September 7th to 11th

Sorry for the delay in writing! I've not been able to get to my computer much this week between the temperamental power and working a few late nights at the clinic... but on the bright side there are loads of photos :) 

Morgan and two of our patients at the tent city

David & Sonya with her new leg

On Tuesday we assessed a couple of patients at the tent city that had been having problems with their prostheses. I decided that the work would be better done back at the clinic so that they could stay over with us for a few nights, be fed and leave feeling good in their new limb. It also proved to be a really good experience for both of them as they’re both fairly new amputees have now become friends :) We ran into some problems with the power cutting out but the major issue was the alignment of Maralines socket and due to limited parts we had to settle for remaking her socket so that we could offset the graceplate to compensate for a contracture she had developed while in a cast (the hospital had cast her leg in flexion!) both are due for a check up in a week when we go back to the tent city. 

On Thursday, David, Morgan, Shane, myself and 2 of the sponsor kids joined us for a trip to Port Au Prince so I could pick up some new tools for the workshop as well as print off a manual and have a quick run about the market. It was really busy and heavily guarded everywhere we went -many of the buildings there are still in disrepair and in some parts it almost looks as if the earthquake could have happened just last week. 

This is what I bought at the market (in gourdes of course):

Apples = $24.65

Balsamic vinegar = $37.40 Chickpeas= $14.60

Today a group of us boarded the canter to set off on our day trips. While the staff went to the Indigo white sand beach, Morgan, myself and 4 of our child sponsors spent the day at an orphanage in Marseilles giving out food, toys and lots of love.

There were about 70 kids between the ages of 2 and 14 who’s living in conditions are worse than anything I’d ever seen. They sleep outside in the blistering heat amongst fire ants on the crumbled pavement; use toilets that are covered in feces and maggots and get no more than a bowl of rice and a cup of water a day. Every last one of them had a bloated tummy from malnutrition and was desperate for water and food. Every last one of them was riddled with parasites, ringworm and fleas and were covered in all sorts of rashes, bites, abscesses, welts and scars. Every last one of them cowered at the sound of Madame Lucien’s voice. 

Morgan read them stories when I handed out stickers and did face painting. We did our best to hand out all the toys and make sure everyone was getting a turn but while I was outside an older girl, who is the child of the one of the staff, took a toy from one of the kids. When he started to cry a staff member  snatched the skipping rope out of another girls hand and chased the 5 year old around the yard cracking it against the ground behind him as he cried even harder and screamed with fear. I ran over and stood in the door to block the child in as he ran into the chapel to hide in the group of other kids, she laughed while I stood in front of her and ‘tisked’ me. The child who she was chasing is deaf and is covered head to toe in welts and cuts from being beaten for not following directions (Morgan and I are working to get him moved to a residential school for the disabled in PAP but this will involve “buying” him from Madame Lucien).

One of the other boys who is about 4 has a congenital deformation of his wrist which we think night be Arthrogryposis (a congenital deformity around a joint caused by muscle contractures). He is also missing the thumb on his right hand which makes holding things pretty hard for him.  I’ve requested that we have him come in and stay with us for the next surgery week at our clinic but in the mean time I’ll make up a brace so that he can get a start on some rehbilitation. At one point, I was holding him and another boy around the age of 3. The other boy dropped his toy on the ground and just as I set him down to get it he started to cry.  Before I had a chance to pick him back up one of the staff forcefully grabbed him by the arm and threw him to the ground, then proceeded to hit him across his bloated tummy with a sugar cane before I could get between them. I scooped him up and moved the two of them back with the rest of the group where they both eventually fell asleep in my arms. 

 

Later on we moved into the chapel, (which whey are only allowed in when we visit and is the only bearable place to be in the orphanage because of the heat) and started hand out the food we had made for them. A fight broke out when one of he children spilled his food on the ground because a staff member tried to take it away from him to eat herself. She slapped him hard across the face and stood over him yelling at the top of her lungs raising her hand again. Morgan stepped in and said (in Creole) that there was plenty for everyone and then gave them both more food. The woman snatched it out of her hand, spat at the child, then stormed out of the room. 

Madame Lucien (right)

Madame Lucien and her staff are all very over weight and when they weren’t busy tormenting the children they spent their time drinking bottled water & eating the food donations they received from our mission. (Its common knowledge here that if you leave food or toys behind they will be sold at the market or given to the staff and their children.) The younger children are left to do all of their own washing even though at two years old many of them still cant even walk.  Older kids living there are ordered to bathe the younger ones in the fast moving, murky river behind the orphanage just down stream from their toilets.

It was incredibly difficult to leave the children crying helplessly at my feet and so unsettling to step into the canter to find people who had been drinking and who had just spent the day 5 minutes from us eating more than these kids would ever see in a week. 

Before leaving for the orphanage today I was saying to one of the interns that sometimes I just don’t know how to put what I’m seeing and hearing into words -this whole experience goes far beyond any explanation I can give. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to see this for myself though and I think its a good chance for anyone reading this to also become more aware of what is going on here in Haiti and to hopefully use it to motivate more positive change in their own lives.

The compound I live in is without power for most of the day, has limited water and tons pre-packaged and canned foods. There are water restrictions in place and if you forgot something at home you probably wont find it here. From what I've gathered so far, this is, to many of the mission groups, much like an unconventional camping experience; one where they are giving up their comforts for a week so that they can “help” the people of Haiti by adding more buildings to our compound, popping in to see the cute little kids at the orphanage and then going off to the beach or waterfall to relax and prevent early onset of post traumatic stress.... For the long term staff this involves going to the beach to relax, have a nice meal and a few drinks once a week. I apologise for the disenchanted tone of this post but all this is made even more frsutrating when most of the people living here feel that they are entitled to have what they do. 

Its so disheartening to see teams go from the same orphanage I was at today, where young children are half naked and starving, to lying on a white sand beach while sipping on an icy-cold imported juice and not feeling in any way culpable for the human beings they've just left behind...

They lie under the benches of the chapel to sleep

 
I'm sorry for the rant but I guess what it all boils down to is that none of us got to choose where we were born or what we were born into. So how is it that we can feel good about going back to our well “decorated” homes, to eat our imported food and waste our clean tap water day after day.

Regardless of whether we're doing that after having spent a week here or after another long day at work...

simply knowing that this is the harsh reality for so many should be enough to stop us from wanting anything but for this to be resolved.