Chris in Petit Goave

So it has been a while since I last had the chance to write, mostly because we are now in petit goave, and the closest place with internet is 3 miles away and even then the internet is dependent on the electricity running. Electricity is kind of funny in Haiti, it only runs at night, but there is no set schedule. It runs sometimes during the day too, but there really isn’t much that needs electricity around here. Since my last post, a lot has happened. We got to petit goave on Wednesday afternoon and we set up our stuff in the tent and unpacked. We are staying at “Our Lady of Assumption” (I don’t know how to say it in French) parish in petit goave. It is the main church in the ton, and people are constantly coming in and out. I know this because our tent is right in the main courtyard of the church, and whenever anyone comes in or out we hear it. That night while we were getting ready for dinner, Thom, the contact man for the foundation in Petit Goave, was running around looking for phone numbers looking kind of panicked. When we asked why, he said that one of the other people staying at the house had gotten sick and “was feeling worse”. So naturally, being medical personnel, we asked to go and see this sick person. What Thom should have told us was that this person “was not feeling at all” because she could not be awoken, was breathing 100 times a minute, and was incredibly hot to the touch but was not sweating. In other words, she was really sick. So Shelly and I put in some IV’s gave her some fluid, while Bruce and our new friend John set up some blankets to move her and helped Shelly and I run our lines. Randy ran down to the local hospital to try to get an ambulance or a van or something to move her in. When he returned, he said that the hospital was closed for the night and there was nothing available. So we moved her to a table downstairs, moved the table to the street, and literally stopped the next passing car. The man was nice enough to let Shelly and Bruce take her to the hospital, so Shelly sat in the front and we literally handed the woman to her and she sat on Shelly’s lap. Bruce held on in the back of this “truck” which is the equivalent of a Suzuki roadster or some other coup suv. It was really small, and I don’t know how they made that trip. The next part comes from what Shelly told me, because I wasn’t there. The sick woman had 6 seizures while sitting on Shelly’s lap before they got to the hospital. Shelly got to the hospital, they woke the local doctors (who were part of the Norwegian Red Cross) and they took care of her. The irony is the same day, before we had even met this woman; she had talked to the same doctor, who sent her home because she was not displaying any serious symptoms. Well now she was. After Shelly and Bruce left Randy and I sat down and tried to eat some dinner, but before we could finish Bruce called Thom and told him to bring Randy and me to the local hospital (which is called Notre Dame by the way). The doctors moved her to the surgical bed in the ER, monitored her vitals and put in another IV. Then they said they were leaving, and we would have to stay the night in the ER with her to observe unless we wanted to try to take her somewhere else. Considering that we couldn’t even get her to the hospital without grabbing someone off the street, we had to stay. So the doctors left Shelly and Bruce and Randy went back to the parish (because we had a meeting early the next morning, and Thom and I stayed with her in the ER for the night. We tried to sleep; however, the only things available were a surgical bed and a few chairs, so that was hard. It was further complicated by the fact that many people get sick in Petit Goave at night, so while in the ER, a few locals who were feeling ill came to see if they could get help. They came at all hours of the night, and Thom didn’t have any medical training, so I had the honor of being chief of staff, head nurse, and director of Notre Dame ER for the night. That was a blast, but honestly I think next time I’d rather have a few other people with me. When the doctors came back the next morning, they took over the ER, and the woman stated she felt 100% better and did not want to go home, even though she thought she had “Dengue fever” (Wikipedia that). So she stayed here, and Randy and I went out to see Bruce and Shelly at the hotel. They were with Renault, a local mototaxi (aka motorcycle that fits 3) driver who was their good friend from before. We met them, and then went to Renault’s house and shop, where we met with and played soccer and Frisbee with some of the local kids. Renault is a great guy, and he knows everyone, so getting around and getting another mototaxi is super easy for us. He is also a great translator, and likes to laugh at everything. All in all he is the man.
The next day we took a break from all the working and visited the local beach. The white sand and blue ocean was amazing. The water is just like any other Caribbean country…beautiful and clear. The sun was really hot, and there were a lot of rocks, but it was well worth it. Also, I ate goat, sea snail, freshly caught lobster (literally watched them cook it out of a trap), too much Dominican rum, and concrete textured bread all in the same day. It was a great way to relax after the last few days, but we are anxious to get back to the medical work.
Also, as of last night (Saturday night) we also learned the local nightclub is next door. I listened to Haitian music until about 2:30 last night. It sounds a lot like American music, it actually is the same beat and the same words, but much more sped up and the voices are all high pitched. I would liken it to Alvin and the Chipmunks singing every song on the Billboard Top 100. I heard lots of Akon (Smack that seemed to be a favorite last night) Lil Wayne (A Milli) and I actually heard Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown singing (No Air). I also found out that the music here is hard to fall asleep to, especially when you are sleeping outside in heat index of 95 and sweat is dripping off your body onto your bed (pool float).
That is all I will write for now, hopefully we can get out to the internet soon. I am actually writing this on Shelly’s computer and saving it, and then she will post it to the blog. She is heading back to Port au Prince today to pick up the girls tomorrow, and while she is gone, Randy, John, and I will be setting up a medical clinic outside Renault’s shop. All the best, I’ll write more soon, Chris.