The beginning of Hinche

Yesterday completed our second full day in Haiti, but the beginning of our time here in Hinche. Hinche is where Midwives for Haiti is located, where volunteers stay and where classes are held to train Haitian women to become midwives. The people who live here at the house have been more than welcoming and so great at helping us ease in. Most of them (the Americans) have been here for a few months, some years; others on staff are Haitian. The first two days had included lots of travel, and although we didn’t do much, we were still pretty tired and still soaking in a lot of our surroundings. It has also given us lots of time to read our required books, which have started to open our eyes to what impact our country had, and continues to have, on Haiti. Personally, I’m ashamed to realize how little I knew about how we were connected so intimately with Haiti, and how much of this poverty we’re witnessing is a direct result of what the US has done. (We also watched a documentary on Saturday evening that I would recommend: Poverty, Inc).

Sunday morning we attended a local Episcopal church service. We didn’t quite understand any of it, but it was still nice to get a feel for what their service was like, and be a part of their culture.  We also got a quick tour of downtown Hinche, including the main square, a church built in the 1930’s (or 40’s) during the American Occupation , another local church, and a cemetery. The cemetery might’ve been the most interesting stop…we got some looks as we entered the cemetery, so I’m assuming that people don’t just normally walk in there (at least more so than you would back in the States I guess)… I could go on about what our tour guide/Creole teacher talked about, but that might be a little too much for a blog; there were other components of their faith and culture that I was not aware of that are still practiced.

We also had our first Creole lessons yesterday afternoon! It was roughly about 45-50 minutes of some simple conversational phrases. We’ll have 3 more lessons, and hopefully that will help get us by. Last night before dinner as we were sitting doing some more reading and journaling Lamar had the great idea of practicing our Creole some more. We also went ahead and taught ourselves a little more vocabulary, we’re hoping to impress our teacher. So far we’ve been using it quite a bit as we’re interacting more with those around us. I had the chance to try it out last night as I was journaling and was joined by some Haitian staff members that came to have a late dinner. They had a little hard time understanding my accent…but they got what I was trying to ask. And I think that’s all that matters at this point.. 🙂

Today was our first day going out to our assignments. Currently, 3 of us are still out on mobile clinics. The other three of us, and Ann as well, have returned from our morning spent at Azil, a place run by the Sisters of Mercy where they provide such amazing care for such a diverse group of ages. To say that what the Sisters do there is astounding and completely amazing, is an understatement. I was beyond impressed at the things they accomplish and the amount of needs they attend to. From what I encountered at my time there so far, there is a feeding clinic upstairs; there are several rooms set up with lots of cribs, filled with babies and toddlers. Below them, there are beds set up where there take care of adults. We helped them with admitting new patients (Mondays are their admitting days), rubbing special ointment on some kids who had scabies, preparing their mid-morning snack and feeding the many babies, feeding them lunch an hour later, I was able to start an IV in a patient, Mariah and Ann did dressing changes, Martha and I helped the Sister administer some B12 and iron to women who needed it, etc. It was definitely a busy place, with lots to do and not quite enough hands. The Sisters do have some other help there too. We will have the chance to send a few of us to Azil everyday, depending on our assignments. I’m grateful that I was able to go and experience that, to be able to do what we did and help them. But we also came back with heavy hearts; that wasn’t easy to experience. The malnourished children, all those women downstairs who had HIV/AIDS…it’s not something we’ve experienced yet in clinicals back in Harrisonburg, and  it’s something else when you experience it in this sort of setting and supplies are so limited.

Every afternoon we switch to different assignments and we’ve been assigned days to go to the  Hospital with Ann as she can only watch over 2 of us at a time. This is the portion of our time where we’ll experience more of the childbirth experience and what some of us are really looking forward to. First up to go to the hospital with Ann: Mariah & I.

-Juni