, as it turns out, internationally. As it also turns out, Shabba is a good friend of Oksana's! Shabba showed up to the house and picked us up in his very nice car to drive us to his own concert...AWESOME!!!

Oksana insisted that I sit in the front so that I could talk to Shabba more and enjoy the air conditioning (also amazing)! As we neared the area where the concert was being held, there was a police check point. Shabba didn't want to be late so he used a Haitian driving solution to solve the problem, made his own lane and bipassed traffic. As we were about to get stopped by the checkpoint, Shabba turned on his light and the officer looked inside to see who it was..."SHABBA!!!" Thus began the mad frenzy and amateur paparazzi. People all around flocking to look inside the car, trying to run up and shake his hand through the driver's side window etc. Another girl came up to the window and was talking to him (he seemed to know her) and as she talked to Shabba, she inspected the four of us up and down and glared at each of us as if we were taking her man away from her haha.

We finally parked the car and made our way to the door with Shabba grabbing my hand and ushering me into the VIP area backstage. He had the four of us sit backstage where we could enjoy the show and beverage services (though to be honest, all of us were too tired to drink alcohol so we just ordered water to try to stay hydrated). In spite of the extreme heat and massive amounts of sweat pouring out of every pore, the concert was amazing. The music, the dancing, the vibe from all the people was just really amazing! On top of everything else, Shabba announced to the entire concert that he wanted to say "Happy Birthday Lee!" and mentioned me a few times it was incredible! I was standing right there when he said it too because the backstage area was basically listening and dancing on stage (I can't wait to upload my pictures so I can show you what I mean!)

At one point while we were taking a break and sitting under the fans to try and cool off a little bit, I heard a woman speaking English. I went over and struck up a conversation only to find out she was an American from California who is in Haiti to help work with an orphanage. I told her what we were doing here and she was very interested in connecting to try to help Dr. Joey make other connections to further promote Haitians helping other Haitians.

While she and I were having an in-depth conversation about the organization we have seen in this country, (or in many cases, the lack there of), a man came up to me to shake my hand. I shook his hand, smiled. introduced myself and asked his name. He told me his name was "T poosh" and I said "nice to meet you" in French and than turned back to continue my conversation. Everyone in the room started laughing including "T poosh". Apparently, he is a big deal and I had no idea haha! He was one of Shabba's co-artists and wrote all of the songs for the band as well...OOPS! My lack of knowledge of his identity didn't seem to phase him as he continued to talk to me. He then went up to Oksana (who he already knew) and told her, "I like your friend, she's amazing and beautiful". He told me to listen to the music that he would play something for me. The concert was amazing and the music was just what all of us needed to unwind.

As we left with Shabba at the end of the night T Poosh came up to me and told me, "You are my queen my beautiful queen, please go on a date with me!" Although it was probably one of the cheesier lines I've heard, I thought he was very sweet. I have not been able to go on a date with him due to extenuating circumstances in the house but that didn't stop the offer from being flattering. In all I would have to say this was probably one of the best birthdays of all time! What a great night!