rookie mistake

Really, I should know better. Can you guess what my mistake was? If you've spent some time in Haiti, read through my last blog post (past all the spider freak-out) and you'll probably catch it. For those of you who live in the blissfully efficient first-world, here it is:


"Tomorrow we're getting a huge medication shipment and hopefully picking up some drugs we purchased... should be an eventful day!"

Famous. Last. Words.

Let me preface this little rant by saying that this is not commentary on any particular person's work here or even our organization as a whole. Things like this just happen here. So... three weeks ago (ya, really.) we needed to place a medication order. However, because we are not officially registered as a hospital with the Department of Health (we're in-process) we still order our medications through St. Damien's. Well, we didn't turn in our request on time, so St. Damien sent their request without ours. Fair enough, they're already doing us a favor and the we didn't get our act together. So, we had to wait for them to receive their medications before we could place another request. Fast-forward to last Thursday, we make our first trip to Promess to pick up our medications. However, we have to count the entire order and by the time we finish, they are closing so we need to come back to make the purchase. On Tuesday, we have our check and hop aboard Mr. Toad's Wild Ride from hell. Instead of a cute little buggy we are in a maternity cage. No that's not a typo, we have a maternity cage... sometimes its easier to not ask questions. We survive the cage and get to Promess with our check made out to 'Promess'... silly us. We are turned away, get into a fender-bender driving home (the cage gets by unscathed, obviously) and resolve to do better next time.

Which brings us to today. New check made out to the correct organization? Check. Official-looking manilla folder? Check. Other required paper that somehow appeared in the pile? Check. My very intelligent coworker who is wise to Haiti's ways, looks over this new paper and realizes it requires a signature, which we promptly get from our administrator. We return to Promess, thankfully not in the cage. Get told off for handing the lady a closed envelope. Get lecture about the necessity of first opening the envelope. Whatever. The check passes inspection and we are sent to door number two. We hand lady number two our papers and she's looking over them when lady number one comes running in, saying we don't have this new paper. I really think we've got her at this point. Yvenson pulls it out of the envelope and I am smug. Then... our downfall. "M'ap tcheke signature." Of course since we're ordering through St. Damien, we need one of their administrator's signature not St. Luke's. We promise to get the signature and come back later, for our 4th visit. She tells us their computer system is down, so don't bother. It is now 10am.

We repeat totally ridiculous run-around to get correct administrator signature from St. Damien. It is now 12pm. Lunch time. Best part of the day. With each bite of spaghetti, I regain my patience and realize that it's no big deal to try again tomorrow. This is my first time placing an order with Promess, so next time I'll know exactly what needs to be done.

After lunch, I'm on to the second medication shipment that is supposed to be arriving from Germany at 3pm. We've been working on this order for the cholera treatment center since my first week here. I double check with reception that our customs guy picked up his forms that I printed for him. Yep. Call customs guy at 2pm to remind him the flight is coming in at 3pm. He remembers. I smile. But he doesn't know which airline or the flight number. Nevermind that it is on every single one of the 54 pages I printed for him... my stomach is full, so I am patient and tell him again. I tell him how important it is that we get these drugs soon because we have been out of them for quite a while now. He says that there are a lot of forms to fill out and there is no way we'll have them today. Perfect.

So there it is, my curse for having assumed that I would have two shipments of medications coming in today. I got caught up in the excitement of finally having a great supply of meds for the hospitals. Don't worry, Haiti put me right back where I belong. But the day got better eventually. Probably an hour after the final disappointing call came in, Crawford from Operation Blessing came over with a box of goodies from a volunteer group and they brought me a STAPLER! I know a stapler doesn't sound exciting to you, but imagine doing your office job for the past two months without a stapler. Seriously, I dare you to go one day without your stapler. You will be folding corners and making tape-disasters until you're blue in the face. It's not like Haiti doesn't have staplers, there are plenty of staplers here. But there is just so much to do, so many urgent places for money to go, that to take the time and effort to get a stapler ends up seeming like the ridiculous option.

AND WHAT IS WITH THE COLOSSAL BUGS LATELY??? I just took down a monster cockroach. Nothing I love more than some creepy-crawlers right before I climb into bed!

I think this is what they call the end of the honeymoon stage...