Forget Batman and Superman

The next few days we spent learning how to take blood pressure and assisting with minor procedures. We also learned how to distribute the medicine efficiently and I learned how to speak in Kreyol to ask things like how old are you? Take these pills twice a day every day for seven days, etc. On a daily basis we see a lot of patients with parasites, Scavies, Malaria (very common), Anemia, AIDS, etc. One of the days we helped treat over 100 patients!!! On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we travel with the doctors and other medical staff to clinics in the most impoverished areas of Port Au Prince such as Cite Soleil (pronounced "city solay"). In this area, the people most often do not have clothes, shoes, or access to clean water or food. They live in makeshift tents, condemned shacks that are about as tall as me and smaller than the smallest room in many American houses but have 10 people living in them, or on the street with not even a blanket sometimes. Dr. Joey and the team bring these people free medical care and when they are not able to perform a procedure that is necessary, the team transports the patients to either a hospital or the main clinic to perform the surgeory or other procedure that is needed. He does this all out of his own pocket and donations he's received but it has become difficult for him to do since he lost both of his houses in the earthquake and supplies has greatly depleted after being used to help victims after the quake. In addition, the clinic at Delmas 33 which is the main clinic, was condemned after the earthquake so the group that I'm here working with has another division that helped to rebuild it and fix it up so that it could be used again! Although this has helped him out greatly, Dr. Joey wants to work on proposing project to Oprah and seeing if she will help with funding for supplies, and staff support since I told him that if he provides training he will be able to also provide jobs for Haitians who are not able to get jobs and are suffering (like the woman and her children I mentioned in the previous blog entry)! Dr. Joey told me he already runs free seminars to help people learn about providing medical care (and he has been great about training Doucette and I) so he agreed that would be a great idea. In the meantime I also wrote to the woman in charge of the shipment from the Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti that I was working with at home before coming here and I asked her if we could please allocate a decent amount of medical materials to his clinic so that he can continue to help bring free medical care to those in need. The woman I talked to, Aline, is here in Haiti not far from me and she and I are going to meet up to diit further but it's a great start and I'm very proud to be a part of this project! If anyone reading this has, or knows someone who has any connections to help put Dr. Joey in contact with the people he needs to in order to make his dream possible I would really appreciate any help we could get!

There is a little boy we work with at the clinic who Dr. Joey is helping to treat, his name is Owis. Owis was orphaned by the earthquake and was found with a shattered leg and amnesia. He has nerve and muscle damage to his left side which looks like he has had a stroke, but Dr. Gina and Dr. Joey have told me that it is from getting hit in the head by something during the earthquake. Thankfully, he doesn't remember the quake and the doctors think he could have some of his nerve and muscle damaged fixed with surgery but it is something he needs to go to the states to have done. Dr. Joey was able to get Owis to the states and the team at the clinic was able to get a hold of Owis's sister who can't take care of him anymore to get papers so that he can hopefully get adopted once he gets to the state. He's really a smart kid and very sweet so I hope it works out for him. Owis stays at the clinic where Dr. Joey takes care of him and the staff feed him and keep an eye on the pins and such that are sticking out of Owis's leg to try to help keep the bone in place (but we have been told they are not working and he requires major re-constructive surgery on that too once he reaches the states). It is a miracle that Owis is able to be alive and seeing him everyday is a great way to keep me going. He is a very inspiring little boy.

However, I won't be able to see Owis or the team for the next few days or weeks because I'm going to be taking a break from Dr. Joey's services and going with my three best friends here to Miami Hospital (NOT IN FLORIDA, but funded by one of the Florida universities and located inside the airport of Port-Au-Prince, 5 minutes aways from the logistic base of the UN). I will still be helping Dr. Joey via phone with plans for his project and we will be going with him to Jacmel to help teach a sex ed class and promote safe sex to help prevent the spread of disease we see day in and day out. However, I share in my friends' enthusiasm for going to the UN base because not only do we get to assist in surgical procedures by sterilizing equiptment, but we also get to learn more from the doctors and do more hands on medical care. In addition, the view of the soldiers all over the base from all over the world, won't be so bad either. Hey, we are volunteering but we still have a pulse ;) The three of them are amazing, Doucette who you have heard about, and Marie are my roommates in the house. Marie is a froggie (French Canadian) from Montreal who is probably one of the funniest people on earth. She speaks both French and English and has been here for 2 and a half monthes. Oxanna is the other part of our group and she speaks French, Kreyol, Spanish, and a little bit of English (I mostly communicate with her in Spanish). She is Haitian and lives with her mom instead of at the house but we have made her an honorary roommate, she is also a doctor!

All of us are the medical group and the rebels of the house! We like to dance and have fun when we can. There is a song here called Sak Santi Konsa Piti. It's a bit innappropriate but makes everyone laugh. The direct translation is "What's that smell" and there is a dance that goes with it. However it's referring to a specific body part on a female and the male is asking "What's that smell girl? What's that smell?" In any event, whenever we go through an area that smells terrible (there are many here due to poor plumbing and a lack of a reliable and cohesive waste management system) so sometimes we look at eachother and start laughing because all of us think of that song but none of us want to say it out loud because we want to avoid offending anyone in that area. Dr. Jackie was asking me about what Kreyol I have learned and I sang that song to him he started laughing hysterically he loves that song and now has decided that in addition to medical tutoring he is going to teach me Kreyol. In turn I will be teaching you via my blog a new word with every entry so that you can learn along with me!

As I mentioned before, We will be living on the base in a tent together so I'm not sure how much internet we will have at the base but I'll see what I can do. We will be leaving the house and taking all of our stuff out of the house with us. Although we enjoy the house, all of us are very optamistic about the change of scenery (take that however you want haha) Let's just say "Happy Birthday