Day 3 con't

From Eric:


Today we made some more headway.

Jack and Mike opened the clinic and saw about 8 patients, but each day should get larger. They had some broken bones and a few other injuries. LourdeMula's(one of the nanny's) son has a broken wrist from the quake and they will fix it up tomorrow.

Kevin, Francois and I were out all day. We got food in the street market because the open market building is gone. We waded through a few inches of sludge and worked our way through hundreds of people to get what we needed, but we got everything. It was an experience to be the only white guy in a sea of Haitian's, but they leave me alone; must be the tattoo's. They say "blah" and then when I look they look away. We went to the Methodist Guest House and Donnette came running down to give me a big hug, they are all OK. The house next to them is gone and their side walls too, the MGH is good. They will let small teams 6-8 people stay there for now so we can use them for medical teams if needed. She asked if we can send a team for a day to one of the tent cities that she has friends in, I think that would go a long way for her to help us with lodging.

We bought a car today, it is a Nissan extended cab pick-up and we should have it tomorrow.

We also went to the Health Care cluster meeting at the UN. We got there late so we need to go back on Wednesday to really get more info but we did get the email addresses of the people to contact to get us on the list for supplies and help, plus learn about partnering and registering with the Minister of Health in Haiti. The big thing there is they want organizations that are truly free and are here for a while. They told a group that was only here for a month that basically they should not have come. They do not want groups that just come and then leave, it is harder for them to pick up the slack that is left. We will also go to the food one Wednesday to make contacts. There are also a lot of medical supplies that are going to be destroyed due to them sitting too long and no longer being good.

On the way to the meeting we had to take shortcuts, so it was very interesting off-roading in a Tap Tap, and also we got to see even more of the devastation that is here. There were a lot of tent cities and some had hundreds of tents and sheets. The Vice President of Haiti I would guess had at least 500 tents on his property. It is very sad that some only have a sheet to cover them.

Some of the staff and their kids are sleeping here now in the school house and they are very grateful for that.

We also went buy the Caribbean market and that was the first time I have smelled death, it was bad. I can still smell it when I think about it. There is a backhoe there now digging through the rubble and that is why it is so bad. The worst part are the people waiting outside hoping to see someone they lost!

Also, carnival is this Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but instead of that all the Haitian's are going to the streets to pray for the 3 days.


Eric