Hillary visits Haiti: Brings Dunkin' Donuts!

Hello Everyone,

For the past 10 days we have had our friend Hillary here visiting us in Terrier Rouge and getting a little glimpse of what our life is like here. She is helping us write this post and here are some stories from the past week…

Last Saturday was her first full day in Haiti and we started the day off with doing some laundry, peeling mangoes and sipping coffee of the roof- a true Haitian morning. Peter has been working on a solar dryer in hopes to perfect the drying of mangoes here, we peeled a bunch and let them dry throughout the day. Then we were off to the clinic with Nounouche, a Haitian nurse that Meredith has started to work with on Saturdays who runs a community clinic at the Baptist Church. We saw an array of patients from a motorcycle accident, malnourished toddler with diarrhea and a young girl who needed stitches in her head from a rock injury (no local anesthesia and she did not make a peep!). And we got to do a prenatal check up on a 24 weeks pregnant woman. After clinic we were off to see one of the garden projects. Garden Florence is where Peter and Seeds of Self Reliance is working to re-start garden for youth to work and learn- but it is not directly related to one of the schools.

Meredith and Peter’s Haitian mom, Lizmani turned 20 last week. (By “Haitian mom” we mean that she cooks lunch every day for Mere and Pete). To celebrate, she threw a birthday party on Saturday night. By golly, we had no idea what we were in for! Because Lizmani was preparing for her party all day, we skipped lunch and were just planning on eating at the party. The party was scheduled to start at 7pm, so we arrived around 7:30 – only to find that we were the first to arrive and nothing was ready. Probably an hour later, the generator got going, the lights came on, and the music started. The whole time we were wondering when the eating would begin. To our dismay (and growling tummies), we learned that dancing comes first and eating comes much later. It is important to note that from 8:00-11:00pm, massive platters of food were out and ready, but completely untouched. Finally, we had to awkwardly ask for a plate of food at 11:15pm and left at 11:30pm. Overall, the night was an interesting lesson – and we got to drink, dance, and eat.

We were able to sneak away to the beach for a night (our first time going to the beach in Haiti). Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to start the trek – starting by jumping of the back of a tap-tap. We made it as far as Trou du Nord, where we boarded a school bus and waited an hour before it filled up. Then we arrived in Cap Haitian, took a taxi to the other side of town, and then boarded another tap-tap that was heading to Labadee. This was a beautiful scenic drive along a twisting road overlooking the ocean. Our last bit of transportation was a boat taxi (so cool!) which dropped us off on the beach steps in front of Norm’s Place. The bed and breakfast is an old French fort owned by an American-Haitian family. The stone house and rooms are tucked into a quiet cove along the north shore of Haiti. We arrived around noon – just in time for a long swim in the ocean (we looked like sea otters) and steaming mugs of coffee with magical cream. We spent the rest of the day lounging in hammocks and reading. It was a well-deserved and needed reprieve for us all. Monday we awoke to the blasting of a horn; opening our front window we were saddened by the sight of the “Navigator of the Seas,” a Royal-Caribbean cruise liner pulling up to Labadee beach around the corner from Norm’s Place. The cruise ship comes in three days a week, but never stays overnight. They have their own port with a razor-wire fenced in beach and play area (zip line, sky walk, inflatable toys in the water). It was nice to be staying at Norm’s quiet little family-run place, but it was a huge culture shock to see the Royal Caribbean bubble down the road from such poverty.

After our night at Norm’s it was back to business as usual in Terrier Rouge. Some of our other highlights from the week included a trip out to Raboure to see the garden, we picked tomatoes which we had later that night with lettuce we grew on the roof…yum! Hill and Meredith did some walking around the town to show the market and to see some of the different areas of Terrier Rouge. They also got some home visits in, including Clesia who is healing well and looking great, a young boy with cerebral palsy with vomiting and diarrhea, and a blood pressure and counseling visits to a woman with chronic hypertension.

We have started the process of doing an informal health assessment at the Nativity village to get a sense of the overall health and needs of the community before the rabbits get introduced there. Meredith and Hill set up some chairs and met with individuals, asking some overall questions as well as taking blood pressure, heights and weights. At first the group was very organized, patiently waiting in chairs, but as afternoon turned into early evening, the meetings were surrounded by a tight communal circle. It seems that in Haiti, a person’s health is everyone’s business. During the meetings, Peter spent time surveying the status of the rabbit house which is coming along nicely!
Before departing, Willa, a community leader requested that Meredith visit a sick elderly man who could not walk. Upon entering the dimly lit house, Meredith could tell that he was showing signs of heart failure and faced with a dilemma, how do you help someone with a complicated health disease that has no money and lives so far from care? In the end the family really wanted him to come to the clinic to see if there was anything that could be done. They were able to find a motorcycle and get him to the clinic the next morning and he was started on a diuretic to help with the excess fluid. We will just have to wait and see how things go with him… Our time at the Nativity village was very difficult- in that people there live in such poverty and it can be draining hearing over and over again how little people have and how their lives are filled with constant struggle with such limited access to resources, but on a positive note we are so excited about the development of the rabbit project and what it will bring to the community. We are hoping to continue this relationship and find other ways to support this community.

Meredith’s work at Esperance et Vie continues to be a learning experience – and full of chaos! Hill was able to see the inner workings of the clinic, ranging from triage, determining which patients are exonerated, how much to charge for drugs, meeting with the new pharmacist, and running labs for malaria, typhoid, CBC, etc. Hillary got to really experience things first hand and was very fortunate to shadow Meredith for two days.

Days in Terrier Rouge are simple. Hill has had a small glimpse into daily life here – and there’s a lot to report back. Meredith and Peter live in a concrete house (very open), with special accommodations including a latrine, bucket showers, mosquito nets, and a pee bucket for night time urges. The best part of the house is the roof. Hill remembers Mere’s phone calls from “the roof”, but it is completely different than expected. About 20x50 ft, the roof is a huge open space with a clothes line, Pete’s solar dryer, and plenty of space for plants. Many evenings have been spent on the roof, eating dinner, singing songs, and looking at the stars. Entertainment has included Pete’s new Skittles(thanks to Hill for brining a pack of skittles down!) tasting/guessing game, and many good discussions about improving the public/community “unhealth” in Terrier Rouge. Pete and Mere are better than ever (if that’s possible) – it is hard not to join in their crazy songs (they could easily write a musical about rain and patés-their morning breakfast food which is fried bread with cabbage and salami) and laughter! Meredith and Peter are very modest about their impact –it is truly inspiring to see the relationships and trust that they have built in Terrier Rouge. “They are becoming Haitian!”