Call night

Twins are being born. A nurse just endured an ectopic, attentive husband watching. A 19-year-old and her 3lb baby, both making tentative steps toward life. Yet a toddler fights an infection with a quarter of his body burned.

No one misses a beat. Medical providers, staff. They do not only what they must, but what they should. Hopital Ste Croix field hospital, 6 tent domes with an outpatient clinic at the adjacent nursing school. Born out of desperation and a desperate desire to help. Teamwork. Intensity. Passion. To accompany people here as they re-imagine healthcare in their community...

The Episcopal Bishop blessed the hospital today, urging us forward.

Fr Jenkins and a Notre Dame delegation just finished 2 days of seeing its roots here, strong before January 12, and began reaching for deeper engagement.

In the rawness of tonight, and for many many after, we are on call.


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Second night

Still night, with a light breeze that passes a bit through my tent. A few others in the yard still speaking in outside voices, but no different from a dorm hall.

First steps here: onto a jet bridge in PaP! Somehow loses a bit of charm not having to walk across the tarmac. But formal arrivals/baggage is in a hanger a few hundred yards from the bridge, bc some of the building unsound.

Reuinions are blissful, so I've loved reconnecting with some, and meeting new. People tell their "story" readily...so much loss.

Could see the PaP damage is immense, but Leogane is so much worse. The entire city is homeless, many under sheets. And injuries, no longer acute, but painful and disabling. A friend from the Childrens Nutrition Progam said mothers are afraid their milk has gone bad from the trauma&stress, so they hesitate to breastfeed. Malnutrition is and will be huge problem.

I went to the OCHA / UN health cluster mtg today, rep of HSC field hospital. Amazing to see all the players, working hard to coordinate. But, it's basically managed chaos.

Breeze picked up, less still, but anyhow, night!

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Haiti, again

In December 2006, I read Paul Farmer's Uses of Haiti, a full year before I first traveled to the country. I started this blog to begin learning to think as Farmer does, asking tough questions about a nation, which has been used and suffered abuse for so long. Haiti has a hold on me. I'm on my way back now.

More soon from Leogane.

It's the things that have such a hold on us that they can break us that are worth dropping everything for

Don't forget...

Patrick Farrell, photographer from the Miami Herald, just won a Pulitzer for his work in Haiti with the hurricanes, and school collapses.

Watch this sequence (2 minutes). It speaks for itself: http://www.miamiherald.com/1401/story/1008735.html

Another six-word story

Refer to March 22 and April 5, 2008 posts about the six-word memoirs. This one is from my friend Matt. (I am happy to post others!) A thought for today:

Isn't it cheating to use contractions?

'Change' for Haiti?

In a time when my pragmatic hopes are simply grounded in our President helping lead the world through an economic "panic"--why not avoid euphemisms and go back to the 19th century term?--and to some greater peace and understanding between nations, and environmental stewardship, and healthcare improvements, and...

Well, I guess my hopes are many, and Haiti is always among them (I supported Dodd early on because he's taken strong actions for Haiti's truth and justice, even calling for an investigative commission for the 2004 coup against Aristide).

But....I honestly have not thought Obama would add to his consideration this desperate, oft-neglected island. So, wow, kudos Mr. President for inching in the right direction:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/02/21/8478981.html