House Calls

She spoke no English, no French, and we speak incomprehensible Creole. Her message was clear though through her eyes, her face, and her gesture- "I'm not going up there- I've tried, but there is no way".

Our mobile street clinic was an incredible success. On the street we have found so many people who as expected were too afraid of entering buildings- much less going to the fourth floor of one- to enter the church that is the home of our clinic. Maryclaire and I took our Taptap and driver, our best translator Calixt, and drove to the massive ruins of the National Cathedral which lies in front of a massive tent city.

We weren't sure exactly what was going to happen but it pretty much solved itself. We brought a case of meds and supplies, and between Maryclaire and I, we acted as physician, nurse, and pharmacist. Calixt would bring one person at a time into the Taptap and we conducted ourselves as we would in the clinic. Later we brought Anita back to the site so we could have an RN with us to help out.

We saw 50 patients in a short time, and transported 34 to the clinic in between. When we left we had a crowd of 30-40 begging us not to leave, but so happy when they heard we would be coming back on Monday. We saw a lot of the general complaints we've been caring for (eye irritation, gastritis, muscle pains, parasitic infestations), but also sicker issues that we were able to refer or transport not only to our clinic but to the outlying field hospitals we have relationships with. We were able to ask what we had planned: 'do you know where someone is who is very sick, and unable to reach medical care?" We'll continue the mobile street clinic today, moving into other areas of downtown.

In the afternoon we took the long route home to take a translator home, around areas of downtown we haven't yet seen- including the Palace, the national nursing school (with 500+ nursing students and teachers lost), and other devastated areas. We stopped by the stadium so our departing paramedic Jim, who was finishing a 3 week tour and had been here early in the disaster, could say goodbye to the place he had seen so much pain and chaos. The stadium was transformed, and a palpable feeling of peace and calm was the dominating feeling, over the

smells of human aggragation, filth, and the obvious disrepair of a tent city within the structure. It was moving to see the look on his face, to see the results of his work. Maryclaire and I walked along separate from our group, talking to the children and families. We were asked to urgently come see a woman, and we made a house call to her. She was 8 months pregnant, and was dehydrated, and having abdominal pain. This was her first pregnancy. We assessed her, Maryclaire calmed her and her family, and they asked if we could come back and see her one day. We said we would.

The Palace looks like a scene from the movie Independence Day or Armageddon. The entire roof of all sections is slid down, the pillars crushed, the front caved in. Imagine the white house crushed and sloped, with a multi-thousand person tent camp in front of it. It was shocking. In sharp contrast there was a parade of the people in front, led by a truck blaring songs of praise. The people were singing and dancing, all wearing some bit of yellow. Their song was of joy, not of grief.

At the end of the parade near the end of the tent city, we dropped off one of our interpretors. This was the first time one of our new nurses had realized the fate or our translators- our colleagues. They were just as homeless as all of our patients. She didn't realize this because like our patients, they are always dressed in the best clothes they can find, and well groomed. With nothing, they make sure they always look their very best. We passed a graffiti sign after leaving the palace that said 'Haiti has not perished!'. With so much emotion in the air, and with such respect for the peoples imaginable loss, deep tragedy, and persistent love and defiance it was impossible for us all not to cry.

We were all so grateful to the people of Haiti for giving us so much in that hour, and in this experience.

-Aaron