So much to see!

Hey!

So far I have met so many different Haitians here. They are all so wonderful and very generous.

Yesterday we spent majority of the day walking around Jacmel. We walked through the market, had lunch, and walked by the site for the new orphanage. The kids are going to love all the room they will have to play in the yard and explore. I am very excited for them.

It is interesting how the people get around and go about their days. There are taxi's here called "tap taps", they are pretty cool!The name comes from tapping on the top of the truck to let the driver know when it is time to stop so they can get off.  We spent the day traveling around in a tap tap to different places around Jacmel. Whenever we eat somewhere, each restaurant takes about 2 hours to get our food which is very different than what we are used to in the US. It definitely represents the different mindset between cultures as well as the supplies available to make a meal.

 I feel this trip has already impacted me greatly. I've learned so much about their culture. The orphanage isn't what we think of an orphanage in the US. Many of the children in this orphanage know who their parents are, they are there because their parents haven't been able to give them a very good life. They are unable to provide food for them and therefore would be better off at the orphanage. The orphanage limits how often they are able to see the kids and some parents do come once a month. There is only one little girl who they don't know her history or her story. She was dropped off one day and the father said he was going to get food but never came back. It is heart wrenching to see the conditions they are living in but have so much joy to share with us, it is definitely a self-examining experience.

The more I am in Haiti, the more I am able to look at the United States in a little bit of a different light. I've examined the way I live and the dynamics of our culture. There is so much I complain about. The car I drive, the administration at BVU, my cell phone running slow. If I am complaining about the roosters crowing in the morning at 5:30 AM here, I really need to take a couple steps back and re-examine myself. I feel selfish in a lot of the ways I live my life in the US and the people here have so much less, physically, but they have so much happiness! For the most part, everyone is so so friendly. For example, we were walking down the street yesterday and there was a man that knew who Dr. Wilkerson was and came over to say hello. After greeting Dr, he worked his way down the line and gave each of us hugs and said "God Bless You."

This city is huge and has so many people in it and there have been multiple times we will be traveling down the road and our interpreter will pick someone out in the crowd they know. Even if they do not know who people are, they have conversations like they know each other. On our way through the mountains yesterday our driver slowed down (didn't stop), stuck his hand out the window to an approaching car. In the middle of driving, and the middle of the road, he gave the man a prepackaged water packet and took a key. It was pretty comical and a representation of how everyone pretty much knows each other.

Last night was very cool because there were a group of kids playing soccer outside our hotel. They played for a good three hours and it was definitely entertaining to watch! Hopefully they will be there again tonight and we can go out and kick the ball around.

Today, we spent time at a nearby hospital. Our interpreter was able to take us inside the hospital where the patients were staying. Even in the hospital they stared at us and we exchanged friendly Bonjour "good morning" blessings. It was the most uncomfortable situation I have been in so far. In the US we are so used to privacy and HIPPA violations, but there we saw many patients laying there being treated. I felt as if we were intruding and it wasn't appropriate but the Haitians didn't seem to think anything of it, other than we were "blondes" (what they call white people). I can't even explain what the Hospital was like but it definitely tugged at my heart and was very hard for me to see. We walked into the maternity ward and saw the delivery room which was very different as well. There was one small room with three beds, a waiting room of six beds where the mothers wait before they are ready to deliver, and one other room where they stay after the birth.

As we were leaving the hospital today we were walking around outside and heard Justin Beiber "baby" being played. We all started laughing and tried to figure out where it was coming from. It was an older man's cell phone ring tone! Ha :) Every once in a while we will hear a lot of American songs being played and it's really fun.

After the first hospital, we took a tap tap to the next hospital where Dr. Wilkerson was seeing a patient. We had the opportunity to sit in on the appointment. There were 6 of us from our group there and probably 4 other people in the room as well. There really aren't any rules when it comes to their health care system. There was a little boy who was getting his full length leg casts off and did not like it one bit. He was extremely scared of the saw. Nothing that was said could calm him down. It was difficult to communicate with him to ease his fears but later calmed down after reapply the cast. He was 6 years old and had cleft feet that were surgically repaired and had wounds underneath the cast that needed to be cleaned before an infection spread.

After the appointment, we took a trip down the hall to the physical therapy clinic. It was actually very similar to what is in the US because the people volunteering there are from schools in the US, they are natives of Haiti who have studied PTA in the US and have moved back to Haiti to help the people. They said they are very very busy and see many people each day. The man I was talking with actually invited me to stay and help him and his staff. Our site leaders said that we have that option on Thursday to go and help at the physical therapy clinic. I would absolutely LOVE that! We will see if a couple of us are able to go help. When I was talking to him today, he said that his vision is to go back to his home town and develop another clinic because the one we saw today was the only one in this entire area. Physical therapy here is free for everyone and majority of the time they seek stroke patients and motorcycle accident patients.

~BVU Student