Coming Home

All my interviews are done. My final presentation is complete. My bags are packed. Today I fly from Jeremie to Port au Prince and from Port au Prince to JFK. What a great summer, I have learned so much here! I have a feeling this won't be my last trip to Haiti…

Tropical Storm Emily….or not

Don't worry, I stayed dry. We expected 10 to 20 inches of rain, but we didn't get a drop! We did, however get a really crazy looking sunset.

Week in Terre Rouge

So I just got back from spending four days in a village called Terre Rouge which is just outside of Moron Haiti. Emily and I spent 4 days living with a HHF health agent and her family. We got to go on many home visits with her and see mother's, father's and children's health group meetings. It was an adventure to stay in a place with no electricity or plumbing or cell phone service on the brink of a tropical storm!

            On the second day we were there we were summoned to the home of a woman in labor. The matwon (traditional birth attendant) told us that she had been in labor for four days. The mother was lying on a bed in a two room hut made of banana leaves. She was still fully dressed, but when she lifted her skirt we could see the umbilical cord lying between her legs. I don't know much about birth, I knew this wasn't good. The health agent was able to round up men from the village to carry the woman down the mountain in a "stretcher" and Emily and I phone Jeremie to have an ambulance sent for her. Unfortunately, before the ambulance could reach her, she delivered a lifeless baby boy. The mother survived and is doing well. Although it was an awful experience for the family of the baby, I now fully appreciate the struggle women face to reach adequate obstetrical care. Haiti has a lot of accommodations to be made before infant and maternal mortality rates can be reduced. This is an experience I won't soon forget.

Trip to Bonbon

            I had a pretty quiet week, as I tried to finish up my interviews at the Center of Hope in Jeremie. Only 6 more until I reach my goal of 130 interviews! Yesterday I got to see another new city in Haiti. I went to the beach in Bonbon with Emily (American HHF volunteer), Pierre and Clifford (Haitian HHF volunteers). I drove with Pierre on his moto which took about 35 minutes from Jeremie. Even though I am a little scared of riding around on motos, they really are the best way to see the country. The picture above is of a place where a river meets the road between Bonbon and Jeremie. People come there to wash their motos, their clothes and themselves! It was wonderful to have a day relaxing on yet another gorgeous Haitian beach before I head up to live in the mountains for four days. That will be an adventure for sure!

Last Interview in the Mountains

Today I finished my last interviews in the villages. The rest of the time I am here I will be interviewing at the Center of Hope (maternal waiting home) in Jeremie. I am sad to be done going on the health posts because they are a lot of fun, but it will be nice not to spend so much time in the car getting to them. Even though my interviews are done, my time in the villages is not. Next week Emily and I will be spending 2 nights at the home of a health agent in Moron, Haiti. We will see all of her patients with her as well as live with her family. The home in the picture above is actually the one that we will be staying in. I think that will be a really great experience. I will keep my fingers crossed that one of the women I interviewed will go into labor while I am there!

Beach Weekend

This past weekend I spent at the beach in Port Salut with Emily (nurse/HHF volunteer) and Michelle (works for Caris Foundation/my housemate). Port Salut is on the southern coast of Haiti. It took us 5 hours to get there over winding roads. Most of the way the road was only wide enough for one car. On the way we drove through Les Cayes which is the 4^th largest city in Haiti. We were so excited to see paved roads and a traffic light that we actually stopped to take pictures.

Once we were at the beach we were really spoiled with American style food and air conditioning. The beach was gorgeous with clear blue water, white sand and mountains in the distance. We ate at one really nice hotel that had a swimming pool and a flat screen TV which seemed so out of place in a country like Haiti. It felt kind of wrong to be indulging in good food and sunbathing while there was so much suffering around us, but I have to admit it was nice to have a few days off!

Voodoo Lesson

Today I spent the morning interviewing Marion, the uncle of my summer host, and a local Voodoo expert. Marion has been studying Voodoo his entire life, but also understands my Western perspective since her studied mathematics in US and other places abroad. It was nice to interview someone in English! He is 84 and although he had a stroke last year, he is doing well (mostly sustains himself on Ensure and the local beer, Prestige).

            He spent a lot of time explaining the differences between good Voodoo and bad Voodoo (he only practices good Voodoo of course, but knows about both kinds). All in all it seems extremely complicated. For example, if I had an enemy that was pregnant and I wanted her to die or lose the baby I would go to a Voodoo priestess (only a female will do). She then has to mix poisons, preferably into a food, and then trick a close friend or family member to feed my enemy the poison. However, if my enemy catches wind that I am trying to harm her, all she needs to do is find a Voodoo priestess with a more powerful spirit than the one I hired. If the baby is born healthy I will know that my priestess lost to a more powerful priestess.  

He also told me that Voodoo services are extremely expensive; 700 to 1,000 gourde (between $17 and $25 US) is the going rate to have an enemy killed. This is interesting because many women say they can't afford to come in for prenatal care which costs only 50 gourdes ($1.50 US), but I guess people find the money when they really need it. I definitely learned a lot from Marion, and before I left he asked me to recommend his services to the pregnant women I interview if they are in need of good Voodoo!