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.