April 13th, 2019 by leahtourtellotte

I was nervous as I prepared to head out for Haiti. I knew no one else there and didn’t really know what to expect. I was intimidated by the language. I don’t even know how to say hi, how are you? Even in Grenada, I could at least communicate with people and figure things out. My last minute attempts to learn some Creole were a fail, pushed back by packing preparation and credentialing forms I’ve been filling out for next year.

My packing preparation consisted of collecting items that Haiti Health Ministries told me that they needed. (I had a great lesson during the training course about donating what will actually be useful. For instance, all those donated bottles of water lead to a huge pile of trash and a lot of expense to ship when a filter or something else sustainable would be more useful.) I asked for donations from friends as did my supportive partner in crime. I learned that donations through venmo and then me subsequently buying stuff is way more convenient for people than them buying and bringing things in themselves. Friends were very generous and I went to several different Walmart and Amazon to amass a large suitcase full of medications, gauze, glucose test strips, infant formula, syringes, vitamins, and, in true Leah fashion, candies for the kids. (Starburst jelly beans for Easter!)

I missed my second flight from JFK to Port-Au-Prince because of a delay of the first flight. The airlines got me on the exact same flight for the next day. The annoying part was arguing with JetBlue and stalking the supervisor to get myself a hotel room. Unfortunately by then, I was too tired to hit up my NYC faves, La Bogota and the Chocolate Room.

Upon my arrival in Port-Au-Prince, I was surprised to get my bags and I went through customs swiftly. Sandy, the Haiti Health Ministries all purpose manager of sorts, was waiting for me. She was friendly and welcoming and I immediately felt more at ease with someone who knew what was going on and spoke both English and Creole. We hopped in a truck with a large cage in the back. We had errands to run in Port-Au-Prince which were interesting as I got to see more of the city. The city is surrounded by beautiful green mountains. Many streets are lined with vendors selling just about everything, from fresh fruits and veggies to toothpaste and toiletries to mattresses. Traffic was pretty crazy on some roads. Some buildings are still being repaired from the earthquake, but rubble is mostly gone. Ravines run throughout the city and are loaded with trash. But we did get caught behind a trash truck, so the country is working on that!

One errand required going to a local hospital. I wish I could have taken pictures but phones weren’t allowed and I didn’t want to violate patient privacy. The pediatric ER was about the size of our Resident’s lounge at Eisenhower and everyone was in one room. We were there to pay for treatment for one of the patients who had presented to clinic but needed to get admitted to the hospital. He was 15 years old and presented with paralysis and a very tender neck with a mass. He had a brother with TB and his PPD was positive, although he had no pulmonary symptoms. Cervical X-ray showed cervical vertebral fractures? and CSF analysis suggested TB. Pott disease? TB meningitis? scrofula? (Sorry for the sketchy details; I didn’t examine him or see his chart.) Even from across the room, I could see every rib and his legs were about the same diameter as my wrist. He was lying in one corner of the room with a mask on his face with about ten other nurses, doctors, and patients, and mothers in the room. We then spent at least half an hour going back and forth from administration to the cashier trying to get his lab tests and CT paid for before they would perform them. Welcome to Haiti.