Haiti, day 3 - "Fete du 40ieme anniversaire de ICC"

"Fete" may be a bit too strong a word for 4 hours of speeches.
It was the hospital celebrating their 40th anniversary, in the ceremony for the hospital staff. The staff really do deserve a pat on the back, for they have a great hospital and clinic. The speeches were followed by a feast - you should have seen the heaped plates!

Driving around this city is fascinating. The roads are really narrow, and the even narrower sidewalks teaming with people and goods for sale. Everything from doves in cages, to plastic chairs, to piles of avocados and oranges. The streets are filled with potholes.

The "tap-taps" are the local public transit system; many of them brilliantly painted, with great names. They are mostly small pick up trucks, with a canopy that has been raised by two feet to allow people to sit on benches along the sides. As in many countries, there seem to be impossible numbers of people in the vehicles.

Electricity is provided by generators - the government doesn't provide it consistently. And water of course is always suspect.

I really like Haiti so far... its got a little of that island feel, and yet the needs are great. I hope to do more work here in the future.

The other benefit to coming here is that I have a renewed excitement for our project in South Africa. It really helps to have a reminder of why I want to do this work and why the benefits can balance the personal costs of being a nomad. (To a certain extent).

These small children, loved by their parents yet with so few opportunities... trying to help them is so important.

Hospital tours

Today was a true ‘medical tourism’ day; we visited 3 different health centres, each quite different. And driving around Port-au-Prince was fascinating.

Our first stop was the Grace Children’s Hospital, run by “ICC”, or International Child Care. (We are in Haiti for the 40th Anniversary of this faith-based NGO - in photo). For their anniversary, they are having “open house” days, where all consultations are free (rather than the usual $2 USD fee). The place was PACKED. They do have a mechanism for waiving fees for those “qui n’ont pas les moyens” (don’t have the means). But with how packed the clinic is today one wonders how many without the means just don’t attempt to go to the clinic (as is so often the case in Burkina Faso).

They have an inpatient ward, where the parents aren’t allowed to stay; it was the first time in my life that I saw a room full of kids with nary a parent in sight. There are enough nurses to do the care, and they are from the old school of believing that kids are better off with restricted visiting hours. One little marasmic girl with big wide eyes, a bit of papular pruritic eruption (an itchy, bumpy, common rash amongst HIV + kids)just held out her arms when we walked over. She didn’t make a sound but what she really wanted was to be held – even by a stranger. Some of the kids were very apprehensive of us but others were just curious and captivated by the white folks.

The hospital grounds are lovely and green, and there is even a playground!!

The second stop was GHESKIO, which is the oldest HIV treatment agency in Haiti – predates the more famous Partners in Health. We had a really lovely, comprehensive tour of an amazing research centre. They are an HIV vaccine trial study site, as well as being involved with a number of other research programs. It seems like a model of locally driven research done in partnership with a western university – and so it has all the funding that this implies. They have separate areas for each area of HIV care – testing counseling, lab (with phelebotomy), ARV treatment, pediatric HIV clinic, pediatric clinic, adherence, clinical trial clinic, STI clinic, family planning clinic, PMTCT clinic. It was crowded and chaotic but seems to be really well organized.
Finally we stopped at the government hospital. Typical for government hospitals, dark, crowded, not too clean. But still better organized and equipped than our hospital in Bobo. They have kids organized by both age and pathology to a certain extent (in Bobo they’re in two groups – older kids, and younger kids, regardless of what other infectious pathology they may have). There were more severely marasmic kids there, and the kids were very sick appearing. It was a odd to be there and not working.

This has been just a fascinating day – but I am sure exhausted! More tomorrow.
Take care
Laura

New country, new adventures!

Well, after a hiatus, I'm making an attempt to get back into blogging again. My impetus is the fact that I'm sitting in a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on the first day of a week long trip to learn about pediatric HIV care in Haiti and speak in a conference on parasites & HIV in children.

After a journey that felt almost as long as that to Africa (though it was just two - 6 hour flights), I arrived this afternoon. The warmth was welcome as we climbed out of the airplane. There was a band in the entryway of the airport, like in Tahiti.
In fact at first glance, that's what this reminds me of - a cross between Africa (Burkina Faso) and Tahiti. Despite the higher ranking on the HDI - 154 vs Burkina's 174 of 177 countrires - things seem more run down here. A first example is that the urban roads are much worse - poorly maintained, more chaotic, slower.

Some things made me feel at home - reminding me of Burkina - the women selling deep fried beignettes on the side of the road, the vendors with second hand clothes, the warmth.
The vegetation and the ocean smells, and the cool ocean breeze.

I'm excited for the hospital visit tomorrow.

More later!
Laura