Returning

They warned us that it would be strange to return. The guy at the camera store wondered if my pictures of Haiti were obtained when my cruise ship stopped there. People prepare for the festive long weekend ahead: some off to Florida to play golf, others to celebrate carnival in Trinidad. Teenagers struggle with their acne breakouts. And thousands are without power in the cold and buried in snow.

I am reminded of my first glimpse of Port au Prince as we arrived at the end of the day to see well dressed people emerging from offices, students in uniform in the streets, and vendors selling fresh fruit on the sidewalks. Where, I wondered, is the catastrophe? I soon discovered that many of these apparently unaffected people were sleeping on sheets in courtyards and parks, but putting themselves together and going to work anyway.

And so life goes on.

In addition to sleeping and napping and managing my photos, I have been trying to email and fulfill promises made to Haitians to get them supplies, to connect students with opportunities abroad, and to thank the countless people who made my ten days there so special. Back at home, I want to thank the following for helping to get my trip off the ground:

• Eastern Mountain Sports for the discount on my boots which carried me over dusty, rocky terrain
• Maggie at CVS in Larhmont who facilitated the purchase of much needed medications to take along
• My sister, Rose, who organized me during the 24 hours before departure
• RedOak transportation who ferried me to JFK for free
• Jet Blue who gave me a break on my last minute flight home from Santo Domingo
• Greenwich Hospital for the supplies they sent which I have taken and shipped
• Children of the Nations International who drove me to Barahona from SD and allowed me to work briefly with the 12 precious patients in their clinic in spite of our religious differences and motivations
• ProVision which housed me in Jimani (on the border) and in Port au Prince so that I could work with their team and mine to set up the Pernier clinic (now seeing over 200 patients a day)
• Real Medicine Foundation which went out on a limb to send me out on their first mission to Haiti/DR.
• Robin Kaufman who as usual held it all together in my office
• Drs Ross and Avvocato who covered my practice
• Countless friends and family who cared for my kids and home while I was absent

The stories are circulating in my head. They will emerge on paper soon. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, senses for the day:

sight: bare trees and my pictures of the tropics

sound: my crackling fire and flush toilets

smell:cold winter air and bath oil

taste: homemade chocolate chip cookies and white wine

touch:my clean hair

treating people aa fast as we can

My fourth day in PAP and exhausted but exhilarated by the huge need and ability to resPond. (Writing on BB: very hard for me but no computer here)

First two days we set up a new clinic in PAP that will be a permanent fixture in the community run by the parish. Deeply spiritual people--oh my goodness. Also astoundingly well dressed and groomed by any standard but considering they are sleeping on sheets on bare ground, cooking over awful polluting fires and the dust in the air is thick, it is near short of miraculous.

Sight:the tap tap that had "incroyable mais vrai"painted on the side. Tap taps are the famous hand painted Haitian buses

Sound:the congregation in prayer at theopening of the clinic yesterday. We saw 120 pts on. First day. So much PTSD. Taught the med student working with me how to teach deep breathing and anti stress technique. What else to do? They pray.

Taste: fresh papaya every day. Yes we have plenty of food

Smell: the perfume on my immaculately groomed (white pressed skirt)translator who is a fourth year med student here now without a school. More about that later!

Touch: the disgusting feeling of 50 plus layers of Purell.

Trying to fly out today, perhaps on military craft, maybe charter. Huge new group from US arrived last night. Ready to come home. But planning to come backto Haiti with friends. So much work to do and gentle people to meet and know.

Hello from Haiti

Hi all. This is Robin. I have had brief contact with Ann. She has asked me to update everyone on her trip.
Hunger remains a major problem............needless to say.
She is doing well and working hard..........no surprise there!
For everyone that knows Ann, she is experiencing great satisfaction doing what she does best-helping people.

Thank you for all your support.
Stay tuned.........

ARrived in PAP

After many developing country delays we arrived inPAP at almost dusk. We are in a safe secure house with evangelical Christians and running water.Senses for today
SOUND:the extraordinary and truly awesome sound of the Blackhawks as they thumped and
Swooped in for the patients. Some show of force.

TASTE:the surprising hotness in tonight.s dinner. And getting used to eating like a squirrel. Lots of nuts and trail mix to keep going.

SMELL: while waiting at the US embassy for our ride, when the wind changed we caught the unmistakable stench from the collapsed building across the street only to be rescued by Vicks rubbed in our nostrils to mask it.

SIGHT:the parade of 24 gurneys ferried by 6_8 workers from all countries followed by Haitian fam members under the violent wind of the helicpter into its jaws.

TOUCH:the sweet softness of the newborn toes of the twins born at the camp this morning!

Into Haiti and back

Sitting in a large airy building surrounded by doctors and nurses of all stripes from all countries-Korea, Spain, some in spiffy uniforms, others in scrubs.


Yesterday the team I have bonded with(described before I think) went two hours away to a small village inside Haiti. People on the team who have worked in Africa said it felt like one of the remotest places they had visited there. Our flatbed truck, loaded with workers(ie us guys) and supplies arrived and was swarmed with bare children, wizened (?AIDS) old ladies, diseased limbs, and snotty nosed babies.

We set up a clinic in the church and examined about 150 people for all manner of fairly mild acute illnesses. The most striking thing was the remarkable malnutrition, including the characteristic reddish hair on jet black children. My Haitian translator said it was the worst poverty he had ever seen. We handed out mediciines even though we were missing the most basic things: food, vitamins, soap and immunizations. Huge problem of ditribution here and everywhere related to this catastrophe.

We had a great time doing this, felt like we made some small difference even if it was to pass out pain medication and make a few diagnoses of pregnancy. Had we had birth control pills, I think they might have accepted; women had 6-10 children.

waiting arrival of a blackhawk helicopter to evacuate some twenty patients to other facilities so more can come up from Port Au Prince.

Highlight of the day was my conversation in the cab of the flatbed with the Pastor who accompanied us to this village where he is a sometime preacher. He belongs to a group of 1600 pastors across Haiti who want to "reconstruct Haiti" including education, health, participatory democracy and reforestation. We were able to connect him and his organization to two on our team who have worked for the Clinton Foundation and who now work for wealthy foundations including Sarlo Foundation.

Planning to go into PAP as soon as we have permission and security from our leader (Real Medicine Foundation). Word from people there say it is beyond imagination. That food, water and shelter have still not been delivered in anywhere near adequate numbers. stay tuned.

Leaving for the border

HI

Leaving for the border--Jimani--in ten minutes:

bullets:

large hospital there understaffed for next three days til team arrives from Knoxville
will be part of plan to develop outreach clinics into "sheet camps"(people sleeping on sheets out int he open, tens of thousands of them by scouts' reports.)

New team arrived at our hospital to take over our 11 bed unit. Surgeons picking up where others left off. Good tranisiton but too many people there so glad to leave where I can be more useful.

Already bonded with DR nurses and staff: intense what happens so quickly under these circumstances.

My team going to Jimani consists of:
husband and wife in their 60's from NH, he is general surgeon, she is hippie who is community organizer and nurse.
an ER nurse from NH. a riot, nothing fazes her, good teacher, great nurse, fun to be around
a public health person from US...all I know so far who dropped her 2 yo in Texas with MOm to be here.
Kevin, 28, who reminds me of my son Nick and is workign for Real Medicine Foundation, the organization I am sponsored by. Thank good ness someone knows how to do the technology. He and I watched the state of the union the other night on his computer live.

And so I go. They want worm medicine, antifungals, dressing changes adn pain medication.

Hope to be in touch but it will be brief. Stay tuned.

Overall impression is of a vast amount of good will, way too many supplies and organization actually happenign from the ground up instead of top down. Unicef sent a young man to our clinid yesterday;he is going door to door to track Haitian refugee kids. A good start but really small. So much need, so vast, so deep. Many speak of their "pais perdu", lost country.

Hitting the deck running

After a roughly four hour drive from Santo Domingo to Barahona, we pulled up to the cheerful iron gates of the Children of the Nations International compound. Inside it looks like a low end hotel complex with several two story buildings, some drained water fountains, a questionable swimming pool, concrete paths leading the way through the dust. Large piles of water bottle flats are everywhere.

And emerging from buildings are trim, thin worn and sweaty doctors and nurses--but you can't tell who is who since most wear scrubs-- who have just returned after their long days to clean up for dinner. I am quickly brought up to speed on the fact that almost all of these people have been working 14 hour days for a week and are leaving within the next 48 hours.



We make rounds twice at the clinic about a mile away that was a COTN sponsored community clinic but has been re-fitted as a small hospital, with three tiny operating rooms, a ward with 8 recovering amputees and another with 4 including two brothers. All but one of the kids are up, some with both legs casted, some still in diapers, and the older boys wheeling around with their rusty chairs or oversized crutches.

Day One:
Up at four with the roosters, after a nightmare of dying in a plane crash, there was no time towaste before getting to the clinic to relieve the two night nurses.

I felt like an intern on the first day in the pediatric ICU. It's been a long time since
Striking Senses today:
Touch: the rough skin of the bare, thickened, scarred feet of all but the youngest children
Smell: the distinct scent of a urine soaked cast (soon to be changed under anesthesia in the operating room).
Taste: the wonderful comfort of chocolate after a 14 hour day.
Sound: the sound of the preacher praying with the parents of the patients early this morning. Asking God to protect Haiti, and to give wisdom to the doctors healing their children.
Vision:where to begin: with the over-stocked shelves ajumble with unusable, sophisticated supplies?; with the faces of maimed children smiling and calling out to play?; with the flies hovering over the operating table in the OR?

Actually, hands down, the most memorable vision of the day was a reunion like no other. When the team went to Jimani (the Dominican town just over the Haitian border), they picked up twelve children, including Migalena who is 12 and was accompanied by her gorgeous 18 year old sister. Although Her sister escaped unscathed herself, she had to pull Migalena from the rubble and in the process her arm was injured enough to require amputation and an enormous and deep gouge in her thigh. Their mother was in the DR when the earthquake struck and they had been separated since. Today, the girls' mother walked into the clinic and cries of "Mammy, Mammy" reverberated around the clinic. The reunion was of course bittersweet as mom processed the sight of her daugher without her left arm and coping with so much pain, but by days' end, she was braiding her daughters' hair and eating chocolate with them

I have nothing but respect for the surgeons and anesthetists who have treated these survivors for the past week. They are careful, gentle, detail-oriented and wonderful communicators. They leave tomorrow. This week's challenge will be to transition to a new team and to plan for the recovery of these children.