Haiti---the first 24 hours

What a whirlwind 24 hours getting to Haiti was!

Overslept in the morning, literallyt ran out of the hotel to the shuttle, leapt out of the shuttle at the airport, ran through bag check with handlers throwing our luggage on the rack without even weighing it (What a GREAT way to avoid overweight fees when you wait until the last minute!!), sprinted through security and the terminal to get to the gate to......sit for 20 minutes before boarding!  HA!!  That's what happens when you oversleep!

There are roughly 50 (maybe?) people here in the lobby, all wearing the colorful green wristbands that identify us as Project Medishare volunteers.  They are not panting and sweating like Gina and I are, but we're all the same here.  Doctors, nurses, therapists, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, lab techs.....all of us heading to Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince.  Seems like a great group of people at first glance.  LOTS of people holding their pillows, though.  Never thought to bring one.... maybe next time!

Th flight down in benign.  Just over an hour long, just enough to remind me that I can't really slkeep on this flight without interuption.  Approaching Port-au-Prince is amazing!  The mountains and the views are stunning, something I paid less attention to last time (from an aisle seat) and you truly have no idea that you're about to land in an earthquake recovery zone.  That all changes REALLY quickly when we hit the ground.  Campas music from several musicians greet all of us.  VERY colorful, lively, spirited music!  So entertaining! 

We wind up getting shuttled to the terminal for customs, baggage claim, and meeting the rest of the handlers.  Fortunately, all of our gear and equipment made it intact, and no bribes paid out to claim anything.  A couple of times we had close calls from a handler that wanted to "help out".  The Medishare locals are quick to squash any "helpers" from coming along and helping themselves.  We take a while to gather all of our gear and walk across the parking area to load our things into a cargo truck.  This is chaotic as children are along the outside of the fence yelling to us for anything....money, water, food....money mostly.  One couple not with us walks to the fence with a fistful of ones and starts handing them out through the fence.  This nearly sets off a riot as more kids rush the fence.  Then the adults storm the fence pushing the kids out of the way to get their money, too.  Later, the couple gets warned about doing that being a HUGE safety issue.  Sure enough, they do it again 5 minutes later!  Surprise for them....when they try it again for a third time, security people have to come by and rescue them!

The drive to Bernard Mevs Hospital is an adventure, like most of driving in Haiti.  The trip to the hospital is a familiar one, along the same filth-covered roads as in March, lined with tent cities, concrete rubble, wild animals, and street vendors.  Traveling these roads is a harrowing experience, but we mke it to the hospital in one piece.

The hospital is like most buildings here....showing the wear and tear survival marks from the earthquake and the toll of the weather and poverty.  Somehow, it meets some of the needs of the people here, and there are success stories that leave here.  A quick glance makes you wonder how true this really is....

There is an announcement that a small group of nurses is needed in st. Marks, devastated by cholera.  Team Canada, with its 7 nurses volunteer for this, encouraged by the beachfront an the prospect of day shift.  Minus these nurses, it is easy for Gina and I to get nights in the PICU/NICU with 2 other nurses.  Jerome and Anne are transport RNs and we become fast friends.  Dr. Ed from Team Canada in the physician-du-jour and our first night promises to be entertaining and quite the learning experience.

Combined, the PICU/NICU holds 20 kids or so.  Hydrocephalus seems to be the hot dx around here, and there is no shortage here.  One kiddo is particularly sick, warranting a lot of attention.  Tonight was an IV skills day...UGH!!!  Not a ton of supplies, and the kiddos here are just as squirmy as in Boston.  Shocker.... The rooms are also filled with family members, camping underneath the beds, propped up in chairs, actively involved in cares.  They are a particularly demonstrative group, these families....praying, singing, praying and singing some more, and after all of that, a bit more singing. 

The haitian nurses work hard here.  I don't know what their role is truly supposed to be.  The expectations here are not like they would be in Boston ot the US.  That being said, they are pleasant and caring, tolerant of the ever-changing supply of volunteers from the US.  I cannot bring myself to criticize their efforts.  As a visitor in their homeland, I cannot fathom what it takes to live, work and survive here.  It is humbling to be here working with them. 

We survive the first night without a whole lot of drama.  One child likely will not survive the day, having barely survived the night.  The next challenge of sleeping during the day is all the more promising thanks to the intermittently running, but cool-when-it-does air conditioning.  I overhear someone actually complain about being cold sleeping during the night.  REALLY??  Who, but an American, would actually complain about being cold IN HAITI!!!  Just sayin'....