HAITI: Day 1 -- arrival in Thomonde

06-19-11

It’s 5am when we arrive at Hartsfield Jackson to check-in for our trip to Haiti (via Miami). We stand in the long check-in line (who knew so many people were flying to Miami at 5am on a Sunday?). I’m one of the last ones in line from our group. The air travel agent is having some trouble finding my ticket in the system. He consults with another agent who has also been checking in our group. It’s confirmed – I don’t have a plane ticket. We call over the trip leader to sort it out since he made the travel reservations through a travel agency. At this point I kind of want to cry but laugh instead because with my flying history, it’s not traveling for me unless something goes wrong. It turns out the travel agency somehow deleted my ticket, so the trip leader ends up just buying me another one (thank goodness there were open seats on the flight).

After that rough start, we set off to Miami where we encountered a 2 hour delay to Port Au Prince due to problems with the plane. When we finally arrive in the Port Au Prince airport, we hear something similar to “island music” played by a group of local Haitians to greet us. As soon as we pass through customs, we have to fight to keep hold of our bags as the airport is crawling with “employees” who want to carry your bag for you – for a small fee of course. After hauling our personal belongings as well as 50 pound medical supply bags to the ground transportation area, we find our Medishare contact, and are off for the 3 hour drive to Thomonde.

The drive through Port au Prince was rough. There seems to be no rules that govern traffic and major potholes all along the roads. My first impression driving through the earthquake devastated city was how dirty, broken, and crowded it seemed. Among the dirty streets, there was still some beauty. Instead of your standard graphic printed signs, everything is painted. The local transportation buses also serve as a canvas and are all painted in colorful scenes. As soon as you get out of the city though, you are surrounded by beautiful Haitian countryside. Rivers, mountains, and valleys surround you and the road becomes more evenly paved.

We arrive at the Medishare compound in Thomonde and I’m surprised by how nice compound looks. There is a nice little garden surrounding an open patio that serves as the common area. Behind the patio are a few small buildings that contain bedrooms, bathrooms, and the medishare offices. As Sameer gave us our sleeping arrangements, I found that I was in a room with Cathy and Caity with beds and a fan – again, much better than I expected ( I thought we were going to be sleeping on air mattresses). After settling in, we all moved to the patio and just relaxed. All around the compound, the Haitian children were peering in behind the fence, very interested in what these foreigners were doing. Some of the boys decided to go an play Frisbee with them, which they loved.

Marie, the director of Medishare, spoke to us before dinner and gave us a general introduction to the role of Medishare in Haiti and to what we would be doing for the next week. Medishare serves as a NGO collaboration (with WHO, unicef, PIH, Haitan minister of health) that focuses on health and community development. Their goals include 1) HIV screening and referrals (treatment takes place at Partners in Health) 2) reduction of childhood mortality 3) reduce malnutrition 4) reduce maternal mortality. They accomplish this is several ways, mainly working through community healthcare workers (HCW). When HCWs do their home visits, one of their main focuses is making sure the children on healthy and receive treatment when they are not. They also spread the word about mobile clinics in the area. To decrease malnutrition, medishare hosts educational workshops with local farmers and they are working to produce a nutritionally enhance breakfast grain (Akamil). To reduce maternal morality, they have set up a local maternity center in a nearby town that includes an observation room, NICU beds, and several nurses and a midwife on duty.

After Marie’s introduction, we have dinner (beans and rice, chicken, and carrots) and decide to explore the town a little bit. The sky quickly became dark and it looked like a storm was coming, so we quickly turned back and spent the rest of our evening in the compound playing card games and getting to know each other.