December 29, 2014
Hi from Haiti!
I was planning on writing blog posts every night, but Michelle and I have been struggling with quite a few distractions - sharing a room where we'd rather socialize than sit in silence and write..and once again sharing a room with a lizard that about gave us a heart attack when it shot out from behind the curtain. So now we're staring intently at the wall trying not to lose sight of it. Should be a fun night!
Well today was interesting to say the least. Cars here like to step on the gas and honk their horns just for fun, so we had a peaceful 6am wake up. We expected to be in the hospital at 7, but going along with the theme of everything starting late, we soon found out that meant breakfast at 8:30 and heading downstairs at 9. It was completely packed compared to yesterday, which we learned is common for the mornings. We briefly met with one of the doctors and were told we would spend the morning observing the nurses in the "ER", a very small room with two beds. I think Minel did a good job of explaining that we only have one semester of med school under our belts, and while we're very willing and excited to learn and be useful, we can't really be left to fend for ourselves. Even though all we did was observe, the morning definitely had some challenges. We weren't following the English speaking doctors like we anticipated, but it seems like the nurses run the ER, where the cases that are probably most beneficial for us to see occur. But I quickly learned I had no way of knowing what was wrong with each patient, and hadn't looked up how to ask. Thank god Michelle knows some French (more than she thinks she does) and we were able to communicate at least a little with the nurses. Enough to learn that of the first two patients we saw, one was in the early stages of cholera, while the other had AIDS and tuberculosis. It's crazy to think how different the diseases are in different countries...having AIDS or cholera in Haiti really takes no one by surprise.
Side note: in Haiti, when someone is brought to the hospital, they are expected to bring at least one family member with them. They have to provide the majority of the medical supplies, as well as cook and clean/do laundry for the patient. It's such a foreign concept to me, and seems to add to the chaos when patients bring multiple at a time. ALSO, if a patient passes away, the family is expected to deal with the body and take it away from the hospital. We have yet to witness this, but it's a good example of a lot of the cultural differences in medicine between Haiti and the US.
I was planning on writing blog posts every night, but Michelle and I have been struggling with quite a few distractions - sharing a room where we'd rather socialize than sit in silence and write..and once again sharing a room with a lizard that about gave us a heart attack when it shot out from behind the curtain. So now we're staring intently at the wall trying not to lose sight of it. Should be a fun night!
Well today was interesting to say the least. Cars here like to step on the gas and honk their horns just for fun, so we had a peaceful 6am wake up. We expected to be in the hospital at 7, but going along with the theme of everything starting late, we soon found out that meant breakfast at 8:30 and heading downstairs at 9. It was completely packed compared to yesterday, which we learned is common for the mornings. We briefly met with one of the doctors and were told we would spend the morning observing the nurses in the "ER", a very small room with two beds. I think Minel did a good job of explaining that we only have one semester of med school under our belts, and while we're very willing and excited to learn and be useful, we can't really be left to fend for ourselves. Even though all we did was observe, the morning definitely had some challenges. We weren't following the English speaking doctors like we anticipated, but it seems like the nurses run the ER, where the cases that are probably most beneficial for us to see occur. But I quickly learned I had no way of knowing what was wrong with each patient, and hadn't looked up how to ask. Thank god Michelle knows some French (more than she thinks she does) and we were able to communicate at least a little with the nurses. Enough to learn that of the first two patients we saw, one was in the early stages of cholera, while the other had AIDS and tuberculosis. It's crazy to think how different the diseases are in different countries...having AIDS or cholera in Haiti really takes no one by surprise.
Side note: in Haiti, when someone is brought to the hospital, they are expected to bring at least one family member with them. They have to provide the majority of the medical supplies, as well as cook and clean/do laundry for the patient. It's such a foreign concept to me, and seems to add to the chaos when patients bring multiple at a time. ALSO, if a patient passes away, the family is expected to deal with the body and take it away from the hospital. We have yet to witness this, but it's a good example of a lot of the cultural differences in medicine between Haiti and the US.
The woman with AIDS had about three family members with her, and the nurse explained that while she had been diagnosed 7 years ago, she had stopped taking her medication and managed to keep the news of her condition from her family until today. In other words, we witnessed a daughter and sister (our guess, we weren't positive about the relationship), being told that their 44 year old family member not only has AIDS, but had kept it a secret for 7 years. It was extremely sad and really made me realize the extent of some pretty severe diseases here.
Then the real fun came...between the heat, being in a very small room, and most likely being dehydrated, one second I was watching an IV being started, and the next I was telling Michelle I was sure I was about to faint (I've never been queesy about blood or medical things so I refuse to blame it on that haha). I sat down until the dizziness went away and Michelle came to my rescue with water while the nurses stared trying to figure out what was going on. So that was embarrassing, and happened again about two more times in the next few hours, so fingers crossed I redeem myself tomorrow.
We went up to the apartment for a break around lunchtime and had some time to chat with Daphline before we ate. Her English is great, and we talked all about normal 13 year old girl things like what games we play on our iPads, Miley Cyrus, and of course, Edward vs Jacob. Her sister is in college in Florida, and it was really interesting to hear her comparison of the US and Haiti. She pointed out that there are no malls or movie theaters to go to if she wants to go out somewhere to have fun. Thinking of myself at that age, those were really the types of things I took for granted, and probably still do.
After lunch (lunch breaks are extremely long here), there weren't many patients in the hospital so Minel took us on a tour of a small area of Fond-des-Negres. I can't get over how extremely happy everyone is here for the most part. Tons of people were outside their houses and we got very friendly greetings from everyone we walked past. We stopped at Deniese's aunt's house and were served some Haitian beer and "French sausage", and then visited her mom's house. The majority of Deniese's family lives on one big piece of property, which I think is pretty cool..we've learned that family is very important to the people here, and it seems like fewer distractions from technology and material possessions plays a large part in that. People actually sit and talk to each other without staring at their phones or seeming like they're in a hurry to get somewhere. Going along with that, I can't remember the last time I sat down for a meal as long as we do here. It's been really awesome talking with Minel and Deniese, and after tonight's dinner I could tell you all about the current political situation in Haiti (but I won't). I think even though we've spent a little less time in the hospital than we may have been expecting, having time to talk to the people here (at least those who speak English) and learn about a country and culture I didn't know much about has been an amazing experience! It's made me very grateful for a lot of things about America, but also realize we could gain a lot from appreciating cultures like the one in Haiti.
Time to go to bed with one eye open for the lizard. Thanks for reading!
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