Jun
9
2006
oh it’s a doozy
do i sleep? not so much. does the word ’stable’ have any business being associated with my mood lately? not so much. times 2. rambles are coming. back-dated rambles. Bonjou zamis mwen! Vini Ayiti se yon baguay anpil anpil. Anyway, so Haiti was amazing. Tragic, gorgeous, a little warm and amazing. Pretty much one of the best things I’ve ever experienced. and No worries, Deschepelles is very safe. No comment on Port. Everyone there goes “Les Blans Les Blans!” when we walked down the road, and most ask for money or try to get it from you. It helps that we have none, And after you get past the money/asking for things, everyone’s really nice. The town of deschapelles basically is the hospital. So when i had written this we had repainted/reparied 3 houses in the village of L’escale, which is where TB patients go so that they can be monitored as far as medication and basic health care goes. ‘Basic health care’ here, is a different thing than I’ve ever seen. We also get the chance to attend dr’s meetings and we did some filing. also some work with reforestation. farming - or agronomy, is freaking difficult work. We live with doctors and meet a lot of others, and from what I’ve heard/read/seen, modern medecine is far far away from this country. (yea i’ll be switching in and out of presesnt tense..). I’ll write more later. Lot’s to say. But no free time really. and any ‘free’ time that we do have we pass out during. It’s a 6am wake-up each day with some manual labor and some heat. It’s not quite a pampered resort but I’m pretty sure everyone loves it. And even when we don’t - there’s NO complaining. When everyone within a 10 mile radius has MDR-TB, HIV, orange hair and pencil arms from malnutrition - you think twice about all the “I’m starving” or “I’m dying” comments/complaints. no/not much running water and access to food…clean water..etc. Yea there’s been some appreciation slash moral righteousness going on. The whole work group is amazing. Great people. HAS in general attracts some great people. I’ve been the weak link. At least I feel like the weak link. The reason I found a computer and am writing to you now is b/c I can’t give blood and we got the afternoon - or a few hours of it off to go do that. I spent the past 24 hours puking in a toilet which 10 men have…utilized. There is no flushing. maybe once a day. It was either the food or a reaction to the malaria pills. or dehydration or bad water or some combination thereof. There was a scabies-scare and there are spots of my body that scare the TB patients. But all in all life is absolutely amazing. I’ve gotta go now b/c there are doctors waiting for the computers and they perhaps have some more important things to look-up. Also, it’s time for pill-counting and grant-work until the others are done blood-giving. Alrighty. ps - this started out as an email to mr P, so there’ll be a bit more about debauchery and other whatnots later.
