Saturday June 9, 2007

Dear Friends,

We arrived in Haiti last Saturday after many delays because of the heavy rain in Florida. One of my suitcases finally arrived on Thursday. But we are here, safe and very warm. Imagine St. Petersburg in August with no A/C. When we walked into the Delimart we stayed for extra time to enjoy the very rare A/C.

Haiti is very lush and green with plants and trees just like those in Florida. We can hear the mangos and breadfruit drop off on the tin roofs all day and night. And the roosters crow all night and dogs bark and people sing and the mangos go splat. It is VERY hilly and I am burning off fat running up and down stairs and hills to get everywhere. The views are amazing except that it is very smoggy. There is always a pile of trash burning somewhere. Yes, it is a very poor county and the living conditions in Port au Prince are abominable. However, all the people are dressed in clean clothing and pride themselves on neatness. And everyone smiles and is very polite. They crowd together with very little personal space but that is normal here. Hopefully the photos I’ve put here will arrive with this letter.

I am traveling with Denise English, a PT from PA who is the Director of the Rehab Aide Program at Helping Hands For Haiti, a most wonderful organization. Take a moment and go on their website www.helpinghandsforhaiti.com. Denise developed this program with other

therapists in Health Volunteers Overseas to meet the need for rehabilitation in this country. There are many, many people with burns, amputations, horrific fractures and

head injuries. And – other than us – there are only two PTs in the entire

country, both Cuban trained and working with MSF. The Rehab Aides

trained at HHFH provide the only other PT given and, considering the very

short, concentrated course of study, do an incredible job. The second person

with me is Edith Ng, an OT from Toronto. We have 10 students who are in

their final 3 weeks of clinicals (in a six month program that has been spread

over nearly 2 years because of civil disturbance). The students are rotating through three places. MSF (Doctors without Borders Hospital in Port au Prince), the HHFH Rehab Clinic and Madam Blaise’s Orphanage. I am at Madam Blaise’s for the three weeks and loving every minute. Who can resist playing with babies all day!

We had an incredible visit to Trinity Hospital in Port au Prince which is run by MSF France (there are other “divisions” here in PAP such as MSF Netherlands, MSF Belgium and another in Citi Soleil which is the most dangerous part of PAP where they see 1000 patients a week). MSF France is the only division that runs a hospital; the rest are all emergency care only. MSF France

sees only victims of trauma such as car accidents, gun shot wounds and

many cases of sexual assault. The patients are admitted to the 61 bed

hospital and, once they are stabilized, moved to the 160 bed rehab hospital

in Pacot (another section of PAP). The PTs cover both hospitals. A little

about the hospitals – they are clean, all the patients are clean as are the

wounds. Burns are healing well with no infection. Yet neither has

running water – hands are washed from a large tank of water that empties

into a baby bath tub. There is one “private” room where a patient in isolation is bedded; the rest are huge wards of both men and women (8 - 20 people) with open windows for ventilation. There is a 10 bed pediatric unit next door in a small building. In the back are offices for the psychologist and social worker and a ward for women who have been sexually assaulted. A totally incredible place.

I am working at Madam Blaise’s Orphanage for Handicapped Children.

She is a fantastic woman – born in Haiti and lived in the Bronx for years.

Four years ago she returned to Haiti and began “rescuing” children who

had been abandoned in the City Hospital. She now has 20 kids from age

2 to about 9 who live in a very nice house with a yard up on a hill (it’s

about 4 – 5 miles from HHFH but takes 45 minutes to drive because of the traffic and condition of the roads). Madam Blaise works full time to support her orphanage. I am there with my students who are learning to evaluate and treat children. I am so impressed with how far they have progressed. Next Wednesday I get a new group of students for 10 days then graduation will be 6/24/07. The other rotations for the students are at MSF and the HHFH Outpatient Clinic. More on the children next week.

On Friday, June 8, Denise, Edith and I left with a driver for Lacrois which is about 90 miles north – a 4 hour drive. Denise and her husband and several other couples began a medical clinic there in 1998 which is now pretty much self sustaining with Haitian nurses, a Haitian dentist from the area whom they sent to dental school and 2 doctors who will graduate and return next year. This spring a maternity clinic opened where the local lay midwives can bring their patients with complications for delivery by nurse midwives. This is at no charge to the lay midwives so they don’t lose their income. I can’t imagine the satisfaction Denise and

her family and friends feel with this wonderful project which is just

about ready to turn completely over to the Haitians. The mission at

Lacrois where we stayed has electricity about one hour a day – you

leave the fans turned on so they run like crazy when the power is on

which is not much. We went with our driver, Woolsy whom Denise

has known since he was a young boy, and Marie the cook to buy dinner in Goniaeves. Woolsy took us to meet his family in Goniaeves and it was such a privilege. The

six mile trip took 3 hours – all the roads were washed out in the 2004

flood. The poverty is overwhelming and life is very grim for these

people. After our return we went to some of the local villages to visit

friends of Denise’s. Words can not describe the experience. All I could

think was “how many visitors to Haiti come to this remote village?”

And yes, voodoo is alive and well and we passed a number of “voodoo

houses” and saw voodoo signs on the ground as we walked around the

village. But we feel safe and are safe because these are friends of Denise. Peace – and love to you all,

Drexey

PS: I don’t know when this will go out. The internet in Port au Prince is like everything else – spotty and infrequent.