Karen Fields Studios

Our luggage arrived today and we are grateful! We got a call from the airline saying it had made it and it was brought to the hospital about 3 when the next group of volunteers came. So, I spent an hour sorting supplies, food, and my extra personal things like my headlamp and extra bug spray.

I don't think there will be time to write about all we've done and seen throughout the next two weeks but I'll do the best I can. We arrived in PAP (Port Au Prince) yesterday about 3. After waiting for our luggage which didn't arrive and collecting the entire group of volunteers on our flight (there were also 7 volunteers through Cure International and 2 other women through Loma Linda University) we finally got in the bus to take a group to the hotel and the rest of us to the hospital. It was about 7 or so by the time we got to the hospital and then proceeded to unload and try to settle in a bit with cots and mosquito nets. The drive through town was a brief tour of the destruction in the area and a brief view of some of the tent cities. We drove past the Presidential Palace which was just completely toppled as well as many other buildings and piles of rubble, garbage, water backing up in streets. By the time we got to the hotel and then hospital, it was dark (we are on eastern standard time, so it's the same time as central daylight savings, but we're much further east of Miami, so it gets dark early and the sunrise is early). We saw families living in the tents with their little grills cooking dinner over open fires. Some people were in buildings. Some had electricity. Some tents were set up on the islands in the streets between the two directions of traffic. Apparently they set up far away from any walls as they are terrified of walls falling on them. WE passed by tent cities of tents stretched as far as we could see. There is rubble EVERYWHERE, and garbage all mixed in. Someone said they heard a statistic that all the rubble from the 60,000 destroyed buildings would fill the Houston Astrodome 23 times. Where do you even begin? In someways, it si cleaner here than before the earthquake as there have been groups employing locals to help clear streets. The buildings sit very close to the street and people are living outside of the buildings in tents, so the narrow streets are even more narrow and dangerous. They are a generous single lane, but lanes don't matter and it's pretty common to see large trucks coming straight towards you in the bus. It's a lot like the DR in some ways

We had a brief meeting to do introductions and get a tour of the hospital. I got to bed about 10 last night and fell asleep soon after only to wake up at 11 to the cries of a girl in pain (my bed is up a few steps and just behind a wall from the 2nd floor ward). She settled down soon and I slept till about 5:15 when people started moving around. We started rounds about 6am and then had a worship service at 7:30. We had patients lined up for Ortho clinic afterwards already, so saw a few patients before heading into surgery to do a partial hip replacement for a broken hip and then washout an infected wound/fracture on the 11 year old girl crying last night. In clinic, we also saw two people who had broken their arms today and we were able to do closed reductions on them and put them in splints. So, we are still cleaning up injuries from the earthquake as well as problems and injuries that are everyday type occurrences. There are still babies being born, C-sections, and traumas. A girl in the ER had been hit by a car but thankfully had no significant injuries. A baby came in to the ER early this morning and was hemorrhaging (from what I don't know) and did not survive. I was not involved in taking car of her, but it is hard to hear about regardless.

Apparently there was some lunch served today, but we were operating and there wasn't any left by the time we got done. So, we ate some more bars and snacks. I have thus far avoided the Humanitarian Daily Ration (HDR) and we'll see how long I hold out. I weighed in on the scale in one of the bathrooms and will compare it to my weight when we leave in two weeks. We'll see. I just have to remember to drink enough water.

Here are some pictures from the past 24 hours so far. They are all completely unedited and will be till I get home, but wanted to share some right away. I am being inundated with the singing of How Great Thou Art in Creole. It's lovely to hear it echoing through the veranda. We're off to dinner soon. Have to catch the tap-tap soon! Have a good night!

My cot and mosquito net. I have a wall behind me, so i can put stuff on it.

Section 1 of the veranda

Stairs to the veranda in the volunteer area

A boy outside this morning by the front door. They love seeing their pictures on the camera screen.

Worship this morning. Great singing.

Collapsed buildings along the drive to the hospital

The Presidential Palace

Large piles of rubble in the streets

Tent Cities
A Tap-tap (a sort of cab)