Woohoo for internet connection! I'm actually writing this online instead of making a word document and posting it later.


Yesterday I finally got to get started on organizing the pharmacy! We went over to Francisville around 2pm and Junior and I spent about two hours organizing the medications, so that today we can do an inventory check. There is no air conditioning in Francisville and it was HOT yesterday. It's a miracle I could even hold on to the medication bottles I was so sweaty. Junior was a huge help, he's worked in the pharmacy before so he knows what he's doing and he's going to medical school in Haiti starting in September. Pretty cool. Also, he likes Rihanna so we're going to be best friends. He played it on his ipod yesterday while we were working.


Unfortunately, there are some medications that are expired on the shelves. We haven't thrown them out yet because we need to double check with Father Rick how to get rid of them, but it's a bummer. Hopefully we won't have to do that anymore! After organizing the stock in Francisville, we went over to St. Luc Hospital to see the medications that they try and keep in stock there. Once we know for sure our inventory, hopefully we'll be able to do rounds at St. Luc's and keep their cabinets stocked so they don't run out of any medications.


Last night I helped Kenson with his English. We worked out of his TOEFL book which is the English test for foreign exchange students to get into college in the U.S. I was surprised because some of the questions were really hard! Some were obvious because I'm a native English speaker, but trying to explain to him the random rules of English sucked. I feel bad for anyone who has to learn English. For example, how do you explain to someone that you don't say 'furnitures' or 'mails'? While we were working in the little trailer there was an enormous thunderstorm. Rain was pelting the metal roof of the trailer and the thunder was shaking it. It was actually great to fall asleep to.


This morning I did exercises in my Creole books, then went over to FWAL to practice Creole with the kids. I bounced around for a little bit, then ended up in the English class. The teacher had me teach the kids the alphabet and then I had them sing it with me. It's hard to direct the class because some of them are just starting to learn English, but one of the kids I talked to had been taking English for four years. I was impressed with how patient all the students were, I know that American kids would have been going nuts with all the waiting and listening to each person recite their ABC's. After I helped with the ABC's the teacher went over colors with them and then finished the class with a discussion of the quote "be the change you wish to see in the world." I thought Palo, their teacher, did an amazing job with the lesson and the kids are really lucky to have him. He said I can come back every day if I want, and I think I'll take him up on that offer because it really helps me to practice Creole with the kids.


Alright, I'm heading off to Francisville now to work on the inventory. Might need a beer tonight after 5 hours of correcting inventory...

I had another great day today. I feel like every day I get to experience so much it’s hard to take it all in sometimes.

I started the day at mass in the chapel on the grounds with Father Rick. They lay the bodies of the children and adults who died the previous night in the chapel and Father Rick does a Catholic funeral for them, there were three there this morning. The bodies are wrapped and they each have unique cloths over them that are decorated with crosses and flowers. The one for the little girl was a light pink and had white lace over it, it was very pretty. There was a lot of singing in Creole which sounded beautiful and a Haitian girl, Esther, who works here and is known for her singing was there, so it was a really nice funeral. I had a hard time at one point because the door to the chapel is open and when you look out you can see all of the mothers with their babies waiting to be triaged to come into the hospital. Many of the babies and children are crying because they don’t feel well and have to wait such a long time to be seen. I felt so bad for those mothers because we had someone’s little girl in here, watching her funeral. I was thinking this over very solemnly when I glance outside again, and Sister Judy who is doing the triage, is so frustrated with one of the mothers interrupting her while she’s talking to a patient that she takes matters into her own hands. She is standing facing the chairs that the mothers are sitting in and she reaches between the two, sets her elbow down on the back of the chair, and turns her body to face the one she actually wants to talk to, elbowing out the rude mother. Hilarious.

I had some plans for the mid-morning to afternoon but they changed. I feel like I could start almost every story here with that… “well, I was going to do something, but I ended up doing this.” Anyways Dievrek (pronounced Jevek) drove Ivy and I to Project HOPE to have a meeting in hopes of getting some donated medications and supplies. The meeting went really well, it sounds like they have a lot to give away and we need a lot of medications. Ivy was especially excited because the representative we were talking to said that they had the capability to send us insulin and chemotherapy drugs. I really hope that I can do my pharmacy project well because it could end up saving the hospital a ton of money, money that can be used for so many other things, because there is so much need. The drive to and from the organization, which is in Delmas, was equally as exciting for me because it’s only the second time I’ve been outside of our compound. I saw so many interesting things: a 10 year old boy wearing a “Junior Girls” t-shirt, a man washing a tire in the street runoff so that it would look new to sell, little garbage fires all over the roads, a man selling pills from his random assortment stuffed into a black garbage bag (scary), plus tons of beautiful art. We also passed the Canadian Embassy and the U.S. Embassy, both of which were gorgeous buildings made out a light, shiny stone (how scientific of me) with tall, wrought iron gates surrounding them.  We also took a road home that was up on a hill where we could see all the way over the flatlands and Port-au-Prince to the ocean. It’s surprising how many trees there seems to be, although you can’t appreciate how nice it is because of all the smog.

Before the sunset I went up on the roof of St. Damien’s and took some pictures of the views. You can see the dark clouds in the distance, which produced tons of lightening when it got a little later. I sat in the other room and watched it for a while because it was really pretty. Later, I had my first Creole lesson with Kenson, the director of FWAL. Tomorrow, I’m going to help him study for the SAT’s. He might have wanted me to take an SAT first before he agreed to this deal… hopefully I don’t embarrass myself too bad.

Volunteer area and water tower

View of Francisville, from the roof of St. Damien

I had a great rest of the day after the FWAL graduation ceremony. I took quite a bit of time for myself because the conference room had internet! I sent some emails and chatted with people who were online, so I’m really, really hoping that I can get internet in there tomorrow as well. I even took a shower, because I didn’t take one last night and then I baked in the sun all day, and I’m sure the glare coming off my sweaty skin was blinding over Skype. Thank god Skype doesn’t share smells because it was no good.

A little later Ivy and I went back to the conference room so that she could show me the computer system that they’re using to manage their pharmaceutical inventory. We brought some of the new French books we had donated and brought some kids from oncology into the conference room with us so that they could read the books while we were working. I’m sure the kids have bad days when the medicine really gets to them, but I have yet to see it. They are big troublemakers and have huge personalities just like any other kids. When you’re interacting with them, you never think about the fact that they have cancer because you’re focused on making sure they behave and enjoying their ramblings. So anyways, about work, the great thing about the computer system is that it’s really simple to use, but the not so great thing is that there is still quite a few glitches and a lot of things you can’t do on the system. But, I was extremely impressed that the entire thing had both English and Creole for any button you click on. I took my aforementioned shower, then had some dinner with Wynn and the other volunteers and we chatted and he was able to tell me a little bit more about the long term vision of the pharmacy and St. Luc and St. Philomene. I really liked hearing about the future plans because it gives me a great idea about what to prioritize and the goals that we’re working towards. I’m excited for my first official day of work tomorrow!



my room on day 2



my bathroom


Yesterday after Ivy and I toured St. Damien’s Pediatric Hospital, Wynn took me through St. Luc’s ER and ICU, St. Philomena’s cholera center and some of the outpatient clinics. We stopped in the small pharmacy that supplies each one, as well as the storage warehouse in Francisville where they keep large quantities of medicines and supplies. It made me realize that this is a huge job and one that is going to take a lot of time to put together. I really need to get my Creole fluent so that I can talk with all of the doctors and nurses about what works best. I think the best plan in this first month or so is to work on Creole for half the day and learning about the pharmacy for the other half.

After the tour, Ivy took me on an eating marathon. First we stopped at 18 Santos, which is a new home setup by Partner’s in Health, Paul Farmer’s organization. They took in many of the orphaned and disabled kids after the earthquake. They have an extremely nice facility with a huge kitchen, a therapy pool and only two children per room. We were given a tour by two Haitian-American kids who were there volunteering for the summer with their mother. Ivy’s friend in the kitchen served us some delicious boullion, rice and avocado. It was stuffed and I barely ate half of it. We said goodbye at 18 Santos and headed for a staff members house. They just moved in and have a very nice house. The staff member’s wife was so generous and fed us again, but I just some fruit because I was so full. They were all speaking Creole, so I read some French books to their two year old girl until she fell asleep. I was very impressed that the family had at least two hundred books for their daughter, but only about ten or so toys. Haitians really place a ton of importance on education. Their daughter is only two, but they are already teaching her French.

Back at the compound, we went to visit Sister Judy and see how her dinner at the US Embassy the previous night was. She said that there were a lot of Americans who live in Haiti running the big NGO’s as well as some Haitian politicians. We talked about my job while I’m here and I’m happy that I’ll have Sister Judy to ask advice because she was the Operations Director of St. Damien’s for many years. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to shadow the pharmacists at St. Damien’s because they are much more established. It’s difficult because St. Luc’s just moved into “more permanent” housing, which means they are out of tents and into prefabricated houses. They have a foundation and a cement wall that comes up about a foot and a half, but then it’s just wood plank up to the tin roof. There are no doors, just sheets that are actually really nice because they let the breeze through the different areas of the room.



Philippe at the FWAL ceremony with my sunglasses

Last night we went back to Mama Raphael’s for dinner and had a drink and plantains with picklies. We came home fairly early though because this morning was the FWAL graduation ceremony. I left with Joanne, an advisor for FWAL, to go to mass at 9am with the children. They were all dolled up in their dress pants and white dress shirts and a bunch even had bow-ties on. They were adorable and loved playing games with me. I was so impressed that they made it through the ceremony without any crying or tantrums, because I was about to have a meltdown in the heat. So many of the kids loved singing and many were drumming against the pews to the more spirited songs. Little Jackson who was next to me got so tired and kept falling asleep in my lap. I let him sleep because he was so little (maybe 3 or 4 years old) and just woke him up for the parts where the kids were supposed to stand. After two hours of mass, there was a half hour break and they started the graduation ceremony. I made it through about a half hour of the ceremony before I had to come back because I was so hot. It was nice because many of the kids had extended family there, all dressed up to watch them graduate. In Haiti they celebrate every grade the kids graduate from, because it isn’t like the US where everyone just moves up, you have to pass the tests, so many kids don’t get to graduate each year.

Not sure what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day, but I need to get my hands on a broom and some bleach to clean up my house!

I’m in Haiti! I’m writing from the outdoor kitchen where volunteers hang out, eat and socialize. It’s only 9:30am and already 90 degrees, but it’s windy so the breeze helps cool you off.

I arrived yesterday and my plane was actually half an hour early. There was a space shuttle launch in Miami and I think the captain was very eager to see it, so we sped through the first half of the flight. It ended up working out nicely; the captain got to see the space shuttle and we arrived second out of the six flights that all got in at the same time in the tiny Port-au-Prince airport. Even being second, it took about an hour to get to customs. It was so hot and stuffy, but people are very friendly with each other so I was listening in trying to understand some Creole. I pretty much couldn’t decipher anything. Luckily, coming back to St. Damien’s most of the volunteers speak English and I am even able to understand their Creole a little better. I even understood a joke yesterday! They didn’t ask me any questions coming though immigration and at customs they took my paper and I walked through. A little different than TSA who searched my bag as I was leaving the country.

I was able to find Ivy, the volunteer who was picking me up, and Smith and they drove me back to St.Damien’s Hospital where I will be staying. Along the road there are colorful canvas paintings for sale and other really pretty artwork. My favorite pieces were wooden statues about a foot tall that looked like caricatures of UN troops. I’ll take a picture or bring one home because they are hilarious and a written description won’t do them justice. The streets are filled with various NGO cars, tap-taps and so many UN vehicles. Ivy bought me a corn icecream popsicle which was actually really good. Some kids came up to tap on the window asking for money and our icecream, but I knew that that would be a part of living in Haiti. What I was not expecting, however, were enormous cows that wander through the roads! Yesterday we went on a walk and there was a huge bull just staring us down as we walked by. Maybe if I grew up on a farm I wouldn’t be as scared of them, but they don’t like people so they just stare at you at eye-level with their huge horns as you walk by.

Ivy took me on a tour of all the grounds yesterday and I couldn’t believe how many projects are going on. The craziest part is that they are almost exclusively run out of shipping containers. They are building more permanent housing, warehouses and offices but of course obtaining land and building permits takes much longer than plopping down a container. My favorite thing we did yesterday was visiting the Father Wasson Angels of Light program (or FWAL, they all just say the acronym). You walk into their gated area and it’s a large grassy courtyard with toys for the children and it’s surrounded on all sides by shipping containers that the children live in. Many of the kids were friendly and knew Ivy, so they came up to say hi. The high school girls group was hilarious; teenagers are teenagers no matter where you go. They move as a pack and luckily they love Ivy, so they were joking around and even showed us their dance routine that they were working on.

Today is Saturday so people are working but it’s very relaxed. This morning Ivy walked me through St. Damien’s Hospital. They have most of the major departments of a pediatric hospital in the US- ER, PICU, “neonatology”, lab, radiology and pediatric oncology (that’s not an exclusive list). We stopped by the abandoned babies room, which is the same room Molly used to visit to go play with the babies and give them some attention. Ivy usually visits the kids in pediatric oncology, but we stopped by Sister Judy’s house today and she was saying that the abandoned babies really need it the most, so I think I might go over there from time to time to play with them for a bit. Anyways, Ivy and I brought a book with us to oncology which some of the kids were interested in, and others were much more interested in stealing the i-pod out of her pocket. They also have a very new flatscreen TV which is nice for the mother’s who spend all their time in that tiny room with their children who are receiving treatment. All in all it was a great morning and I’m excited to learn some more about what I will be doing and go into Tabarre with Ivy.

Only three weeks until I go!

I'm still reading "Best Nightmare on Earth" and still finding awesome quotes. I love the way the author writes. He's honest, insightful and funny. Here, he's talking about Port-au-Prince and describing the overpopulation:

"In town, the smoky air becomes greasy with sweat and flesh, a pungency beyond the mere pellmell shedding of flower scents, charcoal burning, rot and composting, sun on flesh, fiber, goods. Armpits are a metaphor elsewhere. Here in Population Explosion City, everything seems to be God's Grease, fried vapor."

His imagery makes you feel like you can imagine standing in the city, but I'm convinced that experiencing it first hand will be unlike anything else. I realize that being excited to visit a place like this may not be a common sentiment, but the author also describes the cool mountains of Kenscoff (where NPFS is located) and the beautiful trails, waterfalls and views from up in the hills. To be honest, the only part that scares is his armpit comment. To think that the smell of armpit, in August on the metro in Paris, is nothing but a metaphor compared to Haiti is unfathomable. I spent an entire month breathing through my mouth every time I stepped into that metro car and walking off covered in grease and grime. I'm not going to test the fates by saying that I don't believe it could be worse, I just can't imagine it.

I had a conference call last week with a previous volunteer and two other volunteers who will be in Haiti while I am there. I got a lot of great information, it gave me a lot to think about before I go and most of all made me incredibly excited to get to Haiti! Both times when I've been out of the country for an extended period of time, I had a great knowledge and liaison to the culture I was being immersed into. So many people who visit France think that waiters and store employees are rude. It gave me such a better experience to have a native Parisian to explain etiquette in France and the best, and sometimes only, way of getting what you want. I think that I was unconsciously trying to do the same by reading these books and following a Haitian newspaper in preparation for my trip. Haitian culture is so different from anywhere else in the world that I feel like I still have so much to learn. I've barely begun to understand the paradoxical dual belief in Christianity and voodooism. I'm still shaky on Haiti's recent political history because I always run in to, "well then there were bunch of Presidents and overthrows" but very little commentary on it. Writers always say there was instability, but never go into detail about what that means. Isn't Haiti still unstable? The government just had its first election where the previous President attended and participated in the inauguration of the next. I have yet to learn customs or traditions of Haiti, much less daily etiquette or the best ways to get what you want from people. Although I hear that finagling for permission or supplies is somewhat of an art in Haiti. Like everywhere else, I guess I'll be doing a lot of learning in the moment. Taking in new experiences, screwing up and doing better next time. That's the point of starting a new adventure right?

Today I found a book in the "Travel Essays" section of the used bookstore in downtown Campbell. It was a small section so I was surprised that there was a book about Haiti. Coincidentally, the guy who wrote it lives in San Francisco and went to Haiti after graduating from college. But, he also had a wife and two kids at that point so it's not quite a cosmic miracle. The book is called "Best Nightmare on Earth" and despite the ominous title is actually a positive, but realistic, description of Haitian society. I guess soon I'll get to be the one to judge how accurate it is. He gives amazing descriptions, especially of people and relationships- both personal and societal.


This part made me laugh and think about my trip:


"Intelligent people clung to the dream of magical intervention. Some hoped for it, some feared it, everyone believed in it. In the meantime, I imagined the international do-gooders in seersucker suits on their voyages of inspection, hovering over Haiti in multinational hot-air balloons, looking for a starving child to drop a chicken on him. Normal procedure in Haiti would be for a government official to intercept the chicken in midair and offer to sell it to the child."


The author comments a lot on the differences between the mindset of the Haitian people and the international community- particularly Americans. Growing up in the US, most of us are raised with the idea that if you want something changed, you better start planning and get to work. Entrepreneurship is valued and encouraged. So in his imagery, the Americans are there, in their hot-air balloon, not close enough to dirty their seersucker, "doing" by attempting to fix their perception of a societal problem. It's interesting that in contrast, the Haitians, who have a long history of foreign intervention and more than their fair share of natural disasters, are instead looking for religious intervention. Have the people of Haiti really given up and ready to sit and wait for a miracle? Even from the little information I gathered reading a Haitian newspaper in preparation for my trip, this doesn't seem to be the case. Haiti just elected a new President and not only did they break records with the number of voters, but they elected someone who has said that rebuilding the National Palace (which has become a symbol of the extreme division between the elite and the poor) was not of any importance to him. He has said that his number one goal is to educate the children of Haiti- for free. I guess his emphasis on a free education is a comment on how some Haitians do feel that the government will sell the chicken to the child. Obviously no singular mindset can define a nation's population, but I am very interested to hear opinions from Haitians about how the country should move forward.