Bonjour d’Haiti! Il est brillant et au debut ici. Yes, I am working on my French! I have even been counseling some of the easier patients myself!
Yesterday we set up two clinics in and near Cap Haitian. The first was right in the center of town. Compared to some of the more remote locations that we had been to, this was an “inner city” church. The children all wore uniforms and had big smiles for us. We had a light morning seeing only 100 kids and no adults. We even had time to go back to the hotel for lunch (Yeah! No more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!). I thought that this was a sign that our day was going to be light and easy. I was in for a shock.
After lunch, we were scheduled to set up a second clinic on the outskirts of town. We were not prepared for what we were about to see. Our bus turned off the main “road” (remember, these paths don’t qualify as roads) and headed down a side street. As we got further and further in, the taller structures gave way to shacks made from tin siding. And the pothole-filled bumpy streets of Cap Haitian gave way to mud patches intermixed with hug puddles of standing water. We all held our collective breath that the bus was not going to get stuck. Finally, the bus pulled aside and we walked around the water. We found ourselves at a small church in the middle of one of the worst slums I have ever seen. Sandey referenced Cabrene-Green, one of the worst slums in America. But this place was worse than anything that we, as Americans, have ever seen or experienced. Think Slumdog Millionaire in 4D, using all your senses… the sight of people living on and in a garbage dump, the smell of rotten food and water and excrement… the sounds of misery and despair. In contrast, 100 beautiful children were singing and waiting for us. Without thinking, we jumped right in and set up our second clinic of the day. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I would get to really experience the slums of Saint Michel.
As always, Dr. Beyda gave us our team plan for emergency evacuation. Even undercover police called in extra patrol. This place was not like any other area we had been too. After clinic, we took a short (guarded) walk to the “center” of Saint Michel. There we found a huge collection of standing water over garbage lined with small shacks on stilts… these are their outhouses. The waste falls into the same water that they live in and with. This is the water that permeates the slums, the streets, their homes. There is no drainage whatsoever and you find this water everywhere. I imagine it is the same water they bathe in and the same water that infiltrates their drinking water. I am still trying to process what I saw, smelled, felt and could almost taste.
A small child followed us as we walked along (one of the only children that actually had shoes – Can you imagine walking barefoot through mud and over piles of garbage and broken glass and metal?). I snapped a few pictures of him because he obviously kept posing for us. You can see his photo on my blog main summary page. He was curious about us as we were conspicuously out of our element. After about ten minutes I noticed his tee shirt – “Preserve the Future.” How ironic that this small child, living in the worst poverty on our planet, would unknowingly (the tee was in English and he spoke Creole) wear such a message across his chest. It was hard for me to see any hope for this place. Preserve the future? What future? But the sight of this child reminded me that hope CAN be found everywhere. As we walked back to the bus, we saw a man building. He was shoveling dirt onto a structural foundation and the dirt kept sliding back down towards him. One step forward and two steps backwards. But a sign that maybe there is hope that these people want and will facilitate change. It will be a hard transformation but I have hope.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009