I spent the morning in the usual routine getting up to breakfast and coffee at the guesthouse. I headed out with the large group I met from Duke University about 7:45 am to a large church Lharmonie (Cite Soleil) to do a mobile clinic. I was really looking forward to serving in this capacity knowing it was a chance to reach patients who likely did not get regular access to care. We set up at tables in the front of the inside of the very large church with one or two providers at each of the tables. There was a separate pharmacy set up that was managed by some of the Haitian staff and a pharmacist named Jonas from Duke. A room next to the pharmacy was available for patients who needed treatment or confidential exams. There was also a separate eye station where they did eye screening with charts and distributed eye glasses. I heard glasses were greatly appreciated and sought after as they were often needed and maybe even considered a status symbol or sign of wealth. A spinal surgeon available focused on seeing musculoskeletal cases. The interpreter who helped me was James. We saw patients of all ages, the youngest who was about 14 days old and had an impressive case of tinea capitis to the oldest who was 91 and impressively healthy not even using an assistive device to walk, her biggest problem was untreated blood pressure and somebody pain. When asked what her secret was to living her in her life her response was “God’s Grace.” She advises younger people that God helps. It was encouraging to hear that and continue to see His presence in the people of Haiti. The spectrum of conditions, some diseases very pronounced compared to mild un-worrisome cases was interesting, especially considering we were working in one of the notorious slums, Cite Soleil, that many won’t enter for safety concerns. Many of the conditions were exacerbated by anxiety, a recurrent theme. When asking around about the opportunities for counseling and resources in the area, I was happy to learn Pastor Luke (Pastor of this Lharmonie church) offers a weekly stress management workshop in the church so I encouraged patients to attend and asked him to make an announcement to remind people to come. I was thinking I would like to talk to more Pastors about implementing a similar initiative so people have some tools to deal with their stress. It was a start to learn about his program and it could be modeled after as there were not any community programs I knew of to refer people to for stress which was a major problem as mental health needs are important to manage. This is a major concern in Haiti considering all of the trauma people have endured. Word of mouth seems to be a very effective way to spread news in Haiti in a timely matter in it’d be great to be able to have programs to tell people they could go to for help. Word of mouth could increase activity in such programs.
Midway between patients and right on time cause I worked up an appetite, we were served a tasty hot meal with beans & rice, a meat n veggie mix that I shared and mmm it was good, stuff like this with harm hospitality makes me love working in Haiti. After the clinic was over, the lead translator, Eddy helped me get transportation to the ministry of health where one of the clinicians was helping me get approval for the meds brought from America to get them through customs. After a long and kinda intimidating motorcycle ride through Cite Soleil, Belair and other historically unsafe parts of town we made it through downtown to the Ministry of Health. I was wearing scrubs so felt like a stood out, but I imagine most people assumed I lived there as the average visitor wouldn’t be on a bike ridin through hoods. On the way back we went to one of my favorite eateries Epidor and got a light dinner and they have an inside ATM which I prefer so I could get cash. We arrived back to the guesthouse walls and I spent the evening socializing with others. I met a woman there selling creatively designed handbags made from recycled products such as plastics from Haiti. It was really nice to network with people from other organizations at the guesthouse.
The highlight and favorite part of evening was singing worship songs together as a big group. The leader, April Perry, NP, led an activity and we went around and said encouraging things to uplift each of the Haitian staff which I thought was cool. It was a Blessing to work with them as they were each helpful.