Haiti: Part senk

The one about the clinic...
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Entrance to Missions of Love, the clinic is in the lower right level of the white building inside the gates, the lab was the lower left, and the upper right was the pharmacy.

After accepting our bruised backsides as part of our bodies again and not strangling our alarm clocks, we began the real work. Breakfast was a glorious array of fresh mango and pineapple and watermelon, hard boiled eggs, real sweet potatoes (honestly, I was completely in love with the potatoes), fried plantains, and spicy peanut butter toast. The clinic would open at roughly 9am. The strange thing about time there was that we never knew what time it actually was. According to google, Haiti was supposed to be an hour behind us because they supposedly don't follow the time change, but for some unknown reason they decided spring ahead with the rest of us. So, while some of our phones changed to be an hour behind, some didn't. I didn't bother much with it, went to sleep when I was tired and ate when I was hungry and wanted to kill roosters at the same time as everyone else.

Our home away from home

Agony hill, it doesn't look like much here but it's ten times worse then the hill at FSBC

The dining room and soccer watching pavilion of sorts, you can also see the mountain we climbed to the right 

Our pet away from pets, affectionately known as chen

Monday through Friday a group of us would set up shop in the one room divided by curtains which operated as the clinic. There was no such thing as HIPAA or privacy but we tried our best. We saw all age groups, all complaints. The biggest complaints were STDs or largely related to malnutrition and dehydration. Everyone got vitamins, everyone was told to bwe more water. If there was a need for lab work, we would write what test was needed on a slip of paper and they would carry that to the lab, then the lab would write results on another slip of paper and back the patient would come. There was no labeling, no scanner, no medical record numbers. Prescriptions were written on another slip of paper for a months supply or a cycle of antibiotics or a few weeks of blood pressure medications with instructions to come back to have them rechecked. 

Filling baggies of medications

The clinic would close after all the lab work was reviewed and all the patients were seen. Though everyone around seemed to know we were there and some of the more interesting cases were seen after hours, undoubtedly following Kitty's black cloud as a guide. The rest of the day was spent climbing or rooster cheering or card playing or dance partying.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee they will go back to the clinic or take their medications or bwe. All we could do was ply them with information and hope they heard what was translated.

XOXO
Kiki