#2 Haiti-STC-Cholera

13 January 2011 and 16 January 2011


Greetings from Bainet, Haiti. A little town on the southern coast of Haiti, situated on a tiny bay, waves breaking so closely I can hear them from the patio where I am sitting. This is my 4th night here, but let me tell you, I can’t even remember what my own bedroom looks like!

Save the Children set up their first Cholera Treatment Unit in mid-December. With 16 beds for extremely dehydrated patients, 3 beds for moderately sick patients and 4 beds for patients who are being observed before they are actually discharged, they are extremely well laid out. There are 3 doctors, 3 nurses, 9 auxiliary nurses (like nurses aids, but a little more training), guards (to make sure people wash their hands with chlorinated water and who spray the bottoms of your shoes upon leaving), cleaning people, clothes washing people, chlorinators (those who add the appropriate amount of chlorine to the water for hands, for equipment, and for cleansing corpses), public hygiene promoters (PHP). I think there might be another category of workers, but it eludes me now!

Yesterday, I received 3 more employees, unbeknownst to me – they came needing lodging and food, but we had almost no place to put them and no budget to add food. Then, today, we were happy to receive 2 more vehicles and 2 drivers. Again, it was a surprise to me and I also didn’t have lodging or food budget for them.

I’m hearing from the staff that they have not been getting 3 meals/day, their residence is crowded and the toilet doesn’t work, they have to pay a young man to bring buckets of water for cooking and bathing (he has a hand-made wooden cart and pushes the 50+ gallons by hand), and other complaints. It all seems to be due to the head doctor never filing reports about how he spent the original petty cash – he won’t get reimbursed until he accounts for what he has spent. DUH! We have an appointment to prepare the report tomorrow – for some unknown reason, one of the nurses left with half of the receipts and just got back tonight. Hopefully, we will receive funding by Monday.

Because the complaints were so consistent, I decided to provide funds (and will be reimbursed) for a really good meal for the Jan 12 anniversary of the earthquake. All our clinical staff are here, away from their homes and families. Most of Haiti had the 12th as a holiday, but they, of course had to work. I wanted them to know that their being here is neither unnoticed nor unappreciated. Silly me, this morning, the head doctor told me there was no money for food – that means meat. We talked – the budget was about $25 to feed 18 people. I gave it to him, again I will be reimbursed. BUT tonight, there was not enough food for 6 of the staff who are working 9am to 9pm. They came to me (as I was finishing dinner at the place I am staying…boy did I feel guilty!) and I gave them the last 750 goudes that I had – I think they should be able to get a meal for 150 gds, but I gave them an additional $5. The doctor kept telling me it wasn’t enough, and I kept telling him that was all I had. He is really upset. I commiserated with him and told him to go eat! Wow, enough – what else can I do? I don’t have my kitchen – can’t cook for them.

But tomorrow I will be in their kitchen watching the cook and watching all the hands that help and take little samples. I will also supervise dishing out the amounts. Good grief…and we will have a discussion with as many of the group as can be present. I do hope that the lead doctor hasn’t been pocketing any of this…

Meanwhile, today we received a very sick child, about 4 years old. I left as the doctor was trying to get an IV in him…Mom at his side. Eek. We’ve had about 6 pretty sick patients and had to restart an IV on a 6 year old yesterday as he couldn’t hold anything down. The nurses and docs all seem to work together really well. They do full sets of vital signs and round on the patients together. Unlike the cholera care delivery I was part of in October in Haiti. Here, the doctors actually listen to the lung and belly sounds and do a physical assessment. All 3 doctors trained in Cuba, which also helps me, as they speak Spanish.

And to another topic – I find myself speaking Spanish with smatterings of Creole. A few people here speak a little English. But sometimes I launch into Spanish with them and wonder why they are looking at me so funny. Haven’t had much time to study Creole. And I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing FOUR books with me! Maybe things will move into a more even keel and I will find time to read. So far, not since I left Jacmel.

In case you noticed, I have not had email access since I left Jacmel on Monday. They gave me a portable modem, but I have not had success in connecting. Today I spoke with the IT guy in Jacmel and the answer is: Save the Children had not paid the bill, so access was cut off! And they are irritated with a remotely based Haitian doctor who has not submitted a form – someone who has not been an administrator before, and who has his hands full with a staff of about 30, doing around the clock rotations! I had to laugh when I heard the bill will be paid “today or tomorrow.” And the woman who is my direct Supervisor lost her phone, so has not answered any of my calls. Finally, I started calling other people in the office and asking them to ask her to call me! Good grief.

The place I am staying is the second floor of a family’s home. They have a couple of lovely balconies and 2 rooms and a bathroom. It turns out that there are 2 women from Save the Children in the 2nd room. Too bad about the door not closing between our rooms, eh? And there are no locks on the doors. This morning one of the gals started talking on the phone at 5:15 and finally stopped around 6. She even kept talking in the BATHROOM! The woman of the house, Madam Nicola takes my stainless steel percolator every morning and puts in on her non-electric burner (gas??) and then brings the pot up to me. Oh, my gosh, is that a delight! She made me lunch and dinner today – including a piece of cake that her friend made. Wow. I feel bad about what the staff is going through, but I decided to take my meals here to give myself a tiny break from the language challenge. Of course, Mdm. Nicola sat and watched me eat every bite tonight. She is terribly sweet, so mostly I very much appreciated her company.

OK for now, writing on my computer battery, so better stop for now…

Much love, Beverly

16 January 2011

Brief update from Jacmel. After a visit to the Bainet CTU from a team from the World Health Organization, I returned to Jacmel Saturday afternoon. I was tired, hungry and feeling pretty alone; it was a really hard evening for me. This morning brought some great changes, though. Good conversation with my dear friend, Gretchen Berggren helped me get my head on straight. She promised that she would take my situation to prayers at her church and do you know what? It seems that I will most likely be having a woman interpreter this coming week! WOW!

Many of you may have heard that Baby Doc Duvalier returned to Haiti tonight after 25+ years of exile. We, here, in the Southeast Department are most likely not going to see any riots or problems. But it is fairly likely that some outbreaks will happen in Port au Prince and elsewhere. I just hope it doesn’t get violet. Even though they are saying he wants to give 5 million pounds to help Haiti, there is great skepticism about this return and what it is really about. Let’s see: power and money are my bets. Anyhow, if you are so inclined toward prayer, this would be a really good time to let it rip. These people could use some serious healing time.

Again, I so appreciate your good wishes and little notes. Thanks to all! Mesi Anpil!

Love,
Beverly