Day 5 - Palace Tent City

December 30, 2010
Day 5 - Palace Tent City

Driving out to the tent city outside of Port Au Prince.

Today we drove about an hour to a tent city outside of Port Au Prince. It was called Palace, and was MUCH different than Aeropuerto. In this tent city, the government gave the people each a plot of land with their tent. Most of these people pitched their tents and then started gardens beside them. Some people here have started to rebuild houses already, this time using wood and cinder blocks. We learned today that a lot of people don't build with wood because a) it is expensive and b) because of all of the rain, the wood tends to rot. Another great sight to see in this particular tent city was that a lot of the men are employed because they are digging wells for the city to provide fresh water. There are two major problems in the tent cities, water supply and unemployment.

One of the small gardens planted by the people.

This city was much more laid back than the other one. The people seemed much healthier and happier too. I can say I'd definitely be happier in this city. They were outside of the busy streets of Port Au Prince with fresh air to breathe as well as room to start making a life for themselves all over again.

Gardy, Me, Isaac, Kelci and Gary waiting for the clinic to begin.

On the way out of the city, we saw many houses that looked structurally sound still, but were abandoned. I asked Stefan (one of our interpreters) "Why don't people move back to their houses?" He said that a lot of the people are more comfortable living in the tent cities because they are afraid that another earthquake will hit. If another quake hits, they have less of a chance of dying because the tent will just crumble instead of the house. Another reason they choose to live in the tent cities is because they are in close contact with everyone. Stefan said that after the quake hit, people were unable to get in contact with each other so they did not know who was alive or dead. People flooded to the airport and hospitals where lists of names were posted on the walls of those who had died. He said there was another wall in the airport that just had pictures of dead bodies and some people had to identify their loved ones that way. What a horrible experience that must have been. Can you even imagine? :(

In this city we set up our clinic in a school house. In the first room of the school house we had a triage area where medics and nurses assessed the people. If they were very sick or needed to see the doctor, they got moved into the second room where the doctors and pharmacy were. In the third room of the school house we had more donations set out. We gave out more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Pedialyte to the kids and granola bars and power bars to the adults.

Dr. Mike flying kites with some of the kids.

Kelci and one of our patients :)

Today I got to work side by side with Anita, an emergency room physician from Washington D.C.. It was a great day, she taught me a lot about scabies infections and sure signs and symptoms of malnutrition and HIV. Haiti has the highest prevalence of HIV in the western hemisphere. 5% of the population is known to have HIV and we are sure there are many more who are undiagnosed. Because HIV is so prevalent in Haiti, we tried to stress to the patients that it was really important for them to practice safe sex habits and to use condoms. We handed out a lot of them.

"Boss Doc Anita"

This little happy guy had some scabies on his scalp.

Also today we had a 16 day old baby come through the clinic that was severely dehydrated. I got to hold her and feed her Pedialyte through a baby aspirin dropper. She was absolutely precious. I asked her mother, "Como un rele?" (What is her name?) and she said, "Loveme." Absolutely perfect for this baby. She makes me really think about adopting some Haitian children when I'm older and more established. I got to hold her for a good hour while she perked up and her mother and five other siblings got checked out by "Boss Doc Anita" :)

Baby Loveme :)

As the day came to a close, a mother came through and she had seven kids trailing behind her, all of which she claimed were hers. The pastor of the community told us that this woman takes in the orphans of the village. This lady was shocked to see us she said. She kept touching my arm and my face and I asked the pastor why. The pastor said, "She's never seen a white doctor before. She thinks you're covered in paint." I was amazed. This tent city was only about an hour from Port Au Prince where thousands of missionaries, doctors and nurses come through each year and this woman had never seen one. She asked me to take a picture with her and her kids and send it to her. Garry took our picture and I'll send him it to take back to the village to her.

This is the picture that we took to send back to this lady and her kids. What a wonderful lady, adopting orphans :)

This day really filled my heart with hope for this country. The people still continue to amaze me with their spirit. No matter what these people are faced with they still have a strong faith in God and they stick to their families. To see them prospering on their own outside of the city and to see them trying to make their lives complete again was so uplifting. These people are a true testament to what Jesus said, "The kingdom of Heaven is within."

Leaving the tent city as the sun is going down.

There are three components to life. One is to find out who you really are. Two, discover God. Finally, serve other human beings. -Deepak Chopra