MISSION TO HAITI: DAY 6

I was unable to blog last night – no power and my computer lost its charge.

On Thursday, we got up at 5:30 a.m. to be sure we made it to the American Consulate with Ralph for his 7 a.m. appointment. What they failed to tell us on Wednesday was that the appointment was to stand on a line. An hour later we (Ralph, Paul and I) are finally through the line that lets us into the front door. The same guy that put us through the ringer the day before, was there attempting to do the same again. Not happening. I’m not going to bore everybody with the tirades of two crazy Americans, but we left with what we came for. None of the employees working that day will ever forget it and I feel very fortunate that we were not arrested. But in Haiti, if you want to get anything done, you have to be VERY 'forceful'.

On the way home we stopped at the orphanage (its name is Kola and it was where I had Easter dinner) to make sure they had food for the night. They did not and they had no charcoal to cook with. We took care of that and sat in on one of their lessons. Their makeshift school, which is comprised of a piece of plywood that works as a chalkboard and the tarp enclosure they sit in, was provided by the little group I work with. We are known as NGO’s – non government organizations. These small groups organized in response to the lack of action by groups like The American Red Cross and the U.N. I have been in Haiti for 7 days. I have not seen one Red Cross truck or worker and I have only seen a military presence by the U.N. and I have been everywhere. It’s very disappointing.

The kids at Kola are sweet, appreciative, smart and they love to have their picture taken. I had my translator ask them "what do they know about the United States. What is the one thing they think about when I say 'The United States?' They all yelled out it unison, "Denzel, Denzel Washington". Fantastic. I love that!

RESOURCEFUL!

The day ended with a 2 year old child from the overrun orphanage (with the 76 kids), being placed with an American family. She was taken out of the orphanage in the afternoon; out of squallier and into a relatively nice room by 3. After about 2 hours with me she said (in Creole of course - my interpreter translated), "I have to make a pee pee". I took her into the bathroom and she started crying. The bathroom scared her. I took her out to the patio where she squatted and relieved herself. Making outside is still all she knows.The child’s mother has AIDS and we will attempt to get her treated. Her adoptive family will be here in a week. In the meantime, she will live with a relief worker who has been given temporary custody. Adoptions are tough in Haiti. The government disproves of them for despicable reasons. This is a very complicated and desperate situation, the details of which I cannot write about.

Now that's a face!

The day really ended after I ran 2 bags of IV fluids into each of my relief workers, Big Paul and Little Paul. It is HOT and we get dehydrated in a minute. I have a photo but it is on the hardrive of my camera. It's priceless but will have to wait until I get home.

I'll blog about today, tonight. Back to work!

Maybe no one will scroll down this far - me without sleep for 3 days.

MISSION TO HAITI: DAY 5

The good news is, I don't have a mirror. I have not bathed or washed my hair in days. I have no make-up, no Channel Lifting Serum, no Clinique eye cream. What’s happened to me in just 5 days - it's not pretty. I'll write more tonight.

I'm back:
I write in the back of an abandon hospital. The power is turned on at night and the Wi-Fi stays on as long as the power stays on. I’m sitting on a stretcher. The walls are cracked. There is still food left on a table from someone's old lunch. Occasionally, a rat will run by. He's been working on an old bag of Ramen Noodles. Charming! But honestly, I'm glad I have power and I'm ecstatic that I have Internet.

I want to backtrack to yesterday. I did not mention that on our way to the orphanage, we got a call from General Hospital (the tent-clinic set up outside the hospital). They had one hour of oxygen left and 6 people dependent on it. We had to make a quick detour to find where oxygen might be warehoused, or perhaps, stored in some abandon hospital. Got it and delivered it. It took more than an hour. Everything takes more than an hour because the traffic is horrendous. I have no idea where everybody is going.

OK, back to today. I had money wired to me through Western Union (thanks Matt) Stop worrying, 3 big guys accompanied me. It took 2 hours to get there. Wednesday is market day. There are thousands of people in the street trying to sell anything and everything.



I have to drink a lot of water here. It is VERY hot. I had to go to the bathroom badly and believe me, there is no good place to do that. I was hoping Western Union would have a bathroom. When I walked in (I had a stethoscope around my neck) the security guard said she didn’t feel good. I examined her, gave her some Advil and told her to drink more water. I asked if they had a bathroom and was escorted by an armed guard to a bathroom I wouldn’t let a dog use. I had no choice. Luckily, I carry gloves and sterilizing wipes with me at all times. Brother!

Ralph, one of our translators.

After the bank we went to The U.S. Consulate. Ralph, a 17 year old Haitian-American boy who has been helping as a translator, had his passport, Green Card and birth certificate stolen by his stepmother. He was born in Haiti. His parents divorced when he was 5. He lived with his mother until age 9 when his dad took him and his new wife to the United States. Last year, his stepmother decided she didn’t want him around anymore and took him back to Haiti. She left him here and made off with all his ID (a very valuable commodity here in Haiti). You cannot go to school in Haiti without a birth certificate. You cannot buy a phone without a birth certificate. He's living in Tent City and has been staying with us. He's been helping us out so we want to help him out. We took him to the Consulate to help start the process. What a fiasco but ultimately, we made a little progress. We have to go back tomorrow at 7 a.m. Nothing is easy here. By the way, where the U.N., Consulate and Embassy are; you would never know there was an earthquake.

It's pouring.

MISSION TO HAITI: DAY 4

The problems in Haiti are overwhelming. The government is corrupt. It appears to be an unmanageable situation and there is really no end in sight or adequate solution. But what you can do is help one person at a time or help solve one problem at a time. And that’s what we do here. We’re not trying to solve all of Haiti’s problems. It’s not possible. Quite frankly, the problems here are so tremendous and the devastation so great, that even if somebody had all the answers, it would take a half a century to see the light of day. That is the truth. But the reason we’re here is this:

And this:

There is nothing easier then making these children smile. When we went to the 'orphanage' today all the children stood up together and started singing. It was really something else. The people who care for these children protect them with their life's. It's an incredible thing to watch.

But this is a very challenging and dire situation. These children live on a crowded, filthy dirty street. In the photo above, that stream of water is filled with raw sewage. There are 76 of them living in a very tiny space:

The difference in these kids in just 24 hours is remarkable and the only real change for them so far are fruit cups. But now there is a slight glimmer of hope - and more food. We will go back twice more. We'll bring more food tomorrow and come back again to give them all a good once over, bring medications, bath them, treat their worms, fungal infections and bandage their open wounds. I would love to write more but I can't keep my eyes open.
The kids love it when we overdo the bandages!

I'm back. I'm an early riser so I'll share a few more things.

Working it:

This is Alan (on the left), the very desperate, scared, religious orphanage 'owner' whose "dream as a child was to care for orphans" he said to Paul (white guy with sunglasses), Alexander (on the right - one of our translators) and me, in Creole. But what was his dream come true before the quake, has now become a nightmare. He brings all these kids to church every Sunday. Unbelievable. Paul will try to find a bigger space for them and work on getting a better source of food. It will be almost impossible but in time, he'll get it done. Paul, by the way, has been doing this since day one. He does not get paid. He is responsible for cleaning up and getting an enclosure for the orphanage where we had Easter diner. Unfortunately for him, I am taking care of him while I'm here:)

I ate my first MRE - military issue - Meals Ready to Eat. Ugh. It comes in a plastic pouch. There is something in the bag that creates a chemical reaction that makes it hot. Scary.

MISSION TO HAITI: DAY 3

There is no end to the sadness here. We discovered 76 starving children at an orphanage. I want to explain what an 'orphanage' is in Haiti. It is an open, outdoor space where children live. There may or not be a tarp to provide some shelter from the rain. The orphanage I was at yesterday, where I had Easter dinner, has a tarp. The one we discovered today does not. So......we try to figure out what to do. Getting anything done in Haiti, particularly in Port-au-Prince, is a logistical nightmare. Here are the particulars; a local store owner took in about 15 orphans a few years ago. He owned a grocery store and providing food and a little shelter was not a problem. Then, on January 12, 2010, there was the earthquake. Port-Au-Prince collapsed, including this nice man’s grocery store and the house he lived in with his orphaned children. In no time, his yard was filled with another 50 + children. Without any means to provide food, the situation quickly became desperate. To make matters worse, if his neighbors (who are all jobless, homeless and living outside in tents), see anyone come over with food or assistance, they steel the food or the little bit of money he may have been given. You see the problem? Even if we buy food, he has no place to put it and his neighbors will come and steal it. He has to be relocated. In the meantime, the kids need to be fed. Ultimately we found 4 bags of rice, some beans and a big strong Marine with a gun. We’ll go back tomorrow and see if we can make it better - but we can not make it 'right'. I’m not sure where all the money that has been donated is going. I see no signs of it here. I’m gonna hold off on the photos for now. I will provide a photo of my translator and body guard, Junior. He is responsible for making sure nothing bad happens to me:)

AND,big strong Marine with gun:

MISSION TO HAITI: ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

On the lighter side of a VERY difficult and sad day; I am now reffered as "The American Diva In Haiti." I was given the name after I asked a team member to pull the truck into the shade. Funny. I'll write later.

MISSION TO HAITI: PHOTOS

Me texting and making a face at my teammates for smoking and using bad language:)
The big white building below was the Haitian Palace.

MISSION TO HAITI: DAY 2

The good news: I slept for about 3 hours last night, on the floor, with no air conditioning and faulty mosquito netting. How do they get through the netting?? There is no coffee. We have no way to heat water. So instead of coffee, I had Ragaman. Whoa! It's called a ginseng energy drink. Good Lord, I thought I was gonna go through the roof. I almost had to call my favorite cardiologist. Breakfast was 2 Cliff Bars.

We started the day by loading our truck with medical supplies: IV solutions, meds, tubing, you name it. We loaded it on the truck and delivered it to DIRT – Disaster Immediate Relief Team. They are a small group of very young relief workers who find out who needs what in terms of medical supplies, finds a way to procure them and sees to it that they get delivered. My little team does the same but since we all have the same goal, we help each other out. After that drop off we went to General Hospital which is now a large group of tents set up outside the hospital (the hospital buildings are very unstable), to find out what they need. We pull in front of a guarded, chaotic makeshift hospital with a stench that stung our eyes. There is no sanitation in Haiti - none. Sewage runs into the streets. It was bedlam. Men, women and children lying on gurneys, crying or too weak to cry. Doctors were calling out for medications that were either not available or impossible to find. A child was seizing. It was a sight (and smell) I will not soon forget. I talked to the doctor in charge about the set up and agreed to talk to the administrator about working there. I’ll go back tomorrow. We got a list of everything they needed. The problem is, right after the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of medical supplies were donated form people and companies around the world. There are piles and piles and piles of medications and medical supplies sitting in hospitals that have closed (which is a whole other story) and warehouses. There is no organized distribution. Small teams have gotten together to work the problem. I’m on one of those teams.There are 3 of us; Little Paul, Big Paul and me. It’s crazy and there is so much needless suffering. We got the list, got the supplies and delivered them. It’s amazing how happy IV tubing can make a person. It’s the little things. From there we went to the orphanage again. Sweet faces of beautiful children whose parents either perished in the quake OR abandoned them. Really, so incredibly heartbreaking. The orphanage workers treated us to Easter Dinner. I’ll never forget it. Most Haitians are beautiful people. We made one more supply drop and called it quits for the night.

It’s absolutely impossible to imagine what’s going on here. It’s an apocalypse.

'Thank you" to everybody who is helping me during the day with medical questions and questions about medications. Many of the medications that have been donated are from countries other than the United States. Most of the names are similar enough to their English counterparts but others don't have an English equivalent. Thank God for my Blackberry and thank God for Verizon for keeping me connected 24/7.