Day 3

The day began with less chaos, although, the rooster still crowed. I seemed to sleep a bit better, I only woke up 3 times as opposed to 6 or 7. This morning for breakfast was heavier on the carbs and lighter on the protein, but I survived with a cliff bar later in the afternoon.
We arrived at 8 AM, because that is what time June told us to be there. Well, there were patients there, but we had no translators! No one showed until around 8:30 (which is when we will get there tomorrow), then we met for prayer, worship, and a teaching from Frankel. It was fun trying to sing a hymn in Creole. Heidi and I winged it as best we could. Many Haitians can sing well, so it is great just hearing them. Sometimes, we can hear people break out in song upstairs in the hospital.

We only had a couple of patients at first, but then out of nowhere comes June with literally a “truck full of patients”! She went the Bernice Johnson Center for Women to pick up the ladies who need rehabilitation. The clinic was packed very quickly. I saw about the same amount of patients as yesterday, maybe a few more. I got to work with a few of the patients that I saw yesterday, so that was nice (continuance of care is always good).

Probably one of my favorite parts of this day was working with Rita again. She is the one I spoke about who my heart really went out to yesterday. I asked the translator to help translate her story for me if she was willing to tell me. The gist of the story was that she was in her apartment/home on the 4th story lying in her bed when the earthquake happened. She remembered feeling things shaking, but then the next thing she new she was lying in the same position somewhere else. She said that it was hard for her to determine where she was. Apparently, she was thrown from her house and was lying on top of another house pinned under concrete. She remembered awakening and praying to God for help. Some men came to help (not sure on the time elapse) and got her son and her husband and then had to get the concrete off her. She ended up losing her 13 y/o son in the earthquake. She said she got some medical attention in PAP, but then was able to come to the hospital here. Minus a few weeks when she went to a different hospital, she has been here since the earthquake (January). I noticed that she was wearing a different gown today, so that made me happy.

The language barrier is very tough for me. In the US, I spend a lot of time talking with my patients and learning about them, here it is much more difficult. Even with a translator, you feel things are lost in translation. I would love to grab a translator after hours and just go up and visit with some of these people. I pray that God will open more doors in the future for relationship building.

I am finding that my French background is coming in very handy here. A lot of times, I can get the gist of what someone is saying and I can communicate a few words to my patients. Some of my patients speak French, so I will try my best to talk with them in French. I think that, with practice, I could learn Creole. It seems to be much easier than French in terms of conjugation and sentence structure.

We walked by the large church today (I believe it is a Baptist church). We stopped and listened to the service they were having for a bit. I might try to go back by tomorrow evening wearing appropriate clothing (I was in a tank top and long shorts) and see if they have a Wed night service.

So I pretty much sweat or feel sticky all day here. It isn’t uncomfortable enough that it affects what I am doing, but it is definitely different than what I am used to. I am sure that if I lived here longer, I would not notice it as much. In the evenings I have noticed that I feel like my skin is literally giving off heat, similar to how you feel when you have a sunburn, but not painful. Weird, I know.

Ok, well, I don’t get to sleep much past 6 with the rooster and the heat, so I better take a shower and get to bed.

Thanks again for reading and for your prayers!