Good discussions & Good wine.

            Yesterday, on the way to Delis, we had a great discussion about sustainability.  For some reason when you ask priests, teachers, and other “leaders” what they need for their communities, they say, schools, education, clinics, etc (maybe because they’re educated people themselves?).  But when you ask people, just regular average people, they want training.  They want their capacity increased.  They want to be able to work, to produce, and to earn an honest living.  There’s all sorts of partnership-building in Haiti, and many, many NGO’s think they’re listening to the community by supporting schools, churches, clinics, etc.  To some extent they are, but maybe they’d be better off investing in community development, training programs, cooperatives, etc… As my good friend, Dr. Igor, says, “two doctors, three opinions.”  Too many people (far more than two) consider themselves to be Haiti experts, but after all these years, doing things the way we’ve been doing them hasn’t stopped Haiti from being poor.  Maybe we need to find better ways to really listen to the communities.

            Wednesday, for my second day in Delis, I worked with the nurses.  Ultimately, I think AME-SADA will want a formal report from me with my observations, and to do that, I need to know how the mobile clinic really works.

            When the patients arrive, the local health agent checks them in.  The doctors then call the patients, see them, write their prescriptions and send them to the nurses.  The nurses fill the prescriptions, instruct the patients on how to take the medicine, and finally add in a few random pieces of advice (for example, you have 5 babies, you should really consider going to the health post for family planning, do you really need more children?)  Finally another health agent hands them a sandwich (some sort of generic Spam-mush on two slices of non-enriched white bread) and a small cup of lemonade.

Patients in line for the nurses

            Last night, I was invited to a party over Carla’s house in Gwo Jan.  They’re a couple that has lived in Haiti since the 1980’s and now runs a guesthouse somewhere near Petionville.  They had live music and dancing.  (We brought the wine.)  It was fun to relax, dance, and chat with people, both American and Haitian, who have made a real commitment to Haiti.

The house band