Haiti...Safe and Sound

So I realized as I logged in that it has been almost exactly a year since my last post. First, I am safe and sound and doing fine.

I do not have my cord with me to download my photos. If I find a card reader I will try and add photos while I am still here but if not I will edit these posts once I'm stateside again.

The getting here was a bit of an adventure. I flew into the DR and stayed overnight. I then made my way into town and caught the Tera Bus across the border. (Sorry Mom, CRS doesn't drive into Haiti on Monday, but I was with several other folks from other organizations and CRS met me once I got to PaP) It was a lot like taking the Chinatown bus to New York. They even played a very strange movie, lots of American rap music and then local music from the DR. The border crossing was smooth going as far as the paper work goes, but there were tons of folks looking for something...anything really. I do have to say it seems to be the same at any border, but the desperation here was a bit more palpable than normal.

We are set up (24 of us, the surgical teams from Shock Trauma, Redfield, Amoroso, Talwani, Matt W. and I - Riedel comes tomorrow) at a school that has been "appropriated" for housing relief and aid workers. The US Army is also here, so we feel pretty safe.

We've got tents and lots of bed nets set up in the 6th grade classroom on the second floor. You would be surprised how comfortable a tile floor is after the days here.

Adapting quickly is easier than I thought. While I managed all my life to avoid communal showers...here there is no choice. Crisis Response International set up showers, 3 minute limit, cold...but feels so good at the end of the day and not too bad in the morning (if the water is working).

The work at the Hospital is amazing. Triage sees a good 250 patients a day, 20+ surgeries per day, outreach to the tent communities that have popped up. The local team and the Shock Trauma teams are rock starts.

14 of our team down here lost their homes. We are working to get them tents and cooking/hygiene kits. They still come to work everyday.

I cannot try and describe the day to day right now and for that I am sorry. The destruction is what you might imagine, actually a bit worse. But the world response is visible and people are getting help. This will be a very long process and effort...years not months.

I will try and write more as time allows. But know that I'm safe and working to get home as soon as I can.

Love,

k.