Jen Watters Haiti Blog
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 1:40pm
Bon Jour !!!!
First I want to give a disclaimer that I am typing this on a French computer and while I’m getting more used to the different keyboard, I haven’t mastered it yet, so please forgive my typos !!
Wow ! What an amazing week ! I’m not sure if I should write more frequently or just save everything up for Sunday. I’m afraid these « little » updates will turn into novels very quickly ! I guess you can always read them little by little, so I’ll just write and not worry about it ! =)
This week I was stationed at the same antenna as last week (CDTI) ; which was great for getting to know the local staff ; the patients ; and also the Americans at the hospital next door. We’ve really had some nice collaboration where they’re referring pts to us and I’m taking pts up there, which is a nice change from me just running up there 3 or 4 times a day ! We had our busiest week at the clinic yet ; one day we had 54 pts who had come by 12 :30 ! (we are set up to see about 45 a day) so that was little crazy ! We also had the clowns without borders come and do shows at all our hospitals and clinics this week which was SO awesome ! Unfortunately I missed the show at my clinic because that was the day we had so many pts, but I saw some pictures from the other clinics and they were great ! I could definitely hear everyone laughing so, it sounded like they had a great time !

I got to do my first bit of community work this week, where we go into the tent cities and look for people with injuries or disabilities and also do therapy with people who are unable to get to the clinic for whatever reason. That was an amazing and heartbreaking experience. I met one woman yesterday who had no money, no tent, no food. She was sleeping on a concrete slap under a tarp between several other tents. She had a terrible tibial fracture and had just had her cast removed this week. They didn’t take any xrays after the cast was removed and she says she can feel the bones moving. I could even see and touch where part of her tibia was poking out. It was terrible. She said she had gone to a local hospital and had a government doctor who told her it was fine, but I don’t think so. I’m going to try to get her to the hospital by our clinic so the ortho doctor there can look at her, but she has no money for transportation and I didn’t have any to give her. I thought maybe I could go and her her with my car, but I’ve been told we’re not allowed to transport patients. So we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.
A couple of high points from the week :
– I’ve gotten to work with lots of kids this week, which makes my heart so happy. Kids are amazing, in that no matter what has happened or what’s going on they’re still kids. And they’re so happy for any opportunity to laugh and play – which is perfect because I feel the same way§§ So getting to « play » with them (while doing therapy) is a great source of joy in my day – it also seems to amuse the other patients too as they watch me be a big goof ball !
– There was a young lady yesterday who had been pierced completely through the thigh with a metal rod and had been needing to use two crutches to walk. There is a very big cultural stigma with crutches, which is frustrating to me because I’ve actually had a couple of people refuse crutches because they don’t want to appear weak to their community, but then they can hardly walk. It breaks my heart. But anyway, these are high points – I did a little pre-gait and gait training with this young lady and we were able to get rid of one of her crutches – she was so happy – she had the biggest smile on her face ! She proudly handed me her crutch and strolled out of the tent ! It was great ! And now I have a forearm crutch to give away !!!!
– The water pump a tour house broke at the beginning of the week, so we didn’t really have any running water pretty much all week. Everyone was quite resourceful though, hauling buckets of water up from the reservoir, bathing with cups and water bottles. We even found a camp shower that someone had left in one of the bathrooms. Anyway, in thanks for our patience and also to celebrate the return of the water – they threw a big party for us last night. There was GREAT music provided by our contigent from El Salvador and lots of dancing ! It was great !!
– I’ve gotten to move outside to a tent with screens and it’s been much cooler and amazing for sleeping.
– Everyone I meet is INSISTANT on helping me with my Creole from the moment they find out I’m trying to learn. They are so sweet and patient with me. I am up to an entire notebook page of phrases and I usually can remember about ¾ of them so it’s coming along slowly and steadily. I have to be super motivated now though, because my friend Louise from Canada who speaks Creole is leaving at the end of the month. I’ve been going to mass with her and she translates everything for me !! I’m going to miss her tons !! She is an amazing person and I know God put her here to help me. She has already taught me so much about the Haitian people and is such an inspiration to me. She’s been working in Haiti off and on for 10 years now !!
One more crazy bit of news for you and then I’ll wrap this up as I’ve now spilled over onto a second page !! So, People magazine is doing a series on Haiti with several different stories of good things that are going on here. They wanted to profile an American who is doing therapy work with amputees and so they followed me Fri, Sat and today. They were really great and it was good to be able to show them the work we are doing and talk about the needs here, especially that it’s so much more than just amputees ! So, it was definitely odd to have a photographer following me around (they even came to church with us today), especially when I hadn’t showered for several days and felt hot and gross, but oh well – that’s Haiti !! I’m not sure when the article will come out so you’ll have to keep a look out for it. We’ll see !
I’ll try to attach some more pictures. I haven’t done a very good job of taking pictures so far, so I’ll try and get more for next week – especially of my clinic and the staff I’ve been working with. For now, here are pictures of our Haitian staff at a big meeting at the office and our prosthetics and orthotics workshop (we had a training there at the end of the week).
Thinking of you all lots ! Thanks so much for all your prayers and positive thoughts – they really do help ! I love seeing your emails during the week, even if I don’t get a chance to write back right away, they are so encouraging and I love hearing from everyone !!!
Great Big Hugs and lots of Love !!!! Bon Journi !!
Jen