Arriving in Haiti. . .
I made it safely to Haiti. Upon leaving the airport the Italians met me and made sure I used their phone to make contact with the Hopital Schweitzer to check on when the driver would be coming. Luckily they were able to stay with me until the van arrived about an hour later. It was nice to catch up on things. I then had an amazing drive through the mountains for about 3 hours. But first, we wove our way through Port Au Prince (PaP). I think I saw many back roads and alleys as our driver completed his delivery route. It was like a national night out with people everywhere gathering around fires cooking, selling things, and just plain hanging out. Of course there are tents everywhere. Then after about an hour and some stops for pickups and deliveries we found out selves on the outskirts of PaP and began our ascent up the mountain range. The site of lights from Port Au Prince was very beautiful. It was getting dark by 5:30 so it was probably good not to see the switchbacks! It was a scary thought that we would be navigating the mountains in the dark! Nevertheless the sights were breathtaking. We wove our way carefully though the mountains for what seemed like hours.
There is a headlight language between the drivers who flash their lights to communicate when to pass or not and if there is oncoming traffic or accidents. We only saw one motorcycle accident on the way up. To make the ride up the mountain more interesting – lightening began to flash throughout the sky making for an impressive light show. Occasionally, the road switchbacks below were lit up – YIKES! Then as we began our descent it began to rain – quite hard. We crossed a bridge that had a rushing river below. The bridge was actually covered in about 3 inches of water. There was not any distance between the rushing river and the ridge deck! Luckily, the driver was very familiar with the road and conditions. He knew if it was safe to cross or not. Once on the other side of the river, we stopped to see if we had a flat tire. Luckily we did not! We eventually made the 2 hour trip in a good 3 + hours as we wound back up the mountain.
The campus of Hopital Albert Schweitzer is beautifully rustic. I am staying in a room in an old plantation house. I share the room with a young American woman who is studying biodiesel fuels and working in agriculture. There is a tree here in Haiti that produces nuts that can be ground up to make diesel fuel. Amazing! The idea is that someday Haiti will become self-sufficient for its own fuel. There are also two men staying in the same house – another American agricultural worker and a physician/surgeon whom I never see. It is nice for sleeping as the main guest house is full of the others. It is a little more quiet in House 11 (Kay Dunn #11) my home away from home. We are grateful to have the surgeons staying with us as one of the PTs went hiking and got a spider bite which became infected leading to cellulites. The surgeon was able to open it up and let the infection drain! Ugly! But Luke (our co-PT) is lucky because he now has no health insurance after graduating from PT school in May. He is actually getting the best care here in Haiti – because the MDs know what to do here with these tropical issues as opposed to back home. (Gotta love my mosquito net!)
We start our days with breakfast around 6:30 am and rush off to the library of Hopital Albert Schweitzer for Grand Rounds and usually a presentation by some visiting physician or local physician. Yesterday we heard a talk by a famous physician from Philadelphia who works in the area of global health and malaria prevention in pregnant women. He spoke on the issues for babies who get malaria from the placenta. Pregnant women seem to be at a greater risk for getting malaria from mosquito bites than others. Today’s talk was by the Israeli physician who was in charge of setting up the hospital for Israel after the earthquake. His talk focused on the Ponseti technique on casting for kids with club feet. We are so lucky to hear about so many interesting talks. Nevertheless, things do get lost in the translation.
After the grand rounds and talk, we head over to the Hanger prosthetic center and begin our day working side by side with the prosthetists and patients. It is an amazing opportunity to model the Dream Team in action. Currently, Hanger has one prosthetist here for 3 months. Others rotate through for 2-3 week commitments. There are 4 prosthetists here with us now. They are so awesome and their work is their passion.
Our PT team consists of a new grad named Luke from New York, Clair from South Africa and Scotland, and myself. We also have another PT (Jo) who is also from England. She works in the hospital. It is such good work that we are doing and it is difficult to describe the excitement of our patients when they are fit with their limbs. Often, here in Haiti, patients receive their limbs and immediately are up and walking. Nothing like what might happen back home practicing balance in the parallel bars for days before walking! Generally, here it is one pass through the bars and the patients are off navigating ramps, stairs, and uneven terrain. It is so much fun to see our patients gain confidence in their new limbs reclaiming their capabilities and abilities. We have opportunities to practice in the gym, out on the veranda of our building, and of course on the natural rugged terrain of Haiti. It is like giving birth to a new soul once the patients realize the possibilities that life will now hold for them. We even set up obstacle courses at the local tennis court!
Then to make things even more amazing and brilliant is the fact that there is such strong support among all the patients. Today one lady decided my patient needed the support of the “valiant women” or femn valant present to help her get going. They gathered all the women along the parallel bars and began an impromptu ballet class just to let this woman know that she could bear more weight on her new leg. Great fun! Of course, we incorporate dance whenever we can! Today we also fit a little guy about 10 years old with a new leg and he was then off being a kid jumping off the veranda to fetch the toy car he was given! We also fit a young man with bilateral below elbow prostheses and again we witnessed the rebirth of an amazing young man. We practice the basics of weight shifting, walking, balancing, navigating stairs and ramps, and recovery after falls. Clair and I also washed down the clinic. It gets quite dusty!
We all have meals up at the Guest House so it is amazing to hear everyone’s stories from the day. At the end of the day we try to take a dip in the pool onsite. It is refreshing yet warm! The power of the sun is so hot here. We do find it refreshing to be wet from pool water even if it is warm versus being soaked in sweat! Last night the prosthetic team and PT team were invited to Shaun’s for dinner. We had a lovely time bonding as a team and enjoyed some great food native to Haiti. Shaun’s house was decorated with Christmas lights and candles. We again had interesting conversation and company. These prosthetists are a great team as are the PTs here.
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