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