Day 1

The next entries are events that have already happened about a week ago. We'd been quite busy & weren't able to update as often as we wanted to. And honestly, the last thing we wanted to do after a full day was to rush to the computer & blog all about it! Plus there was always a line up at the computers & since we're such considerate girls, we stuck with our 10 minute turns (barely enough time for a thorough entry). Anyway, we recognize that friends & family have been wondering, so the following are our day to day experiences of how it all went...

Friday, March 12th, 2010

All of us looking tired from a long day of traveling

View from above. Notice all the blue tarps

Thank you Insel Air for the free in flight meal & raffle for a free flight

(even though we didn't win)!

Waiting on the tarmac for the bus to drive us to the airport

The box truck is now packed with over 40 people. Four ACTS World Relief volunteers, two of the organizers who had picked us up, Jonathan & Doug, one dietitian, & one teacher, 36 from Union College of Lincoln, Nebraska comprised of students, instructors, & medical staff who came to volunteer during their spring break, & three squished pediatric nurses all the way from the great white northern land we know & love, Canada! Oh yes, & about 1/3 of the space was taken up by all our baggage. There's barely enough room to move, the air is thick & humid, difficult to breathe in, & we're all sweating up a storm in the heat. The three of us had been the first to get picked up & we had waited two hours for the Union group to arrive, barely enough time for our snow-kissed bodies to acclimatize to the weather. But because of this, we had the chance to sit closest to the front & had full view of the devastation. Exactly two months post earthquake, we arrive. This was no longer just footage from the evening news. This is Haiti.

Waiting in the box truck for the Union group to arrive

The Union group arrives & we are packed

As the truck moves along the rubble of fallen buildings, we are no longer thinking of the interrogation we'd had to go through with the mean power-tripping U.S. customs officers accusing us of soliciting the syringes we'd brought for medical aid, or having to frantically repack our bags just prior to our Haiti flight to equalize weights among bags just to appease the check-in lady, or the fact that we'd been up since 2:45 in the morning & had been traveling for about 12 hours to get to this point, or even how ecstatic we were to see an ACTS representative pick us up from the airport. All we could think of & what kept going through our heads was - wow. Just - wow. Coming out of the airport you see rows upon rows of tents, some donated, some makeshift made out of anything people could gather together for shelter. Most buildings are unrecognizable, only represented by a mess of a pile; a mere reminder of what once was. Dust is everywhere. Luckily we were prepared, but you'd have much difficulty without a mask. Everywhere you turn there is destruction, there is poverty, there is tragedy. How would one little box truck full of not so nice smelling people & baggages make any difference here?

Some makeshift tents & rubble

(Above three photos are courtesy of Chastity Grant. Thanks C!)

We arrived at the compound, exhausted & just ready to crash. We drop our gear & are immediately ushered into the clinic, where we quickly learn that we are expected to triage, diagnose, treat, & dispense medication to patients. Talk about crash course in medicine! There are 10 stations for nurses, doctors, dentists, mental health specialists, pharmacists, even the occasional respiratory therapist. Each day, we're told the clinic sees about 400 patients. What have we gotten ourselves into?

In fact, as we were being oriented, we are assigned to help with a patient with an interesting case, & since Carissa has some mad French-speaking skills, she spent a lot of time that first evening with this patient.

As night approaches, we finish setting up our tent, take a cold outdoor shower, & eat the vegan food made by Vietnamese locals provided to us (which might sound interesting to you adventurous foodies, but I assure you, it's really not). We are told that it is the day of sabbath for some of those in Haiti &, in spite of everything they've been through, we later fall asleep to the sounds of our Haitian neighbours clapping, singing, & celebrating.