If you only fed your kids, they wouldn't be so malnourished!!

            Today was my first day with SADA’s mobile clinic.  First we were leaving at 6am, then at 7am, promptly at 7am… Haitian time.  We left at 8:30am, arrived around 11am in Delis, and sat down to wait for the medicines to arrive. 

            All of the kids were “in school” when we arrived.  School being a loose term for sitting in different areas of the church repeating after a teacher who was writing on the chalkboard.  I don’t know that one can call them grades, but there were 4 groups of kids.  I have to admit that the teachers seemed to make up for their lack of pens, pencils, books, and notebooks with a LOT of animation.

            Our arrival sparked an impromptu recess, where the kids all ran out in the “school yard” (area next to the church) and sang and danced.  They didn’t really seem to be singing for us, just enjoying their break.

The kid I gave my lunch too... he shared that sandwich with all of his siblings.

            And then we waited… the truck with the medicines and most of the nurses arrived at 12:30pm.  I would have loved to join the kids in their play, but I kept reminding myself that I was there to work with the doctors, to get on their good side.  And the two female doctors, both about my age, sat together, speaking in low tones, and ultimately listening to an iPod Nano.

AME-SADA's Mobile Clinic in Delis

            The medications finally arrived, and we got to work.  I sat next to the doctor who speaks some English and did some shadowing.  I’ve heard that Haitian doctors have a different bedside manner, but I learned a lot.  Patients with coughs, colds, headaches, and general bellyaches got their basic Tylenol, vitamins, and albendazole.  Each encounter took about 5 minutes, and the charting was certainly brief.  We saw one 11 year-old boy who is peeing blood, and the doctor gave him Bactrim and told mom to take him to the hospital (no UA, no physical exam).  Another child had eyeball spasms (I need to talk to someone about how to define them so I can look it up) and she diagnosed him with “disease of the eye” and told mom that she needed to find a specialty eye clinic (no specifics given, just go find an eye doctor).  Then we saw a bunch of kids with big squishy bellies, red-tinged hair, and skinny arms and legs.  She diagnosed them as early Kwashiokor.  She yelled at the moms!  She lectured right at them and said that they needed to give their kids more milk, beans, meat and nutritious foods.  She prescribed the usual albendazole and iron and sent them on their way.  (I’ll leave it at that, I’m not sure there are words to describe my sentiments.)

            We stopped seeing patients at 3pm and headed back to Port-au-Prince.  The clinic went on without us, as the majority of the team is spending the night in Delis.  Unfortunately I was told that there are no proper accommodations for me, so I’ll be commuting this week.  (I was talking with one of the other guests at Walls about my “doctor status” that PCH is trying so hard to protect, and he said, “Have they met you?!?!”)